“You Are Too Negative!”

People sometimes accuse me of being too negative.  They certainly have a case for declaring me as negative, but too negative is a matter of opinion.  The Apostle Paul was negative.  Christ was negative. The fact is, the word of God is both positive and negative.  There are positives in the Gospel, but it requires that one turn from one’s sinfulness, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and surrender to God. 

The truth is positive and negative because it presents life and exposes the falsehoods that lead to death.  The negatives of truth are more applicable the greater its positives are rejected.  Please consider that in God’s word we can see the pattern of increasing negatives as apostasy increased in Israel.  When the prophets arrived, they spoke mostly negatively.  The only positives were in their proclamation of the benefits of repentance.  Which of the prophets spoke an abundance of pleasant and positive things during Israel’s apostasy?

The same is true in any crisis of danger.  We would speak completely in the negative to save someone from death or serious injury.  Should their next step be fatal, we would scream out the negative, “Stop! Don’t take another step!”  In counselling with someone we love who is about to make a great mistake with seriously damaging consequences, we would present much more negative than positive.  The abundance of negative is because the danger must be exposed including all the steps leading to it.  The positive is the benefit of not making the mistake.

This world is presently in grave danger in the secular and religious realms.  They are on a course of convergence.  I do not need to list all the wickedness in both realms to present the picture.  However, it is the apostasy that troubles me the most.  Although an abundance of positive information that could be disseminated, the great majority of professing Christians have no spiritual palate for any of it.  They wish to be told that everything is okay, that this tumultuous and dark period of teeming wickedness abounding in all sectors will pass, and the good life will return.  They have dropped the precious vase of truth from the pinnacle of their faithless alliance with the world system.   It is not going to stop in midair and return.  It is not going to bounce up from the cement below.  It will irreparably shatter.

I see the inevitable consequences of the conglomerate evil in society. Smooth and comforting platitudes affect these deceived and deluded ones like water on a duck’s back.  Such rhetoric only serves to meet the expectation of an annoyance-free atmosphere as they stroll to a fatal conclusion in eternal darkness.   There is no blessed hope for the wicked and rebellious ones.  The only light shining for them is a brilliantly flashing word, “REPENT”. 

I understand that the redeemed and ransomed ones who are accepted in the Beloved are battling discouragement and even depression because of the condition of this world.  They are searching for words of comfort, of assurance, and of hope.  However, all they need is in God.  They will not receive helpful or lasting benefits from human words.  The present time of darkness and turmoil is the beginning a period of much harsher evil activities.  If we are struggling to maintain now, how will we endure in worse times?  The fact is that for decades professing Christians were warned to prepare for this period.  They failed to do so.  Now we are in it and they want a quick workshop in preparation.  There is no such option.

I encourage people to fully submit to God, completely trust in Him, and surrender to His will in all things.  That is actually normal Christianity according to Romans 12:1.  If one obeys that verse, there is nothing in life that the dregs of despondency and discouragement can touch.  The Apostle Paul declared that if he had hope only in the temporal realm, he would be most miserable. 

The truth is that words of comfort and consolation not pointing people to full surrender to God in such a time as this is as a confection.  It may produce a high, but has no lasting quality or strength.  Christians ought not to have waited until the darkest hour to decide to rise up from their slouching commitment to God.  Now in weakness, they wish all attention to be turned on them, to assure, encourage, and make them feel secure. 

This is not a secure time.  There is great danger in complacency.  It is a time to be alert, to recognize the evil that is at work, and to strengthen one’s relationship and faith in God.  Platitudes will not encourage that. 

The storm is coming.  Shut the door and batten the windows.  Prepare for the fury of it.  Don’t live in a cloud of false security.  NO politician is going to deliver us.  Our only hope is to put complete trust in God.  Only that yields a peace that surpasses all understanding.  A deep, settled peace and security issue from knowing that no matter what happens in this temporal realm, our lives are hidden with Christ in God. 

In summation, consider the story of the disciples in a boat battling a fierce storm.  They saw Christ walking on the troubled sea.  Notice that He did not command the wind to cease and the sea to be calm as once before.  He was walking in the midst of a storm that He could have stopped.  It was not until He entered the boat that the storm ceased. (Matthew 14)

We must not expect the absence of storms before we experience peace and security.  Further, we do not need anyone to give us false peace and security with platitudes that belie the nature of the storm.  Instead, we need to be spiritually strong enough to maintain peace and security in spite of the turmoil around us.  Such a spiritual, emotional, and mental state can only come by an intimate relationship with God.  Words are not a valid substitute for that.