Few Christians today would debate the assessment that America is stuck in a moral and spiritual swamp. While politicians and ‘progressives’ market short-sighted solutions to all the world’s problems (which amount to little more than ‘a Band-Aid on a bullet wound’), the cancer of an atheistic, humanistic, materialistic worldview spreads. The ‘internal bleeding’ of our national corpus is more evident by the day.
Ironically, but not surprisingly, for Satan promotes all that is against God, those who should and could be the ultimate solution to this moral quagmire who are coming under the greatest attack. Christians, who possess the saving message (the gospel of Jesus Christ) and God’s truth for life (the moral teachings of Scripture), are today increasingly the target of the purveyors of moral decay; they seem to instinctively know, following their ‘spiritual father’ (see John 8.44), that they must discredit God, the Bible, and Christians.
For those of us facing this escalating attack, a wonderful study is the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah faced a withering attack from the godless society around him. Increasingly, he found himself isolated from his own countrymen. In an especially poignant exchange, Jeremiah calls on God to crush evildoers, but God replies by exhorting Jeremiah to get tougher: “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” (Jer. 12.5) We might paraphrase God’s warning this way: Whatever you are facing now, worse times lay ahead, so get tougher!
Numerous isolated cases in the US and Canada in recent years have exposed the rising anti-Christian tide, but it is growing incessantly. In the last month, the California Senate passed a resolution telling Christian clergy to accept and support LGBTQ ideology, even if doing so violates their Christian beliefs. The resolution also condemns counseling for unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion, known as conversion therapy.
The goal? To “gather support for LGBTQ identity and behaviors.”
Despite the testimony of more than two dozen doctors, counselors, former homosexuals, and other Christian leaders condemning the resolution, which violates religious freedom, supporters declared that “religious liberty does not apply here as it amounts to discrimination.” One ministry leader stated bluntly that this resolution “sets the stage for future laws that will criminalize pastor caregivers.” Are we ready for this?
On other fronts…A presidential candidate who openly claims to be a Christian and is married to his homosexual ‘husband’ is applauded by the news media for his open-minded ‘Christian progressive perspective,’ endorsing and embracing what God calls an ‘abomination’ (Lev. 18.22). Christians feel the pressure to abandon the clear teaching of Scripture. Will we stand strong for truth?
Major news networks (I use terms loosely) call Christians ‘hypocrites’ because they do not oppose everything President Trump does (as if they can’t back any of his policies without approving everything he does). One host attacked ‘Christian conservatives, including Vice President Mike Pence’ for endorsing judges who do not support ‘reproductive rights’ (abortion). Some politicians have openly suggested that men and women of faith should be disqualified from serving as judges. How will we respond when professing faith in Christ is a crime?
The ‘footmen’ of godless humanism are ‘on the march,’ but let this be a time to get stronger. Make time to pray, and to read, meditate on, and memorize God’s Word. Get in a small group of believers to grow your faith. In the days and years ahead, surely ‘the horsemen will come.’