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Many of us have been lucky enough to grow up living in middle or upper-class America assuming we have constitutional rights that include freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of religion. Life used to be so simple and we were “blessed” to live in freedom and material comfort. The reality is that most of the world has NOT had this experience and if we never leave our hometowns or backyards, we never see the realities of how this world really is.

Our new political reality in America and beyond is that in my lifetime we have quietly lost our constitutional rights that have been replaced by neoliberal policies and edicts that contradict most all the Judeo-Christian ethics our country was founded on.

The powers behind our empirical country have destroyed many historic foundations of justice with unconstitutional wars, the total undermining of our economic systems and currency, and unilateral persecution of any patriot who dares to challenge the secrets and evil doings of the “state”.

Just in the past 20 years, we have seen the devastation to any semblance of a moral “Christian” nation. The powers of global elitism have overrun a majority of our true freedoms or due process of law. “They” are now declaring themselves with absolute power to control the masses, control the flow of money, and completely erase any privacy or freedom you have to your possessions or money. In the natural, we are (or should be) very fearful of what is happening in our nation’s Capitol, the socialist controls of the European Union, the rise in power of Communist China both economically and militarily, and finally, the Davos World Economic Council featuring the global elite that meet every year in Davos Switzerland to plan their onward domination of all powers on the globe.  These are the powers behind all that is happening in this temporal world, and in the natural, there is good reason to be fearful or give up hope for justice and morality.

With the liberal institutions of man…from universities to health organizations to court systems…rearing their heads for power and controls, we face the paradigm change of cancel culture, claims of institutional racism, supporting rights for aborting 80+ million babies, paying for people’s transgender operations, and forbidding anyone including churches to speak out against the tyrannies supporting these anti-Judeo Christian ethics. Even well-meaning Christians are being indoctrinated to believe that “surely God has not said” that sodomy, fornication, larceny, and even murder are wrong…depending on the circumstance.

While most of my readers are located in and focused on USA politics and culture, I would suggest that Christians need to start getting “awoke” to the global cloud of perversion and power-mongering that is happening. They say power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  When you combine the unbridled power of global billionaires and mega-corporations tied to political regimes they support and pay for, it is easy to see the reasons for today’s global tyranny and cessation of freedom or rights.

In previous decades I used to think it important to work politically and intellectually to educate and inform the masses against tyranny. I have always been a lover of freedom and truth…even in the decades that I denied the truth of the Gospel of Christ. Now that my spiritual eyes have been opened, I see a lot less gray and a whole lot of black and white. If we learn and understand the Word of God, we are no longer confused or taken in by false leaders and doctrines of man. We understand that we are IN but not OF this current world system. We also KNOW that all of this will go away in time. The horrendous global systems we face will one day be replaced by the “New Kingdom” of Christ when He returns. That is what every true Christian lives and hopes for.

While no man knows the day or hour of His returning, we have a clear mandate of what we must do as Christians. First, we must allow the “renewing of our minds” to think and act differently than the world.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

“Come out and be separate” is another solid principle of the Bible. We cannot hope to influence or change the world by imitating or accepting the world as it is. It is obvious to me that the church has become too complacent in doing the work of the church, which is primarily to care for the less fortunate…the widows, orphans, the poor, and hungry. If we are not doing this, we are not functioning as Christians. This starts as individuals, then as families, and finally the community church body that needs to be doing these things.

We do not win the world by seeking fame and fortune. Today we elevate musicians, sports stars, and even ministers as idols in our lives.  We look for and support political leaders to follow or submit to. I would suggest that Christians today have allowed themselves to get too bogged down in the political, financial, and cultural processes of this world. We have lost our “salt and light”…

 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)

The church is being “trampled underfoot by men”. Organized religion has made a mockery of the basic and true Gospel of Christ.

It has become very clear to me there is no political solution to the world’s darkness. There is no religious or psychological/scientific solution to the sinful natures that control this world. Our hope is in the Gospel of Christ, and Him only.  All other solutions are empty and full of vainglory.

So how shall we then live in this dark age?

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (1Peter 3:15)

I am now striving to replace my former revolutionary, rebel spirit to be submissive to the will and Gospel of Christ. While in the flesh we might justify physical rebellion, civil war, and angry dissension against the powers that be…I am now convinced this is of my “old man” of the flesh. God’s ways are not our ways and He doesn’t need us to fight His battles for Him or come up with “our plan”. His plan is already well revealed in the Bible.

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:12-17)

It is a scary thought that “judgment begins at the house of God”. Throughout human history, God’s people have gone their own way, lost hope, and forgotten their mission to live holy and declare the Gospel of Christ to all the nations. We are living the results of that long-term failure. It seems evident that God is using these tumultuous times to bring out the true believers who are willing to speak out and act justly according to the Word of God versus live as one that is of the world. Each of us is now commissioned at some level to “speak truth to power”. We are to live in spirit and in truth.

As we speak truth to power, we must be prepared to suffer for it. We cannot expect evil people to respond positively to the Gospel of Christ or to live righteously.  So much of the “house of God” has lost focus of its mission. While I would love to embrace the new “prosperity and blessing” Gospel many Christians believe today, I fully expect in my mind and heart to be persecuted and to suffer in this world for the faith I profess and have within. If we are not ready to accept this, I think we must ask ourselves and our Heavenly Father where we are in disobedience.

We cannot successfully speak truth to power and live for ourselves. We do not speak up only to protect our possessions, rights, or other selfish ambitions. If we are full of self instead of the convicting Spirit of God, we will not be effective or real in our witness. If the beloved apostles of Jesus were all murdered for their faith (outside of John who was exiled to the Isle of Patmos), who are we to think we should escape similar treatment at the hands of this dark and perverse generation? When we speak truth to power, we must be ready and willing to pay the price. If it costs us our lives…well, “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Finally, as we approach Easter week commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord, true Christians must understand the call of discipleship. It is one thing to claim salvation and coast along through our short, otherwise meaningless lives. It is quite another to take on the cross of Christ and follow him as he has called us to. In this, there is no promise of prosperity, physical comfort or healing, or a lifetime of peace and happiness in this world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of this century’s most vivid examples of true discipleship which cost him his life before the age of 40 as he stood in protest of his country’s Nazi regime. While his calling was much more demanding than what God has placed on most of us, we should keep his writings and example in mind as we speak truth to power…

“But have we also understood that in all this God has wanted and yet wants to test us, and in all this but one question is important–namely, whether we have peace with God or whether we have hitherto lived merely in an entirely worldly peace. How much grumbling, and unwillingness, how much contradiction and hatred of suffering has come to light among us! How much denial, stepping aside, how much fear whenever the cross of Jesus began to cast even the tiniest shadow over our personal lives!….But God will take no one into his kingdom whose faith has not proven genuine amid tribulation and suffering. ‘It is through many persecutions we must enter the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14:22). This is why we must learn to cherish our tribulation before it is too late. Indeed, we must learn to rejoice in them and to boast in them.”

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditations on the Cross

God is separating the “wheat from the chaff”. Are we ready to sacrifice our lives and suffer as a follower of Christ and his cross? Are we ready to give up our fear of authorities and powers and even fear of viruses and pandemics in order to do the work of the cross? Are we ready to be the salt and light to a lost world while speaking truth to power?  I hope that each individual examines their readiness and that as a body of believers in Christ we are ready to march forward for the cause as unified brothers and sisters for righteousness.