“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good news) of Christ, for it is God’s power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Rom 1:16 (Amplified)
There is a gargantuan three-way battle going on now and it is the battle for the soul of the Western world. Christianity is engaged in mortal combat with the forces of secular humanism on one hand and also battling the thrust of Islamism on the other. The two religions are also battling the onslaught of secular humanism whose grip on the West seems to be tightening by the day. Aligned with the secular humanists cause is the fifth columnist anti-God liberal agenda of those who claim to be part of the Church but who are actually undermining her mandate from within. Working hand in glove, they seek to fulfil their goal of imposing a composite religion – a mishmash of various religious beliefs, which actively stresses the oneness or unity of all faiths, on the world. The public expression of this agenda is political correctness; a spectre that periodically raises its head to deny us our God-given right to preach the Gospel.
Of course, there is nothing new about opposing the Gospel. This phenomenon predates the Church herself. The modern equivalent just seems more humane and at present works stealthily, but the goals remain the same – to constantly undermine and deny the power of God unto salvation and judging by what we can see, it seems to be making a good job of it. It constantly portrays the Gospel message as foolishness of the highest order and its adherents, the Christians, as gullible fools and propagates alternative thinking and lifestyle devoid of God’s influence. It seeks to write God out of the script in its false belief in the intrinsic goodness of mankind. It assumes that mankind will get better with time, but we all know the fallacy of this assertion given that the bible maintains that man is intrinsically wicked.
So, how does this anti-God thinking impact our daily lives as Christians? It seeks to intimidate us into keeping quiet about the Gospel by enacting laws and promoting a hostile atmosphere to the preaching of the Gospel. It seeks to make it uncool to preach the Gospel, which intrinsically has the key that unlocks the door to eternal life and deliver from eternal damnation. It purports ‘you can believe what you want, just keep it to yourself’. It seeks to shame us into not preaching the whole truth of the Gospel by dumbing down on those aspects it terms controversial and encourages us to seek common cause with those who deny the deity of Jesus Christ and refuse the centrality of His message. In essence, it seeks to kill us by stealth. So, how should we respond to this challenge to our liberty to preach the unalloyed Gospel? We first need to affirm the truth that the Gospel is peerless. Second, that there is such a place as hell, because God’s word says so. Third, we need to reaffirm our belief in the fact that Jesus is the only way out of hell, both temporal and eternal. Fourth, we must determine to stand our ground as we boldly and unapologetically proclaim these Gospel truths. Lastly, we must do the works with signs following. The eternal destinies of many depend on our faithfulness in standing our ground for Christ. Let the battle begin.
Prayer:
Father, just as the early disciples cried out to you under pressure, I call on you today to embolden me by your Spirit to preach the Gospel of Christ so that the world will know you and your name will be glorified through me in Jesus name. Amen.