If you take one look around at our warring society, it isn’t hard to see the glaring deficit in national unity. People are more divided today than they have been going back 160 years to the Civil War. Screaming, shouting, and even resorting to terror and violence against one another in the streets have become normal campaign tactics.
We are this close to the clear and visible launch of a second Civil War in America – and I believe the foundation has already been set for this conflict by those who wish to remake America into something alien, brutal, and immoral – in other words, devoid of God.
So where is the church in all this? The institutional church—the body of believers and each Christian – have been commanded by God to be “salt and light” to a broken world. Unfortunately, we are instead, in many places, radio silent, AWOL, missing in action, bunkered down, and/or invisible – especially when compared to other movements such as Black Lives Matter, social justice warriors, Antifa, feminists, LGBT activists, and pagan Democrats.
In a clear and convincing illustration of the spiritual battle before us, one side literally comes out in the darkness of the night, clad in black clothes and masks, where they perpetuate violence and destruction against peaceful families, elderly couples, law enforcement, and even church buildings. Yet, many church leaders remain quiet, while making feckless calls for unity and dialogue, as the battle rages on. Why can’t church leaders simply call out evil?
It is not hard to see the evil that is growing more powerful — it’s burning or closing down our churches, stealing or killing our children, condemning or silencing Jesus’s Truths, and canceling our Christian culture right in front of our eyes each and every day! Why do so many Church leaders pretend nothing is happening?
As followers of Jesus Christ, we know that true unity and peace can only be found in Christ Jesus and in the Truth that he spoke. Yet, so many pastors and clergy are terrified of the cancel culture and the prospect of offending parishioners, their neighbors, or the media. They’ve kept their salt in their pockets rather than applying it as a remedy to heal and preserve a Christian culture here in the United States – a culture that is dying right in front of their eyes.
Here in Washington, we are facing yet another round of Governor Inslee’s unconstitutional restrictions on church gatherings while the talk of canceling Thanksgiving and Christmas grows stronger.
Where or when this will all end is never part of the discussion or plan. No Thanksgiving, no Christmas, no New Years, no gathering whatsoever, until an arbitrary, unknown threshold is crossed and COVID case numbers improve to a level that has not yet been defined by leaders. More lockdowns, more freedoms taken away, more control than ever before.
The light is not at the end of the tunnel, only darkness is growing!
Let me be frank: very few churches stood up to the first round of these mandates. If they don’t stand up to this round, these restrictions and mobs may never go away. Those who hate Christians are more than happy to use a “public health crisis” or riot to undermine the influence of the church. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito reminded us of such this week, as well as the powers that the church possesses under the U.S. Constitution.
It’s time for churches, clergy, pastors, leaders, and lay people to decline to acquiesce to the Governor’s request and stand strong knowing that the U.S. Constitution is firmly backing them up their constitutional rights to worship freely. It is time to speak up against the evil growing around us. Otherwise, it will not stop.
This is not the time to timidly and invisibly stand by; churches, businesses, ministries, non-profits, and even families are in danger, and may never recover. If we are to ever overcome our divisions to fight the evil that comes from the darkness, our churches must do as Jesus commanded us, and repent from our sins and prayerfully let “..our light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Salt and light!
