March 15, 2013 – Ezekiel 33

Should we consider ourselves sentinels for the Lord? When we see evil coming, we are to warn the people so that they might change their ways. If they ignore us, then their guilt is on them. If we do not warn them, then their guilt is on us. This makes me worry about the life I used to live and the times I didn’t stand up and tell people what I thought. It worries me about the guilt of others I might be responsible for. It motivates me to speak up now when I do see something. The gay marriage battle going on is a great example. You are either for it, against it, or staying on the sidelines and not getting involved. If you fall into this third category, but know and believe that this is wrong, read about the sentinel.

This also makes you think about what the Catholic Church has been teaching and standing for over the last several generations. There is a huge number of misinformed and uneducated Catholics because the Church did not fulfill its obligation. It allowed relativism and watering down theology invade our schools and pulpits. There are many pulpits that are preaching the Truth now, and there are many that don’t like what they are hearing. We are becoming the sentinels we were called to be. But what of those lost years. What of the souls lost because our church was not the sentinel it should have been. There are many lost souls that are there by their own actions, but I imagine the countless that are lost and their guilt is on the heads of a church that did not preach against the “sword” that was coming. WE ARE THE SENTINELS OF GOD.

In the modern apocalyptic books, like the one I read about Ezekiel coming true in the modern world, the authors take great pains to dive into the scriptures in very close detail. What strikes me though, is that the “saved” characters, or at least in the book I read, seemed to believe in a “once saved, always saved” theology. Once the main character professed Christ as Lord and Savior he stated over and over again that no matter what happened he knew he was going to Heaven. This was in the midst of shooting people, stealing, and other violant acts (all in the name of good) but never any doubt about his destination. Yet right here in Ezekiel is God’s word that if you fall, if you sin, all the good you do will be forgotten, unless you repent. And if you repent, all the bad is forgotten. But you can fall after you repent, you can fall after you profess God. There is no such thing as “once saved, always saved”. It is not biblical and is human arrogance at its most dangerous. I just find it interesting that a whole series that focused so much on Ezekiel in such great detail, would have a hero that completely ignores such a blatant lesson from the same book.