THESE ARE NOT NORMAL TIMES

We do not live in normal times. 

The American Government has partly shut down. Two weeks from now, the US government will not be able to pay its bills if the current deadlock between Democrats and Republicans is not broken quickly. 

In normal times the USA was a Christian country where Republican Party and the Democratic Party both stood for democratic freedom, Christianity, human rights, the rule of law and free market capitalism. 

• Fifty or sixty years ago, American politicians agreed more than they disagreed. They knew how to settle differences by negotiations. 

Then came the Vietnam War, the Hippie movement, the extreme youth culture, the Black Power movement, the Gay Rights movement, abortion on demand and the prohibition of prayer in schools and government institutions. 

They say that what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right; that black is white and white is black; bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. Isaiah 5:20 (TLB) 

In ancient Persia, enemies of the Jewish Prophet Daniel made a law forbidding prayer.

But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God. Daniel 6:10 (NLT) 

Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den but God shut the mouth of the lions. 

We must trust God in difficult times but passive faith is no good at all. It is useless to say: “God is in charge,” because God expects us to take a stand.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND. This is a NOT a political tract for the Tea Party.

Not all of the social revolution was bad.

• Many white Christian conservatives today honour Martin Luther King. Even in Alabama, many white veterans of the Vietnam War have a healthy respect for their black American countrymen, partly because of the success of the Black Civil Rights movement and partly because of their experience of comradeship with African Americans in battle. 

Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. Acts 10:34-35 (NIV) 

The feminist revolution has also had its positive as well as its negative aspects.

• The cultural revolutions of the last fifty years were absolutely necessary to restore women and racial minorities to their proper place, not only in society but in Christian churches.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 (NIV) 

Multiculturalism has also has its good and bad sides. Racism was like a cancer in North America, Europe and in the countries of the former British Empire. 

• However, when the dark spirits lurking behind Islam and other religions are given a place of honour next to or above Jesus and the God of Israel, then we know the hour of the Anti-Christ is not far away.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6 (NKJV) 

Some say the Anti-Christ will enforce militant Islam and others say he will invent his own religion to seduce believers from all faiths.

• But he will reject the Good News of Jesus who died to give you and me the free gift of God’s forgiveness and eternal life. 
• He will persecute all who stand for Jesus the Jewish Messiah and the only Son of God.

The spirit of Anti-Christ is already very strong and active in the world.

• There is a false tolerance which welcomes all faiths except the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
• There is also a dark alliance between political correctness, which claims to be tolerant, and militant Islam, which makes no attempt to respect the rights of women or of other religions.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. 

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:6-7 (NIV)

There is no middle way between the Way of Jesus and the popular beliefs of this world, either the secular beliefs or the so called World Religions.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! Galatians 1:8 (NIV)