The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

"These things have I spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized." (St. John 16, 1)

Jesus spoke these words to His apostles on the eve of His passion. His purpose was to prepare them for what they were about to see and perhaps more what they themselves would have to endure. "They will put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth a service to God."

Those who speak the truth are hated by the world. And the world will even pursue them to death. The Apostles who after Pentecost were to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world were despised and persecuted. They were imprisoned and murdered (martyred) for Christ.

If Christ had not forewarned them of these events they surely must have been scandalized. For how could an all powerful and loving God allow His servants to be treated this way? Why would He not rise up and strike those who are His enemies and ours?

We see that nothing has really changed. The world still hates the truth and all those who would teach it to us. Perhaps the tactics have been modified but the intent is the same.

We may not have to fear being imprisoned and martyred because the world has developed more sophisticated means of destruction and silencing. Today those who preach the truth are laughed at, mocked, ridiculed and ignored. In this world of technological high speed communication we should be able to expect the word of God to travel quickly and effectively. But, the truth is buried in the mountains of lies. Few will even hear the truth and even fewer will believe because they are inundated with the lies of the world day in and day out. They are not even capable of recognizing the truth because their minds and hearts are filled with fabulous lies.

The pagan religions offer them an opportunity to make a god of themselves; the heretical "Christian" religions offer them the same thing under the guise of "Christianity". They teach them that God loves everyone "unconditionally" and that they can as the Lutherans say "sin on bravely." The world is encouraged to visit the "Church of their Choice" and that it does not matter which one you choose because they all worship the same god. And in fact all the false religions from the pagans to all the Protestant sects to the modernist Novus Ordo do believe and worship the same god — the god of this world, Satan.

The true Jesus Christ and all that He has to teach us is buried in the mountains of the false gods and their false doctrines.

For those who would teach that Jesus Christ is not the same God as the god of all the false "Christian" religions, they can expect to be laughed at, mocked, ridiculed, and finally ignored. The poor souls enveloped in worldliness cannot see the truth for all of the error. Every aspect or manifestation of the truth is overwhelmed with countless similar aspects or manifestations of lies. The truth is "accepted" along with all the lies (which in essence destroys the truth) or everything is counted as lies (myths). So much so that now even "Catholic" teachers refer to Scripture, doctrine and morals as Christian myths. "We have our myths and they have theirs; we have our lies they have theirs; it is all the same." Only everyone calls his own lies and myths "truths". So it becomes "we have our truths and they have theirs". Truth is no longer an objective reality but is instead now quite subjective. In this manner the true Christians (Catholics) are persecuted, imprisoned not by physical walls but by lies and falsities. The Catholic becomes isolated from the rest of the world and is unable to truly communicate the truths of Christ because the world is overwhelmed with lies and refuses to discern truth from error but chooses to become indifferent to it all. They will do all they can to make the preachers of the truth appear to be fools, imbeciles, or crazy so that the truth will be silenced or killed, and each one can live peacefully allowing all the others to live contentedly in their own delusions and lies.

Let us not be scandalized. Christ has said those who love Him (Those who insist on objective truth and reality.) would be hated by the world. And in this one thing all the world is united: the hatred of God and the truth. If we find ourselves in a spiritual prison, spiritually persecuted, spiritually martyred, let us rejoice as the Apostles did, to have been found worthy to suffer these things for Christ.

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