A VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS

What does it mean that John the Baptist was a voice crying in the wilderness? Does it mean he went into the wilderness where there were no people, preaching to the animals and vegetation? Of course not. He was preaching to people; the wilderness was the world barren of God’s truth. How could that be? There were synagogues and all kinds of strict religious Jewish sects and leaders. Yet, to God it was still a spiritual wilderness. People were just going along with the status quo of the Jewish Church. Regardless of the atrocities and injustices of the Church, people feared speaking out. Those who opposed the Church were ostracized and even put to death, as Jesus was. So, John the Baptist cried out to a world that was blind and deaf to God’s truth.

The silence of those in the pews is just as striking today. Although there are a few voices crying in today’s wilderness, too many just go with the flow, maintaining the status quo. How else do we explain the deafening silence on the continued sexual abusers in the clergy? How else do we explain the deafening silence on gay marriage, gay rights, and abortions? How else do we explain the deafening silence on the many politically correct decisions eroding the foundations of the Church? Indeed power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely…in the church too.

If you were alive in the time of John the Baptist, would you have been a voice crying in the wilderness too or would you have been one of the deaf and blind? What are you today? Who can you cry out to? If no one else… you can cry out to your family, friends, and people in your spheres of influence. The Church and this country are in an entanglement; don’t let your family and friends be deaf and blind to it. A voice once again cries out in the wilderness, a wilderness becoming more and more barren of God’s truth in this nation. Do you hear the voice?