It's one of those blast furnace kind of days here today, 95 degrees with 95% humidity. To the amusement of little boys everywhere, the sun is so hot right now that ants burst into flame on the sidewalk without need for a magnifying glass. As I type, my son is sipping hot peppermint tea—of all things—somehow oblivious to the heat pump outside laboring to rid our house of thermal build-up. 
The dryer is working with the weather to scorch our clothes dry, and just to add insult to injury, I need to take a flamethrower to some weeds outside tonight.
Why not talk about hell, then?
The Christian blogosphere talks about hell far more than you'll hear from any pulpit. I've read just about every take on hell you can imagine in just the last few weeks. But every one of those theological treatises has ignored one kind of hell, the hell that most people experience: hell on earth.
It doesn't take much for us Christians to castigate anyone we deem to be unworthy sinners. You don't have to look very far to find such horrid heathens. The Christian blogosphere is brimming over with posts that name names and point fingers. The names of the enemies change, but the general collection of them remains the same. You're likely to find homosexuals, evolutionists, atheists, and the ACLU in that category. Karl Rove seems to occupy that spot for Sojourners types, while the hardcore conservatives still get mileage out of Bill Clinton. And then there's whatever preacher or teacher we love to hate. Benny Hinn, Rick Warren, Joyce Meyer, Ken Copeland—maybe even your own pastor will show up on that list, who knows. The important thing here is that hell needs to be invoked whenever we think about them.
More and more I believe that we truly want to see some people burn in hell. It used to be the Hitlers, Pol Pots, and Stalins of the world, but increasingly it's the people we disagree with—you know, The Enemies of Christ. And from the dialog I see occurring on an increasing number of Christian Web sites, I believe that there are a few too many Christians who would get no more glee than to have a front row seat in Abraham's bosom so they can stare out over the chasm that separates heaven from hell and lob a few jeers at the prisoners of hell. Because we all know that nothing hurts worse than to be in hell and have to suffer the receiving end of cat-calls from The People Who Got It Right.
But waiting for the eventual demise of the Enemies of Christ is not enough for some of the most vocal critics out there. They'd love nothing more than to see people in hell right now, here on earth. Such an idea almost warms the cockles of their hearts (that is if stone can have cockles.)
Now it would seem a hard thing to make hell on earth for people, but I now know how it comes about easily.
You see, most people on earth are already in hell because they have no prayer covering. Most of those destined for fire have never once had anyone pray for them. At no time has a Christian stood up in public or stolen away to his or her prayer closet to pray for these souls just waiting for damnation. Not once. More often than not there hasn't been a real Christian within ten feet of those Enemies at any time in all their years on earth. No one to pick them up when they fall. No one to hear their hurts. No one to take their confession. At least no one who we would consider Spirit-filled.
It is a far easier thing to call someone an Enemy of Christ than it is to pray for them. It takes no effort on our part to just keep doing what we already do when confronted with people with whom we disagree. How simple it is to label someone "godless" or "heretical" or "deceived" than it is to get down on our knees and say to God Our Father, "And so I once was. May your truth be made known to them through me, Lord Jesus, by any means possible."
Because you see, someone may have been praying for you long before you surrendered up your Enemy of Christ label and became a Child of God. Someone loved you and me enough to have labored in prayer over our souls for years and yet we can't spare those we consider Enemies of Christ one second of our day to cover them in prayer for what may be the first time in their lives. No, it's easier to blog about their sin, to throw up our hands in disgust, and to leap to our feet in protest than it is to fold those hands and bow those knees.
So this is what I ask of anyone who comes to Cerulean Sanctum. Before you blog about this Enemy of Christ or that heretic, spend one month in prayer for them. Pray every single day. Pray that God would put Spirit-filled Christians into their lives who will speak life and truth into them, sharing the Gospel not only in words but also deeds. If you are close enough to actually be that supportive person, then consider taking the job because obviously no one else has. If after the end of that month of prayer (and service) your righteous indignation still burns hot, then do as you are lead of the Spirit.
Some people are already in hell, folks. Not having a prayer covering is the very definition of being in hell on earth. Not having the fellowship of committed Christians willing to draw up alongside you and help you through your hell on earth only makes it worse. Perhaps we need to remember how fortunate we are to have had that covering and that presence of devout believers in our own lives. And perhaps we need to stand in the gap for all we perceive to be Enemies of Christ before we get online and bitch and moan about them.
What an awesome post, Dan. The perfect challenge to every Christian, including myself.
Hmmh, Dan, what brought this subject up? I sense you must have had a very unpleasent encounter with somebody recently, or else you’ve been doing web searches, with Google or Technorati, maybe using some of the following keywords:
evangelical disaster
heretic
Purpose Driven
apostate
unbiblical
Yeah, it’s a jungle out there. But anyhow, I’m curious. What happened?
Good points to remember.
Matthew 5:44
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
We need to remember to pray FOR our enemies and not against them.
Gaddabout,
Thanks for the encouraging words.
Oengus,
No one particular thing and nothing directed against me. I guess I am just troubled by the fact that too many of us Christians shoot first and ask questions later. Jesus said that we should pray for those who persecute us.
The funny image I got was speculative: what if 1st century Christians blogged about Saul of Tarsus. What would their blogs be saying? Would they look anything today’s Christian blogs—mean, vindictive, unloving, judgmental, and un-Christlike? Somehow, I don’t think so. Gotta believe that Christians were praying for Paul.
Something my wife said also triggered this. She had praying grandmothers, real prayer warriors who never failed to pray for her from the time she was a newborn. Some of those prayers those dear women prayed all those years ago are even today being answered.
But what about so many other people? What about the people we work with? Where was their prayer covering? They probably never had one. When my wife and I have prayed with co-workers who were not believers, I always asked myself if this was the first time anyone had prayed for them. I suspected that in many cases that was true.
What is it like to live without prayers on your behalf? That’s what most of the world experiences. Jesus said that the people were sheep without a shepherd, yet we Christians believe we can walk up to one of those wayward sheep, whack it with the lead pipe of our righteous indignation and then move on to the next one that looks at us the wrong way. No wonder the lost don’t want to have anything to do with the Lord! His Church can’t stop whacking people.
I am the last person you will meet who is soft on sin. No one can accuse me of that. The Bible ends with a call to repentence and turning from sin. But the lost are not going to conform to our standards unless we are willing to be more humble in dealing with them. Jesus ate with the tax collectors and whores; we’re too busy hating them to want to sit down to eat.
That’s got to stop.
I wrote a post at the end of last year concerning how we needed to put the indignation away and be more willing to walk with people and be their (possibly only) Christian witness. We seem to be getting worse, if the blogosphere is any indication. I really hate to see that.
BTW, loved your piece on the continents. I’m a charismatic/pentecostal blogger, but I have strong Lutheran Reformational roots. Maybe I’m an island unto myself.
I hope to feature that piece here this week!
(Please consider allowing comments on your blog. I think not being able to post comments is limiting your breakout potential.)
Brilliant post Dan! This is a timely reminder to all Christians!
GBYAY
Dan –
Tried a trackback ping but got a bad URL response … at anyrate this post is linked at The CRIB.
And I prayed for you!
HE ALONE IS WORTHY
Excellent description of a problem and a great suggestion for a solution. Jesus came to save, not to condemn(John 3:17). One accusor is enough.
Dan: “Please consider allowing comments on your blog.”
At this time I’m not inclined to add comment boxes to Lunar Skeletons. Then again, there are many famous blogs that don’t have them, e.g., Power Line. On the other hand, I have often published an email address for people to reach me. But thanks for asking.
Between reading you and Catez, I feel am reading the wrong blogs! I haven’t seen any posts on hell lately.
But your comments about the responsibility to provide prayer coverings for people are very good. I think of that, too. For Christians, as well as non-Christians. I don’t sense that there is as much time spent praying for our young people’s future as there used to be.
boy! You kinda christians just won’t leave us alone and let us hate our enemies will you? Must you insist on FOLLOWING the Master, as well as quoting Him???
————————
lol, just kidding. Loved the post Dan. I frequent here often, and I’m always pleased and challenged by what I find. Good post. Awaiting the next nugget you pull out.
YBIC
Gerry Hudson
PS did you say you like those reformers? Now you did it. Now I’m gonna have to follow Calvin and burn you like Michael Servetus. “A haughty scoundrel” as Calvin put it. So here’s a warning, don’t come near Geneva!
lol, kiddin’ bro. Arn’t we allowed to show the same kind of love for our enemies that Calvin did? I hear king James also burned a baptist at the stake. So much for love of enemies even back then. 😀
Julana,
I’ve said before that all these “Wild at Heart” men complaining about not having a challenge in their lives are just too self-absorbed to see the prayer needs in their own churches. You want to know one reason why churched teens are falling away once they leave home and go to college? Well, lack of a prayer covering is one great reason for this. Where are all those men who should be praying for their church’s young people? Out hunting bear with a pointy stick, I guess.
And I could go on and on….
Interesting commentary that someone thinks you have to have been rattled a little to post about praying for enemies. Thank you for posting it because it’s the right thing to do and we are instructed to do it by our Lord. I am convinced that the reason I returned to my walk with Christ is because my mother (and whomever else she enlisted) never stopped praying for me. We already have an accuser of the Brethren. We don’t need another. He also would just as soon not see any more worshipers in heaven at Christ’s return. We need to remember who the real enemy is. Thanks again and keep on bloggin’