Christianophobia in the Last Days
'Christianophobia' in the Last Days
I confess that when I was young in the Lord, I used to have trouble picturing one of the major elements of end times' prophecy. I always had trouble imagining Christian persecution taking place in the West.
I'd heard about Christians being persecuted in faraway lands during the Communist era, but that, somehow, seemed normal -- probably because all I knew of Communism was that it was godless and therefore, doomed to eventual collapse.
I never doubted the eventual victory of the West, because I knew God was on our side. I grew up in a world where the government used to fund broadcast messages admonishing me to remember 'to attend the church or synagogue of my choice' this Sunday. THAT'S why I knew, even when I was young in my faith, that we would win over the Communists.
How could a political system that regularly encouraged its citizens to worship the God of the Bible possibly be defeated by a system that imprisoned its own citizens for doing the same thing?
The answer is obvious. There is only one superpower in the world today.
But in recent years, the competition for that title has gotten serious. Russia is no longer a serious candidate, but both the godless United Nations and the post-Christian European Union think that they are.
Under the spiritual principles that have governed my entire adult life, that would mean they can expect to meet the same fate as the Soviets.
But America is rapidly entering its own post-Christian era, voluntarily stepping out from under the umbrella of Divine protection that has made it the safest, wealthiest and most powerful nation the world had ever known.
The Vatican has just coined a new word; "Christianophobia". Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's second-ranking diplomat, defined it in a speech given to a US-organized conference on religious freedom.
"It should be recognized that the war against terrorism, even though necessary, had as one of its side-effects the spread of 'Christianophobia' in vast areas of the globe," he told the conference.
Assessment:
Type the phrase 'Christian values' into Google's news search engine and most of the returns that come up are about efforts in America to stamp them out.
Stuff like designating a Christmas tree as a 'holiday tree' or explaining why school districts that order all references to Christ be dropped from what are now called 'holiday pageants' is a good thing.
A new greeting card released by Planned Parenthood for this Christmas season depicts a winter theme with snowflakes on the front above the words “Choice on Earth.” Inside, the message reads “Warmest wishes for a peaceful holiday season".
By replacing 'peace' with 'choice', the greeting card mocks the angelic proclamation of the Birth of Christ while linking abortion to the celebration of the birth of Christ.
Democratic strategist James Carville recently said that the Democratic Party had to be "born again" in order to reclaim the White House in four years.
Education, the arts, entertainment, architecture, public monuments, and many other areas of society in which religion was once honored or deferred to, have become thoroughly secularized as the Christmas holiday itself.
For the first time in American history, prominent individuals and established political movements, not to mention many movies and television programs, are openly atheistic and hostile to religion, seeking, in the name of liberal tolerance, to drive religion out of the public sphere altogether.
Or, to be more specific, they seek to drive Christianity out of the public sphere. Non-Western religions such as Islam are welcomed with open arms.
The only Christianity tolerated by these left-liberals is a desiccated Christianity that keeps up the external forms and formulae of the faith but no longer adheres seriously to any Christian beliefs that are distinct from those of liberalism.
The Apostle Paul described it as 'having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." (2nd Timothy 3:5)
Even conservative Christian leaders have given up the traditional idea of America as a basically Christian society and now subscribe to the liberal view of America as a level playing field where different beliefs, including non-Western beliefs, can strive for influence.
A Florida church advertises something called 'open baptism' . The church website also says, "Lack of 'belief' is not an obstacle to belonging or to participating at St. Christopher's by-the-Sea."
And in the words of a Fargo, North Dakota, cathedral's website: "Whoever you are and wherever you are on your journey of faith, you are always welcome at the table of the Lord."
A Boston Globe editorialist recently commented;
"The Christian agenda is one of exclusion. They want to take away our rights, not protect them. The constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage would be the first amendment enacted to take away rights from the people, not bestow or protect their rights. It is anathema to the spirit of the Constitution and our core beliefs as Americans."
An article in San Diego's North County Times opined; "There is no denying that the Christian religion was intertwined with government in our early days but that is not a reason to rejoice, because that very element brought out some of the worst features in our history."
The Boy Scouts are under constant legal attack because they require their members to express a belief in God. Thanks to their unwillingess to boot God out of their charter, most Boy Scout troops have been booted out of the mainstream.
Not only is it unfashionable to be a Christian in mainstream America, in some cases, it is actually illegal.
As Spanish philosopher Georges Santayana famously observed, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
The Nazi holocaust began with a systematic national campaign to blame the Jews for the world's evils. It began shortly after the 1933 election of Adolph Hitler. Six years later, the 'Night of the Broken Glass' signalled the declaration of open season on Jews throughout Germany.
Six years after that, more than six million Jews had perished at the hands of the most cultured and educated populations on earth at that time.
The Bible predicted a world-wide persecution of Christians and Jews in the last days, that will, under the administration of the leader of a revived Roman Empire, make the Holocaust look like a dress rehearsal by comparison.
The stage has been set. In a single generation.
"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." (Matthew 24:34)
Origianlly Published: December 4, 2004
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