KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)–Sorry politicians, satanic powers, senseless people and spineless preachers in today’s culture is evidence to which evangelist Bailey Smith pointed in calling this the “Barabbas” generation in a Dec. 10 chapel address at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Mo.
Matthew 27:17-23 identifies such characteristics common to Jesus day and present times, said Smith, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and former pastor of First Southern Baptist Church, Del City, Okla.
Observing it was a generation of sorry politicians, Smith cited Herod, Caesar and Pontius Pilate as the primary examples during the time of Christ. “The cowardice of Pilate and the evil of Herod make it clear that it was a day like today among politicians;” Smith said, calling them expedient, calculating, unprincipled, men-pleasers.
“We live in a day when anything goes in government, except Jesus,” Smith continued. “It is a Barabbas logic; crucify Jesus, but give us all of these other things.” He contended most politicians in Washington are crooked, not because they have taken graft, but because crooked is the opposite of straight.
More specifically, he said, “It is a crooked man who believes we ought to kill the unborn. It is a crooked man who believes that homosexuality is a legitimate lifestyle. It is a crooked man who takes Bible and prayer out of our public schools. It is a generation of crooked politicians. They are not straight.”
Aware that President Bill Clinton is a Southern Baptist, Smith acknowledged his own embarrassment and shame, adding, “He is not a good advertisement.” Commenting on Clinton’s manipulation of words in sworn testimony, Smith said, “An innocent man just says, ‘No, I didn’t do it.’ You don’t play games with the words if you are innocent.”
Smith finds Clinton’s acknowledgement that his involvement with White House intern Monica Lewinsky was inappropriate to be an inadequate confession. “My friend, stirring your coffee with a steak knife is inappropriate. Picking your nose at your wedding is inappropriate. But being involved in perverted sexual sin outside of your marriage is sin.”
From the biblical evidence of Satan tempting Jesus and influencing Judas Iscariot,
Smith cited evidence of satanic powers. Similarly, today’s society is influenced by “the satanic powers of the entertainment industry, man-made religion as found in the New Age movement and a pro-homosexual, anti-God movement described and disguised as a women’s movement,” Smith said.
When a raging mob preferred Barabbas over Jesus, Smith said they chose to take evil, but crucify good. “How could a mob of people choose a violent man like Barabbas over Jesus?” Smith asked. “It was because Barabbas was more like them than Jesus,” he explained.
Citing a recent poll conducted in Atlanta, Smith said Clinton has the highest approval rating in the history of his administration. “It’s a generation of senseless people. Mob rules. It’s a twisted sense of values,” Smith said.
“A generation which feeds itself on Howard Stern, Beavis and Butthead, MTV and HBO cannot believe right or behave right.”
In contrast to the influence of spineless preachers whom Smith accused of disguising the truth, he appealed for men of God who will stand up and preach the Word of God without apology.
“We’ve got too many perfume-wearing, earring-wearing, Bible-hating, Christ-ignoring, sin-shirking, backbone-missing clergymen,” Smith said. “We need some old-fashioned men of God who have gone to Calvary and never gotten over it.”
Asking God to give the Barabbas generation another chance, Smith appealed for God to release Jesus into our society that there might be a cleansing. As a result, “Holy Ghost fire might fall on dead, cold churches and they will become alive with evangelism once again,” Smith prayed. “God help us to no longer say, ‘Give us Barabbas,’ but ‘God give us Jesus.’”
