One of the most telling signals of these last days I want to point to in this essay flashes daily in the spiritual eyes of observers of these prophetic times.
We have become worse as a generation, just in America, than some of the most pagan of societies of past ages. I refer to the murder of more than 59 million unborn babies who have been sacrificed on the altars of convenience since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Abortion is indeed a religion of sort for those who worship the god of self rather than the God Who is the giver of life.
All of that said, I can think of no signal, sign, or attitude that more strongly signifies the lateness of the prophetic hour than that of the current, irrational anger toward Jesus Christ.
Those of us who hold to biblical values for maintaining sane, moral society and culture are accused of waging war on women, are said to be sexists, are called extremists of every description, or are designated homophobes and Islamaphobes. If we want an America like the Founding Fathers gave us and for which millions have fought and died, we are called judgmental and full of hate speech. We are insensitive, inflammatory, and in need of being locked away or sent for re-education/training.
The progressives brand us with all of the phobias they have coined or invented. They equate our belief system with irrational, schizophrenic behavior that is intolerant and that must be judicially dispatched so everyone else can forge ahead into a new age free of Christian restrictiveness.
They are absolutely right in one respect. It is the Christian worldview that is the holdup to wickedness being given free rein and/or reign, make no mistake. Paul foretells in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that it is the Restrainer–the Holy Spirit, resident within each believer–the Church, that is indeed holding back evil.
Islam is not considered in the liberal mind as being part of things gone awry. This is because the same father of lies directs this sort of thought process like he directs the perverted theology of Islam. Muslim thought and action are, for example, given almost complete non-culpable status around the world by a large portion of those within our political system and by mainstream news media.
This same spiritually dark thinking was made manifest in the Benghazi matter when a video–which practically no one viewed—was blamed for an uprising that murdered the American ambassador and others. The truth is that it was Muslim hatred–Islamist terrorists— that planned then perpetrated those ghastly murders.
One example of this was a number of years ago when the Nigerian Christian schoolgirls were abducted in Chibok. Rather than blame the Boko Haram Muslim terrorists, the Obama administration line was leaked that it was the Christian government of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan that was to blame for the abduction. It was proposed that if that Christian government had been less restrictive and more accommodating to those of Islam, the (group) would not have acted as they did.
That American president from the very beginning made it clear that he viewd America as a non-Christianity-oriented country. He announced right after taking the oath of office that this is no longer a Christian nation
Now, I’m not saying I disagree with his assessment. America certainly is moving fast and furiously away from the docks of Judeo-Christian moorings to which this ship of state was safely attached by the Founding Fathers. But, it was Obama’s administration’s constant and consistent support of or silence about judicial action against Christians that was so starkly disturbing. I will just mention a few very brief examples here of the hatred by governmental agencies and others for Christian, Bible-based thought. These were from several years ago, but the Christ haters still strain at the bits to punish and destroy Christian businesses.
I could cite dozens, and I’m sure you’ve read or heard dozens of examples yourself.
These post-Christian-era bastions of “toleration” call Christian “homophobes” and “Islamaphobes,” and accuse Bible-believing people of being “haters.” But, it is becoming increasingly obvious that they, themselves, are victims of the reprobate thinking–the turning toward insane ways of thought, as given by the apostle Paul in Romans, chapter 1.
They are “Christophobes.” They fear and hate anything to do with Jesus Christ. They see what is represented by His Holy Name as inflammatory and intolerant.
This doesn’t surprise. As a matter of fact, it is a major signal of where we are at present on God’s prophetic timeline.
Jesus said: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.” (John 15: 18-21)
Marginalizing Christianity is reaching epic proportions as LGBT, in particular, threatens believers in business and in church. Taking the discrimination to new levels beyond targeting businesses to provide service that force owners to defy the tenets of their faith, when the shoe is on the other foot LGBT business owners flatly refuse all service. For clarification – these two responses to providing service are not equal.
Anti-discrimination laws, such as the one to be argued before the Supreme Court of the United States, have supposedly been enacted to protect individuals from being refused service based on their sexual preferences, ethnic or racial make-up. Evidently, the laws seem to be exclusionary of protecting persons with religious convictions. Hence the Masterpiece Bakery, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case.
As of October 10, 2017, Mississippi enacted a law specifically designed to protect faith-professing individuals from having to act in opposition to their beliefs. It seems, however, that some business owners of the opposite persuasion, i.e. LGBT, seem to think that discrimination is acceptable if it is against a faith and its practitioners they may happen to despise.
Looking at the situation that arose in Seattle at a coffee bar owned by a gay man, he felt it was his duty to eject patrons who had not confronted him with any objectionable activity, dress or language. Using the foulest utterances that he could contrive, he refused to allow Christians to sit in his establishment once he had discovered their religious beliefs. They had not confronted him or made mention of anything regarding religion or his personal preferences. They were there to make him money without infringing on his lifestyle in any way.
This is not what anti-discrimination laws uphold. The discrimination in both instances of the SCOTUS case and the Seattle barista meltdown was on the part of bigoted LGBT advocates against adherents to Christianity. One in attempting to pressure Christians to bake a cake for a religiously objectionable ceremony, the other was simply putrid hate for people who disagreed with a preferred lifestyle, even though the Christians made no offensive comment or confrontation.
In the first case, the business owners were happy to supply any other service except one that flouted their religious convictions. In the second case, the business owner refused service to customers based on their religious conviction.
It comes down to understanding that discrimination does not go only one direction; it is applicable to all parties. LGBT are not exempt from being discriminators, any more than persons of color, creed or a specially recognized religion (read: anything other than Christian or Jewish), in order to denigrate, defile and demonize every being whom disagrees with them.
In both these cases the perpetrators of prejudice and discriminatory practices happen to represent the LGBT community.
Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways.
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