Is Christian Persecution Already Here in the US?
“If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
Now I’m going to get into the weeds of some of what’s going on behind the scenes in case you are unaware but first… first we need to acknowledge a few things that we may be lacking as Christians and specifically pray this over ourselves and other believers.
1. Wisdom
James 1:5 says: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
2. Courage
How long are we going to be passive and appease ungodliness and wickedness? Jesus loves everyone but still spoke the truth about evil when He was living and breathing here on earth.
3. Thankful
Stop chasing conspiracy theories and instead focus on praising Jesus and pointing others to Him.
We have so sooo much to be thankful for if we would stop and take note of it. Our love for God should overflow and be contagious to others everywhere we go which will in turn point others to Christ.
“The healthiest of all human emotions is gratitude.” Hans Selye
Now into the weeds of what’s going on…
An FBI whistleblower reported to Kyle Seraphin just a few weeks ago that the FBI sent out an internal memo that warns against “radical traditionalist-Catholics”. Preference for Latin Catholic mass can amount to “white supremacist ideology”. The reasoning for this is because Catholics who oppose the LGBTQ agenda are viewed as radical extremists.
The whistleblower stated that the FBI “is going to go after radical, traditional Catholics, then radical traditional Baptists are next and radical, traditional evangelicalism and anybody else that espouses essentially what is radical, which is just a Christian faith and that is dangerous apparently in this country.”
Now is all this true or just some ridiculous notion? I don’t know. I sure hope it’s not true! I do know that Christians are being called all kinds of made up hate terms now…
Have you ever heard of the term Christian Nationalism? It’s a recently created term to incite and stir up hate towards Christians who are conservatives. Who else did something like this in years past? The Nazis.
“Christian Nationalism is an invented hate term. The nazis did this. They came up with the term judeo bolshevik.” John Zmirak
Don’t be fooled into thinking the government wouldn’t dare take our freedom of religion…
Media and different groups are already vilifying us with terms like “bigots”, “transphobic”, “intolerant”, “Christian Nationalist”, “white supremacists”, etc. Anything they can label us as to distract from the truth we share. We aren’t truly a free country anymore and we certainly won’t be one like our founders had in mind if we don’t have backbone like they did.
The Real Enemy
Have you noticed that the enemy has been working since the beginning of time to pervert and confuse truth? The enemy wants us to take everything the Lord has ever told us and twist the truth to what’s opposite of God’s truth.
For example, the movement of “pride” month… A friend and my husband recently pointed out that pride is literally the original sin and also known as “the cancer of the soul”. Pride is rebellion against God. Need I say more?
The real enemy behind all of this is satan, the father of all lies and confusion. He is wanting to flip the script on gender, marriage, sexuality, freedom, valuing human life, work ethic, etc. all originally created by God. Benham stated that it is happening in 3 stages – marginalization (pushing God out), demonization (happening now), and we’re just about to enter the criminalization phase here in America.
Faith, no matter what religion, plays a key role in the way our country operates. When we have people running around with no moral compass, no faith, who are attempting to call the shots, our nation will fall. Even Christians begin to buy into lies when “everyone’s doing it”.
We are a sovereign nation with rights to vote, it is “we the people” who place officials in office. Those officials work for the people so our voices are heard. We need to make our votes count and our voices be heard. If we don’t, there are repercussions for our children and children’s children.
Christians with no Backbone
The majority of our country supposedly identifies as Christian yet you’d never know it by what we’re seeing today. It’s the complacency, the urge to bury our heads in the sand, to make others happy that leads us into going along with what the majority of people and trends are saying.
We don’t want to ruffle feathers and draw any attention to ourselves. Christians who are buying into “evil being good” and “good evil” are one of two things… they’re either ignorant or cowards. I hope for their sake they are only ignorant.
As Christians, we can’t afford to be either one. We need to be well informed before we go along with the next trend and political movement. We can’t just jump on the bandwagon that sparks emotionalism. Then we need to be bold and speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves.
What do Christians have to fear? If we claim to be Christians, we don’t fear persecution, we don’t fear death. If we did, then we wouldn’t truly believe the Bible or be following it. We will stand before God and give an account for what we did and didn’t do. Then we will either live eternally in heaven or in hell.
If we believe we’re going to heaven, why are we so scared of death here on earth? Why are we so scared that people may not understand or like us? I’d dare say if you aren’t being labeled, mocked, and persecuted even in a small way, then you aren’t living your faith as God intended.
This isn’t the time for closet Christianity or to be scared into submission. It isn’t the time for churches to live in fear they may offend someone or lose government funding. The Church and the body of believers who make up the church must be bold.
Following Jesus’ Example
Was Jesus trying to tickle the ears of religious people and go along with things to be accepted? No. Jesus overturned tax tables set up in the temple. He called people out on their crap, their sin. He gave a voice to women and gave value to innocent children at a time when they had none.
He ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. He stirred up the towns He visited and was a radical of His time. Jesus said this to His disciples who He was sending out, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
John 3:17 says “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.”
It’s so popular right now to get caught up in the grace and love of Jesus but forget the just side of Him, especially as we mature past baby Christianity.
Jesus also told His disciples this:
“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother… if you love your father or mother more than you love Me, you are not worthy of being Mine…If you refuse to take up your cross and follow Me, you are not worthy of being Mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for Me, you will find it.” Matthew 10:34-39
Persecution is a very real thing that people from all religions have faced over the years and sets families against each other unfortunately. We shouldn’t be surprised because Jesus warned His 12 disciples and as Christians we’ve inherited this affinity of hate towards us by simply loving and following after Jesus. It’s crazy if you think about it, how ridiculous it is to fight and persecute others physically for what they believe. It shouldn’t be that way but it is.
We can’t forget that we were made in the image of God with our emotions and all. Yes God is love but God also gets angry and has a wrath like we do. If we forget that side of Him, we won’t have a healthy fear of Him and doing His will, even in the midst of adversity.
Jesus told His disciples “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.” He also said that not if but when the disciples are arrested to not worry how to respond because the Holy Spirit would speak through them. I know the Lord will do the same for us if it ever came to that.
The Bottom Line
Persecution is here in the United States but we shouldn’t let it stay. Freedom of religion and freedom to worship is why the pilgrims came here in the first place.
Remember, we can’t make everyone happy and someone somewhere is going to make things up and slander our names no matter what side we take in a matter. We must follow the example of Jesus in being shrewd, brave, and wise in living out our faith for an audience of One (God). There’s a proper time and place for things to be said in the right way.
“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.” Matthew 5:11-12
Next week in part 3, we’ll discuss good recent news and what we can do moving forward to boldly live out our faith!
A Prayer For Our Nation
Lord God, You are our only hope. Please forgive us and our nation for turning our backs on You, uprooting You from many things, and sinning against You. Bring a revival in every heart, mind and home and give us thankful hearts for You once again. Bring this nation back under You Lord, once again. Please heal our nation, protect Your people, and protect the innocent. Help Your sons and daughters live boldly and courageously to do Your good work You placed us here on Earth for with dignity and grace. In Jesus’ name, amen.