Imagine Keeping it a Secret

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

The Bible is the very Word of God. We are to study it because it presents truth and has the ability to change lives, transferring people out of the kingdom of darkness into God’s Kingdom of Light where there is not a speck of darkness! I hope you would agree with this.

Imagine though if all people did with the Bible was either read it and study it for themselves to gain knowledge or gather with others for the sole purpose of simply discussing it as though the Bible can be taken apart and put back together as an intellectual exercise. Certainly, there are those who do that.

What I’m trying to say is that the Bible is living and active solely because it is God’s Word to humanity, reflecting Him. Therefore, it has a huge purpose and that purpose is to not be content with simply being table discussion between people who might think themselves biblical intellectuals. One of the Bible’s major purposes is to literally give life eternally, first to the person who reads and absorbs its truths and secondly, to then share that life-changing truth with other people.

Too often within Christendom today, it seems that the Bible is discussed, considered and sometimes even seriously contemplated. These things can easily become an end in and of themselves. We can become an “expert” in biblical theology, doctrine and simply knowing where things are in Scripture, without actually knowing the One who wrote the Book!

Our job as authentic believers is to yield to the truths we find in Scripture and ultimately, to not simply gain more knowledge of the Bible and the God who wrote it, but to actually grow in our relationship with that God who wrote it and became flesh and dwelt among us. Anything less than this is simply head knowledge that does absolutely nothing for the person who has gained the knowledge of the Bible. This is not to say that God cannot use what has been studied to bring that person to repentance and understanding, but I cannot help but wonder how often we approach Scripture as an intellectual exercise rather than to learn more about our great God?

Since I went through a bit of a metamorphosis and wrote about it in Staring Me in the Face[1], the Bible itself has become more alive to me. Therefore the God who wrote the Bible has become more authentically alive to me. I now see Him as smiling upon me, considering me, thinking upon me, befriending me and being involved in my life for my betterment. When I read His Word now, it tends to jump out at me and have something to say that moves me toward character change.

Case in point was my Bible reading today that took me through Ezekiel 22-23. There, I learned (again) about Samaria and Jerusalem and the kings that ruled over those areas. They were pitifully corrupt and adulterous and idolatrous. They lead the people into the same type of sins. The whole land became thoroughly corrupted, a stench to God.

I learned how the “princes” (kings) of Israel and Judah committed murder by decree because of their own fears and anxieties regarding the loss of their throne. Because of that, God saw that the blood ran in the streets of Samaria and Jerusalem (Israel’s northern kingdom and the kingdom of Judah after it split apart). God was thoroughly upset about what was going on because in many cases, the people of both Israel and Judah acted worse than the nations around them. They not only adopted the idolatrous ways of those other nations, but they went full in and committed more lawless deeds than the other nations! Imagine how God’s heart was at first, broken, then became irate. Satan had succeeded in adulterating Israel, but certainly God allowed it for His purposes.

Here are some of crimes the kings of the northern and southern kingdoms committed, as well as the people:

• Judicial murders (Ezekiel 22:6; cf 2 Kings 21:16 and 2 Kings 24:4)
• Child sacrifice (Ezekiel 22:6; 16:21; 20:26, 31; 23:37)
• Acts of personal violence
• Profaned God’s Sabbath (Ezekiel 22:8)
• Committed all manner of lewdness (Ezekiel 22:9-12), including incest, rape, adultery

As I read these things this morning, my heart grew sad and I could completely understand God’s reaction to all of it. He promised to turn them over to the neighboring nations they “lusted” after and the results of it would not be good. Some Jewish people would be killed with the sword, others would starve, while others would be mutilated, yet not killed.

God was clearly angry as He notes in Ezekiel 22:13, which states, “Behold, therefore, I beat My fists at the dishonest profit which you have made, and at the bloodshed which has been in your midst.” This paints a picture of a very angry person who slams his/her fist into the palm of their other hand in an expression of anger. We’ve either all seen someone do that or we’ve done it ourselves.

My point is that I am beginning to clearly see things from God’s perspective. Thanks to Him, I no longer read His Word as a perfunctory exercise so that I will simply gain more information about His Book. Now, it speaks to me and as I read, I tend to enter into the story and understand things from God’s perspective that much more.

One of the things I’ve also realized is that God is of course unlimited in His compassion toward those of us who love Him. In fact, it’s not overstating things to say that God’s longsuffering with Israel/Judah was constantly on display in His Word throughout despite the fact that they constantly broke their covenant with Him. He would send prophets to the people to tell them exactly what was on His mind. Yet, even when they ridiculed, refused to listen to, or even killed a prophet, God would send another one. He did this for one reason and one reason only: it was due to His covenant of love with the people of Israel and His desire not to completely destroy that nation.

His covenantal love with believers today is the same. However, if we push God away with our sin and our mistreatment of His Word along with our refusal to obey Him, He will respond and He will do what is best for us to bring us to heel rather than cast us off. That is the reason for His discipline.

The only thing worse than being known for being a Christian, writing best-selling books, and going on the speaking circuit is to one day walking away from it all with a sense of finality after you announce that you are done with the Church.[2] Then there’s this person who received Dove music awards, but then divorced his wife of 33 years and in 2008 came out as homosexual. To be complete about everything, he married his homosexual lover at the beach recently.[3] How many times have we seen these things occur today? Too many and I’m sure there are more to come. Of course, let’s not also forget Chip and Joanna Gaines’ latest foray into the moral cesspool with their three new shows, catering to the LGBTQ+ community. What’s happening with these situations is twofold. First, Romans 1 is being fulfilled in the lives of these people as God gives them over to their own prurient interests simply because they insist on doing things their way, which opposes God’s way. Second, this is all part of the great falling away of 2 Thessalonians 2:3. People are literally coming to a point of standing apart from the true faith in our Lord, while continuing to claim to be Christian. As John says, they were among us, but went out from us (1 John 2:19).

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

This is a question we need to ask ourselves daily. Am I committed to following Jesus wherever it may lead? Am I committed to allowing Him to teach me how to live His Word? Am I reading the Bible solely to gain knowledge or because I want to grow in my relationship with my Lord and Savior? Does the Bible actually speak to me in my heart or is it just pages and pages of text that have meaning, but no real life-changing value to me?

If we love God, aren’t we supposed to obey Him? Obeying Him means to do what He tells us to do by His power, doesn’t it? I admit I am not the best or most prolific evangelist, but I want to be! I want to share the life-changing Gospel with people I meet and that may often mean that I become less and He becomes more in and through me.

Folks, for those not reading the Bible daily, I strongly urge you to start doing so. If it seems boring or perfunctory, maybe that’s the view of God held. I don’t say that to shame you. I say that because I too had that same problem in the past. My newfound goal is to bring glory to Him and that can only be done through my obedience to His Word and that includes being involved in the Great Commission (Matthew 28). I cannot continue to not tell others about Him because of how I am now being drawn into fellowship with Him because of His Word.

Imagine if you discovered some truly life-saving miracle that completely eliminated cancer. You know it worked because it worked on you. You were overjoyed and excited to be free of the cancer that threatened to destroy your life. Yet, instead of telling others, you simply kept it “your” secret. No one else benefited. No one else knew. No one else had a second chance at life. Just you. That is the height of self-centeredness. You might tell yourself, “Well, people would only laugh at me or turn away from me because of the unorthodox nature of the cure,” which certainly could happen, but isn’t it worth a shot if it has the ability to save someone else from the same thing that threatened to destroy you?

As I said, previously, it is important to understand the Bible including the prophetic discourse it contains as much as it is important to understand all the major tenets of Scripture. However, the most important thing is the reality that God is our Savior and throughout the rest of our life, He should increasingly become our Lord.

If you are not excited about what God has done for you, maybe what He did for you is not understood well enough on a visceral level; where you live. If we understood this reality better, we would be naturally more inclined to tell others about Jesus. It would pour out of us. We would realize the actual life-changing benefits of the cross and His nearness to us. While we might include prophetic discourse in our dialogue with other people, it would be included to illuminate the veracity of Scripture, to prove that the Gospel is the only means of actual salvation, not that prophetic discourse is an end in and of itself.

I recall attending prophecy conferences in the 1970s and too often they failed to include invitations of salvation. It was all about what God was doing (which again, is fine), but not married to the Great Commission. I’m seeing that today with a good number of so-called prophecy experts. Beyond this, the prophecy experts don’t even agree on all the details of prophecy as we know. However, there should be zero disagreement over Jesus as God the Son and what He accomplished for us and that needs to be broadcast at least as loud if not louder than prophetic discourse.

What can and should be agreed on and stated clearly, loudly, and repetitively is that there is no salvation under heaven by which anyone can be saved apart from Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). Any believer who disagrees with that truth and reality doesn’t understand the basics of Scripture and who Jesus actually is regarding our salvation. The overriding purpose of Scripture is to highlight God’s sovereignty and that focuses on primarily on His salvation. Even prophecy is there to point back to God, His veracity, proficiency and His awesome salvation.

Folks, study prophecy, yes. Discuss it. Preach about it (as there is not enough preaching on prophecy from the pulpit today), but in doing so, we must never forget our high calling is to spread the Gospel message that Jesus came to save the lost. If this is not included in every prophecy conference, it’s simply an exercise in intellectualism.

Do not keep the greatness of the Gospel for salvation a secret.

[1] https://studygrowknowblog.com/2025/08/08/staring-me-in-the-face/

[2] https://thedissenter.substack.com/p/surprise-jen-hatmaker-completely

[3] https://thedissenter.substack.com/p/former-gma-dove-award-winner-holds

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Source: https://studygrowknowblog.com/2025/09/06/imagine-keeping-it-a-secret/