Submitted by: Marie Woods

THE RELIGIOUS LEFT IN BIBLE TIMES

• The Religious Left in Bible Times
• by Donald Hank
  The religious Left, which cherry-picks the Bible to support an ungodly agenda, is as old as mankind. Their antics and the price mankind has had to pay for this misbehavior are, arguably, the salient theme of the Bible. Satan was the first to introduce confusion into man’s interpretation of God’s words.

  New Testament

  The Bread of Life Versus the Crumbs of the Left

  In John chapter 6, we read that Jesus, who was teaching by the Sea of Galilee, took a boy’s lunchbox and with it fed 5,000 people.

  The multitude were so impressed with the menu they wanted to make Him King, and sensing this, He departed alone to a mountain.

  That evening his disciples went down to the sea and took a ship bound for Capernaum, without Jesus. When they had rowed about 20 or 35 furlongs (modern English: pretty far), they saw Jesus walking on the sea and were afraid.

  But Jesus said “it is I. Be not afraid.”

  And he boarded the ship, which immediately – miraculously – appeared in Capernaum.

  A group of the above-cited multitude came down to where Jesus’ ship had departed from and when they saw that Jesus was not there, they also embarked on ships and arrived by and by at Capernaum seeking Jesus.

  Jesus was unimpressed by this bunch, and as soon as he saw them, he said you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

  Jim Wallis, Jimmy Carter and other members of the religious Left were there in spirit and they were counting on Jesus to preach about ending poverty and to end it right then and there for them.

  But instead, he said to them: Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you; for him hath God the father sealed.

  But they paid no mind to these words, persisting in their social agenda. They didn’t want the Bread of life. They were privileged to meet Jesus in the flesh, the Bread of Life, but all they wanted were some miserable crumbs. So they slyly asked: What sign will you show us? Our fathers ate manna in the desert. As it is written: he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

  Now these guys had seen more signs than you and I will ever see in this mortal life. All 5,000 were fed from a kid’s lunchbox, for crying out loud! They knew Jesus healed the sick. But they were clearly intent on filling their bellies again. And that is all they wanted. Rank materialism without a stitch of spirituality. They wanted their entitlements. Their ancestors had eaten at God’s table. Now they thought free eats was their birth right, and they weren’t backing down.

  But Jesus went on and on about the Bread of life, speaking about spiritual things. And all they’re thinking is: Where’s my fish sandwich?

  John 6:65– and he said: therefore said I unto you, no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my father.

  And from that time on, as we read in the next verse, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

  Do you think it irked Jesus to have lost these fly-by-night disciples? Quite to the contrary. He was pleased to see them go. His last words had actually amounted to: “get lost, Lefties!”

  You see, friends, the religious Left wants the physical bread. They have no interest whatsoever in the Bread of life.

  That’s why they do not walk with Jesus. Yet they pretend they do when it suits their agenda. And they twist His words and say that Jesus was about satisfying social needs and feeding the poor. But here in John 6, Jesus clearly and explicitly said that that was not what He was about. And he clearly separated himself from the socialists of his day. He didn’t invite them to speak at His Camel Back conference. He didn’t lisp “everyone has something good to contribute,” or “there’s a little good in everyone.” He just sent them packing.

  Thus, the religious Left hasn’t a Biblical leg to stand on. Jesus personally put them in their place 2,000 years ago. You’d think that would have settled it once and for all. Yet they’re still up to their old tricks.

  If you go to Jim Wallis’ website, you will see that Jesus’ words no man cometh unto the father but through me are conspicuously absent. The religious Left has no stomach for the idea that we all owe allegiance only to the one God who created the universe or that only through His Son can man find redemption. These crumbs want the bread with a small b.

  Being pluralists, they are squeamish about the commandment: have no other gods before me.

  At Wallis’ website we see a link entitled “Spirituality” where we find teachings of other religions but almost nothing about Christianity. And if you want to join the subscription list, there is a long list of titles to click from, depending on your persuasion, including Pastor, Rabbi and Imam. You see, for Wallis, all religions lead to the Way and that way is warmed-over Marxism.

  Does Jim Wallis care about the poor? If he did, he wouldn’t advocate victimization politics, which kills incentive and pushes the entitlement mentality. Does he care about world peace? If he did, he wouldn’t preach appeasement. Neville Chamberlain taught us that doesn’t work (liberals never seem to recognize that name. I wonder why). Does he care about eliminating AIDS? If he did, he would help other Christians get out the word that the gay lifestyle is dangerous, and he would advocate abstinence until marriage. Does he care about the environment? If he did, he wouldn’t look to the Democrats for a solution to environmental ills because they kill the free-market incentives needed to do the job.

  Jim’s message is poison to the Word of God. He wants to confuse you, just as he has been confused by Satan. Jesus said of such false teachers: Ye are of your father the devil!

  The Bible hasn’t changed. Its message is clear. Jesus came to save mankind not from physical hunger but from spiritual hunger and sin. Period.

  The irony of all this is that real Christians, with a biblical worldview, are the ones who donate more of their time and income to the poor than any other group. And yet, the religious Left clearly implies that they, the lefties, are the only ones with compassion, that we who worship the one and only living God and place our hopes in Him and his Son, as we are commanded to by the Bible they claim to be guided by, are selfish and one-sided. And it is we who are faithful to the Great Commission: no, not to feed the poor, not to eliminate world poverty or bring about world peace (I am come to bring a sword) but to go into all the world and preach the wealth-generating gospel of Christ crucified.

  I for one want no part of these crumbs of the Left.

  Until God came and fetched me back, I too was a godless Leftist and I can spot them a mile away. I can smell them. I can hear the perfidy in their crumby doubletalk.

  Friends, if you fear for your soul’s salvation, as you should, then give the religious Left a big miss. And if your son or daughter wants to go to seminary, do a lot of thorough snooping to find out what is really taught there. Talk to the head of the Bible department and mention Jim Wallis. If he warms up to the name, you’ve got yourself a loser, and if you truly care for your child’s eternal soul, you can’t afford to send him or her to such a place.