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To the Editor:
Thanks to the Elizabethton STAR for the information about the evil foundation Religious Freedom asking the City of Elizabethton to remove crosses and a Christian banner from atop Lynn Mountain. It made me proud to see Hunter Memorial Baptist giving out hundreds of crosses they had made. It was great to see the Star giving out yard signs saying, “Save Our Crosses.”
I couldn’t be prouder to live in a community where 97 percent in the Star’s survey favored keeping the crosses. “Whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven,” says Matthew 10:33. Elizabethton will never deny Jesus and His finished work on the cross to pay our sin debt! Today, people are more intolerant than ever and want to get rid of or cancel anyone or thing that hurts their feelings, especially Christian. There was a real conspiracy to cancel Jesus almost 2000 years before cancel culture was popular in America. Herod tried to cancel baby Jesus by killing all babies under two years old. The Romans and Pharisees did the ultimate cancel to Jesus when they nailed Him on a cross. They thought they had cancelled Jesus until three days later when they found out it’s impossible for the creation to cancel or kill the creator. Now, Jesus is alive and stronger than ever and worked their evil for good. They thought killing Jesus on the cross would cancel Jesus but Jesus used it for good by canceling our sin instead. Jesus is risen and returning to rule and reign on Earth after the seven-year tribulation. Satan has throughout the centuries taken some aspects of Christmas and Easter and connected it to paganism to try to undermine it. It’s not about dyeing eggs but a dying Savior who loves us and paid our sin debt on the cross. Satan always tries to distract and twists the truth to try to destroy it in the minds of people. However, Christians aren’t about to let what the major media does or what Satan or the pagan world does stop us from celebrating the birth and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
At Easter on April 17, Christians have an opportunity and obligation to invite friends and family to church and let them know our greatest cause for rejoicing is in celebrating the historical fact that Jesus paid our sin debt in full on the cross and rose from the dead.
Easter makes Christians think about the cross Jesus died on for our sins. There’s no substitute for the cross even in our bodies. Scientists say a cross-shaped protein named laminin holds all of our cells together. The Bible says Jesus holds everything together in Colossians 1:17 and without Jesus everything falls apart. In the rubble of the 9/11 destruction a steel cross was found. It was a God provided reminder that Jesus is present even in tragedy 24/7. God provided a reminder with the 17-foot cross that nothing can separate Christians from Jesus and His love. Romans 8 lists 17 things that can’t separate Christians from the love of Jesus. Christians have always faced persecution and hardship and still do as COVID-19 reminds us.
God’s hands are heavy, even with Christians, in this life. God’s hands are heavy, but loving, as evident by the nail scars that go all the way through them. The Bible brings comfort by promising it’s impossible to be separated from the love of Jesus. That love was best demonstrated on the cross with the arms of Jesus open wide to receive us! Jesus ended the debate of which lives matter because Jesus died for all. Jesus says this blood is for you! Only Jesus is the perfect and blessed hope and gives those who love Him a perfect ending!
At Easter we celebrate the way Jesus’ death led to peace and new life. From the first Adam, God took a rib to make a woman, a way for humans to be natural biologically born. Also from the side of Jesus on the cross we see the blood and water that allows us to be born again spiritually. Hebrews 10 and other places in the Bible say there’s no mercy for those who reject Jesus and His blood. God the Father demands justice and is holy, righteous, good and loving. We can’t have a relationship with God without Jesus. God’s demand for justice and our unrighteousness requires that we pay for our sins forever in Hell unless we put our faith in Jesus only as our Savior, and Jesus becomes our righteousness. On Good Friday love met justice, mercy met truth and established the only way to have peace with God, and the place they met formed a cross!

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton