While Good Men (and Women) Slept

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Jesus said in Matthew 13:25 "While good men slept, evil ones came and sowed bad seed among the wheat and went away."

Winston Churchill said: "A lie is halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on."

Albert Einstein said; “If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.”

What do these three statements have in common? Well perhaps one thing is the fact that remaining silent in the midst of evil is not an option for those who know the truth. As a pastor who enjoyed nearly 30 years of pastoral ministry, one of my greatest frustrations was watching critics and trouble makers get by with their verbal abuse and nonsense while the good people remained silent because they didn't want to be a part of the drama.

I understand the desire to seek peace and get along with everyone. That is certainly a biblical principle that Christians should strive for. Unfortunately we live in a fallen world where those who want to control others around them, have no problem spewing their criticism and twisting things to get their way and restrict the freedoms of others, by making their lies sound sanctified.

Matthew 13:25 is part of a parable that Jesus told just after telling the parable of the sower. In the parable of the sower Jesus told of a man who sowed seed that fell on different types of ground. Some seed fell among the rocks, some among thorns and some on good soil. The seed that fell on good soil is the only seed that truly survived because it was able to "bear fruit". In other words, the "truth" not only sprouted in the soil that it was planted in but it also "bore much fruit" that grew "a hundred fold."

The next parable that begins in verse 24 is about a man who sowed good seed, but while his hired workers slept (euphemism for keeping silent) evil men sowed bad seed among the good, then left. Where did they go? Who knows, but Winston Churchill would probably say, "halfway round the world doing the same thing everywhere they went."

Einstein gives the ultimate meaning and reason for the parable that Jesus taught. That is; don't sleep! More specifically, don't keep silent for in doing so you become guilty of complicity.

Too many "good" pastors who want to tell the "Good News" (the Gospel), choose to keep silent while those who want to control everyone around them spews nonsense. They hope that if they ignore it, it will go away, but that's not what Jesus' parable teaches us. Therefore as a pastor, I tried to never keep silent in the midst of critics and controlling individuals. Jesus certainly didn't and neither did the Apostle Paul or the other apostles.

In a fallen world where politics and religion both affect and influence everyone, there is a need for good people to speak out against foolishness that is often presented as "good seed" but is in fact briers and thorns.

In a recent story about a 10 year old girl in Ohio seeking an abortion after being raped, Fox News and other controlling politicians such as Jim Jordan tried to debunk the story as being fake. Now that the rapist has been arrested Jim Jordan silently took down his tweet without apologizing to the young un-named 10 year old girl and the multitude of other minor children being abused by pedophiles. Will Fox News retract their lies that they have spread "halfway around the world"? Probably not! This is the type of "News agency" that Fox News is known for.

How stupid can these people be? Regardless of whether the story was real of fake, how many children are being raped by pedophiles every year? How many 10 year old girls risk getting pregnant from their rapist and will now be forced to carry a pregnancy to term when their bodies are often not strong enough to deal with such trauma?

As Paul said to the Christians in Galatians 3:1 & 2 "Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you. . .?" I say to the sleeping Christians of our time; "Oh foolish Christians, who has bewitched you?" How can you keep silent if only one 10 year old girl is ever raped and becomes pregnant? How can you keep silent and force her immature body to deal the the trauma of carrying a pregnancy to term after already suffering the trauma of her body being invaded by an evil one "sowing bad seed"? How can you keep silent, how can you sleep? Your silence makes you complicit!

Shame on Fox News! Shame on Jim Jordan and all these right-wing politicians who spew their twisted foolishness that many Christians accept just as the Galatians accepted the twisted religious beliefs from the critics of Paul. Shame on those "foolish Galatians". Shame on the foolish Christians who support this kind of religion with their silence or worse, with their votes.

Jesus has sown good seed and as one of His servants I will not sleep while the enemy sneaks in to sow briers and thorns. A lie might get halfway around the world with Fox News but my boots are on and I am stomping it down. I will not be complicit by means of silence!

Chester Hitchcock of Medina, Ohio, is a retired Seventh Day Adventist pastor. With his wife Michelle he created "The Gospel Memory Course." This post is republished with permission from his Facebook page. He shares his video reflections on his YouTube channel "Chester Hitchcock."