What Does the Scripture Say?

I had a good conversation with a friend tonight. We talked about Christians teaching in the temples of secular humanism. Not as full time teachers, but as special speakers, say Creation speakers. Dr. Tommy Mitchell (AiG’s newest full time speaker) recently spoke in a government school on the topic of creation. He did the full message just as he would have in any church, i.e. he talked about the God of the Bible, that He created in six literal days, etc. God sovereignly opened the door for that lecture and has sustained the principal and all who were involved in getting the message out.

Ironically, another talk had been scheduled (for a different speaker) some time later in a government indoctrination center but this one was under the auspices of being only a science lecture. In other words, the creation speaker was not to mention God, Jesus or the Bible. It turns out that there was a great furor over the lecture simply because the speaker was a literal six day creationist (even though the speaker would not give glory to God or lift up the name of Jesus in his talk). Eventually the lecture never happened.

Isn’t it interesting to see the sovereignty of God at work. When we give Him the honor and credit that He’s due, He happened to open up the school to the lecture. But when we compromise the message of the Bible or water it down, He happened to close the door. It just goes to show that Christians should not be pragmatic about what might or might not be effective. We should simply strive to be obedient to His call to teach in the name of Jesus and allow Him to deal with the consequences. If Dr. Tommy Mitchell were to never be allowed to speak again in that public school where he gave God the glory, that would be fine. Tommy did his duty, he gave credit to God and did not leave Him out.

I think lots of folks think that simply leaving God out of a situation makes that situation ‘neutral’. But it does not. To not give God the glory and credit He deserves, is dishonoring to God. Notice in the following passage what Herod’s sin worthy of death was: simply not giving God the glory (what many call neutrality).

Acts 12:21-3 On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.