God requires believers to deal truly, and that means not granting assent or giving the impression that we support falsehood or wickedness.
There is a price to be paid for refusing to consent to untruths and evil. Sometimes it will mean we will lose our jobs, or our family, or standing in the community.
For some, it means jail and for others, death, and we have covered Bible examples in this series.
In the disciples' day, Caesar thought himself a god, and everyone had to worship him, along with all their other gods. This sacral system was thought to be necessary to uphold the empire, and the idea continued broadly in the West until the founding of the United States.
All the saints had to do was offer just a pinch of incense on the altar to Caesar. Just a pinch!
Yet the Lord's people would not publicly assent to the false notions of idolatry, and for that, many were murdered by the government.
One day soon, the Beast, the False Prophet, and Anti-christ will demand the whole world worship them, and display a mark on their hand or forehead.
Failure to display the mark of the beast will result in economic ruin and starvation.
Yet the Lord's people will refuse to give such assent, because God's Word is clear: those who do go along with such falsehood and wickedness will be tortured forever in the Lake of Fire.
In the end, that is where going along with falsehood and wickedness will land us.
But some might question, why then did not the Lord Jesus have a duty to refuse consent to His crucifixion? After all, He had done no wrong at all.
The truth is, that Jesus had to give assent to the justice of God's wrath for our crimes laid upon Him there. |
