Killing God in others

What is it?

What is it that would compel a Southern Baptist preacher from his pulpit to proclaim on the Fourth of July, that the president of the United States is one of the antichrist? In reflection several questions come to my mind;

1. Where is the Christ driven love, grace and compassion in that statement?
2. What possible goal is contemplated with such a statement?
3. What possible good can come of such a statement?

First Timothy 4:4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected when it is received with thanksgiving.

Man, all men and women are made in God’s image and in each person resides God. When we demean, diminish men and women we are demeaning and diminishing the God within them. To paint another as him whose name I will not speak or as antichrist then we are killing God within that person and there is no Christ appointed love, grace or compassion in that. We can disagree with points of view, with behavior but the human is always human and therefore a divinely inspired creature.

The goal of such a statement is simple to advance a personal agenda, perhaps, to cover some sort of insecurity, to garner an amen from those assembled, perhaps none of the above, perhaps all of the above. There is no Biblical foundation for such a statement or belief. The blood of Christ washed all of that away.

What good can come of such statements; none. Any statement that kills God in another diminishes the glory and gift of Calvary. Statements as such make God’s gift to humanity less real to all because it blows open the door to kill God in all. Today the God found in the president tomorrow the God found in you or me. That isn’t to say that we cannot find individual actions of a human to be less than divine, indeed we can and our call in those instances is prayer and example.

What is the call to action? Prayer; all people are worthy of the cross. We may not like some of their actions, we may find that some of their actions are contrary to scripture and teaching; but they the person in which God resides in worthy of our love, grace and respect.