“…even denying the Master who bought them….” 2 Peter 2:1

“For certain people have crept in…and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”  Jude 1:4

These two verses, along with Hebrews 6:4–8 and the stories of King Saul and Judas, demonstrate that apostasy is real. People bought and ransomed by Jesus Christ who then walk away from him, denying their attachment and faith in him. People in the church leaving the Lord of the church to follow after Satan. That is what Judas did; even Saul’s last meal was a false Passover with a witch at midnight.

But many Christians have a hard time with this apostasy. Isn’t “once saved, always saved,” true?  Or “once elect, always elect?” But jingles don’t satisfy; it is not man’s free will that puts us forever into relationship with God, nor pretending to have an infallible view of God’s decrees.

Salvation is of the Lord, and God’s ways are often mysterious to us. Such is the question, “How can a person ransomed by Jesus, ever flee and fall away into league with Satan and everlasting condemnation? It is akin to the question, “How did a sinless Adam not believe his Creator and God?” We have to stop our mouths and minds and admit we can’t know; to know so would make us God!

But those questions miss the point of the contexts in 2 Peter and Jude. Both write to exhort their hearers to perseverance, to running the race with eyes only on Jesus. Both exhort to faithfulness in the gospel delivered to the saints. That’s our focus as Christians; we cannot know what isn’t revealed. As Moses taught in Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Are you looking for a good “pick me up” story? Something to read to the kids after dinner time that’s intriguing, colorful, encouraging to their faith, as well as true?

Then open up your Bible and read the book of Esther! It’ll do you good and it will fascinate the kids.

How so? For starters, it’s a well-crafted story of the deliverance of God’s people, even in spite of their sin and weaknesses. Mordecai not only tells Esther not to witness to others concerning her people or the God she worships, but he goes out and refuses to honor the king’s instructions to honor Haman. One man’s sin brings condemnation upon the whole people.

But that condemnation of the whole nation humbles him, and he repents by wearing sackcloth to demonstrate it publicly, as well as commanding Esther to witness to the king or perish with the rest of the Jews.

You know the story. But read it slowly and appreciate the craftsmanship of laying out facts and events and symbols early and then seeing those details used in the reversal of the plot. It’s exhilarating to read and unpack the threads as they unravel for Haman but are woven tightly for the Jews deliverance. Talk about “in the nick of time” excitement!

Which, of course, all points to Jesus and how he turns the darkness of Israel in his day to light and joy and deliverance for us his people. As the kingdom prospered under Mordecai and Esther, so the world today prospers under the Lord Jesus. There are no obstacles too great to keep him and the Spirit from fulfilling the Great Commission!

I highlighted last week the teaching of a Methodist minister running for office in Kansas. This week, let’s look at James Talarico, a PCUSA seminary student running for Senate in Texas. John Nolte of Breitbart News summarizes: “Talarico…poses as a pious, God-fearing Christian and deliberately leads people astray by preaching a heresy that twists naked sin (transsexualism, transvestitism, homosexuality, abortion, child mutilation) into something sacred, Christian, and beautiful.” (8/13 article: “Poll Shows Ken Paxton Ahead of James ‘God Is Nonbinary’ Talarico”). Talarico’s positions are well-documented in the media.

Again, these are subjects to bring up around the dinner table or at family worship. Jesus clearly taught in Matthew 19:4 that men are men and women are women: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female…?” Notice Jesus relies on the Creation account: this is the way God made the world, even 4,000 years later. As for cross-dressing, Moses clearly said a woman should not put on a man’s clothes, or uniform, for battle. Homosexuality is clearly a Sodomite story, as Paul clearly states in 1 Cor 6:9–11.

Abortion, the killing of an unborn baby, is ruled out by Psalm 139, since God is the one weaving the child in the womb; it’s His creation. Exodus 21:22–25 clearly values the life of the unborn baby as equal to an adult.

Child mutilation? Since the purpose of those surgeries is to attempt to change the sex of the child, those would be forbidden by Jesus in Matthew 19.

So we listen to the word of Jesus, which is good, beautiful, and truthful; not the word of men twisting God’s word to hopefully receive a few more votes, or pervert our understanding of God’s word.