The past few weeks there has been a lot of buzz on social media about Kanye West and his conversion to Christianity. For those of you who are not in the know, let me explain. Kanye West is a very popular and respected hip hop artist, who had made quite a few records.
However, recently Kanye has been quite controversial, first of all for his support of president Donald Trump and now Kanye has come out to say that he has gotten saved. He has since put out a new album titled "Jesus Is King" where Kanye talks about his faith, and God and every song is saturated in scripture and biblical references.
Now it should come as no shock that the world has stopped to take notice and site there skepticism. However what seems to be both shocking and at the same time par for the course that are those in the Christian community that are skeptical as well. They say things like "well I hope that He is but time will tell" or "I will wait to see the fruit."
To be fair there are a number of others who are celebrating Kanye's new found faith. In fact one such person I had recently seen was the ERLC director Russel Moore who wanted to give Christians some caution not to dismiss Kanye's salvation to quickly. Russel Moore went on to say that we need to be patient with Kanye as he is still a new believer in Christ and will undoubtedly make mistakes. All of which I say AMEN.
But here is the rub, and the point of this blog. While I support what Russel Moore said, the question I have is did he say the same thing when Donald Trump came out to say that he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior as well? See while I agree with Russel Moore, I would say that it should not stop with Kanye, it should be applied to everyone, even people who you do not like.
See this issue is not just between Kanye and Trump. I have seen and heard this same statement from others in the church time and time again; when someone says they got saved. There is often a since of skepticism in both the world and in the church. While I am not shocked by the worlds skepticism, in fact I expect it, I am however disappointed when I see it in the church.
But this is nothing new at all. In fact when Saul of Tarsus got saved on the road of Damascus (Acts 9), we see he was baptizing and preaching the gospel, people were getting saved. But when Paul went to Jerusalem we see that he tried to join the disciples but they were afraid of him (Acts 9:26).
This gives us a key why some people are skeptical of someone's salvation. See Saul was a persecutor of churches, he had thrown people in prison, he attacked the church. In the churches mind he was an enemy of the church. So when Jesus saved Paul and forgave Paul of his sins, the church had a hard time accepting this. They were skeptical; could God save a man like Paul? See when we are skeptical when someone puts their faith in trust in Jesus Christ, it really points out our own feelings toward that person.
What we are saying when we are skeptical of a person who puts their faith in Christ is "I can't believe that Jesus could save him/her". What we are saying is the gospel is able to save a retch like me, but not a retch like them! However if we really believed the Gospel, that it truly is the power of God unto Salvation (Romans 1:16) than is there any reason to not believe that God can save even the vilest of offenders?
Now I do understand that not everyone who says they got saved are really saved. Sometimes politicians use religion to garner votes. Sometimes people say they get saved so they can make the connections they need for their businesses. Sadly these things do happen. Our Job is not to certify if a person got saved or not. To do so is really putting our self in God's shoes, and those shoes are way too big for anyone but God to fill.
Now I don't know if Kanye West Got saved, and I can't say if Trump got saved. All I can say is I thank God that He can save Kanye, He can save Trump, and I praise God that He has saved me. I thank God that Kanye's music is reaching new audiences with God's word, I am thankful that Trump has supported the churches in America. I thank God that the gospel has the power to save and change anyone!
So when someone says they have come to Christ, no matter if you like them or not, let the church rejoice! Let us thank the Lord, and give Him praise. If you find yourself skeptical of someone’s salvation, than let’s take an inventory of our own feelings toward them. Are we skeptical because there conversion to Christ was not based on scripture or is it that we deep down inside don't care for the person and don't really believe that God can change that person in the first place. Let us pray for them that they might bear fruit, encourage them, disciple them! Let’s be reminded that if God could use a church hating Saul, He can use anyone, including me.
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