by Fenter Northern – Northern Notes XLIX
“Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods.” Daniel 3:17
Jesus did not abdicate His role as Savior and Prince of Peace to become political when He referred to Herod Antipas as a fox (Luke 13:32); neither was He being political when He referred to the Roman presence in the Temple area as the abomination of desolation. He was the Son of God. His tongue was always under perfect control in harmony with the will of God. However, the aggression of wicked politics in His day motivated Him to speak out with words of warning to the disciples. Christians are told to be prepared always to give an answer to those asking about their faith (I Pet. 3:15). In so doing Christians must be careful to have their words spoken with grace, seasoned with salt—that is, to speak the truth in gentle kindness. However, some it seems, would speak grace and omit the salt. The grace of God and the salt of His word are inseparable in preaching salvation. (Rom. 1:16).
How should Christians react when its message of righteousness is so passionately hated by those who flood society with their lies for personal profit? As Jude said in verse 11, “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for [political] reward” Christians must surpass evil’s dedication to silence the church with its threats of harm with an urgency to spread the message of life.
Christians under the umbrella of God’s grace must not be intimidated into silence by those who would force them to either bow to their ideological images or be burned in their fiery furnaces of vitriolic hatred. Remember the three Hebrew children? Christians do not bow in silence before the advocates of corruption and social slavery. Their conviction is that of the prophet Zechariah who said victory over evil was, “Not by might, not by power but by my spirit saith the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).
The church must trust that. If the church is to be cast into a furnace of fire for refusing to bow to a corrupt society, (or even worse by some within the church who suffer the loss of their identity by bowing to their image) then, in determined defiance the faithful must keep the defiant attitude of the three Hebrew children in the Book of Daniel. When told to bow to the image or burn, they replied: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Dan. 3:17-18. When elders bow, they forfeit identity as the church of Christ.