14.What would be true if Paul preached circumcision?

He no longer would be persecuted for the Gospel’s sake. He would not suffer the reproach of the cross of Christ. There always is a reproach, a shame, connected with God and with those who are associated with God. Circumcision was accepted by the majority of Jews, including the wicked Jews who were filled with the spirit of Satan. In the Jewish mind there was no reproach, no shame associated with circumcision. There may have been a reproach in the Roman mind concerning circumcision, but not in the Jewish mind.

Today, grace is accepted by the majority of Christians, including the wicked who attend the assembly of saints. Now it is suffering, judgment, the personal cross of the believer, that are offensive to people. This is because repentance and cross-carrying obedience and patience are the aspects of redemption being emphasized by the Holy Spirit.

Today the popular message is grace and the material and spiritual blessings that are supposed to be associated with the Gospel. Whoever will emphasize the gift of unconditional salvation, along with every material and spiritual blessing, will become quite popular. It is not truth that is important, it is to always say things that are "positive."

Any teacher or preacher who plants the personal cross of the believer in front of people may lose his popularity. The cross is a reproach, an offense, a scandal. The world and the worldly churches do not wish to hear about the personal cross, judgment, denying ourselves, living a righteous, holy life. The concept that we are to share the sufferings of Christ is totally offensive to the worldly. They will hide their eyes. They will hate and persecute any man or woman who is emphasizing the personal sacrifice of the believer.

Yet the personal cross is the core of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Remove the personal cross and you remove what makes the Kingdom of God perfect for God and perfect for people. The resurrection power of the Lord flows only from the saint who is living the crucified life. It is the personal cross of the believer that guards him against deception.

God’s wisdom is seen in the cross. The true saint glories in the cross because he has learned that God always meets man at the cross. The world is crucified to us. We are crucified to the world. When the cross has become central to us we find ourselves in the center of God’s will and blessing.

The believer who turns back to the Law of Moses escapes the offense of the cross; for now he is practicing what the human mind can appreciate and endorse.

Today, in many instances, there is no reproach associated with the cross of Christ. Insincere, worldly believers wear the cross as a pin or a necklace.

But there is a great reproach on anyone who teaches that the true Christian must take up his cross of self-denial and follow Jesus. The churches will not hear of it! As long as the cross is spoken of in generalities, today’s pampered "believers" will smile and approve. But the preacher who bears down on what the personal cross means until the congregation realizes that he is serious about suffering and self-denial will, in many instances, be ostracised.

Neither the ministry nor the members will have anything to do with him. He is an anachronism, a pest, a negative person who has nothing to do with Jesus or the Gospel.

The believers of today are in deception in this matter. They are hoping for a "rapture" to deliver them from pain, but an unprecedented tribulation is coming.

God is judging sin in His household. The true believers are repenting and confessing their sins. The majority of so-called "Christians" will never repent of their sins, and they will reject and persecute anyone who attempts to reprove them.

This is the state of Christianity today and judgment hovers over the churches. Multitudes of Christians are in the valley of decision. The Day of the Lord is near, in the valley of decision. Shall I seek the Lord with all my heart until I find His will for myself, or shall I trust the preachers who are crying rapture! rapture! rapture!

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