An elastic rubber band is used by orthodontists to correct bites, for sewing, the bands are available in different sizes, you can even exercise with rubber band. Bands are easily stretched and can be expanded to go back to its original shape. Sometimes! Other times, a rubber band can no longer go back to its original shape and if it dries out it can break apart.
Specifically, the evil one, Satan, since Genesis 3 has tried to change things up, to deceive us, to stretch the truth, to make us agree with him especially he uses to desensitize us making us think that things sound good but they are wrong. Yes, we see those who mock God may I say…dear enemies of God brace for God’s wrath, because it is coming. Or as we would says today: “Buckle Up…the Bible says that God is not mocked.”The Bible speaks quite a bit about the wrath of God and that includes the New Testament.
Today, we have preachers who say that God has changed and that He isn’t the mean old God anymore. Today He has been changed into a sweet socialist who wears sandals and has a universal view of salvation. Yes, scripture does tell us that ALL can be saved BUT you have to make the right choice.
But what has happened in this generation? We all want to stretch the truth like the elastic on our sweat pants. Our elastic religion would love it to be true because we want those we love and those who have never accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior to be going to heaven. But the wrath of God is visible as we read about the Cross and what Jesus did for us, He saved us by dying on that Cross. You see if we go to church on a consistent basis, read our Bible, go to a Bible Study once in a while or do some good deeds then we think that we are lovely, holy, sinless people but Paul says: “O wretched man (woman and child) that I am. “ That is what we are!
Everyone seems to know John 3:16 and many times the young kids memorize it in Sunday school but there is another verse a little further down in John 3:36 that says: He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. You do know that the Holy Spirit inspired both John 3:16 and John 3:36.
Man was thrown out of the Garden of Eden after they sinned and God put the angels with swords just outside the Garden and that is why God sent His Son, Jesus to fix this mess and the choice as always is yours to accept or reject Christ as your Savior. If you read through the Bible and go chapter and verse; you will see how people, churches and politicians in this generation have stretched the Truth of the Gospel to accommodate their own ideas.
Consider all of the cults that have developed out of Christianity. Did you know that there are over 30,000 Christian religious denominations? Each of these groups tries to take our elastic religion, tries to accommodate scriptures, tries to accommodate religion and it takes up space in our spiritual lives that are not correct. This stretching includes everything from how sin is dealt with to how you define life to how you define sexuality to how you define marriage. Anything that is different from the scriptural definition creates an elastic religion which is not from GOD!
Remember, in the New Testament that Jesus spoke to the people and healed them, removed evil spirits from them and they crucified Him. Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote 13 of the New Testament Books, he would start a church, get it up and running and then after they were established he would move on to the next areas only to get letters from those first established churches saying that they were wracked with division. They were stretching out the doctrine to accommodate what they wanted to add into the belief system. We add things to the bible that are not in there. The Bible says that we are going to have to contend for the faith. Contend means to struggle, resist the devil. The apostles contended for the faith. But today we have as many views on the Christian faith as there are Christians.
I keep hearing phrases like, “Can’t we all just get along?” We are hardly united by a common faith. Our belief system is hopelessly fractured so how can we just get along?
God has given us the way through His Son, Jesus Christ to unite. Each of us will have to stand up for what we truly believe. Ask what does the Bible say about this or that situation. What chapter and verse says and in the right context. Remember Satan hates God, dJesus and the Holy Spirit and he wants to destroy the church. The correct approach is to humble ourselves and to confess that without God’s help we can do nothing.If we just follow the word of God and stop going down rabbit holes and there was a song years ago that state: “God said it, I believe it and that settles it for me.” If we stop stretching the truth of the Gospel to accommodate this group or that group, can you imagine how great life would be?