Posted on by Abe Austin

The Offensively Faithful- The Popular Immoral

Dangerous Trends)

In the last post I gave what I consider to be the strongest evidence that we live in the last days, and the scriptures show us that in those last days, the popular majority will go astray, will believe falsehoods, and will resent the righteous.

If this is true, then each one of us needs to be very careful of the moral trends of our day. We must hold each to scrutiny, and reject many of them, even though it will make us unfavorable with the masses. Of course, I am not saying that every popular trend in the last days is inherently evil. Today it is popular to reject slavery, and that is good. It is good, because it aligns with the nature of God and the words of scripture. But every trend that disparages faith, that denies God, that takes offense to the words of scripture, these are the trends that lead to the selfish and meanspirited population described in the last days.

From my perspective, these popular trends in the West include promotion of homosexuality, feminism, socialism, and transgenderism. Even before considering the substance of each, they have all begun by taking offense to scriptural doctrine, have undermined the commandments of God, and have demonized the faithful. That alone informs us of their deviant motives. And then, when we look at the actual substance, we see that they have directly supported grave sin, including abortion and sexual depravity, and that they have stoked the passions of the depraved, until physical violence has erupted, often targeted at those that do not accept their sin. They have also passed their twisted ideology on the young and the impressionable, leaving them to believe that acceptance of these sins is the only way to be moral.

Realistic Evil)

This raises an important point. I believe that too many of us assume that these trends and sins cannot be the image of apocalyptic evil, because we know people who live within these trends, and they do not seem evil to us. They’re just people, with qualities that we love. But this is by no means a proof of innocence or virtue. People that seem “good” to us can absolutely be aligned with evil trends. To prove this, we need only look at the historical record. We frequently point to people in the past whose ideologies we condemn as evil, such as nazis and slave owners, yet many of them did not view themselves as evil either. They just saw themselves as people, with qualities that they loved, just as we view those supporting the modern anti-God philosophies of today.

We make the mistake of assuming that the majority wicked of the last days will look like caricatures of evil. That they will all be sadistic, maniacal, moustache-twirling cartoon villains. But that just isn’t realistic. The wicked of the final days will almost certainly be like the wicked in all other times: people who feel justified in their time, people who live in a context that makes them believe that they are in the right, people who have other virtues that are used as evidence of being good and correct.

But none of us can evaluate our righteousness from within our own context. As the preacher taught, “every way of a man is right in his own eyes,” (Proverbs 21:2). In our own historical analysis, we can see that culture and consensus can override conscience and leave people feeling that even the most terrible of actions are right. What we require is an external standard to compare ourselves to. An unchanging yardstick that is synonymous with universal good. Such a standard has been given to us in the words and commandments of God. When our own conception of good does not align with what God has given to us, it is us who are in the wrong, not Him.

In conclusion, I do believe that we live in the last days, and in our day there are many who discredit and disparage the Lord, who support beliefs that are directly contrary to His word. Agreeing with these voices is popular, it is what we are taught from our earliest years that we are supposed to do. That creates a context that blinds us, that makes us genuinely call good evil, and evil good. Just as was foretold for the final days. When we see that our belief come from popular consensus, and that it is antagonistic to the scriptures, and that all people in history have thought that they were in the right, even the most evil, that should give us serious pause. Even though it might feel wrong to us, we should consider the possibility that we are, in fact, the ones in the wrong, and we should experiment with God’s law, to see if it does not soften our hearts and change our minds.

And if we do not, then Armageddon awaits.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Offensively Faithful- Do We Live in the End?

Looking to the End of the World)

In my last post I discussed the moral makeup of humanity that we expect for the last days, and that the popular morality of that time would certainly be sinful and depraved. It remains for us to consider whether we now live in those last days, though. For if we do, that would be a strong indictment of the social movements of the world today.

As it turns out, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as the name suggests, one of our unique beliefs is that God has pronounced this to be the last dispensation, the last days before the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. Because of the testimony I have gained of the other tenets of this gospel, I take this matter of being in the last days on faith. Thus, I do believe that we live in the final age foretold.

But even without adopting the paradigm of my church, I believe there is still a strong case to be made for us being in the end times. And certainly, this is not a very rare opinion among Christians. Many, from all different sects, have also expressed the opinion that the world is ripening for destruction, and that things seem to be aligning for the prophecies given in the Bible.

Of course, Christians have been making these predictions basically since Christ’s ascension. I, myself, make sure to keep a healthy skepticism about any immediate second-coming predictions. Even though I say we live in the latter days, I don’t presume to know whether that means we are 5 years from the second coming, or 500. It will come when it comes, and I will happily welcome it, whichever side of the veil I’m on.

But let us look at a few reasons why now appears to be a likely candidate for the end times.

Reasons to Assume Latter Days)

  1. The depravity of the world. Certainly, the world has always known tremendous evil, including the very worst of what we see in the world today. But what makes this time especially evil is how even so-called followers of God have abandoned His commandments and justified the sins of the world. We slaughter our unborn, we watch videos of strangers having sex, and we cheer for the murder of our political rivals, all while calling ourselves Christian. There have been other times historically where God’s people abandoned Him, and those times have always immediately preceded their destruction. It seems probably that when the current family of God abandons Him, that their destruction would likely be one-and-the-same as the destruction of the entire world.
  2. The fulfillment of prophecies. Perhaps every era of history can lay claim to wars, rumors of wars, and evil abounding, but there are some prophecies of the end which are only fulfilled in these times or are only possible to be fulfilled for the first time now. The most prominent of these is the return of the nation of Israel. Less than fifty years after Jesus’s death Jerusalem was destroyed and the last remaining Israelites displaced, making it then impossible for Jesus to return to them there, though it was prophesied in Zechariah 13 that he would. It was only in the last century that the historic land of Canaan was restored to the Israelites, both fulfilling some end-time prophecies, and paving the way for others. Also, this is the first time when there has been such great global connection, allowing for the war of good and evil to play out on a universal scale, fitting the descriptions we have of the end.
  3. We happen to live in years whose numbers are meaningful. We are around 2000 years from the death and resurrection of Jesus, potentially 6000 years from the beginning of Genesis. If Jesus were to come in the near future, it would fulfill the pattern of six 1000-year-long days, leading into the seventh day of rest. We also see numerous calendars terminating and resetting around this time, including the Mayan, the Essene, the Zoroastrian, and more.
  4. We live in a time of global destructive power and acceleration. Technology and society are evolving at a pace that has never before existed. We have developed weapons capable of the utter decimation of society, and a social culture that changes every year. The potential of catastrophic system failure is only accelerating, and the worldly turmoil only makes that occurrence more and more likely.
  5. There is simply a sense of reaching the end of an era. The world has completely changed multiple times in the last 250 years and seems to be doing so again right now. We can feel the tides turning, the divisions expanding, the gravity shifting beneath us. It feels like we are at least at the end of a world, and given all of the above criteria, it seems it could well be the end of the world.

When I was a child, I only believed that we were preparing for the end, not that we were actually in it. Today I do believe we are in that 11th hour. Again, I do not know how long this period will last, but I believe that the prophecies detailing the end of the world apply to us today, including those that describe a fallen and morally bankrupt generation. Tomorrow I will examine what that means for trends that are current and popular, and how any who live to follow the consensus should immediately reconsider that.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Offensively Faithful- Popular Morality

The State of the End)

In the last post we identified the likely moral landscape in the last days, based on the prophecies of Jesus and the prophets. We identified that there would be a minority of the good and faithful, and at least enough of the utterly depraved and murderous that they could have power over the good. I then theorized that the majority might be morally compromised, people who still think that they are morally good, but who justify their sin with twisted principles, and who provide justification for the ultimately depraved to murder the good.

I suppose that either this will be the makeup of humanity at the end of the world, or it will be a state along the way to a more depraved makeup. Perhaps at the end things will have progressed further, to where most of the self-justifying sinful have also reached the deepest levels of depravity, sharing that same murderous intent towards the righteous.

Personally, I consider the first social makeup to be more likely, where the majority of people are compromised but think themselves righteous in their own eyes. Otherwise, at the time of the second coming there would be a sharp line where almost everyone was killed, leaving only a very few righteous alive. I think it more likely that only the murderously wicked will be destroyed, and there will remain many morally compromised who will have to be ministered to by the righteous to finally convert them back to the Lord. At this time, the majority sinful will no longer have the power of government and moral certitude. They will know without any doubt that they are in transgression of their Creator, and that they cannot remake the world in their image, and that they must repent or they will be sinning against the light. This belief is in part due to the account of the partially evil Nephites who were spared at the coming of Jesus, and in part due to the account of Zechariah 13, which states that Jesus will appear at the second coming to Jews who do not yet believe on him.

Folly of the Masses)

Whatever the general state of depravity in the world in the last days, it at least seems certain that the majority of the people will believe things that are false and sinful. To some extent they will be deceived and led astray. They will justify evil. Many will eschew good and be antagonistic towards the righteous. To what degree is up for debate, but this much is certain.

Thus, if one lives in the last days and they hold the majority views, then even without examining what those views are, we already know that they are faulty and that that person has been misled. And, by extension, most people will be morally in the wrong. Only those that are willing to be unpopular, to be ridiculed, to be called “outdated” and “bigoted” will have any possibility of being in the right. Not necessarily all those with controversial beliefs will be correct, but all those that are correct will have controversial beliefs, and all those with the mainstream beliefs will not.

Now, does this apply to us in our situation today? Well, to answer that we must first answer this question: do we live in the last days or do we not? If the last days are far removed from us, then all that we have said is true of a time long distant and may or may not apply to us today. But if we truly do live in the end times, then modern popularity is a barometer for folly. Tomorrow I will examine the question of whether we live in the end times or not, and why I believe that we do. Then we can be more specific about what trends in the world seem most likely then to be misleading.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Offensively Faithful- The Good Minority, the Indulgent Majority

The first point that we must make is that all signs and prophecies seem to suggest that there will be a minority of good and faithful people in the last days. There is not much need for convincing on this point, our cultural depictions of the end times have already set us with that expectation. Still, it is worth noting that that vision is justified by the words of scripture.

Virtually every scriptural description we have of the end times is one of evil and suffering. It is as though each prophet took a glimpse into the future, and the prevailing themes of what they saw was wickedness and tragedy. If the love of Christ was ubiquitous in the last days, you think they would have said something about that. Instead, we hear the following:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-4).
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts (2 Peter 3:3).

One of the clearest visions of the end days comes from Jesus, himself. When asked by his disciples “what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” he replied:

Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
-Matthew 24:5-14

Language such as “ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake” does not suggest that the believers are in the majority. How are they able to be delivered up to be afflicted and killed, unless they are but a small faction at the mercy of the masses?

The straight up murder of Christians is quite extreme. Anyone that would do such a thing is at the very limit of darkness and violence. But surely there are other degrees of wickedness along the way. There are those that the prophets described as lovers of own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, etc. These are people who have given in to immorality, but could arguably still view themselves as basically good, having a generous view of humanity, and trying to make the world what they think is a better place. It seems credible that such a people would be largest of the majorities. They would not be willing to kill the righteous, but to mock and scorn them, which would then justify the radical minority to commit the murders.

Not only does this demographic seem credible it sounds very familiar! It sounds like the state of the world today. Let us take a closer look at this hypothesized majority tomorrow. Those that are morally compromised, but who still have enough conscience to not shock society against them. The popular indulgent who seduce the common citizen, accumulating numbers day by day, until they are able to assume what is “right” for the entire culture.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Offensively Faithful- Premise

We have been taught that we must stand firm in the gospel of Christ, eschewing the false teachings that would lead us astray. But at the same time, “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; every way of a man is right in his own eyes” (Isaiah 53:6, Proverbs 21:2). In a world of confusion and deception, how can we know whether we ourselves have been led astray, passionately believing things that are actually harmful and wrong?

That is the question that I wish to focus this short series on. Please note, it isn’t entirely the same as the question of, “how can I know if what I believe is right?” That question does not arise until after we have answered “what if what I believe is wrong?” We must first have our false paradigm broken, and be left with nothing, to then make space for the perspective that is true. Conviction of error must precede elation of correctness.

To that end, I wish to point out a metric by which many who have become deceived might recognize such and begin the process of renouncing their false beliefs. The metric is this: in the last days, if your beliefs are mainstream, are popular, are consistent with current trends, then you are almost certainly in the wrong. The scriptures paint a clear picture that in the last days those that are founded on the truth will be in the minority, they will seem strange to the rest of the world, and the depth of their convictions will be offensive. Furthermore, it seems doubtful that those in the majority will even know that they are deceived. They will not seem to be agents of evil, at least not at first. They will think that they are doing what is right, yet they will still be in the wrong.

Over the coming days we will look at the evidence for these claims, and what that means for us as we take a hard and honest look at ourselves, asking ourselves the question, “Lord, is it I?”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Weak vs Strong Kindness

There is both a weak kindness and a strong kindness. The weak kindness is based on fear. It is where one allows oneself to be consumed by another, or by the masses. This individual gives others exactly what they want to have and tells them exactly what they want to hear. The individual does this because he is afraid of being rejected and left alone. His integrity is secondary to being accepted.

The strong kindness, on the other hand, is only possible when one is firmly his own self, deeply rooted, and full of integrity. Such a one knows his standards, and does not violate them for another, but he will give of himself when it is aligned with his principles. Thus, this person gives “kindness” on his own terms, and when he does so by sharing a part of his own self. It is a sacrifice made not by compulsion, but with true compassion and altruistic motives.

The weak kindness satiates in the moment, but it reinforces bad behavior and ultimately only hurts the world. Only the strong kindness helps.

Posted on by Abe Austin

I Know vs I Do

There is a great chasm between “I know that I should” and “I am actually doing it.”

Within that distance is all the struggle of conscience, the transformation of coward into hero, the measure of one’s very soul. In it we see the difference between a society that is flourishing and one that is decaying, between depravity and morality, and the life or death of the world. All of it turns when we finally act from what we already know in our hearts.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 10:19-20

19 And Aaron said unto Moses, Behold, this day have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord; and such things have befallen me: and if I had eaten the sin offering to day, should it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord?

20 And when Moses heard that, he was content.

When we heard of the trespass of Nadab and Abihu, I made the case that their sin seemed more egregious and intentional than just performing part of the ritual incorrectly, given that when Eleazer and Ithamar made such an error, they faced no such divine retribution.

Aaron gives an explanation to Moses as to why the priests’ portion was not eaten of the sin offering. At first, it is hard to follow what exactly he is saying, probably due to awkwardness in translation. The general consensus among scholars, though, is that when he says, “such things have befallen me” he is referring to the destruction of Nadab and Abihu, and the grief he and his sons were feeling as a result. Perhaps he means that they felt unworthy to partake with the Lord when they were so near to His wrath, or that in their grief they had been unable to remember all of the steps of the ritual.

Grim of a thought as it is, one might also consider the sin offering to have already been fulfilled by the conflagration of Nadab and Abihu. They were burned for their sins, after all, and one could hardly assume Aaron and his sons to feast on the remains of that! Perhaps Nadab and Abihu’s death rendered the animal offering redundant.

It is interesting to note that as in the case of the golden calf, Aaron stands between Moses and the people. Not justifying error, not saying that Moses’s expectations are wrong, but to be the voice of others and give explanation for why they went astray. Moses also stands between Israel and God, representing more of the law and power of God, while Aaron stands between Israel and God, representing more the flaws and foibles of the people. Thus, in the two brothers is the meeting of both worlds. It was very appropriate, therefore, that Aaron was chosen for his role as the High Priest, making propitiation for Israel to God. And in this case, as with that of the golden calf, Moses heard his explanation, had respect to it, and was content.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 10:16-18

16 And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was burnt: and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron which were left alive, saying,

17 Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord?

18 Behold, the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place: ye should indeed have eaten it in the holy place, as I commanded.

Moses examined the work of the priests’ first sin offering, and it appears that an error was made. A portion of the sin offering was to be burned upon the altar, and a portion given to the priests to eat. From the sound of it, Eleazar and Ithamar had burned the entirety of the offering and had not eaten any of it, and Moses was not pleased at all with this turn of events.

Interestingly, Moses here reinforces one of the symbols meant by the priest eating their portion of the sin offering: to bear the iniquity of the congregation. It is clear that eating the sin offering is eating the sin, it is taking the follies of others as your own burden, which is exactly what every great leader must do. They must bear the flaws of their people, to then find a way to atone and make things right again.

What is more, it sounds as though the blood was not spread upon the horns of the altar, as was also required. This was, no doubt, a tense moment, given the dramatic condemnation brought upon Nadab and Abihu for their earlier trespass. But as we will see in tomorrow’s verses, Aaron has an explanation that will calm the tension down.