The past and current attacks on Christianity

The past and current attacks on Christianity

I have written from time to time about the progressive movement, which started in Germany in the eighteen hundreds and began to take over American universities at the turn of the century. It spread so fast that we had our first progressive president, Teddy Roosevelt, in 1901. From trust busting to railroad regulation, Roosevelt sought to expand federal power over a large swath of the American economy. He claimed to follow the Constitution, while simultaneously admonishing that the executive office should not be heavily restricted. He wrote in his autobiography, "I declined to adopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for the Nation could not be done by the President unless he could find some specific authorization to do it." This expansion of executive power in the government furthered and increased under Wilson, FDR, and LBJ. It is now the mainstream thinking that is indoctrinated into the minds of every citizen from kindergarten and on through university. It's fundamental teaching is that there is no absolute truth and that policies and rights must change with the times. All of this is pointed at one aim, wealth and power. The elites change the rules, regulate ad nauseam, administer without popular vote, and promote vague laws so as to remain in power and to get richer. Its main obstacle is Christianity. Ironically, many of them claim to be Christians while they blatantly pursue very un-Christian ways. They have to claim to be Christian to get votes in America, since we are still predominantly Christian, but Satan is scheming against that.

Christianity is the main obstacle against progressivism since it claims universal and eternal truth. The Bible claims immutability and that it is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It condemns greed and injustice while it praises service, humility, and inner virtue. By valuing the ethics of Christianity, the populace will always "vote the bums out." Our founders, mostly Christian, and well learned in history, knew that tyranny and despotism fell upon societies and kingdoms that abandoned these principles and so, when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, they referred to the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." These "Laws" are from God and when lived under by man, man secures freedom for natural rights, and most importantly, freedom for the Gospel.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.[Declaration of Independence]

Woodrow Wilson boldly stated that in order to understand this document, the first two paragraphs have to be ignored. Woody so crazy!!

So we're not surprised to find that the Declaration of Independence is another major obstacle for the progressive movement. In effect, they need constant change of laws and rights, massive regulation and administration, a huge centralized government, and the ability to make policy without the consent of the governed, and they have succeeded greatly in this endeavor. By doing so they maintain great power and wealth. And - they are a club. A great many people are in the club, but many more are excluded. They wield power over education, administration, taxation, redistribution of wealth, the environment, you name it. The only institution they have yet to fully regulate is the church and she has been the latest entree on the progressive dinner plate. I feel pity for "the club" because just like the crowd around the cross hurling up insults to the Lord of Glory, they know not what they do. MAT 16:26-27 "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds."

These progressive elites and their followers are simply pawns of the devil. I don't think their leaders visit with Satan to receive instruction like Darth Vader did with the Emperor in Star Wars. "What is your bidding my master? (asthmatic breathing sound)" It is much more likely that they are pawns of the devil simply for the money and the power. It is really simplicity itself. Their conscience is seared to the point of numbness while they increase greed and injustice. It's not that money itself is evil, but the love of it is. The immutable word makes this clear. 1TI 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.

Yet this is Satan's temptation to them as he did to the Lord: LUK 4:6-8 And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. "Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." And Jesus answered and said to him, "It is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'"

Rather than anger against them, we Christians should have pity for them. They really don't know what they're doing. They are exchanging a few years of fatness in life for eternity away from God. "What will a man give in exchange for his own soul?" A beach house, a yacht, an office in government, a facelift?

In order to maintain power they must maintain progressivism so that they can change and adapt policy for their own ends. If the general population returns to divine establishment morality and the churches return to foundational, grace oriented teachings, and they start to fill up again, the bums will get booted out. In essence, it is the American people who are to blame. These progressive elite would have never had a chance in a nation that maintained its foundational core.

The people are tempted as well. You don't get something for nothing in the world system. The people are promised free stuff, but not a lot of it mind you. They are promised the necessities of life without work, striving, endeavoring, or risking. In his State of the Union Address in 1944, FDR proposed a second bill of rights or economic bill of rights. In it he stated that the government should guarantee: employment, food, clothing, leisure, farmer's rights to a fair income, freedom from unfair competition and monopolies, housing, medical care, social security, and education. This may sound like a lot, but the worker pays the taxes for all of it. Compared to the wealth and power of the elite this is pittance. Yet, this began to sound good to the people and the progressive machine revved up, billowed black smoke, gained speed, and ran over the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and aimed itself at the Christian church. Satan is using them to finally make it illegal in America to openly teach certain truths of the Bible. This has been in the works for a long time, mostly behind the scenes until now, but it is coming to a head soon, and it is no longer masqueraded.

It may or may not surprise you that this is not new to America. This was also true in the Roman Empire during the very early church. Satan always shows his hand if you know what to look for. 2CO 2:11 in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

In the year 111 CE, Pliny the younger was appointed governor of Bithynia, on the northern shore of modern day Turkey. There were many Christians in the region - so many in fact that Pliny discovered that the pagan temples were almost deserted, and that the sellers of animals for sacrifice found few buyers. Pliny set to learn the practices of the Christians. He corresponded with the emperor Trajan and the conclusion was that Christians should not be sought out, for they weren't so bad as to be worth that kind of trouble, however, since Christianity was illegal, if a Christian were accused and refused to recant his faith, then he would be punished. Basically, this confusing and unfair policy was that you wouldn't be looked for, but if someone ratted you out as being a Christian, you would be brought before the authorities and told to deny Jesus and swear that Caesar was god, if you did not, you would be punished. Rumors were spread about Christians so that the gospel would be completely discredited all over the empire. Yet, it didn't have the effect that Satan has hoped for since Christianity became the main religion in the empire in just two hundred years. This is why the believer need not fear the current attack on Christianity. It will not stifle the gospel, for the gospel is far too powerful to be silenced. Be bold and stand for truth. There is nothing to fear. EPH 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Php 1:12 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel

The rumors about what Christians did in their worship and what they believed were all over the empire, and they ranged from the ridiculous to the downright atrocious.

Christians gathered every week in private to celebrate what they called a "love feast." They called each other "brother" and "sister," even to their spouses. Joining these facts together, non-Christians imagined Christian worship as an orgiastic celebration filled with eating and drinking to excess, then extinguishing the candles, and venting their lusts in indiscriminate and incestuous unions. Communion also gave rise to another rumor. Since Christians spoke of being nourished by the body and blood of Christ, and since they also spoke of Christ as a little child, some came to the conclusion that, as an initiation rite, Christians concealed a newborn in a loaf of bread, and then ordered the neophyte to cut the loaf. When this was done, they all joined in eating the warm flesh of the infant. Further, this rumor was made more credible by the fact that is was commonly known that when a Christian found an abandoned infant they would pick it up and take it home with them. This was fairly commonplace since the pagan population would abandon children they didn't want in order for them to die of exposure or be saved by the gods. Some even claimed that Christians worshipped an ass. I guess this originates from the fact that Christ rode into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass. They were also called atheists since they worshipped an invisible God. Christians also refused to attend civic and religious activities since they mostly revolved around pagan rituals and worship of the false gods. This enabled to population to claim that they were an ignorant despicable rabble who were uneducated in classical Greek philosophy, which they regarded as the highest intellectual achievement.

All this amounted to attacks upon Christianity when it was convenient to do so and when it was profitable to do so. If a person had a vendetta against a Christian, all they had to do was report them to the authorities for nothing more than being a Christian. It was against these things that the first Christian apologists arose, and what a wonderful job in defense of the faith. One such apologist, Irenaeus from the second century wrote: "Error never shows itself in its naked reality, in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself." Amen Irenaeus, that angel of darkness has been masquerading as an angel of light all along.

For the information on the history of the early church I referred to The Story of Christianity by Justo Gonzalez. His history is excellent.

Love and strength to the house of God,

Pastor Joe Sugrue

Grace and Truth Ministries