Have you noticed how much the world seems to dislike Biblical Christianity? I used to think that maybe it was just me. Maybe because I was taking the Bible literally, it just seemed to me that people were angry at Christians. Well, I don’t think that anymore. Many non-Christians not only dislike us, they hate us. Even within Christianity, many liberal Christians who do not take the Bible literally have quite a bit of disdain for those of us who do. For those not taking the Bible literally however, I suggest you self-examine your supposed faith for whether it’s true saving faith. Heed the warning Jesus gave recorded in Matthew 7:21—23.
None of this hatred should be surprising though, after all, Jesus said:
If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 15:18, 19 (NKJV).
By that statement, we should not be surprised, but did you ever imagine that the day might come when Christians living inside the borders of the United States of America would be persecuted because of their faith?! This country was formed on the backs of Christians who left the tyranny of religious persecution in Europe, so what a turn of events it would be for persecution of Christians to come here.
We all know about the stories of Christian martyrdom of years long ago passed, such as Christians being fed to the lions in the Colosseum. Even modern day persecution stories outside the US are well known, such as that which recently took place in Orissa, India http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1067789/Christians-forced-hide-woods-new-wave-Hindu-violence-sweeps-India.html, and that which occurred in Turkey http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/April/Turkeys-Christians-Emboldened-after-Martyrdom/.
But in America? What is going on here?! I have noticed that over the last ten years (probably longer, but this is as long as I’ve been watching), the mood and tolerance of society at large in this country has turned venomously vitriolic towards Christians and our worldview. Now, I’m not talking about simple disagreement. There have always been people in this country who have disagreed with Christianity. I’m talking about hatred and silencing of Christians through political agenda and legal constructions. People reject and hate the Christian message because although it offers salvation from God’s pending wrath over our sin, it requires repentance from sin, which people usually love more than God, and trusting in the sacrifice of Christ alone, not in one’s prideful good works.
Don’t believe me that it’s happening? Consider this. What would you think if I told you that local governments throughout the United States were requiring permits for people to conduct Bible study meetings within their private home? What if I also added that people having just as many guests, if not more, who were having backyard barbecues or poker parties, needed no such permit? What if I further added that County officials* questioned Bible study organizers like they were criminals during their investigation of whether they were holding Bible study meetings in their home – some of the questions being, “do you pray?, do you praise the Lord?, do you say Amen?”
Read some of these articles linked to below that prove my point. Even though many of these acts of “legal” aggression towards Christians have been abated, the fact that it’s happening should be of grave concern to those of us who follow Christ.
Home Bible Studies Are Being Banned In Many Areas Of The United States
Calif. Home Bible Group Ordered to Stop Meeting or Get Permit
Southern California City Says Home Bible Group Must Get Permit
Banished! City Forbids Bible Studies In Homes
Couple: County Trying To Stop Home Bible Studies
Here is a compilation of similar stories written in 2006:
Zoned Out Of Worship
Think that this is only in isolated local governments? Well, think again, it’s happening at the federal level too. Leaders in our own federal security agencies and military are slowly but assuredly taking the position that those who swear allegiance to Jesus Christ, and believe He will one day return to be “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16b (NKJV)), are a threat to national security!
A military academic report has recently surfaced that was written by a US Army major, which argued that the Christian worldview is a danger to the security of our nation. Additionally, a year ago or so, our own Department of Homeland Security declared that one characteristic of “right-wing” domestic terrorism is being a Christian interested in “End-Times” prophecies. Below are links to each of these reports and articles discussing them. On their face, both of these reports seem somewhat harmless and cast only slight aspersion, but what they reveal is a gradually increasing intolerance and demonization of Christianity.
Army Report Says Christians Threaten Us Foreign Policy
Major Brian L. Stuckert, U.S. Army, Strategic Implications of American Millennialism
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA485511&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf
(Excerpt from Page iii of Major Stuckert’s Report
- click image for larger view.)
(Excerpt from Page 57 of Major Stuckert’s Report
- click image for larger view.)
Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Janet Napolitano Over Homeland Security’s Rightwing Extremism Policy
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political
Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment
(Excerpt from Page 4 of the DHS Report
- click image for larger view.)
Additionally, the legal groundwork is already being laid to prosecute and silence Christians from speaking their worldview, whether on a public street or in a church from the pulpit. I have already pointed out how many local governments are creating zoning laws to prevent home Bible study meetings, and how federal national security officials are leaning towards Christians who believe in the return of Jesus Christ as being potential domestic terrorists. More threatening I believe is the fact that recent federal hate crimes legislation has left the door open to criminally prosecute anyone who states that certain acts, specifically homosexuality, are sin according to the Bible.
The potential threat to Christians is as follows. If an official, such as a court of law, determines that certain speech indicating that homosexuality is sin seems to incite violence towards the now protected class of homosexuals, those who are caught saying such things can be prosecuted under the new federal hate crime laws, or even the local state laws pursuant to the federal understanding of what constitutes a hate crime. The statute states that it is not intended to restrict one’s freedom of speech or freedom to worship, however, if that freedom is determined to incite violence against another, it can be illegal under the new federal hate crimes law.
It actually sounds kind of reasonable, right? No one within orthodox Christianity wants to incite violence against anybody. The problem comes in when one is determining what conduct is considered to be “inciting violence.” Let’s take for example a situation where a man with either some mental instability or just plain old fashioned evil intent is sitting in church where he hears a sermon in which the pastor reads off Romans 1:26, 27 or 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10. Both passages clearly state that even from the New Testament message of grace and forgiveness, certain conduct is sin, including homosexuality. What if the man in my scenario then leaves the church for the local gay pride parade and mows down a bunch of parade goers with an automatic weapon?
Will the pastor be held responsible for that man’s evil behavior? One can currently be held civilly and/or criminally liable for injury caused by another for falsely yelling “fire” in a public building. It’s not a big stretch to connect what the pastor did in my scenario to the murder of the parade goers, especially for people who do not understand the nature of sin and how it relates to the good news of the Gospel. Under the statute, the courts simply need to make the determination that the pastor’s speech incited violence against the protected class of homosexuals attending the parade, and that speech had a causal connection to the murderer’s actions.
Read the words of the statute yourself. This is Section 4710(3) of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act:
(Click image for larger view.)
The fact that society is turning against Christians really should be no surprise. Jesus promised persecution would come:
Remember the word that I said to you, “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
John 15:20 (NKJV).
Speaking of the Great Tribulation, the greatest persecution of Christians (many being Jewish Christians) the world will ever see, Jesus said:
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Matthew 24:9—12 (NKJV).
My point in bringing this to your attention is to alert you enough to get out of your comfortable Christian mindset. I understand that it doesn't seem like persecution yet, but please be prepared for this, because it is coming. Such legal and political persecution is already present all around the world, including Europe. Still don’t believe me? Go stand on a busy corner in downtown Chicago simply holding up a sign that reads, “Jesus loves you,” and see how many expletives get yelled out in your direction, and how many times a police officer comes over to question you about what you’re doing. I’m not guessing here, I’ve seen and know of similar things that have happened.
Consider what you would do if confronted by law enforcement officials questioning you for your faith. I love the country God has blessed me to be born in, and I fully respect and support our law enforcement, and I’m sure you do too. But, would you deny Him? Jesus assured us, “[] whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:33 (NKJV). Please think about these difficult things. The time of the promised persecution may come upon you when you least expect it. Jesus promised better things to come, but with His strength, we may have to walk through some extreme trials and tribulations before we get there.
* I originally implied that a County Sheriff’s Department was doing the questioning, but I have not been able to verify that it was actually the Sheriff’s Department who interrogated anyone regarding home Bible study groups - nevertheless, it seems undisputed that the questioning did in fact come from County officials.
Update 5/3/2010:
Here is a story out of the UK that is right on target with the hate crimes legislation point I made. Although the preacher barely spoke about homosexuality, which was spoken about in context with the list of sins contained in 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, the police felt that what the preacher did say was offensive and loud enough to be heard by people passing by, and therefore illegal speech. This being a reality in the UK should wake us up to the real possibility of it coming here.
Christian Preacher Arrested For Saying Homosexuality Is A Sin
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7668448/Christian-preacher-arrested-for-saying-homosexuality-is-a-sin.html
Also, here is a very interesting interview on the subject by Mike Huckabee of Franklin Graham and author/columnist S.E. Cupp - pay particular attention to Franklin Graham’s concern about persecution coming:
Posts
Nice work. President Obama visited Quincy Illinois this week. A Tea Party with 65+ year olds protested with signs and a SWAT team was called in. The police, dressed in black with riot gear surrounded the Tea Party protesters. This is a sign of what Obama's team thinks like.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. Readers might enjoy Googling "The ObaMAD Legend" and "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy." Jon
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading my blog, and for your compliment Jon. I did Google the article “Pretrib Rapture Secrecy” by Dave MacPherson as you suggested. Although I haven’t found the actual article, I would be willing to guess that I wouldn’t agree with either his position or his style. I did find this article commenting on his work though: http://www.raptureready.com/who/Dave_MacPherson.html .
ReplyDeleteAlthough I believe that persecution is coming to our country and that the American Church will experience it (maybe even myself), I also do believe in a “Pre-Trib” Rapture of the Church. I just think that the persecution may come sooner than the Rapture. However, I absolutely recognize that I could be wrong, and in fact my pastor takes a “Pre-Wrath” view and I still gladly sit under his leadership.
For two reasons though I can’t say I would recommend the article you suggest. The first is that Dave MacPherson seems to come out very antagonistic over the issue, and that’s just completely inappropriate. One of my favorite Christian authors and apologists is Hank Hanegraaff, but in his argument against the “Pre-Trib” Rapture view in his book The Apocalypse Code, he too comes across way off base in his argument.
This subject is by no means a salvation issue, and should never be treated with such hostility. The great apostasy that seems to be going on in the “Church” is something to get hostile over, not the Rapture’s timing. I totally understand there are strong emotions over it, but none of us will really know until we are either flying through the sky to meet the Lord in the air, or being persecuted to death by the Antichrist. My view is to be prepared for either to happen.
My second reason is that it seems Dave MacPherson bases most of his argument on the “Pre-Trib” view coming into existence only over the past couple hundred years. I actually don’t believe that is a good argument. It has been shown conclusively that people (though admittedly a minority) have held this view long before John Darby Nelson came along in the 1800s. But even if that were not true, I believe that Daniel and Revelation both teach that some of the eschatological mysteries will only be understandable to those living at the time Daniel’s Seventieth Week comes.
As for the “The ObaMAD Legend,” I couldn’t find anything on it, except the other websites I assume you commented on, and maybe that was the point. The ones I looked at were interesting articles and blogs though. The only comment I have on it is that as someone who tends to get way too involved in political discussions, I think this is another area where we need to be careful as Christians.
Believers should be far more concerned about spreading the good news of the Gospel, and far less concerned about politics. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t express our opinions. I just feel that we tend to get way too worked up about who sits in the oval office.
Never forget that it’s God who raises up and dethrones kings. He put President Obama where he is, and he will remove this president in His timing. I don’t think that I’ve agreed with one single thing President Obama has done or said, but nevertheless, God will deal with him as God sees fit. We need to work at making more disciples, and make sure they understand the Scriptures rightly, and then they will make the right decisions politically. The only thing that will save this country is if more people (a lot more!) get saved by repenting from sin and turning to Christ through faith, and then the renewing of their minds will change this country.
Thanks for your comment though Jon. We might disagree about the timing of the Rapture, but I hope that we can agree that brothers in Christ can search the Scriptures peacefully together and discuss it respectfully, to God first and to each other second.
Joe Agnello