Does God Speak Only Gentle Words?

The world is awash in a phony "Christian" love that precludes and condemns anything God has to say to any that pretend or offend. We received a response to Spiritual Reality vs. Make-Believe, which demonstrates this conflict:

Yeah remember but Victor, Jesus used grace with truth to deliver his message to those who where unable to see the truth. I don't want to be harsh on you but you seem quite bitter with Bob with your response to his issues, I know this because I also find myself being forceful and strong with people in getting my point across, we can only with the help of the Holy Spring bring them to the truth with gentleness, Phillipians: 2:14-16, Do all things without complaining or disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world." I also come out very strong willed in my words and that only hurts our testimony of the love of God within us, no one is going to believe we love God if harshness is our speech. Just a little insight please don't be offended.

God bless
marisa

Victor's reply:

Greetings in the Lord Jesus Christ, Marisa,

Many have been the times I have asked myself those very questions or presented those same arguments against myself. Paul and so many others can tell you. I have gone to the Lord with this matter many times. Though He has spoken to me of many things, He has not rebuked me for my "approach." Truly, He has encouraged and strengthened me.

No fear; I am not in the least offended by your words. And you are wrong altogether about any bitterness in me toward Bob, toward his presumptuous and idolatrous organization, or about the false church or any person falsely professing faith in Christ, as God is my witness. However, the truth, as I have just spoken it in the previous sentence, can well be construed as bitterness, though it is not. The repentant will not be deterred and the stubbornly wicked will remain so even if ever so charmed. We have had much proof of that. He has delivered me from bitterness, Marisa. In 1976, a stranger called "Theo" came to me, knew what was happening in me, and had several verses in Scripture for me, one of them being:

"Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but You have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for You have cast all my sins behind Your back" (Isaiah 38:17 KJV).

It did not happen until years later, but it did happen.

He has also delivered me from another and equally serious danger, that being the passions of the harlot, mistaken for the love of Christ. That is a great privilege and rare deliverance, for I see scarce few who can discern the difference between the love of Christ and the love of the harlot. Furthermore, there are very few that can tell the difference between true bitterness and the expression of the hard truth from God, spoken necessarily by His servants in the Holy Spirit, which truth comes against counterfeit Christianity and indeed, against all falsehood and deception, upon which His wrath abides immeasurably.

If, as you say, "...we can only with the help of the Holy Spring bring them to the truth with gentleness..." then you must necessarily fault the Lord Jesus Christ in cases such as these:

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men. For you neither go in, nor do you allow those entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and pray at length as a pretense. Therefore you shall receive the greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, saying, whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, whoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is a debtor! Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore whoever shall swear by the altar swears by it, and by all things on it. And whoever shall swear by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who shall swear by Heaven swears by the throne of God, and by Him Who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and you have left undone the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith. You ought to have done these and not to leave the other undone. Blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of extortion and excess. Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also appear righteous to men outwardly, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses to yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets; and you fill up the measure of your fathers. Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, behold, I send prophets and wise men and scribes to you. And you will kill and crucify some of them. And some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city; so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Berachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, All these things shall come on this generation" (Matthew 23:13-36 MKJV).

Were the Pharisees and scribes "able to see the truth"? Can you say that in the above, Jesus spoke "grace with truth to deliver his message to those who where unable to see the truth"?

What of Peter in this instance?

"But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity" (Acts 8:20 -23).

And John the Baptist?

"Then he said to the crowd that came forth to be baptized by him, O generation of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire" (Luke 3:7-9).

And Paul?

"Then Saul (who is also Paul), filled with the Holy Spirit, set his eyes on him and said, O son of the Devil, full of all deceit and all craftiness, enemy of all righteousness, will you not stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you. And you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a while. And immediately a mist and a darkness fell on him, and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand" (Acts 13:9-11).

What about Jude? He boldly declared:

"But what things they do not know, they speak evil of. And what things they understand naturally, like the animals without reason, they are corrupted by these. Woe to them! For they went the way of Cain, and gave themselves up to the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. These are sunken rocks in your love feasts, feasting together with you; feeding themselves without fear; waterless clouds being carried about by winds; fruitless autumn trees, having died twice, having been plucked up by the roots; wild waves of the sea foaming up their shames; wandering stars for whom blackness of darkness has been kept forever. And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied to these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with myriads of His saints, to do judgment against all, and to rebuke all the ungodly of them concerning all their ungodly works which they ungodly did, and concerning all the hard things ungodly sinners spoke against Him. These are murmurers, complainers, leading lives according to their lusts. And their mouth speaks proud things, admiring faces for the sake of gain" (Jude 1:10 -16).

According to you, Marisa, he would have been backbiting and murmuring.

What about James, who wrote these words to "to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion"?

"Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever desires to be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, The spirit that dwells in us yearns to envy?" (James 4:4-5)

What Bible version do you read? Try Peterson's "The Message," particularly of the prophets, and see how it comes alive in today's language, without the deadly sweet, peaches-and-cream approach of those who worship the letter and worship for worship's sake.

What about Stephen? Full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, he declared:

"O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so you do. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now been the betrayers and murderers; who received the Law through disposition of angels, and did not keep it" (Acts 7:51-53).

His face shone as that of an angel when speaking those very rebukes to a wicked generation, and Heaven was opened to him wherein he saw God the Father and Son. How kind, sweet and gentle were Stephen's words at the time, and how did God view them? You are fighting God with your love, Marisa.

Is it possible that you must recognize, contrary to what you have said, that not all are called to be saved, if only by gentleness they can be saved?

Are you sure that all should be spoken to as you think? Are you sure I was not speaking to a "Pharisee" or "scribe," and righteously at that? Are you sure you have "insight"? Do you know that I am wrong? Is it possible that you may be wrong? These are questions to which I would like to hear your answers, Marisa.

"Therefore take heed that the light in you is not darkness" (Luke 11:35 ).

Contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints,

Victor