Monday Morning Music Ministry

4-29-19

News item: The murder of more than 320 Christians at Christian churches on Eastern Sunday in Sri Lanka is claimed by Muslim plotters to be an attack on Christianity.

News item: Hillary Clinton and other American politicians describe the victims not as Christians or Christianity but as “Easter worshipers.”

News item: In the first half of last year, 1870 Nigerian Christians were killed by Boko Haram and related Islamic groups, many of the victims schoolgirls slaughtered for their faith. “Sectarian violence,” many news reports describe it.

News item: The cause of the destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is still being investigated weeks afterward. But in the first two hours the French government definitively declared that “Muslim extremists were not to blame.” Meanwhile, an architect who will bid on new construction proposes that the ancient church add an Islamic minaret to its new roof.

There are increasing numbers of massacres of Christians, persecution of believers, laws banning confessing a faith in Christ, destruction of churches, and monitoring of worship in India, Myanmar, China, Pakistan, Egypt, and 83 other countries around the world. Even in Hong Kong, the “free” part of China. In France, prior to the fire at Notre Dame, almost 400 specific incidents of Islamic attacks on Christian churches were recorded this year.

The group Voice of the Martyrs has issued a downloadable country-by-country report on persecution of Christians around the world: https://vom.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2019-Global-Prayer-Guide.pdf

Another news flash – the hundreds of thousands of Christians who are persecuted and martyred every year, more in the last hundred years than all the years added together since Christ, did not die because of “computer glitches” or “faulty wiring” as liberals and secularists were quick to claim about Notre Dame. Liberals have a way with double standards.

Who are the instigators? The answer is not radical Muslims, or the Hindu, Communist, or Mohammedan governments. They are the enablers, conspirators, even the guilty culprits… but they are not the instigators.

Let us understand, even if we awake late in the game of cultural suicide. Instigation of Christian persecution and attacks on our cultural heritage is humanism, secularism, relativism; wearing camouflage outfits of democracy, “openness,” and tolerance. In the guises of politicians, educators, and the news media, they attack the time-honored traditions of Western society and our religious values. Their attacks are so constant, and insidious, that most of the sheepish public are persuaded to agree… even when people decry the crumbling social order.

By the way, I add our contemporary churches, except for remnants of faithful Bible believers, to the list of villains. How has being “welcoming” supplanted respect and pride in our traditions, and protection of our families?

The other instigator? No mystery. The Bible identifies the evil one in myriad places. Jesus Himself prophesied the sources, and He predicted what will happen to us… what is happening to us. Persecution, if you are a believer, is not mere bad luck. It is not a threat. It is a sad promise. Get ready as it comes closer.

If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you… If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you (John 15:18,20).

All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (Letter from Paul to Timothy, II Timothy 3:12).

Before Crucifixion, Jesus said, Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it (Mark 8:34-35).

Christianity aside (for the sake of argument; I do not believe it can be extricated) we can recognize that without religious moorings, America has lost its soul. But with indifference and hostility to morality, a sense of history, and self-respect, America has lost its way. The false religion of Tolerance pollutes our culture: to believe everything is to believe in nothing. And believing in nothing is what caused every previous notable civilization in world history to collapse, from within.

Forewarned is forearmed. Not to resist – resisting the true enemies – is acquiescence. Will we partner with those who hate us?

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Click: I Know Who Holds Tomorrow