When Your Light Becomes Darkness
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Have you ever experienced a power outage only to discover all of the flashlights in your house had weak or dead batteries?
Wanda and I have been there also. We also discovered the one oil lamp we owned had no oil. It made for an interesting evening. Jesus gave a parable about such an occasion also.
It is found in Matthew 25:1-13.
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. (NKJV)
The context is Jesus’ response to a question by the disciples recorded in Matthew 24:3. “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
Jesus explained there will be a time of great tribulation, deep darkness, and prevailing evil.
It will be a time so severe that no one would be saved if those days were not shortened. Then Jesus gave this severe warning about the danger of those days to the disciple of Jesus Christ. The risk of letting your light go out in midst of such darkness.
Reading carefully Matthew 24:4-44, one notices a growing level of cultural darkness and evil until the days become so dark and evil is so permeating there is a danger of no one being saved. It is in the midst of this growing darkness and prevailing evil Jesus appears in the clouds and His disciples are “caught up to meet Him in the air” (1Thessalonians 4:13-18).
The Apostle Paul also wrote about this time of permeating darkness and evil in 2Thessalonians 2:1-4.
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (NKJV)
Do you see the growing cultural darkness and evil? It gets worse as the Apostle records in verses 9-12.
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (NKJV)
As the evil and darkness deepens the people fall in love with lies, deception, and distortion because it validates their love for sinful behavior.
Into this love for evil, God allows a strong spirit of delusion to grip the culture and their ability know truth is lost. Literally, light becomes darkness! Can you imagine being in deep darkness; going for a flashlight, turning the flashlight on believing it will give you light; only when the switch is turned on the flashlight gives more darkness?
Believing it to be light, you go about your business, stumbling over objects in the way that you cannot see. Then finding yourself falling over a deep ravine to your great peril.
That is the danger when light becomes darkness.
Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16 NKJV).
The Church, the disciples of Jesus Christ, are supposed to be the light in a world of growing darkness. We are supposed to be the salt in a culture that is falling in love with evil and deep sinful behavior.
We are to be the one source of hope to which they can run when they have stumbled and are in danger of falling to their peril.
We are to be the one source of truth to which they can turn and escape the delusion when the culture presents nothing but lies and distortion.
What happens when they run to the church and the disciples of Jesus love and entertain themselves with the same moral evil they love? What happens when they come seeking truth and they hear the same distortions and lies the culture is presenting?
The light to which they run has become dark. The hope for which they search has become a loose thread with no saving power.
That is the extreme danger present in the church right now.
Evangelical and Pentecostal churches have softened their stance on the inerrancy of the Holy Bible. Less than half of Millennials who attend church regularly say they believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God.
57% of them believe there are many ways to salvation and eternal life.
Many Evangelical and Pentecostal churches are teaching gender dysphoria, Critical Race Theory, and Intersectionality as truth.
These topics have been covered in depth in previous blogs and may be again in the near future. Gender dysphoria is simply a soft position on the LGBTQ agenda.
The roots of the Critical Race Theory are found in the Critical Theory taught at the Frankfurt School in Germany in the early decades of the 20th Century.
Critical Theory was founded by Hegel who discovered its principles in the writings of Immanuel Kant. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels picked up the concept from Hegel and made it a major doctrine of Marxism, the doctrine upon which the Frankfurt School was established.
Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality are Marxist doctrines, now being taught as Christian principles and doctrines. Can you see the light of the Church is becoming darkness?
We must not allow “the light of the world” to go out.
We must replenish the oil, now, and turn up the wick, so our light will shine bright and clear in this world and culture of growing darkness.
