PRETEND OR ELSE!

There was a popular song in 1955 called, "The Great Pretender. " It became a big hit in England and America. It was a ballad about a heartsick fellow who was cast aside by someone he loved and he spends his life pretending. The song says:

Oh oh, yes I'm the great pretender
Pretending that I'm doing well
My need is such I pretend too much
I'm lonely but no one can tell

Oh oh, yes I'm the great pretender
Adrift in a world of my own
I've played the game but to my real shame
You've left me to grieve all alone.

LET THE GAME BEGIN

We're living in a culture which is, like an immature child, playing the game of "Let's Pretend." Our society is made up of those who are aggressive and sometimes violent in their demand that everyone play "Let's Pretend." We see this aggressiveness in the fact that when you refuse to join in the game, they will come after you by telling lies which slander you, filing lawsuits to ruin you, and shaming or shunning you in any and every way they can. 

THE RULE OF THE GAME

The one rule of "Let's Pretend" is: "Let's pretend the Bible does not exist." This rule has many applications. To play by the rules of the game (and you must play) you are to pretend that the Bible does not exist in education, in your business, in your conversations, in your written statements on the Internet or in any other cultural text. You must pretend that the Bible does not exist in any artwork, decorations, or in any celebration in which you might engage. If you write a script for a motion picture or television, the rule says that you must pretend that the Bible does not exist.

AND YET

They are demanding that everyone live in a make-believe world, a Never-Never Land of uneducated, immature Peter Pans, as children who never grow up, but live denying the reality of the real world facts which are: "The Bible is the most influential, the most translated, the most debated, the most loved, the most hated, the most important, and the most quoted composition that's ever been written." (Matt Walsh) Add to that "mostest list" that the Bible sells the most copies. And add to that that the Bible is the Book that has molded the world in which we live in the West.

KAREN PENCE

The Vice-President's wife, Karen Pence, endured the wrath of breaking the rule when she began to teach art at a Christian school. She knew the rule but broke it because of her commitment to Christ. A fit of ungodly, unrighteous anger descended upon her. The rule clearly states, "Stay silent to keep your job. Change your policies to keep your educational opportunities. Say nothing so that you’ll preserve your public reputation." She courageously refused to play.

Eliminate the Bible from one's education and reading list? Is there something sinister going on in the game? Listen to Jesus words in Luke 8: "Now the parable [of the Sower and Seed is this: the seed is the word of God.  Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart so that they will not believe and be saved." There it is. There is something sinister, conspiratorial in the game, even though the originators of the game are unaware of it. They have become Satan's useful idiots.

Deuteronomy 6 gives us the principle on which we refuse to participate in the game: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (See also the book of Proverbs.)

Those who are truly disciples of Christ will not be the great pretenders. In Acts 5, the authorities commanded Peter and John to play "Let's Pretend:" "When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”  But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men."