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by Charlie Wolcott

“You can’t tell me that! I’m offended by that claim! You need to be more tolerant of those who don’t agree with you!” Standard mantra today, is it not? I do not know of a single period in history when any people group of any nation of any time period that is so easily offended as Americans today. A bakery denies a customer of service because they wanted them to do something they could not agree with, and they were sued out of business because denial of the service OFFENDED the two men. A white man with mental issues shoots up a black church and the Confederate flag is banned and a TV show is cancelled. Countless terrorists shout “Allu Akbar!” as they blow up a city, shoot up a bar, shoot up a military base, and there is nothing but silence lest anyone offend any other Muslim.

Christians are told to keep their message quiet because it offends people, yet the same people have absolutely no qualms about offending the Christians. To avoid offending an extremely tiny population, a major retail store opened its bathrooms to those who do not know which gender they are, and in the process they opened themselves to extremely dangerous situations where girls can be raped easily and cannot do anything about it because the man is “transgender.” In 1944, 18-20 years olds stormed the beaches of Normandy and boldly and bravely faced death head on and took the beaches. Today, the same age group has to have “safe zones” on college campuses because they are so pathetically weak and the slightest comment could “harm” them.

But what is at the root of all this? Why has an entire generation lost every bit of spine they had, have no courage, no backbone, no strength, and have become the weakest and most pathetic generation that has ever lived (according to Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation)? Here is the real reason, but before I say what it is, do note that I am going to bring this around and apply it to you and to me. Because I am part of this generation. I am at the head (age-wise) of it.

The real reason so many of us are so easily offended is because we have sin. We have our sinful, selfish, self-serving flesh that wants to be in the position of God. That was the first lie told in Genesis 3: “And you shall be as God.” In Psalm 51, David confesses that he was born in iniquity. He was born into sin. Each and every one of us has been born into sin. Some of you may say, “You do not know my heart.” That is true; I don’t know it. But I know what the Bible says of it. In Jeremiah 17:9 it says that the heart is deceptive and wicked. We all are born with this sin. This ugly, selfish, arrogant, hateful, and so easily offended flesh.

Part of the issues is that none of these people ever grew up. They have adult bodies but inside, they are still toddlers. How can I say such things? Look at a two-year-old. Give him something he wants and he’s fine. Take it away, and watch the hatred and the anger flow. So many adults are absolutely no different than a toddler in a grown-up body. Same attitude. Gimme, gimme, gimme. And don’t you dare take it away. It’s sin. It’s self. It’s self-pleasing.

Now let’s focus more inward. How many of us have heard a sermon from a preacher that is extremely sound and Biblically rooted and reveals the glory of God, and we are offended by it? Paul Washer tells of a time where he was asked to preach a series on the attributes of God. Washer wisely cautioned that pastor that he did not know what he was asking, because if he got started on the holiness of God, the justice of God, the goodness of God, and how God must punish sin, one of the biggest donors to the church would stand up and say: “I could not worship a God like that.” How many of us get offended by what the Bible says, to the point where we conveniently avoid it?

One area I have found to be greatly offensive today is not about a moral issue but about Creation. If you want to watch sparks fly, watch a young earth creationist speak about the Bible with authority. I was in a Facebook group, which I will not name, that got me started into online apologetics. They started out pretty sound, but as time progressed, one thing I noticed was how easily they were offended when the Bible was spoken of as the chief position of authority. The origins “debate” is not what determines if you are saved or not, but it very easily illustrates and draws out where people stand. When I wrote about “A Hill Worth Dying On,” I would see people proclaim they believe the Bible but if you point out in the Bible an area where they are wrong, they get offended and defensive in an instant. These are Christians I am talking about. Defenders of the faith. The ones trying to teach others how to be Christians. I presented the Bible with authority and they were OFFENDED by that. They got aggressive, repeatedly, so I left the group.

Now, I am going to be very clear that I am not innocent of any of this. I am not going to stand here and point out everyone else’s faults as though I have it all figured out. I’m guilty too. Where have I been offended? Throughout my entire life, it has been offensive to me for any established rule to be broken and I would let anyone know if they did. If a teacher went over the bell for a few seconds, I would let her know. My worst tantrum as a kid was not because I was denied something I want, but because my babysitter put me to bed 30 minutes LATE. As an adult, I’ve written about things that have offended me. It is usually stuff that is not being done right, when it could be done right. I still get offended when I see an atheist post something about Christians that they have no clue about (when they should if they have been about for a while). I get offended even more so when I see someone proclaiming to be a Christian and then siding with the world against those who stand on the authority of Scripture. Should I get offended by that? No. The heathen truly do not know any better. They truly do not know their right hand from their left, while proclaiming to be the leading experts on anything, let alone Christian doctrine. The goats think they are sheep, but I need to learn how to let the Shepherd separate them. Mark them? Yes, but let the Shepherd do the separating.

I want to wrap up this post with this. The reason for all this offense is our sin, our desire to be right, our desire to be in charge, and our desire for things to go our way. That is sin and that sin needs to die. Paul repeatedly speaks of that through Romans – death to sin and life with Christ. I need to continue to nail my sin to that cross so it may die with Christ in his death. The only thing that should offend me is what offends God, and I need to respond to that offense as Christ responds to it. If we want to see courage return to the body of Christ, we need to be rid of our sinful self and let Christ be Christ in us. Let us stop being offended. Let us stop serving our sinful self and having to stop and feed it and soothe it everything it gets “hurt.” Instead, let us be offended when we turn to feed that sinful self and instead serve Christ, even when it hurts.

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