Did you ever wonder why modern Evangelicals and the government both fall all over themselves to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ? Did it ever surprise you that a pagan government who despises Christianity wants to honor the same man that the Evangelical church does? Here is why two groups that should share little in common both idolize King.
Martin Luther King is the perfect hero for our time. Let me explain why. We live in a culture that wants to call itself Christian, yet shows no signs of being regenerated. We live in a culture that portrays itself as decent, yet is riddled with vice, crime, and godless behavior. We live in a country that wants to call itself a democracy, yet is run by communists. King is just the kind of man for such a society. King claimed to be a Christian, even a minister. Yet there is absolutely no evidence he was truly born again. He had several heretical views and more closely subscribed to the black liberation theology of James Cone, than anything resembling the biblical Gospel. He rejected the divinity of Christ, downplayed the importance of a physical resurrection, and focused on the social gospel, rather than one that saves souls.
King’s godless theology worked itself out in his lifestyle. He engaged in innumerable extramarital affairs, indulging in all manner of sexual perversions, even using his status as a minister to obtain and persuade partners to engage in adultery with him. The FBI documented no less than 40 affairs, along with at least one incident where King was present when a rape occurred and laughed at it. Further, while King was never an avowed Communist and periodically critiqued the movement, many of his close associates were known Communist sympathizers. It was known at the time that the Soviets had infiltrated the civil rights movement, hoping to use it to destabilize the US. In private, King described himself as a Marxist. It is conceivable that the “American hero” was actually a Soviet agent. He certainly worked frequently and willingly with many known Communist agents.
These tendencies make King the perfect hero for our modern times. Our culture is completely sexually degenerate. So was King. Our culture wants to claim to be Christian, yet impose a progressive agenda onto Christianity. They do not want to recognize Christ as God, nor do they wish to follow His principles, yet they still want to pay lip service to Christianity. So did King. Our culture, particularly many young people and the elite oligarchical class desperately want to achieve a communist utopia by fundamentally reshaping our culture. So did King. Our pagan America could not ask for a better hero: it is one made in their own image.
The contempt for Biblical Christianity that characterized King, also characterizes modern Evangelical leadership. Big Eva hates the man in the pew and idolizes the progressive elites who hold the power. To them, King represents the latter. They desperately want to remain relevant in a godless culture and they think elevating a godless man to near sainthood will allow them to do so. Unfortunately for them, to do so, they must abandon any pretense of commitment to the Biblical Gospel and Scriptural authority.
So while what many people know King for, his work for racial equality, is a noble and Christian goal, King is not a man Christians should honor. Instead of holding conferences in his honor, or naming scholarships and buildings after him, Christians need to recognize that King was a godless pagan who happened to get one thing right, and that one thing happens to be incredibly culturally popular. Instead of falling at King’s feet in awe, fall at the feet of Christ, who made all men equal and desires all men to be saved. King’s gospel offers nothing but death; only the Biblical Gospel, that all have sinned, that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and bodily rose from the grave the third day, and offers salvation to all who will repent and trust in His work alone, provides humanity with the hope of eternal life.
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In His Image 