Answering a Fool: Isn’t All Concern about Cancellation Contrary to the Teaching of Christ?

This episode of Answering a Fool, we'll be answering the question, isn't all concern about cancellation contrary to the teaching of Christ and probably materialistic? Now this question is coming to us from an internet troll in response to our recent episode on how do I become cancel proof?

And the internet troll responded to our Facebook page essentially with this message. So the internet troll said, that's what Jesus always said, how do I avoid getting canceled? Jesus always said that financial success is crucial for getting into heaven, something about a camel riding in, question mark.

Now when you think about a trolling comment along these lines, this is obviously an example of a straw man. So when you're an individual engaging in this kind of argumentation, what you do is you put your opponent's position in the worst possible light, you misrepresent them, you jump to conclusions, and then you attack a position that functionally no one is arguing.

For.

And it's not common for internet trolls to actually listen to the material that they're criticizing, they just jump to remarkable conclusions at times from simple titles that are present in the things that they're reading.

So as you think about this subject of being cancel proof, one of the questions you might want to ask is, did Jesus teach his followers anything about how to deal with cancellation? And so it seems to me as you read the New Testament, and it's something that this troll might want to do a little bit more than what he seems to have done at this point, is that Jesus is constantly warning his followers about what to do in the case of persecution.

So not only does Jesus tell his followers that persecution is a mathematical certainty for those who are going to be faithful, I mean he tells his followers at numerous points that a servant is not above his master, if they persecuted me, they're going to persecute.

You.

And Paul will tell us that all those who desire to live righteously in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And because Jesus warned against this non-stop, at first his followers didn't experience immediately they didn't immediately experience persecution, but immediately once they started to experience persecution, they rejoiced and they were exceedingly glad because they understood that that meant that they were they had some sort of mark of legitimacy that they are indeed followers of Christ.

Now if you want to take anything good about this comment, one of the things that you might want to take is the notion that Christians obviously shouldn't be so concerned about cancellation to the point to where they sacrifice faithfulness in some sort of obsessive priority to avoid cancellation at all cost.

In fact, this is what our self-evangelical leaders are essentially doing. Our self-evangelical leaders are so fixated on not being canceled they might not be giving us much instruction on how to avoid being canceled but they are so fixated on this idea of trying to prevent cancellation that they are essentially just giving in to all the demands of the left and giving in to all the demands of the pagan and trying to modify the message so that it's going to be palatable to the hearing of those who functionally hate us in some misguided hope that they're going to be the last ones thrown.

To the lions.

So certainly there is the reality that many individuals can be obsessively focused on avoiding cancellation at all cost. However, just because there is the reality that some people can be excessively focused on cancellation at all cost, on avoiding all kind of persecution, that doesn't mean that taking any thought to arranging your affairs in such a way as to mitigate the effects of persecution in your life is somehow inherently or intrinsically problematic.

In fact, Jesus tells his followers that if they persecute you in one town, flee to the.

Next.

Jesus would tell us he tells his followers at certain points to go buy a sword. So just because they're not to live by the sword in order that they might not die by the sword, that doesn't mean he doesn't instruct them to take reasonable precautions in order to stop evildoers from taking away your lives and property.

Jesus has been known to send angels in order to help his followers escape from prison. And so there's no value, biblically speaking, in just letting the pagans do anything that they wish to do to you and taking no precautions whatsoever in order to keep them from taking away your assets unnecessarily or harming you or your family unnecessarily.

So the Bible doesn't advocate some sort of pacifistic position or some sort of pacifism that you might describe as a squishy I think D. I. Carson describes it as a squishy kind of pacifism where essentially you just embrace that pacifism out of cowardice or something along those lines.

So Jesus does instruct his followers to live courageously in the world, and there's plenty of examples, even in the Old Testament, of individuals who are Nehemiah who are building walls for the Lord and the enemies of God come, and the Bible doesn't just tell the Israelites just to roll over and just give Jerusalem over to the hands of the pagans and just surrender in a total way.

And so if you're going to come to this kind of position, which basically says that any concern to avoid cancellation at all is fundamentally materialistic and contrary to the teaching of Christ, I would just tell you, you might want to read the Bible a little bit more, and you might want to read through the Old Testament a little bit more, and you might want to read through the New Testament a little bit more, and you'll realize that the saints of all ages have been those who have subdued kingdoms and fought battles.

And so there is a place in the Christian life for fighting battles that isn't fundamentally viewed by some kind of materialism. And this is, unfortunately, the accusation that the left makes against the right at various points that any concern that the right might have to hold on to the assets of God and not just be plundered by the pagans is fundamentally selfish and materialistic.

And this really does well to, you know, if you have a greedy person who wants to take all your stuff, it really is kind of a neat trick to look at them and say, hey, you don't want me to take all your stuff and plunder you because you're greedy.

But then turn around at that point is foul play or fair play. So when you think about this kind of question, and you think about this kind of observation that this troll is making, we would encourage our trolls just to do a better job of reading the Bible and thinking through what the Bible says at a variety of points.

And it is quite possible to be an individual who puts some thought into trying to avoid cancellation and not just being needlessly plundered and not just putting himself or his family, who he has a responsibility to protect, in unnecessary danger.

While at the same time, it is quite possible to be the kind of person who, when persecution comes, is willing to face it courageously. When you're backed in the corner, you have nowhere else to go, you choose to live as Christ and not to deny him and to honor him with your life.

And so it is quite possible to be an individual who has courage and also the kind of person who reads through the Proverbs, takes necessary cautions when he sees danger coming, and then puts some thought into not giving your enemies just the ability to destroy your life and destroy your livelihood without any kind of thought or plan on how to deal with the fallout.

If you would like to be Bible Bashed personally, then please know that we also offer free biblical counseling which you can take advantage of by emailing us. Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.