#268 Jeremiah the Traitor

Program #268 “Jeremiah the Traitor” – 12/18/2016 – Synopsis

All who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, but little do we realize how following God’s truth makes one not only the pariah of the political left, but also of the political right. The life story of the prophet Jeremiah is an example of this double persecution.

We know that Jeremiah was hated by the Baal worshippers; but because Jeremiah preached that Israel was under God’s judgment and, hence, would lose to the Babylonians, he was hated also by right-wing Jewish patriots. Imagine a preacher in 1941 telling Americans to surrender to the Germans or during the Cold War to surrender to Russia. In those decades, given the light still remaining in America, that advice would have been treason. However, in the future, God’s people will have to place God’s righteous judgments above national pride. When those days come, like Jeremiah, God’s people will be accused of being enemies of the state, obstructionists, naysayers, or even traitors.

To add further grief to Jeremiah’s ministry, all the popular preachers of the day were offering the hope of Israel’s deliverance. They claimed Israel’s best days were in front of her; so not only was Jeremiah called unpatriotic, but the other preachers were calling him faithless. If the example of Jeremiah holds true, when God decrees judgment upon America, expect many professing Evangelicals to not see it coming.

Let me encourage those of you who want to have your theological assumptions challenged to listen to this program.

Scripture References: Psalm 119:99; Jeremiah 8:9, 21:10, 22:25, 25:11, 27:6,8, 32:5, 20:7-8, 38:4; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Jeremiah 7:16, 14:12; 2 Kings 23:26-28; Jeremiah 21:2, 23:17, 6:14-15, 7:8-10, 7:17, 2:23,35, 23:16; 2 Peter 2:9; 1Thessalonians 5:9