Where do you stand?

I was given the chance to share the following as a brief message at church last Sunday. While similiar to my original first post (Question with Boldness), it is more detailed. I hope this is a blessing to anyone reading this...

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Martin Niemöller was a German pastor and theologian born in Lippstadt, Germany, in 1892. Niemöller was an anti-Communist who supported Hitler's rise to power at first. But when Hitler insisted on the supremacy of the state over religion, Niemöller became disillusioned. He became the leader of a group of German clergymen opposed to Hitler. Unlike Niemöller, most gave in to the Nazis' threats. Hitler personally detested Niemöller and in 1937 had him arrested and eventually confined in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. Many of you may not know who Martin Niemöller is, but you are probably familiar with a poem he wrote:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
after all I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
after all I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
after all I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
His poem is well-known, frequently quoted, and is a popular model for describing the dangers of political apathy, as it often begins with specific and targeted fear and hatred which soon escalates out of control.

Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
     - Esther 4:13-14

Both Pastor Niemöller and Mordecai are saying the same thing: Make a stand. But we can’t make a successful stand unless we know our world view, knowing what we believe and why we believe it. So how do we do this? How can I know for sure what my world view is, and that I am taking a Godly stand?

1) Question your beliefs.

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”
     - Thomas Jefferson

2nd Corinthians 13:5 tells us to examine ourselves. Are you standing firm in the faith? Are you sure? Our actions are based upon what we believe, but how often do we catch ourselves, or worse yet, someone else catches us doing the opposite of what we say we believe?

In this age of political correctness, how often are we afraid to question others about what they believe simply because we want to avoid confrontation? Worse is the fact that all too often we ourselves don’t know the answer, when we are confronted with doubt because we either fail to remember what we have been taught, both in Church and school, or, either accidental or on purpose, we were taught wrong.

2) Study - 2nd Timothy 2:15 tells us to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

This is exactly what the Bereans did. The apostle Paul had just been forced from Thessalonica because what he taught was different than the common thinking and teachings of his time. There were even plans to kill Paul. But when Paul arrived in Berea, he found a different mind set: here the people would listen to him, then consult the scriptures to see for themselves if what Paul taught was correct. Paul tells us…

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
     - Acts 17:11 (KJV)

These Bereans were considered “more noble” because they were seeking the truth. They didn’t not just listen to Paul and then say to themselves “Hey, he sounds like he knows what he is talking about”, accepting his statements at face value. Nor did they think to themselves “I like what he says better then what I’ve been told before” and then blindly follow Paul. They questioned with boldness, searching the scriptures to see if Paul was telling the truth.

So what are the benefits of questioning what we believe and what we are told?

1) We are approved unto God (2nd Timothy 2:15)
2) We are not deceived by false teaching and false doctrine (Ephesians 4:14), knowing the truth, and the truth shall set us free (John 8:32)
3) Ultimately, as 1st Peter 3:15 tells us, we are able to make a Godly stand, because we are able to give an answer for when others ask us why we believe what we believe.

So why is all this important? We live in a time of false profits and false teachers.

Isiah 5:20 puts it this way: Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

We find this not only in our churches, but in our schools, with the people we work with, with the news we listen to, and even with family members. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone tells me that our country was not founded on Christian values and principles. I always thought it was, but could never back up my views, because I didn’t know the truth. Partially because I had forgotten what I had been taught, or because what I had been taught had been twisted, I would avoid defending my views. I had to take the above principles and apply them. I had to question my beliefs, and seek answers. Only them could I now only know what I believed, but could defend it.

Here are just a few of the things I came across in that research:

Virtually every one of the 55 writers and signers of the United States Constitution were members of various Christian denominations: 29 were Anglicans, 16 to 18 were Calvinists, 2 were Methodists, 2 were Lutherans, 2 were Roman Catholic, 1 lapsed Quaker and sometimes Anglican, and 1 open deist--Dr. Franklin who attended every kind of Christian worship, called for public prayer, and contributed to all denominations.

In 1800, when Washington, D. C., became the national capital and the President moved into the White House and Congress into the Capitol, Congress approved the use of the Capitol building as a church building for Christian worship services. By 1867, the church in the Capitol had become the largest church in Washington, and the largest Protestant church in America.

It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.
     - George Washington

“What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.”
     - George Washington, Speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs May 12, 1779 

It cannot be emphasized too strongly that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded assylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here.
     - Patrick Henry

"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian."
     - United States Supreme Court, 1892.

"These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation."
     - United States Supreme Court, Feb 29, 1892,  Church of the Holy Trinity v. US

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
     - John Adams

"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
     - John Jay

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."
     - Abraham Lincoln

I’ll close with these two thoughts. Proverbs 14:34 tells us “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”

Alexander Hamilton, the First US secretary of The Treasury said: “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” My challenge today is, are you ready to take a stand? What will you stand for? And more important is, are you standing for the things of God?