Standing Firm in a Hostile World

Standing Firm in a Hostile World
Everyone in the world today wants to hate on the Christian faith. Opponents of Christianity want to label the doctrines of Christ as hateful, bigoted, homophobic, divisive, and/or a plethora of other things. They want to believe that Judeo-Christianity is somehow a threat to societal progress, saying that the faithful are holding back certain human rights, privileges, and justice to the “marginalized, misunderstood, and maligned”. It seems like the never-ending barrage of attacks and assaults may never end. This isn’t anything new for the record. Christians have been societal “scapegoats” for two thousand years, highlighted by events like Neo blaming Christians for the woes of Rome, historians blaming Crusaders for the negative effects of the Holy Wars, and cake bakers for not bending to the will of same-sex weddings. This kind of thing has been going on for a long time.
For the sake of this article, though, let’s entertain the validity of such claims. Is it true that Christians have been holding back societal progress? Is it true that Christians are depriving certain subgroups of human rights and dignity? Is it true that the teachings of the Lord are hateful and harmful? The short answer is of course not. The long answer is a little more sinister than you might imagine.
Let’s consider the former first. The short answer to these claims is that there is no other institution, government, or idea that has brought more prosperity, goodness, benevolence, and hope to the world than that of the Christian faith. Churches, hospitals, educational institutions, business, nonprofits, emergency agencies, governments, and many other institutions that were founded in Jesus’s name; exploration, innovation, creativity, technology, scientism, music, architecture, etc. were all driven by the Imago Dei within man to build; all these have brought an immeasurable good to the world that no one else even approaches – not Islam, not the philosophic ideas of the East, not atheism, not spiritism, not naturalism, not humanism. The Christian faith is the single greatest force of positive change the world has ever known. Even more, its foundational faith – Judaism – impacted the ancient world for good with its Law, wealth, and systems by maintaining a sanctity for life, marriage, and the individual. So, Christianity has good roots.
To the latter idea though: there are institutions and systems that are harmful to progress, justice, and hope; and they are not the Christian faith. In fact, what Satan has cleverly done is created institutions that are often heralded as proponents of human good that have become the very ones that present the most harm: atheism (and all its initiatives: communism, collectivism, etc.), Islam, Progressivism, humanism, and those who divide humanity into ethnicities, genders, etc., all while invalidating the dignity of marriage, the womb, and even death. Christians are not the enemies of the LGBTQ agenda in the same way that Islam is perceived to be. Christians are not the enemies of progress in the same way that the atheism is perceived to be. Christians have a long, positive track record of creating governing bodies, economic institutions, and judicial systems that have proven to work. Atheism has had about 150 years of trauma it has inflicted on the world through World Wars, evolution, and a dehumanization of human rights. Not to mention the negative impact Islam has on human rights and dignity. Neither track records are good. But you wouldn’t know it in the direction the world is going.
All this to say: Believer, this opposition should serve to convince you that your faith is valid and correct. It should remind you of these words from the Lord, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” We’re called to endure unto the end, Christian. Hang in there. There Lord is coming soon!
Blessings,
Bro. Ben