Ignoring The Obvious
Almost every facet of our society relies upon this premise. We see it everywhere. Sometimes we call this the white elephant or the giant white ape in the room. The mantra of political correctness keeps people from declaring the obvious.
There was an event in Paris, France recently where twelve people were shot by some gunmen. Everyone knew it was an act of terrorism, and they knew who the people were who did this terrorist activity. Yet many political leaders went out of their way to ignore the obvious. Their declaration that such an evil, cowardly action of violence was not acceptable. Not once did they state who the perpetrators were, and most everybody knew right away who did this. Islamic extremist jihadists did this. How did we know? Well, every act of terrorism in the past twenty years has been carried out by these same people, so it is not a stretch to figure out who did it this time. By the end of the day, all the news media began to report the obvious; that this was an act of terrorism carried out by Islamic extremists.
Often times, we find that the obvious is not a desired condition, and we see that shifting the blame to something else is discussed. The recent race riots tried to focus the problem upon the mean police as the source of the problem, when the obvious is that people who break the law is the actual problem. The gentle giant as he is now called was a ruthless mean thug, and there is video evidence to prove it. Yet he is still hailed as a victim when his own actions brought about his death. The obvious is ignored because it does not fit the agenda of what people are trying to accomplish. Talk about ignoring the obvious. The problem is not skin color; it is those who want to act like thugs and criminals, and not wanting to abide by the rule of law established by the society in which they live.
Sometimes there might actually be a person who will state the obvious, and immediately be chastised for stating the obvious. Such honesty does not fit the mold of the agenda that many want to follow. Even so-called conservative talk show hosts seem to go out of their way to ignore the obvious. What is wrong with this country? Sure we can talk about the social ills of society. We can blame the economy. We can blame race relations, and we could probably blame a hundred other things. But there is only one word that sums up everything that is wrong with our country and all the other countries in the world. That word is "SIN". There, we said the obvious. Think about the last time you even heard this word on public radio or television. It could be that the word has not been used where it is needed to be used because such a word is now politically incorrect. We are not allowed to say that people live in sin. People's actions cannot be called sin any longer. Indiscretions or errors in judgment sound so much better. As one commentator said on the radio today: "You cannot fight an enemy until you identify that enemy". He said this because many in the administration go out of their way to not identify those responsible for terrorists activity. Well, the same goes for sin. It is the enemy of the soul, and those who transgress God's laws are guilty of sin, and deserve to be punished. The wages of sin are death (Romans 6:23).
Sadly those responsible for teaching the people about sin and the devastating results have ignored the obvious also. The preachers and teachers of the land go out of their way to not use the word sin in describing actions of people. Here is the problem in our land. People sin, yet few have the courage to tell them that they are in sin, and they do not declare the consequence of sin; eternal torment in hell. If these teachers actually cared about their audience and congregations, they would speak the truth, and souls could be saved. But you see, there is the problem again and it is obvious. People like to sin. People want to sin. They want to continue their sin, and they do not want some preacher preaching to them about their sin. Perhaps it is alright for a preacher to speak of someone else's sin, but not theirs. So what many preachers have done is to change their message from hell fire and brimstone for sinners, to a message of love and peace describing a loving God who could not hurt anyone in a horrible place called hell. That is pleasing to the ears of millions, but it will not save their souls. The only way for anyone to be saved is to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, and live according to His message and the instructions of His appointed messengers. Those messengers would be the Holy Spirit which gave us the written word, and His apostles which delivered the initial message of salvation.
Everything we need to receive salvation is printed out for us in the Bible. The Bible is the only book in the world that describes who God is, and what God wants. Not only that, it gives us instructions on how to live in the way that God wants us to live. Changing God's message by interpreting it to please the people will not help them at all. It may profit the preacher who does this, but they are both still lost, and on the broad path to destruction. The only way to avoid such a terrible fate is to be obedient to God's word. Jesus is the ONLY way to God. John 14:6 is an obvious truth. No one comes to the Father except through Him (Jesus). One must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died for your sins. One must repent of their lifestyle and stop the sin in their life. Confess the Lord Jesus as Christ, and be baptized for the remission of sins. Then be faithful until death. Or, we can just ignore the obvious.
By Carey Scott.

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