You’re in the Minority
One of the arguments often made by those who promote moral and social change away from God’s standards, for example in the matter of so-called “homosexual marriage,” is that “you conservative traditionalists are in the minority.” It is claimed that more and more people are “coming around” to support “homosexual marriage” rights, according to polls. I am not so sure that this is really true since polls can be skewed to obtain desired results. But it is true that people do change positions. Recently, a prominent “conservative” U. S. Senator who had always opposed “homosexual marriage” before found out that his son is “gay” and now supports it. How convenient! And whatever gains are made in support of “homosexual marriage” simply show how effective the radical homosexual rights proponents have been in using public schools, entertainment, and the mass media to pound their message into young skulls full of mush and brainwash our youth.
However, even if it could be proven that those of us who believe that true marriage can be defined as involving only a man and a woman are in the minority, that would not bother me one bit, because of what Jesus said. “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). God’s moral standards are not dependent on majority opinion and are not subject to popular vote, executive orders, Congressional action, or Supreme Court decisions. Men may change the laws to suit their own whims and fancies, but Jesus also said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35). In fact, He reminded us, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him — the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).
I think about the days of Noah. He, his wife, his sons, and their wives were certainly in a minority. He had 120 years to build the ark (Genesis 6:3, 13-14, 22). During that time, he was “a preacher of righteousness” (II Peter 2:5). I can just imagine the kind of response that he received. “Noah, this God who you claim is going to flood the earth is so old-fashioned. Yes, people used to believe in Him, but not any longer. We’ve progressed beyond all that myth and superstition nowadays.” But Noah just kept on building and preaching while the people kept on mocking and scoffing, “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away…” (Matthew 24:38-39). They couldn’t say that they weren’t warned (Hebrews 11:7). The majority, “the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water” (II Peter 3:6). But the minority, “a few, that is eight souls, were saved” (I Peter 3:20). No wonder modernists deny the flood — it stands in stark judgment against them.
I also think of the Israelites in Egyptian bondage. The kingdom of Egypt was the largest and most powerful world empire of its time, and while the Hebrew people grew so that the Egyptians were afraid of them, Israel was still in the definite minority. Think of the kind of power that the Pharaoh had over the Israelites. Although the effort wasn’t successful, he passed laws that commanded the Hebrews to kill (abort?) their male babies, and he was able to reduce them to a state of slavery in making bricks to build his cities. And we know his response when God sent Moses to tell him to let the people go. “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2). However, the very Lord at whom Pharaoh sneered and jeered used the Ten Plagues to show how powerless the Egyptian idols really were and to bring the greatest nation at that day to its knees so that it did end up letting Israel go. Then when Pharaoh changed his mind and chased after the Hebrews, He brought the Israelites to safety and destroyed the Egyptian armies (Exodus 14:5-31). The minority overcame and became a great nation.
And then I think of the Christians in the ancient Roman Empire. We read the book of Acts and marvel at the rapid and widespread growth of the early church, but the saints were still a vast minority in the Roman Empire and subject to intense persecution as Satan tried to use the full forces of Rome to stamp out the church. We see the beginnings of this persecution in Acts and references to it in the epistles, but we find its full-blown power described figuratively in the book of Revelation. I can just hear the unbelievers of that day. “Oh, you Christians are just a small, weak minority. You’ll never amount to much of anything but eventually, just wither away.” Well, we know what happened. In spite of the rabid persecution, Christianity continued to grow until it became first a legal and then finally the official religion of Rome. And to make matters even more interesting, it was this formerly-despised church, admittedly apostate by then, which kept alive the learning and advancements of Graeco-Roman culture during the Dark Ages following the fall of Rome until they could be rediscovered during the Renaissance and Reformation. For the benefit of Western Civilization, the minority became the majority.
No, being in the minority does not bother me at all, so long as I know that I am right with God. I stand in pretty good company, along with Noah, Moses, and Paul. It has been said that God and one man make a majority. The world may laugh, jeer, mock, and scorn at God’s people and God’s ways as it, through its wisdom, does not know God (I Corinthians 1:21). The evidence that God’s word is the truth is clear, and as long as I stick with it, I can be assured that what I believe is true. And with that knowledge and the hope that it gives me, I can say with Isaac Watts,
“Should earth against my soul engage,
And fiery darts be hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan’s rage
And face as frowning world.”
