Today’s Reading is from the Book of Acts, 7:51-8:1. It includes the following passage:
“When they heard this, they were infuriated,
and they ground their teeth at him.
But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,
looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
and Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
But they (the mob) cried out in a loud voice,
rushed upon him together.
began to stone him.”
When those who do not love their neighbors are told a truth that threatens their status or income, they react like enraged animals. We see in this passage of Scripture that their reaction to any such truth follows a Five Step Program to destroy any human source of truth. History confirms that, in every age, hate-filled people will go through the same Five Step Program to destroy any human source of truth:
(1) The Godless begin with shouts of outrage and insanely loud protests when confronted with a truth (in this case, Stephen’s announcement that he could see Christ sitting at the right hand of God) that threatens their status, income, and vanity.
(2) The next step is to cover their ears, turn off the TV, change the channel, or take whatever steps are necessary to avoid hearing the threatening truth.
(3) On Step 3, when threat is great enough, people will attack the person telling them the truth they do not want to hear.
(4) Then, the person telling them the unbearable truth is expelled or exiled.
(5) At this, final step, If the threat of the truth is sufficiently frightening to their vanity, they kill whomever tells it.
History confirms the five step program to destroy any human source of truth that Scripture describes for us in this passage. The same steps that were followed by the Jerusalem mob were taken by later hate-based groups. Moslems, French revolutionaries, Communist over-throwers, and modern, Alinsky-type liberals all do the same things when confronted with a truth that threatens the lies they love more.
Scripture has told us two truths in this passage: First, the Godless of every age follow the same five step program to destroy any human source of truth when they choose to uphold vain lies and structures in the face of truth. Secondly, we learn that Godless people will kill those who tell the truth.
