Things To Come: Mark Hitchcock On Growing Persecution

Growing Hatred Of Christians In America

Mark Hitchcock

The battle lines are being drawn, and we’re seeing a real clash of kingdoms....

 Jesus, in John 15, said this to his followers:

John 15:18-20 KJV – “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.”

We see a ramping up of this hatred against the people of God, against believers. In America, really, up to now, what we’ve seen in the last few years, it’s mainly been what I call a kind of low-grade or soft persecution. It’s more of a mocking, maligning, and marginalizing of Christians. But we’re seeing that now being ramped up. The rhetoric is rising, and more and more Christians are in the crosshairs because we stand in the way of Satan’s agenda—moving from low-grade and soft persecution to a more physical persecution against believers.

A couple of examples of this, back in 2015, at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, someone came into that school and killed nine people, including one professor, and wounded seven others. This was a religious persecution. He came into an English class at this community college, asked people if they were Christians, and shot them if they answered in the affirmative.

In fact, the person came in and said, “Are you a Christian?” and if they were a Christian, he’d say, “stand up,” and the Christians would stand up. Then he would say, “Good, because you’re a Christian, you’re gonna go see God in about one second,” and he shot and killed them. Clearly, this is an example of persecution against believers.

Many of you remember the tragic shooting killing 26 people at a Southern Baptist Church in Texas. There were 26 worshipers ranging from age five to age 72 that were killed. So again, another targeted attack against believers.

Now, this Nashville attack that we saw a few days ago has really brought out all kinds of terrible responses. What happened is horrific enough, but some of the responses to this really show a growing hatred for Christians in America.

One article title says this: “Nashville Christian school shooting: Leftists mock prayer as community reels from tragedy.” Here’s what the article says:

After the tragic shooting at a Nashville Christian school, some activists and media figures shamed Republicans who encouraged people to pray for the community and families of the victims. Following the horrific incident, progressives went into a frenzy on social media after people called for ‘prayer.’

David Pakman, who’s a progressive talk show host, said this:

Very surprising that there would be a mass shooting at a Christian school, given that lack of prayer is often blamed for these horrible events. Is it possible they weren’t praying enough, or correctly, despite being a Christian school?

Now think about that. In the wake of three young children being murdered, to have this kind of callousness come out and say, Well, maybe these people didn’t pray enough, or their prayers didn’t work.

Another statement that was made by Mervyn Warren, who’s a film composer, wrote that “prayer doesn’t work at all” in light of this horrific event:

The people at that Christian school in Nashville prayed that their children would be safe. How did that work out? Your mother-in-law was healed by doctors and nurses who went to school for years. Not by prayer.

Not only are they mocking prayer in the light of this and really mocking believers, but they’re also making excuses for this mass murder.

The Daily Mail, in an article, cited transgender activists as calling this school a “right-wing radical religious school,” with their headline reading, “Trans activists slam ‘radical religious schools’ in response to Nashville mass shooting in which three 9-year-olds were killed.”

They’re basically saying this person really had no other way to be seen than to carry out this mass murder.

Another headline read, “‘Hate has consequences’: Trans support group blames GOP ‘anti-trans legislation’ for Tennessee school shooting, calls Audrey Hale’s death a ‘TRAGEDY’ and demands media call shooter ‘he/him'” They’re more concerned about the pronouns that are used for this mass murder and calling the death of this person a tragedy rather than the death of these three adults and these three innocent children.

Another part of this article says:

A radical transgender activist group has claimed that the Nashville school shooter was driven to murder six people by an ‘avalanche’ of anti-trans policies and sentiment, adding: ‘Hate has consequences’.

So basically, it’s excusing these mass murders by saying this person really had no other option in light of these things that are happening. What we see here is an unparalleled coldness, callousness, and depravity.

Jesus said one of the signs of the times in Matthew 24 would be that the hearts of many will grow cold. We see an evil coarsening of our culture that’s taking place, and this is just an evil signpost on the road to Armageddon.

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