Sunday, July 7, 2013

Christianity Under Attack

I'm not one of those Christians that goes around complaining constantly about how Christianity is under attack.  I would cringe a little whenever a Christian would start talking about how everyone is out to get Christians and how the whole world hates us and wants us out of our schools and government and any other public forum.  In fact, I wondered for a long time if Christianity really was under attack at all.  Were we just being a bunch of whiners because we weren't getting our way anymore?  Was this just a ploy by some to create mass hysteria?  Were we just xenophobes, afraid of the new, strange religions foreigners were bringing to our country?

I think most of my Christian friends would be surprised with how long I struggled with this question.

And struggle I did...until the scales finally fell from my eyes last Sunday.  Perhaps this has been obvious to everyone else all along, but just in case it's not, I want to preserve it in the blogosphere for anyone who questions whether Christianity is really under attack.

The answer is, yes, Christianity is very much under attack, but it is not under attack from militant atheists, radical Islam, New Age practitioners, secular humanism, or cultural relativity.  Christianity is under attack from the enemy himself and it just adds more evidence that Christianity is "the way".

Christianity is under attack because of what it is.  It is the one true religion by which we all can be saved.  And Satan knows that.  Christians may blame atheists, muslims or whoever else, but they are just the tool of the moment in Satan's hands.  If suddenly all the atheists decided to "coexist" with Christians, Satan would just find another tool.  We aren't up against certain nationalities or certain groups of people.  We are up against evil itself, and he is going to fight hard.  He will fight the fight against Christians until the end of time.  We better get used to it in some shape or form.

Christianity is also under attack because of its messages.  We believe that Christ is the answer to our longings, that all things are possible through Christ who gives us strength.  Anyone else who wants to fill our longings and give us strength are going to be mad about that!  Marketing is all about trying to convince us that we need something that we may or may not actually need.  Government tries to convince us that it is the answer to our problems, not some man who walked the earth 2000 years ago.  As soon as we say Jesus is number one, everyone else is going to try to kick Him out of that place.  And it doesn't matter if it's money, alcohol, Buddhism, gardening or skinny jeans.  Everything is fighting for that top spot that should be Jesus' and his alone.

Finally, the message of grace invites others to attack us.  Grace is the one thing that separates Christianity from every other world religion.  And it makes sense why others want to attack us over it.  Other religions try so hard to keep their believers in line with a long list of rules and good deeds, that they don't appreciate some other religion coming along and saying that none of that matters.  We don't have to earn Salvation.  Our religion hinges on a gift, an incredible act of love.  If you receive that gift, you are welcomed into Heaven.  If not, you're not.  It flies in the face of everything inside of us that wants to be proud for what we accomplished.  There is nothing to be proud of in Christianity.  It's just a beautiful romance between us and the Creator of the Universe and we don't try to win His love.  He ravenously pursues us and then loves us into His Kingdom.  That thought is beautiful and incredibly threatening at the same time.  People will always try to persecute us.  It's a sign that we're on the right track.

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