Who Is Really Winning - The Secular World or God?

Recently a hometown Friend, Ruth, shared an article on Facebook about the toymaker, Mattel, and their proposed plan to create a Same-Sex Barbie doll set. The article is titled "Mattel to Meet with Gay Couple to Discuss Barbie Same-Sex 'Wedding' Set."   The article tells us:

Mattel, the well-known manufacturer of Barbie, is considering accepting a proposal to create a toy line which would depict same-sex “wedding” dolls. .  .  .

There are various ongoing controversies surrounding pro-LGBT representation and messages that are being introduced to kids without the knowledge or consent of their parents. These can include cartoons, elementary schools, and even public libraries. (A homosexual couple) Jacobi and Caprio, however, contended that homosexuality is something that is so prevalent today that the toy makers should not have doubts when it comes to exposing young kids to it.

"It's going to come up in your family no matter what," Caprio asserted.  "As more same-sex couples are having kids, your kids are going to have kids in a class that have gay parents.”  Jacobi stated that “love is love and it’s that simple.” .  .  .

Bill Gray Note:  It is a physical impossibility for same-sex couples to have babies.  They may go off the plantation and find other sources for impregnation or adoption - but it is a scientific and physical impossibility for a same-sex couple to biologically conceive a child themselves.  And yes, it is just that simple!

If Mattel eventually makes the decision to create same-sex “wedding” Barbies, it wouldn’t be the famous doll line’s first step into pro-LGBT messaging.  In 2017, one of Mattel’s official Barbie Instagram account posted a picture of a Barbie doll that was “proud to wear” a “Love Wins” t-shirt, displaying the slogan used since 2015 to celebrate the Supreme Court forcing all 50 states to recognize same-sex marriages.

Another hometown Friend, Clay responded, "I saw an ad for a same sex couple for Jared Jewelry the other night.  It went so quickly that I wasn't sure I had seen it correctly, so I hit pause and replayed it."

I replied, "Hi Clay, I noticed that Jared commercial also - and you are right, it is almost a subliminal image.  But it is definitely support for same-sex marriage. Jared has become a dirty word for me.  I am glad someone else noticed Jared's pandering to the secular world."

Phillip added,  "Another step toward the fall of civilization, progressives are winning."

My response, "Hi Phillip, You tell us, 'Another step toward the fall of civilization, progressives are winning.' "   While I understand what you are saying, and it is easy today to get discouraged and believe the secular world is winning.  However, I believe we should always know that God won the war against Satan back in Genesis 3.  Today we are just fighting the clean-up skirmishes with Satan's folks.

Jesus tells us this in the "Parable Of The Wheat And The Tares" in Matthew 13:

Matthew 13:24-30, "Another parable He put forth to them, saying: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.  But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.  So the servants of the owner came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?  How then does it have tares?"

He said to them, "An enemy has done this."  The servants said to him, "Do you want us then to go and gather them up?"

But he said, "No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.' "

Matthew 13:36-40, "Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, 'Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.'  He answered and said to them: 'He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.' "

As Christian believers, our task in this clean-up operation is to minimize the collateral damage, lost souls not evangelized and those without a home church, by sharing the Gospel with all the world (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15 - The Great Commission). 

The dialogue above made me think of a 2009 dialogue:

In 2009, a Forum Friend on the TimesDaily Religion Forum posted a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:  "The life of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end."

And, I responded:

My Friend, you have just described the very best method of Christian Evangelism:  Concentric Circle Evangelism.

We all can make a splash, ever so small.  Yet from that small splash, like a pebble dropped into a body of water, the concentric circles of our Christian life should expand.  First, to those in our immediate family.  Then to those in our circle of friends.  Then to those in our community, our city, our state, and our nation - to the ends of the earth.

Your quote prompted me to think of waves of concentric circles in water and apply that to Christian evangelism - starting small, spreading, never ending, reaching the far corners of the earth.

"And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness for all the nations, and then the end shall come" (Matthew 24:14).

This brings to mind the autobiography of Jerry Falwell titled "Strength For The Journey."   Chapter 8 "Spreading The Word" begins on page 179 with:

At 6 A.M. on Monday morning, July 2, 1956, I unlocked the front doors of our little church in the old bottling company building on Thomas Road and entered the empty sanctuary.  The cement-block building was cold and dark.  I switched on a light and stood looking at the empty rows of theater chairs that we had  just purchased from the old Isis Theater on Main Street.  On our first Sunday many rows of those chairs had remained empty.  I was determined that in the next few weeks those same chairs would be filled to capacity.

"Lord," I prayed, "there are hundreds of people near this little building who do not know you.  Help me find them.  Help me reach them.  Help me get them inside this place!"

Jerry Falwell and the Thomas Road Baptist church is the best real life example I know of "Circle of Influence Concentric Evangelism."  He explains his plan of evangelism from the beginning of his Thomas Road Baptist church ministry:

That first Monday in my cramped office, I labeled the dot on the map where our church stood and the ten-block radius immediately surrounding it as our Jerusalem.  I had placed the point of a compass on that dot and drawn the ten-block radius around it. .  .  The next wider circle I called Judea.  That circle included a twenty-block radius from the church.  The next circle included a thirty-block radius.  I called the third circle our Samaria.  And the rest of Lynchburg, all of Campbell County, Virginia, the states and nations beyond were the "uttermost parts of the earth." 

Bill Gray Note:  Using that plan, Jerry Falwell personally began to knock on doors in his Jerusalem circle, then his Judea circle, and then his Samaria circle of homes around that little bottling company building church.  The rest is history as we know how he, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, spread that little church teachings to the "uttermost parts of the earth." 

I wasn't out to steal souls from other congregations in the area.  In fact I congratulated each person who claimed active church membership and wished them and their church God's best!  But it was important to find out if each person really was an active member of another Bible-believing church or just pretending.

"I'm a member of First Methodist," one lady declared proudly.

"Wonderful," I answered, writing down the information.  And then without looking up I added the question, "Who is your pastor over there?"

When she didn't know the pastor's name I assumed that there many other things about the faith she didn't know.  "Now, I don't want to take you away from your own church on Sunday morning," I told her, "but this Sunday night I am preaching on forgiveness, and I'd be honored if you would come."   (page 184).

Jerry Falwell's explanation of Acts 1:8 coincided with the message a visiting missionary from the Philippines, Steve Houston, shared with our Corona Fil-Am church about fifteen years ago.  Steve shared his view of Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (or the uttermost part of the earth)."

Steve explained that our Jerusalem is our immediate family and very close friends.  Our Judea is our local community, city, state.  Our Samaria is our nation.  And "to the ends of the earth" is self-explanatory. 

Folks, when we see so many people, legislative bodies, and companies such as Mattel who are trying to reach our children with the Secular World Gospel instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - that is a sign that we need to ask ourselves, "Are our concentric circles of the Christian Gospel weak and ineffective?  Are we dropping a large enough 'pebble of God's Word' into our lake of evangelism?" 

Or are we being "couch potato Christians" - Christians who will just sit on our laurels and "wait" for folks to come and ask us about Jesus Christ and His wonderful gift of eternal life?   Definitely food for thought.

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill