| Before Easter this year, our Pastor gave a sermon where he compared the disciples Peter and Judas Iscariot. Both denied Christ in crucial moments. Peter denied knowing Christ three times between Jesus’ capture and the morning’s first light. (Mark 14:72) Judas denied the Savior also when he betrayed Him to the chief priests for execution. (Matthew 27:3-4)
So at this point, both men are separated from God. It’s their next movements that determined how we remember them. Judas sought forgiveness from the chief priests, placing his trust in their temporal judgment. Peter, however, sought forgiveness from the One who can offer it eternally. (John 21:15-19; 2 Corinthians 7:10)
From this we learn that it matters who you trust.
The House Un-American Activities Committee from 1945 to 1975 sought to protect America from the infiltration of Communists. Names such as J. Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Alger Hiss and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg became part of the lexicon of our nation’s history. A history that the press misrepresented as a “witch hunt.” This mischaracterization has been carried forth as fact that is taught in our public schools and in our “free” press. The release of information in the mid-1990’s confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that those who have been vilified were right and the people they pursued were actually Russian spies who meant to harm the United States of America.
It matters who you trust.
A name from the founding war of our country is synonymous with the word “traitor,” that of Benedict Arnold. Arnold’s actions led to the securing of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, an early important victory in the Revolutionary War. Because of Arnold’s bravery in this campaign, General George Washington recommended he be commissioned a Colonel and under General Schuyler Arnold began a wilderness campaign pressing forward to St. Lawrence that showed tremendous stamina and military acuity despite rampant desertion among his troops. During the battle for Quebec begun on the last day of 1775, Arnold was wounded in his leg. He was never to regain full use of it.
By 1779, not receiving the honors he felt he had earned and should be accorded, Benedict Arnold consorted with the British by correspondence for over a year to take over West Point which would have given the British a huge advantage by allowing them control of the Hudson and entry into New York City. Fortuitously the plot was discovered and Arnold’s character which was driven by his pride exposed him to be a traitor. Not surprisingly, the British never completely trusted him and his dreams of accolades and success were never realized. Arnold put his trust in temporal things, and ignored the eternal ramifications of his actions.
It matters who you trust.
The recent court decision in California that places home education and parochial schools in jeopardy if all their teachers are not certified in each subject they teach and each grade level, denies the God-given command of parents to teach their children. It places authority with institutions and persons that are not Biblically mandated. And it then becomes imperative that we all stand with our sisters and brothers in knowing that it matters who you trust, for this assault may be assuaged for a time but will be relentless until every knees bows and proclaims Christ as King. (Romans 14:11)
Interestingly, it was Benedict Arnold who said, “Are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their liberties?” Our eternal vigilance is required in order to preserve our parental freedoms and to secure them for future generations who will also have need of being vigilant to see that they are not chipped away at or denied outright.
It matters who you trust.
Mike and Paula Anderson
Proverbs 3:5-7
Copyright April 2008, all rights reserved | 