To Those Who Are Enemies Of The Cross

He doesn't deserve the hatred, we don't deserve the love.

“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” - Philippians 3:18, 19.

          Why do men hate the cross?  Why do so many hate the greatest symbol, the greatest expression of love? The greatest miracle known to man is the fact that a loving and merciful Christ, the very Son of God, descended to this earth to sacrifice himself for those who hate him.  You would think millions of people would be clamoring to adore the Christ who died upon the cross and made salvation and eternal life possible for them, but instead, many hate the cross and the Christ who hung there.

          What is the cross? It is not just two pieces of wood connected.  We see crosses made of stones, of concrete, of gold hung around the necks of millions.  These are but symbols of an actual event.  We certainly don’t worship these symbols.  But they are precious to us.  They are precious because our Christ did literally and humanly die upon a wooden cross, nailed there by Roman soldiers, in our stead, to purchase atonement for our sins.  “…the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)  As it is written, “He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

          Those who would belittle the atonement of the Son of God make themselves to be enemies of the cross.  When we say to Him who laid down his life for the sheep that there are many others ways to achieve this salvation we belittle his sacrifice and become enemies of the cross. 

          Those who love the cross do so because “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16) to die upon it “so that whosoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life.”  He who would argue with this message so clearly laid out in God’s love letter to the lost makes himself an enemy of the cross.

          Those who would live for themselves rather than for Christ, they who would dedicate themselves to fulfilling the passions of their own lust and the indulgences of their own appetites become enemies of the cross.  They who would dedicate their lives to the accumulation of wealth, to the acquirement of fame, to the enjoyment of pleasure alone may become enemies of the cross.

          We who are lovers of the cross have a total realization of the sacrifice Christ made, of the totality of our sins forgiven, of the magnificence of eternal life purchased. We cannot be anything but totally and unabashedly committed to Christ.  We dare not make our lives about us, it must be all about Him and in Him and for Him and to Him.  We adore this symbol because of the reality it represents.

          Why are so many intolerant of the Christian religion?  The genuine among us are a harmless and loving and kind people. 

          Why do men hate the cross?  Is it because they think themselves well and in no need of a physician?  Is it because they deny their sin, and the disease of their heart?  What man who is well wants to take medicine?  Who wants open heart surgery when one thinks all is well in his heart?

          Why do we who are Christians get so disturbed when we meet up with enemies of the cross?  Why do we expect all the world should get along with us?  The world despised the holiest man who ever lived and yet we think the world should love us.  Why does the world despise Christ?  The cross leaves no neutral ground, people love it or they hate it.

          Haters despise the cross because it represents the holiest thing this side of heaven?  Because the One to whom the pierced hands belongs, the One to whom the crown of thorns belongs cries out, “Why have you crucified me?  Why have you forsaken me?  Why will you not accept the gift, purchased at such a great price?”  The enemies of this cross hate it because they cannot endure the guilt of rejecting and refusing the expression of such love.

          They express their hatred when they choose sin over righteousness, when they choose the world’s harlot rather than heaven’s Savior.  They willfully and daily choose Barrabas rather than the Christ and in so doing they become enemies of the cross and haters of the Lamb of God. 

          We who love the cross must decide how we will react to its enemies.  It is our distinguishing trait as Christians to put away militancy, and anger and hatred.  We are instructed by the One who died on this cross to “overcome evil with good.”  We are to smother the world’s hatred with Christ’s love. 

          Paul said, “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears (with weeping), many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.”  Why weeping?  Because we want no one to hear the indescribably terrible and awful words of Christ; “Depart from me, I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23)  We don’t hate our enemies.  We love them and we pray for them and we desire they would know and experience the love of Christ and taste of his eternal salvation just as we do.

          We want the enemies of the cross of Christ to know the grace of God.  “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  (Gal. 5:1)  The cross is only a symbol.  You can tear down the symbol but you can never destroy the reality.  The cross is what makes us free.  And we all know that there is a great price that must be paid for freedom.

          This country contains millions of memorials to those who died in foreign lands, who shed their blood to purchase our freedom.  The cross is our memorial to a Savior who purchased our eternal freedom at so great a price.  We will never forget, we will always remember the sacrifice made for our liberties and freedom.  We will love those who are enemies to the cross.  We will weep for those who hate our Savior.  But let it be known far and wide, we will stand firm in our commitment to defend the symbols of our faith.  We will not be passive and apathetic while the rights of our fellow Christians are being trampled under feet.

          We are concerned about the damage the enemies of the cross might do to our children and grandchildren.  We don’t want them to forget.  We have no desire that they worship symbols like idolaters, but we do desire these symbols remain so that our children will always remember the sacrifice made for their freedom, for their salvation.

          There is a vine that grows rampantly here in the south.  It was introduced by the Japanese as far back as 1876 in Philadephia.  But it became prolific when a man named Charles Pleas planted the vine to hide his garbage cans in Chipley, Florida.  Kudzu can grow up to 18 inches a day and it covers millions of acres of ground in the back country of Alabama and Georgia.  We know that when those who would destroy our liberties win one victory, their zeal spreads like kudzu and our liberties will be smothered out quickly and affectively by those who would be enemies of the cross.

          To those who would be enemies of the cross of Christ, think not that we are ashamed of our faith, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” Paul said to the Romans. (Romans 1:16( We are determined to live our lives for our faith, to stand firm in our defense of it and to die willingly to preserve it for our children and grandchildren.  

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

Who Am I? Why Am I Here? Where Am I Going?

The basic philosophical questions of life are three:  “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?”  You can tell one’s worldview by the way they answer these questions.  Up until about 150 years ago the answers to these questions were mostly based on man’s understanding of God as the Creator of all things.  Then, like a slow moving locomotive the age of enlightenment appeared. Slowly but ever so surely it was declared that truth might be known by following the rails of reason.  The concept of God was placed on the back burner while men searched for truth through their own methods of logic. 

Having evicted God from the train, men began to develop atheistic ideas that were vacuous in content.  The result was a carving of hopelessness in their hearts.  God had affirmed to man that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. (Proverbs 9:10)   The depraved state of men’s minds was made vulnerable by the absence of the fear of God.  Men began to develop absurd arguments that the complex and beautiful world in which we live was all a “mysterious accident”.  They propped up these arguments with nonsensical statements such as, “Something came from nothing”.

One NASA scientist seems to have recognized the folly of trying to reason our way to truth without the help of a Supreme.  Robert Jastrow said, ‎"For the scientist who has lived by faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

Though these three questions are life’s most important, Americans in general are very apathetic about finding answers to them.  The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) reveals that the number who claim to have no religious affiliation increased from 8% in 1990 to 15% in 2008.  When asked about having purpose in life,  28% told a Lifeway survey that “It’s not a priority in my life to find my deeper purpose”.  The collective reply of many younger Americans regarding the discovery of the wisdom of God is a resounding “whatever”!

Who Am I?

None will question the great value of humanity.  The atheist doesn’t deny the value of humans but he refuses to believe that the source of our value is God.  The Atheist makes the absurd declaration that the ultimate source of the universe was an accidental collision of atoms.  Somehow, the souls and consciousness of men was spawned by a once in a trillion coincidental event that formed a primordial soup that cradled first life.  They believe that we are here merely by chance and that we have no ultimate purpose. Our lives are merely a quick flash in the pan and then we will merge into everlasting darkness never to be remembered again.  This worldview leads to nothing but deep meaningless and despair.

The Christian believes that man has great value because God created him.  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  (Gen. 1:1)  We are the crown jewel of his creation.  If one wants to study atheism, go to the philosopher, not the physician.  Those who study the complex intricacies of the human body, its heart, its eye, its hearing mechanism have too little faith to declare it all happened by accident.  They believe there must be intelligence behind such complexity.

Why Am I Here?

The atheist who rejects the existence of God and gabbles that the universe was an accident and mankind has no purpose looks into a bleak, black future.  If there is no intelligence behind the existence of man, if we are simply here by chance, then we have no more purpose than a housefly or a cockroach.  The atheist philosopher, Bertrand Russell, lamented the meaningless life:  “…all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and…the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins…”  For the atheist, life is meaningless, the universe will eventually slip into extinction and all men will be swallowed up by a dark hole of nothingness.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes felt this same despair when he mourned the emptiness of life without God:  “"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Everything is meaningless!" (Ecc. 12:8)  Job, at the height of his suffering groaned about the aimless life, “I despise my life…my days have no meaning”.  (Job 7:16)

The Christian finds fulfillment in life by accepting the provisions of God through the Son.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”.  Christ’s followers soon come to realize that a search for meaning is meaningless apart from the Messenger. Jesus declared that he had come to replace the empty void in our lives with a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10:10)

Where am I going?

The atheist believes that the universe will eventually drift further and further apart until the energy and heat and gravity will no longer affect the heavenly bodies.  Just as the universe will cease to exist, man will also cease to exist.  Death is simply an eternal sleep.  From nothing we came and to nothing we shall return. 

The Christian strongly disagrees with the atheist.  The Christian doesn’t believe we came from nothing nor does he believe we are on the road to nowhere.  Solomon makes a solemn comparison when he says, “Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both:  As one dies so dies the other…All go to the same place; all come from dust and to dust all return.” (Ecc. 3:18)

Christians understand that Christ is coming back again.  He has not promised us emptiness, he has promised us restoration.  He will renew his creation and establish a new kingdom.  He will rule that kingdom with perfect justice which will result in everlasting peace.

The atheist finds no significance in his life.  The Christian realizes that he has unfathomable significance because he was created in the image of God.

The atheist finds no meaning in life.  The Christian agrees with Solomon’s proclamation that life is indeed meaningless apart from God.  “…here is the conclusion of the matter, fear God…”  (Ecc. 12:13) 

The atheist has no hope for his future.  The Christian revels in the truth of Christ’s resurrection.  He has brought us “into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  (1 Peter 1:3)  He has gone to prepare a place for us. (John 14:3) and he promises he will return for us. 

Life overflows with meaning, purpose, and hope for those who will believe.

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

The True Witness

All of mankind must answer the ultimate question, does God exist?  This question cannot be ignored.  God has ‘set eternity in the hearts of men’. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)   There is an innate desire rooted deeply within the heart to know the living God.  There is a void, a vacuum within every heart that yearns for a knowledge of the Holy One.   How might we satisfy this inner yearning?  ‘No one has ever seen God.’ (John 1:18)   No man has ever heard his voice nor have they walked any distance with God as though he were a man.  The great dilemma was how to fill the great gulf that separated God and man. The magnificence of his beauty and the glorious sight of his face was enough to kill a man.   "You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."  (Exodus 33:20)  Yet, the Bible makes clear that men who fail to believe in his existence are without excuse.  Paul wrote to the Romans these words:  ‘what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them’.  (Romans 1:19)  

Men may realize God’s existence by observing the beauty of nature.  Have you not looked at the glory of a majestic mountain, have you not seen the rush of Niagra or looked upon the vastness and depth of the great ocean and not said to yourself, “There must surely be a God”?  Paul reaffirms the revelation of God through nature when he says ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.’ (Romans1:20)  

We will be without excuse on the day ‘every knee shall bow’ (Romans 14:11)  before the Creator of the universe.  One will say, “I saw no evidence that you existed”.   The jury will gasp that they he not see God in the great overflow of the Divine manifested in his creation.  Another will say, “But I wanted so much to eat, drink and be merry and so I thought I would delay the issue until a later date.”  In the movie, Rocky 3, Balboa’s opponent, Clubber Lane, is asked about their upcoming match.  Lane replies, “I pity the fool!”  Will there be anyone there at the judgment to ‘pity the fool’ who exchanged the blessings of eternity for a few short moments of earthly pleasure?  Some on that day will look into the face of the One who came to earth, submitted himself to the torture of his enemies, who allowed himself to be brutally nailed to a cross and took upon himself the sin of all mankind as he died a cruel death.  And they will say to him, “I just didn’t take it seriously”.  Heaven will surely echo the gasps of the multitudes as they witness such arrogance and carelessness.

How might we believe in God?  We might consider all the evidence and logically conclude that he exists.  We might look at the rotation of the planets and the revolution of the heavenly bodies and come to a rational conclusion that what we are observing has to be a result of intelligent design.  We might consider the fact that there is good in the world, there is a standard of morality and that standard must certainly have an Origen.  God has certainly made it possible for us to arrive at a point where we have an unshakeable belief in the existence of God because we have followed the road of reason to such a conclusion.

But those who arrive at the door of belief by following the road of rationality might find themselves deprived of a personal relationship with the God they believe in.  God wants not only that we believe in him, he wants us to have relationship with him.  You can’t have relationship with someone you can’t see, with someone you can’t talk to, with someone impossible to know.  So, God sent his only begotten son to reveal himself to us.  The Father sends his son as an eyewitness, a primary witness to reveal to men the true nature of God, ‘He testifies to what he has seen and heard’. (John 3:32)  What has he seen?  He has seen the face of God.  What has he heard?  He has heard the voice of the father. 

All other prophets who shared truth could only claim that they had a partial grasp of the whole truth.  Jesus boldly declared that he was the truth.  John the Baptist came with a message, he pointed ahead to the One who was yet to come.  But Jesus didn’t come with a message, he was the message.  The apostles revealed the way to God and to heaven.  Jesus proclaimed, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.’  (John 14:6)  

Believing that God exists is only the first step to having a meaningful, fulfilling personal relationship with him.  The foundation of this relationship is provided by the reality that God chose to reveal himself to us through his Son.  The Christ that rose out of Bethlehem revealed himself to many people.  He had family and friends and followers who saw his face, they heard his voice and walked with him from place to place.  One important thing they learned as they walked with Jesus was that he could not lie. (Titus 1:2)  Jesus told them, “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."  (John 16:28)   He wrapped himself in human flesh, fulfilled his mission and returned to the Father.  No other person has ever existed before conception.  This means he was the incarnate Christ.  This means that he was God.

We will be judged, not by our belief in him, even Satan believes that God exists.  We will be judged by our relationship with him.  I believe in the existence of God but I want to experience this ‘love that surpasses knowledge, I want to be filled with the measure of all the fullness of God.’ (Ephesians 3:9)  ‘I want to know Christ’.  (Philippians 3:10)  

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

Pulling The “Don’t Judge Me” Card.

Love Not The World



A recent poll indicated that 80% of Americans claimed to be Christians. Can you possibly imagine the impact on our culture of 80% if us were true, genuine followers of Jesus Christ. There must certainly be a lot of people deceived into believing that they are truly Christian. It would seem it is the proper or cool thing to claim a type of nominal Christianity but in fact, genuine Christianity is not cool in our culture. What is cool is to muddy the name of Christ and people do that in two ways:

1.) Many out and out deny that Christ exists. They claim to be atheist. They feel a certain sense of relief if God doesn’t exist. If there is no God they can be their own gods.

The humanist hates the Christian who claims that Jesus is God because if Jesus is God, he isn’t. He doesn’t want to answer to a more powerful and moral being. And besides, he will get a lot of attention by stirring up his religious friends and relatives if he claims atheism.

The atheist reminds me of the athlete who hits a homerun or scores a touchdown and then stands in the end-zone beating his chest and pumping his fist and pointing his finger at himself desiring the admiration and worship of millions because of his athletic feat. In reality he is a little parasite who does not seem to realize that he could not even walk or breath accept for the grace of a God that does exist.

2.) They claim Christianity but they live in sin. Many have a crazy idea that they can be Christians and still have a strong love for sin and the world. A true Christian is sensitive to sin. A true Christian keeps the commandments of God and he is grieved in his heart if he fails. He repents with great sorrow when he hurts the heart of God.

There is one, I’ll refrain from naming her, who has become a cultural icon in America and she makes a claim to be a Christian. I’ve seen her recent video. I’ve seen the way she dresses. I’ve always been told “If it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, then it is a duck.” I will say with full assurance and on the authority of God’s word that a woman who spouts those words and promotes a sinful, sex-saturated lifestyle has a master and he is not the holy God of scripture. I see a woman who loves the pleasures the world can offer her and she wants others to share in her lust for depravity.

By now you may be asking, “How can you be so judgmental?” If God chooses you to point out the sins of the artificial Christian or of the blatant sinner you will feel their seething hatred. You may be surprised how many people can’t quote John 3:16 but they can quote Matthew 7:1. It’s the flagship verse used to checkmate and handcuff the Christian who would dare challenge the politically correct thought of the present age.

Matthew 7:1 “Judge not…that you be not judged.”

This verse is often taken out of context. Satan uses this verse just as he did the verses he shared while tempting Jesus in the wilderness. You can separate a verse in the Bible and make it say anything you like. But read all of Chapter 7. Verses 15 and 16 say “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them.”

There is a final judgment that is holy and untouchable and belongs to God alone and we are not to interfere or meddle with that judgment.

Divine judgment is not our realm. But we all make judgments here on earth and God expects us to. The policeman who sees a man enter a bank carrying a gun is going to make a judgment. If I tell my son to stay out of the cookie jar yet I see cookie crumbs on his mouth I’m going to make a judgment. We can and must make biblically-based judgments regarding the cultural icons of our day. We will fail our children and the next generation if we refuse to judge the music they listen to, the videos they watch and the cultural heroes they idolize. What we must not do is make a judgment without love. Many who say “Don’t judge me” are actually pleading, “Still love me.”

Genuine Christians have no love for the sinful things of the world. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) Why not love the world? Because God’s word says that “the world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” – (1 John 2:17)
The great deception of Satan is that those things in the world will bring you satisfaction. We binge on food and we only want more. We binge on drugs and alcohol and them we want more. We binge on sex and we binge on materialism and possessions and wealth and we only want more. Jesus counteracts this ‘great deception’ by telling us “there is an everlasting stream of living water that flows from Calvary.” It is never ending. You may drink from this fountain and you will be entirely satisfied. This precious flow will take away your lust for sin and for the world and once you taste its sweetness you will want only to share in the holiness of God and experience the joy and fullness of his salvation forever and ever.

During WWII, Adolph Hitler had a plan for the destruction of England’s economy. It was a great deception. He never did employ it so we will never know if it would have been successful. He wanted to make millions of dollars (pounds) in counterfeit money and drop them from the air all over London and other British cities. The Brits would run out into the streets and hoard the money. The infiltration of these counterfeit monies would destroy the British economy.

Satan’s plan is to infiltrate the church with so much false doctrine so as to destroy the church. He wants to dress it up so it appears to be genuine. He wants to fill our pulpits with false prophets who will declare these lies to be truths and who will bring great confusion to the church.
There is a great lie that has invaded the church today. The lie is that God no longer has a standard for righteousness. He no longer has any requirement for entering into the kingdom. You can have your cake and eat it too. You get to choose your own standard of morality. You can do what you want to and still claim Christianity as long as you said that little prayer of repentance somewhere along the way you’re in.

Genuine Christianity demands a genuine repentance accompanied by genuine faith which qualifies us for a genuine salvation bought by the precious blood of a genuine Savior. Believing and doing are twin sisters. When we strive to live up to God’s standard (doing) of holiness we demonstrate to the world what we believe and whom we love.

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.