Every culture has words and phrases called “euphemisms”. They communicate messages but they’re not intended to be taken literally. For instance, if someone asked a marathon runner how the race went, and they said, “I was doing great for 19 miles and then I hit a wall,” no one would envision that he or she actually ran headlong into some kind of physical wall, only that their energy ran out. And hearing that someone’s interview or presentation was “a piece of cake” wouldn’t prompt us to ask if it came with ice cream and sprinkles. Idioms like that can present a very different picture if the euphemisms are taken literally, as many of us saw in one example recently.

Sometimes It’s Literal ~
While most of us have heard people exclaim something like, “My phone’s been blowing up all morning” when they get an excessive number of phone calls, a number of terrorists in Lebanon actually discovered what that comment is like – in a very literal sense, but with their pagers. Idioms are common in every culture, and those who are familiar with them never expect anyone to take them literally. But, like the pagers that exploded last week, sometimes it’s enlightening to consider what the idiom is actually saying. There’s a fairly common one I’ve heard all my life and feel compelled to address. 

But before we get into that, let me set the stage by reminding us that there’s a fascinating, and quite literal, situation that Jesus instructed us to pray for. He said we’re to pray this:

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9–10 NKJV)

Every culture has words and phrases called “euphemisms”. They communicate messages but they’re not intended to be taken literally. For instance, if someone asked a marathon runner how the race went, and they said, “I was doing great for 19 miles and then I hit a wall,” no one would envision that he or she actually ran headlong into some kind of physical wall, only that their energy ran out. And hearing that someone’s interview or presentation was “a piece of cake” wouldn’t prompt us to ask if it came with ice cream and sprinkles. Idioms like that can present a very different picture if the euphemisms are taken literally, as many of us saw in one example recently

Called to Bring Heaven Down ~
One of my favorite Bible teachers loves to say that our job as followers of Christ is to “bring heaven down to earth.” That means we’re called to live out the virtues and embody the principles reflective of the Kingdom of heaven. God’s desire is that when someone asks what Jesus’ Kingdom is like, somebody should point at one of us. But if we can, in a sense, bring heaven down to earth by demonstrating our attitudes, behaviors, and values, might not God’s enemies act to employ the same concept in the exact opposite direction? Clearly they can, and there’s a familiar euphemism in that regard that we need to take literally.

 Let me explain with an example from my youth. Back then, if we heard somebody say something like, “Hey, I heard you guys were really raising hell after winning that ball game last week,” we would have all laughed. To us it would have been a way of saying that we had a rowdy good time after the game – just a “good ole boy” affirmation among our little “band of brothers”. 

 But what if it was literal? What if it was descriptive of someone reaching down, as it were, and bringing hell’s values and behaviors to life on earth? That may sound like a premise for some kind of fictional horror movie, but the concept wasn’t so fictional when Jesus faced it. Notice what He had to say to an oppositional group confronting Him.

Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of ‘your father’ the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:43–44 NKJV)

No Euphemisms Here ~
It sure sounds like the Son of God is saying that the desire of these people was to live out the will of the devil and practice the principles promoted in his realm. If we can refer to living out God’s will as bringing the Kingdom of heaven down to earth, couldn’t we call reaching down to grasp the devil’s values, and applying them in our world, raising hell? And in that regard, some of the attitudes and behaviors that have become characteristic of our country make it clear that America has been raising hell in far too many ways and for far too long. Let’s just consider how some of hell’s classic characteristics are being raised to earth these days:  

• • We’re raising hell on the streets of our cities and towns. Jesus said the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and every day adds to the mounting number of ways, methods, motives, and times that innocent victims have had their life cruelly, needlessly, torturously, and often randomly, stolen from them. And in addition to the murders committed on the streets, there are the innocent lives destroyed in abortion clinics daily.

• • We’re raising hell in our schools. In the vast majority of school districts in our country, those entrusted to teach our children the fundamentals of communication, calculation, and social stability have used their classrooms to indoctrinate our children in ways that pervert God’s designs, and promote concepts and practices He condemns. They’re taught to fear without reason, to hate without cause, to rebel without consequence, and to live without truth.

• • We’re raising hell with social media. Our children are averaging five hours a day on some kind of social media platform. They are subjected to a parade of images that are extremely addictive. Endless comparisons leave them feeling inadequate, anxious, afraid, and hopeless. They desperately seek the acceptance and approval to get it often embrace ideas and submit to behaviors that leave them wounded for life.

• • We’re raising hell with our government agencies and legal systems. More and more, we’re seeing the devil’s spiritually destructive, morally reprehensible, and socially divisive agenda being raised up and codified into laws, regulations, and public policies. Then that assault on our foundational values is further compounded by biased and corrupt legal authorities manipulating the “justice” system to strip away personal rights and freedoms and to attack their political opponents. Hell’s aversion to Truth has become evident in many levels of government where deceptive misrepresentation is used to obscure or deny reality in order to avoid accountability and maintain power and control.

• • We’re raising hell with our entertainment system. Here’s a little background history – No charge . . . Thousands of years ago, Alexander the Great discovered that military might could only defeat a nation’s armies. But to subdue their moral and religious resistance to Grecian customs and values and gain their allegiance, he introduced theaters and sports arenas. He used the sensual appeal they represented to normalize forbidden behaviors and offered a collection of “gods” whose worship promoted any and every kind of sexual perversion imaginable. He dismantled their religious restrictions, relational constraints, and moral sensitivities by elevating hell’s promiscuous and seductive practices to the level of the stage. Every aspect of our entertainment world has gradually become more interested in raising hell than simply entertaining us.

• • And tragically, some are even raising hell at home. God made it clear that there’s one place that should be a fortress protecting us and our children from the hell raising attitudes and behaviors going on around us. Home is the primary place where we should be reaching up and bringing heaven’s values down to earth every day. Home should be where things like love, joy, peace, acceptance, forgiveness, honesty, and harmony are consistently demonstrated. Instead, far too many families are bringing the influence of the hell-raising culture into their homes through the use of gutter language, replicating hateful rhetoric, and offering approval of relationships and behaviors God clearly condemns. The family was designed by God to illustrate His relationship with us, and our homes are the last bastion for ensuring the social stability of our nation.  

• Here’s a word from God describing how a nation descends from honoring God to a people obsessed with raising hell:

The wicked prowl [strut about arrogantly] on every side when vileness is exalted [elevated, raised up] among the sons of men. (Psalm 12:8 NKJV)

Raising hell is not a euphemism in America these days. It’s an accurate description in more ways than the ones suggested above. It can be turned around, but it will take more than a change in our political leadership to do it. It will take a movement of ordinary people like you and me who not only vote out those who are raising hell in our government, but who also stop supporting the practice in our own lives and begin afresh to reach in the other direction and really mean it when we pray, Thy will be done – on earth – as it is in heaven.

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to Tweet & Share from the pull quotes below. Each quote links directly to this article through Twitter.

• • • What if raising hell described someone reaching down and bringing hell’s values and behaviors to life on earth? That may sound like a premise for a fictional horror movie, but the concept wasn’t so fictional when Jesus faced it. (John 8:43–44) @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • If we can refer to living out God’s will as ‘bringing the Kingdom of Heaven down to earth’, couldn’t we call reaching down to grasp the devil’s values and applying them in our world as ‘raising hell’? @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • God made it clear: There’s one place that should be a fortress protecting us and our children from the hell-raising attitudes and behaviors around us. Home is the primary place we should be reaching up and bringing heaven’s values down to earth every day. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • Far too many families are bringing the influence of the hell-raising culture into their homes. The family was designed by God to illustrate His relationship with us and our homes are the last bastion for ensuring the social stability of our nation. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) https://ctt.ec/89aLH

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