"God’s Name Is Not Your Shield for Cruelty"

 

If you hate reading or think Santiago’s writing is “too long”
— use a voice generator (online & free).

Voice Generator (Online & Free) 🗣️

If you look at the heart of the message across scripture — not the cherry-picked soundbites twisted by self-serving preachers, not the sugarcoated lines bent to fit the comfort zones of people who want God without His demands — but the full, unbroken picture from Genesis to Revelation, it is impossible to miss the truth that God’s command leans heavily, consistently, and unmistakably toward protecting, uplifting, and defending those whom society pushes aside. The Old Testament doesn’t tiptoe around this; it lays it out plainly with laws that demand care for the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner, leaving no room for excuses, no loopholes for selective compassion. The prophets, fiery and unyielding, thundered against rulers who exploited the poor and fattened themselves while others starved, warning that such arrogance would collapse under God’s justice. And when Jesus Himself walked this earth, He didn’t seek the company of the rich, the polished, and the politically favored — He ate with outcasts, touched the untouchable, defended the voiceless, and broke every social line drawn to keep the “undesirable” at a distance.

There’s a thread here — a holy, unbreakable thread — running from the Law to the prophets to the very life of Christ, and it tells us this: God measures a people not by the titles they hold, not by the power they wield, not by the wealth they stack up in barns, but by how they treat “the least of these.” And when Jesus said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,” He wasn’t speaking in flowery poetry to make us feel warm for a moment — He was issuing a standard for living that cuts deep enough to expose the truth in every heart. What He was saying, in plain terms, is this: “If you claim to serve me, then you had better be found serving them.” That means lifting them when they’re knocked down, speaking when they’ve been silenced, defending when they’ve been attacked, and refusing to vanish into the background when injustice is unfolding right in front of you.

And this kind of fight isn’t born from ego, or rage, or tribal loyalty, because those things rot from the inside out — no, this fight comes from a love so fierce, so anchored in God’s own heart, that it will not stand idle and watch the oppressed be crushed. God’s people were never called to be spectators; we were called to be protectors. To side with the marginalized is not a political position; it is a sacred alignment with the heartbeat of the living God. If you’re looking for where God is in the chaos of this world, He’s not sitting in the cushioned seats of the powerful; He’s in the refugee camp, in the prison cell, in the cold corners of the homeless shelter, in the tear-streaked face of the one the world rejected, and if you cannot see Him there, then you have not truly seen Him at all.

When you study history — and I mean actually study it, not just skim headlines or repeat the slogans someone spoon-fed you — you start to notice that there’s a cycle as old as power itself, a blueprint that every authoritarian movement seems to follow without even changing the cover page. They always reach for the same weapon first — religion. They wrap themselves in it, drape it over their shoulders like a robe of false righteousness, and claim that their authority has been stamped, sealed, and blessed by God Himself. Then, with breathtaking arrogance, they declare that anyone who dares to resist them is an enemy of God. This isn’t new. It’s older than the Crusades, older than monarchies that ruled by “divine right,” older than the false prophets that the Old Testament warned about — and in our time, we’ve watched it dressed up and paraded again.

They take the Bible — a book that is a living record of God’s heart for justice, mercy, humility, and the defense of the oppressed — and they don’t receive it as a whole, they strip it for parts like a thief gutting a stolen car. They keep the verses they can use to control other people’s personal lives, but they throw away the ones that call out their own greed, their pride, and their hunger for power. And if you read your Bible with open eyes, you’ll see this is exactly what corrupt kings and abusive religious systems have done for thousands of years. This is how the medieval church justified bloodshed, how empires excused slavery, how every so-called “righteous” regime turned their cruelty into a sermon and called it God’s will.

That’s the poison in this tactic — once they convince you that God is automatically on their side, they don’t just have your vote or your support, they have your conscience. They’ve planted a seed in your mind that says, “If I oppose them, I’m opposing God,” and once that lie takes root, they can commit any cruelty and still have you applauding. Tear gas peaceful people? That’s “God’s will.” Slam the door on refugees? “God’s will.” Cut off help to the poor? “God’s will.” And with every act, they baptize their cruelty, they dress it up in a choir’s harmony, and they march it proudly through the streets as if heaven is applauding.

But the tragedy — the deep spiritual tragedy — is that real faith gets pushed out in this setup. The kind of faith the prophets spoke of, the kind that Jesus Himself lived, the kind that doesn’t serve the powerful but lifts up the broken — that faith becomes the enemy. Anyone who dares to repeat Christ’s own words about feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and welcoming the stranger is branded as dangerous, unpatriotic, or even “godless.” But the truth is, that’s the only faith worth having. Because worshipping God is not the same thing as worshipping power, and using His name to prop up your greed is nothing short of blasphemy.

Strip away the flags, strip away the slogans, strip away the cherry-picked Bible verses taped onto political talking points, and what you have left is the oldest power scam in the book: convince people you’ve been chosen by God, label all dissent as heresy, and then hide behind “faith” while you chase control, crush your enemies, and guard your wealth. If you replaced the hats and rallies with thrones and crowns, it would be the same story we’ve been telling since kings first found preachers willing to sell out truth for influence.

And here is what they will never be able to change no matter how loud they shout it — God is not mocked. His word says He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, and history has shown over and over that every empire, every ruler, every movement that twisted His name for their own gain has eventually crumbled into dust. When you walk around boasting that God has anointed you, yet your footsteps crush the very people He commands you to protect, you are not standing with Him. You are standing in His way. And the God of Scripture has always, without fail, had a way of moving people like that out of the way — and when He moves, He moves swiftly.

— Santiago D.C. Maria

#GodIsNotMocked #FaithOverPower #TruthInScripture #StandWithTheLeastOfThese #HolyJustice #ScriptureNotSlogans #ProtectTheVulnerable #HeartOfGod #BiblicalTruth #NoToFalseProphets