Having Done All, STAND…

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The last ten years have not been good for American Christians.

In November 2004, President George W. Bush was re-elected in no small part due to American opposition to redefining marriage. Social conservatives carried the day, sending Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) to a narrow defeat.

Since then, the pitch has been downhill.

In spite of victories at the ballot box, Christians and social conservatives have endured an offensive of major proportions, as

(a) the judiciary in several states have ignored thousands of years of law, fact, and history by overriding the expressed will of the people and redefining marriage via judicial fiat;

(b) federal courts have weakened existing state laws restricting the definition of marriage;

(c) courts have forced Christian-owned businesses to cater to homosexuals wishing to pervert Biblically-defined covenants;

(d) at least one CEO of a major company–Brandon Eich of Mozilla–was forced to resign when his support of historical marriage became public. While Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, and the Robertson family of Duck Dynasty fame were able to push back successfully, smaller businesses and people of smaller financial means have been forced out of jobs and out of business;

(e) Christian chaplains in the military are under unprecedented assault from secularists. An Army Ranger Chaplain–Capt. Joseph Lawhorn–was given a career-ending “letter of concern” for the capital crime of sharing Biblical references in a suicide prevention class. Wes Modder, a Chaplain for Navy SEALs who, in his most recent evaluation was praised as “the best of the best”, now faces dismissal for holding to Biblical teachings regarding homosexuality;

(f) polls show that a critical mass of Americans now supports redefining marriage; the Supreme Court of the United States, barring a last-minute change of heart, is poised to redefine marriage in a “landmark decision”;

(g) Revealing what goes on behind the scenes at major companies, an accomplished software engineer of portly size and Christian persuasion was denied a job at GoDaddy.com in no small part due to his Christian faith.

ESPN, in an insult of great irony, tipped its hat to a former gold medaling athlete and proceeded to give Jenner an award for courage, ironically named after Arthur Ashe, a tennis legend who contracted AIDS from a tainted blood transfusion and who chided the culture of promiscuity in his last days.

Jenner may embody the remaking of American manhood and the triumph of feminism. Once the media celebrated him for his stellar decathlon performance in the 1976 Olympics.  Nearly 40 years later the media again celebrates Jenner, a man surgically and hormonally feminized, for he is largely its own creation.

That three percent of Americans who self-identify as homosexual are being permitted to redefine marriage, have been a wedge to abolish common law, and are given free rein and massive tax dollars to ramrod humanism down the throats of young Americans–dismissing objectors for thought crimes–is surely reflective of a Christian country under siege or conquered. In fact, the onslaught is of such sufficient magnitude that some progressives are expressing alarm at this attack on free speech and thought.

Kyle Smith calls it a “massive, silent, cultural revolution”, but he’s wrong on one front: while this “cultural revolution” has been massive, it has been anything but silent. The “gay-rights” lobby with their members and allies in Education, the mainstream media, Big Business, and Entertainment, have force-fed sodomy on America for most of the last seventy years.

This is all bad news for Christians. Standing up for your faith, as Wes Modder and Joseph Lawhorn have shown, can be a career-ending move. That Lawhorn had a Ranger tab and Modder was regarded as ‘the best of the best” did not spare them. That Eich had proven himself at Mozilla was a moot point; when his support of Proposition 8 hit the airwaves, he was out of a job.

And when you lose a job, or get sued by a gay couple, or get denied a job in spite of impeccable accomplishments, you’ll learn fast that your real circle of friends has a shorter radius than you ever thought possible.

Jesus called it: “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

Your only defense is to prepare for the day when you may be forced to walk the talk. Now is the time to consider developing your exit strategy from your job and into an independent business.

Jeremiah guides us on how to “stand” in Jeremiah 29, there the prophet wrote to the people of God during Daniel’s time.  Jeremiah declared captivity would last a long time.  Like the time it took to devolve, the captivity was going to last 70 years.  So what to do: The prophet directed the people to stand by having children and becoming a mighty people, to plant gardens (control your own sustenance) and to be independent – without causing a lot of trouble because remember Babylon is not your home.  Sound familiar?

At the same time, this is not solely about money.

Are you walking in integrity in your personal affairs?

Husbands: do you love your wives as Christ loved the Church?

Wives: do you submit to your husbands as to the Lord?  And Couples is your marriage bed “undefiled?”

Singles: do you eschew sexual immorality?

Pastors: do you provide uncompromising preaching and counsel, rightly dividing the word of truth, and walking in freedom from food and sexual appetites that enslave and ensnare?

Everyone: do you conduct yourself in a way that is honest and compassionate?

That may not save you from this present world–as Jesus did not promise that we would have easy lives–but it provides a witness to the only hope for the world while giving a howling reproach to a world that is rife with immorality, dishonesty, rebellion, and a fundamental disregard for that which is good.

Our founders understood that the long-term viability of the Republic is dependent upon the character of the American people.

The United States was founded on Christian principles by imperfect Christians; the common law that underscores our justice system is rooted in Scripture and predates our very Constitution by nearly a millennium.

We have resolved our gravest civil crises in no small part due to our Christian heritage.

Our Cold War victory would not have been possible but for the Christian. When President Reagan spoke of America as a “shining city on a hill”, he was calling attention to our Christian heritage.

John Adams, admonishing our troops, summed it up well:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

We are past the point where merely electing conservatives will materially change our course as a nation. It matters not whether our elected officials are Democrat or Republican. Not only is the corruption so entrenched in our institutions at every level, at least two of the last three Republican Speakers of the House–Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert–were involved in grievous sexual indiscretions.

Moreover, if Gallup is correct, Americans are drifting away from the plumb line of Scripture as our guide which translates to further erosion of our justice system.

While Jesus promised that not even the gates of Hell would prevail against the Church, neither did He promise that His people would be without hardship in captivity, if the greatly lauded Daniel is any guide for us. Indeed, Christians are under severe persecution in the Middle East, Africa, and China. In post-Christian Europe, Canada, and the United States, it is becoming apparent that Christians are increasingly dwindling and unwelcome.

It is evening in America.  So to the awake and alert dare to be a Daniel, take your precautions for the future and your time of testing as you deal with America’s “new normal.” And know the only quick remedy to reclaim the Republic is the Light once again shining upon us from another Great Awakening.