The Bible says that persecution of Christians will escalate during end times. The groundwork for widespread persecution of Christians is being laid in our own country. Right now, there is a moral revolution in our country that is proceeding at warp speed, and with that moral revolution is coming a cultural rejection of Christians and what they believe. In America right now we are experiencing a moral revolution that will lead to the marginalization, and ultimately, to the criminalization of Christianity.
Al Mohler describes a three-stage process of how a moral revolution occurs in a culture. Remember, the Germans did not take the Jews to the crematorium immediately. Instead, they first marginalized the Jews in the culture. They made the Jewish people objects of disdain, contempt, and hatred. They said, “The Jews are different than we are. They are hurting our society.” Only after they had marginalized the Jewish people were they able to take away their rights, even their right to live.
That is what is happening with Christianity. Right now, there is an effort to marginalize Christians. People say, “Those Christians are bigoted. They are not good for society.” This marginalization of Christians will lead to the criminalization of Christians. We see that especially in the debates over homosexual marriage and gender identity.
Let’s look at Mohler’s three-stage process.
Step number one: what was condemned is now celebrated.
Homosexual marriage did not appear on the scene until 2001 in the Netherlands. Until then it was routinely condemned. Everybody understood that marriage was between a man and a woman, not just evangelical Christians but Jews and Muslims, conservatives and liberals. Yet suddenly, what was condemned is now celebrated.
Step number two: what was celebrated is now condemned.
The idea that marriage is between a man and a woman is being condemned routinely. Anybody who says marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman is marginalized as a homophobe, bigot, and hatemonger.
Step number three: those refusing to celebrate are condemned.
If you don’t join in the celebration of homosexual marriage, then you are a marked person. You will be condemned. You will have your business taken away from you. That is going to happen more and more and more. And it’s not going to be just against businesses, but it is going to be against the church as well.
Are you going to be ready? Jesus said that persecution is going to happen, and we must be ready for it.
There are many examples of suffering and persecution against Christians in this country.
In New Mexico, Christian photographers were sued by two lesbians under the state’s sexual orientation law after declining to photograph the lesbians’ commitment ceremony.
In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a teacher at Park Lakes Elementary School sternly ordered a fifth-grader to stop reading his Bible during free reading time. The teacher then left a voice mail for the boy’s father, telling him those books were not allowed in her classroom.
A colonel’s column was removed from an Air Force National Guard newsletter because the writer violated military policy by including references to Jesus Christ.
Two ministers in Ohio who own The Hitching Post wedding chapel were told they had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to a $1,000 fine.
A pro-life nurse at a hospital in New York was forced to participate in a late-term abortion even though the hospital had agreed in writing to honor her religious convictions not to participate in those abortions.
The Dallas VA Medical Center blocked local school children from giving Christmas cards to veterans because some of the cards included the words “Merry Christmas” and “God bless you.”
A Christian T-shirt maker in Kentucky was targeted by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission for refusing to print Gay Pride designs for a local homosexual group.
And on and on it goes. It is just beginning. And we shouldn’t be surprised.
Yet with this coming persecution comes a tremendous opportunity for the people of God. In Philippians 2:15-16, Paul was writing to a culture that was even more decadent than ours. He said, “Prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.” Paul was saying, “It’s getting dark out there, but remember this: the darker the background, the brighter the light.”
As this world becomes darker, the light of the gospel shines even more brightly. That’s why it is imperative that we take advantage of that light. Jesus said in John 9:4, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” The darkness of the world provides us a great opportunity to share the hope of Jesus Christ.
And never forget this: the night will be the very darkest just before the dawn of Christ’s appearing.