Page 186 - Push Back

redemption, the reconciliation of God and man.

The members of Westboro Baptist Church are not manifesting compassion. Their approach lacks
humility. They have no consciousness of their own need of God’s great mercy, though they too
are sinners.

Westboro Baptist Church Protest

The signs carried by this professing Christian do not accurately reflect the mind of God. Yahweh
does not laugh when homosexuals die. The prophet Ezekiel wrote:

Ezekiel 18:30-32
"Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling
block to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed, and make
yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die...? For I have no pleasure in the
death of anyone who dies," declares Yahweh God. "Therefore, repent and live."

Yahweh desires that men might live. The wages of sin is death. Therefore Yahweh exhorts men
and women to turn away from their sins that they might experience life. Christ said, “I came that
they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” The apostle Paul describes Christians as
divine ambassadors, kingdom representatives, of Yahweh.

II Corinthians 5:20
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you
on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Consider these words for a moment. “We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” To
declare such a message it is first necessary to disclose to people that they are estranged from God.
Christians must tell those God sends their way that sin has separated them from God. These
words of Paul also express compassion, and a sincere concern, for those who are separated from
Yahweh. It is unseemly for a Christian to go about reviling, and casting insults, at those who are
living sinful lives. It is not necessary to revile in order to speak the truth about sin, righteousness,
and judgment.