FALSE ACCUSATION AND PERSECUTION OF CHRIST’S FOLLOWERS WOULD BE A SIGN OF THE END TIMES
The time when Christ's followers need to be prepared for the persecution seems to have come...
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. MATTHEW5:1-16.
Jesus Christ invited the then law-abiding pious Jews to the Kingdom of God by describing the true character of His followers through the sermon on the Mount, ‘the Beatitudes’.
In the passage quoted above Christ dealt with the importance of attitudes, i.e., what we think in our hearts. As this Law of the Kingdom is the highest ethical teaching and vastly beyond the Law of Moses, so, without the grace of God, without Christ, nobody would achieve it.
In the end Christ concluded that if we lived godly lives, suffering would inevitably come. However, this should lead us to rejoice because we would be in the same company as Jesus and the prophets and our rewards should be in heaven.
Recent articles about the worldwide increase of Christian persecution reminds me of Christ’s conclusive message of ‘the Beatitudes’. The time when Christ’s followers need to be prepared for persecution seems to have come.
Aa a writer of the article ‘A Most Uncivil Law is Coming’ warned, a vote on the bill, H.R. 5 in the House of Representatives in the US came on Thursday 16th May, which is
the contentious bill that would place nearly all Christian ministries, religious organizations, and faith-based companies in the cross-hairs of discrimination lawsuits.
He cautions:
Although passage in the Senate may be doubtful, the sheer audacity of this legislation should be taken as a cautionary tale. The law adds sexual orientation and transgender identity as protected categories and then wildly expands the list of activities and organizations impacted by the civil rights law to include any public “gathering,” “exhibition,” or “display,” or anything involving the provision of goods or “any service, or program.” During one House subcommittee hearing, employment law expert Lawrence Lorber flatly acknowledged that the bill would apply to “churches” and “houses of worship.” The vast scope of H.R. 5 is best illustrated by the fact that, unlike prior civil rights laws that were limited to activities at physical locations, this legislation extends to cyberspace. It would apply to any group that offers retail sales or services “online.” Any Christian organization, ministry, or business with a website could be at risk. Most startling of all, H.R. 5 expressly targets for extinction the religious liberties of faith-based organizations. The bill blatantly states that the protections of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) – the law guarding rights of religious conscience that was upheld by the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case – will not apply to these new civil rights laws. In the past, when controversial issues of gay rights-versus-religious freedom arose in Congress, the question of accommodating religious liberty customarily had a place at the table. As general counsel for NRB, I had the privilege of testifying several times in the Senate and in the House on the need for religious protections. But that was then. Today, the hostility against orthodox belief seems almost palpable. …
The article entitled ‘A misnamed legal jackhammer strikes’ in The Washington Times on 19th May’19 lists up possible outcomes if the Republican Party in the US controlling the Senate for the present loses the Senate or the White House in the 2020election. The following is an excerpt from the article.
ANALYSIS/OPINION: Democrats in the House are celebrating Friday’s passage of the Equality Act, a misnamed legal jackhammer that would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to federal civil rights law. It goes far beyond allowing men into women’s sports and locker rooms, as bad as that is. It provides the state with the power to persecute anyone who won’t celebrate any aspect of the LGBTQ agenda. Far from merely expanding civil rights categories, it turns any recognition of the differences between the sexes or any preference for traditional sexual morality into actionable “hate,” creating fertile grounds for lawsuits. “It is the most dangerous bill to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion that has ever been proposed on a national level,” says Houston Baptist University Prof. Robert Gagnon, an expert in biblical sexual morality. “It will codify into law that you are a bigot, the moral equivalent of a racist, tantamount to being a member of the Klu Klux Klan, who must be shut out of society and, wherever possible, harassed and persecuted for your beliefs.” In other words, it will criminalize Christianity, an ongoing process that got a big boost from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on same-sex “marriage.” …MassResistance, a parents-rights group, has compiled a list of likely outcomes. Here’s a tweaked version:1. It will undermine the civil rights movement that black Americans fought for. 2. Churches will be sued or lose tax-exempt status if they don’t accept LGBTQ behaviors. 3. Schoolchildren will be forced to learn how to engage in destructive LGBTQ behaviors [in California, it begins in kindergarten]. 4. Parents who oppose this will be charged with discrimination. 5. Private colleges will lose funding, grants and scholarships. 6. Public accommodations and small businesses will be forced to allow men into women’s bathrooms and vice versa. 7. Business owners will be forced to violate their freedom of conscience. 8. Hospitals, clinics and the armed forces will be forced to offer experimental and harmful transgender treatments — including surgeries. 9. Foster and adoption agencies will be forced to close, as has already happened to Catholic Charities in several liberal cities. 10. Men will displace women in sports events (already happening).
The article, after exemplifying some scenarios of cases which would become common, concludes that the Equality Act would federalise such abuse and it is far more dangerous than most people know, and religious faith will no longer act as a safeguard.