The events of the last few years have confirmed that we are no longer a democracy in the sense that we once thought we were – and I know we’re a republic, but follow along with me. The premise of a democracy is that individual citizens can participate in the political process by making their positions known and voting for representatives who they understand will support their views. But those components are under attack here and throughout the West. They are under attack because our garbage elite considers our participation in our own governance to be both morally illegitimate and a practical nuisance. As a result, the elite is doing everything it can to prevent us from participating in our own governance. It’s intent to make us into serfs, disarmed, disenfranchised serfs who obey in silence.

After all, when citizens participate in their own governance, they may choose policies that the elite dislikes. And the elite doesn’t like the policies normal people prefer. Part of it is profit and power, and part of it is the elite’s moral grandstanding – don’t underestimate the power of politics to make spiritually empty people such as our trash ruling class feel good about themselves. The elite don’t like competition from the peasants. It cuts into their action and is generally inconvenient.

What does the elite want? Power. It wants unquestioned power over us that is not subject to any limitations by dissent or appeals to the law. Why do you think they hate the Supreme Court so much? SCOTUS gets in their way when it enforces our rights. Why do you think they hate the Electoral College so much? Because it makes it harder for them to leverage their kept constituencies to take the presidency.

The elite wants what we’re now getting: an administrative state where experts who just happen to share all the priorities and prejudices of the elite make all the decisions. Do you wonder why the left is so concerned about controlling academia? Because that’s where experts are made, and you don’t get expert certification unless you embrace the elite’s ideology. Do you think it’s a coincidence that they’re demanding DEI loyalty oaths from graduate students and professors? You must listen to experts, they tell us, and by the way, we get to decide who the experts are. Check out conservative stalwart Ned Ryun’s new book, “American Leviathan: The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism,”  Ned details exactly what’s going on here – the creation of an extra-constitutional fourth branch of government that effectively disintermediates citizens from any decision-making and controls every aspect of their lives without being subjected to any sort of accountability. That is the exact opposite of democracy, but it is part and parcel of Our Democracy that the ironically named Democrats embrace. Remember that when they say “Our Democracy,” they mean “ours,” as in “theirs.”

But it’s more than just creating formal structures to separate the people from power. The elite also takes formal and informal actions to stop people from participating in their own governance. They use formal power in formerly free places like the UK a lot, where they will put you in jail because of saying unapproved things. Their new fascist ruler, Keir Starmer, is openly celebrating how he’s releasing real criminals to make room for people who say things the regime doesn’t like. Putting aside the whole issue of why we have a special relationship with a country that differs from Putin only in the degree of repression, we need to recognize that this disgusting tyranny has happened here too. There’s a guy in jail right now for making an Internet joke about Hillary Clinton. She just advocated jailing people who spread “misinformation” – guess who gets to define that? There are hundreds of Americans being wrongfully persecuted over January 6. And they are trying to throw the man most Americans appear to want to be their next president in jail for the rest of his life on bogus charges before the biased venues when they are not trying to murder him.

But most of what the elite does in America to silence dissent is still informal. It uses shame, coercion, and selective reporting to prevent normal people from seeing the outrages perpetrated by our garbage elite and, therefore, being outraged by them. Look at the whole Springfield eating dogs and cats thing. The elite, without the consent of the people in the community, dropped 20,000 Haitians directly from a Third World hellhole into a town of about 60,000 normal Americans. Not surprisingly, the effects were dramatic, especially when our government is directly and indirectly subsidizing these aliens. You have crime, social services stretched to the breaking point, chaotic schools, housing shortages, and unlicensed drivers smashing into people’s cars (which is a huge deal for people without a lot of money). Not surprisingly, the locals are unhappy about it. They are complaining. And, according to the elite, that must be stopped. That’s where the informal oppression comes in. First, they shame the Americans who raise their voices, calling them racist for daring to point out how their community has changed and not in ways that they like. Then pinko pastors then pipe up about how Jesus said you’ve got to invite the whole Third World into your backyard (Spoiler: He didn’t). Then they’re called liars. Then, when they still won’t shut up, the left cites fake claims of bomb threats to invoke a heckler’s veto to silence the uppity proles – this is literally laundering foreign disinformation.

Note that this fake concern about fake rhetoric doesn’t apply to Donald Trump, who was shot in the head a couple of months ago because of being demonized for the last eight years by these very same jerks. Oh, and then another Harris-Walz voter tried to kill him last weekend. Do not think they do not intend this foreseeable consequence of their rhetoric.

They want to put commenting on elite abuse of towns like Springfield – and all of America – off-limits. They do not care about real Americans. They hate real Americans for being uppity. Never once does the elite, through its regime media lapdogs, ever deign to explore the legitimate concerns of the people impacted by the elite’s unilateral decision to change the community overnight for the worse. They simply declare that expressing dissatisfaction with the effects of massive immigration is illegitimate. You can’t talk about it. Everything is about how if you complain, you are racist or nitpicking about whether the pet-munching migrants are eating cats or geese as if it matters.

The objective is the same. The elite wants to make it impossible for normal people to complain and, therefore, to have the potential to assert their will. They do the same thing with parents addressing school boards about perverted books or about delusional boys pretending to be girls hanging out in the girls’ locker rooms. You’re not allowed to mention these subjects because that makes you a bad person, regardless of the merits of the objection. And that’s a problem in an actual democracy, where the right to petition for the redress of grievances is pretty central to the whole idea.

So is understanding what your elected officials stand for. After all, what’s the purpose of voting if you don’t know what the person you’re voting for actually intends to do? But this cycle, Kamala Harris has basically been an abstract art installation that everybody looks at and is supposed to get their own idea about what her policies are. The regime media certainly doesn’t press her on it. You saw the fact-checking on Donald Trump – fact-checking that was, in fact, unfactual. But where were the questions to Harris? What about the whopper that there are no Americans currently in combat zones? Nada. Zip. Nothing. The hack moderators never pressed her on it, nor did that Pennsylvania interviewer who asked her what she wanted to do about the economy ever press her when she went into a long segue about people’s lawns. You can’t have a government where the governed are expected to vote for people who never tell them what they stand for. In a truly free country, politicians must make their positions known. Here, the regime media understands that Kamala Harris has positions that are repellent to normal people, so it helps her hide them. We get vibes instead. She’s so brat, and they call anybody who objects “Hitler.”

The elite couldn’t do this without the connivance of the regime media, which is a garbage institution that we should do everything morally and legally possible to destroy. Check out the great Michael Walsh’s new book “Against the Corporate Media: Forty-two Ways the Press Hates You,” which has chapters by your favorite conservative thinkers like Larry O’Connor, Dr. Seb Gorka, and me. It demonstrates how the regime media is key to enforcing the informal guard rails that keep discussion firmly within the narrow confines of what the elite deems acceptable. These collaborators also hide the formal tyrannical acts of the government, and when the acts are exposed, to cheerlead for them.

So, we know what our enemy is doing. The question is whether we can do anything about it. We can. We need to understand and accept what’s happening and act accordingly. The establishment has the advantage that normal people default into thinking that everything is the same as it always was, that things are working, and that the system is functional. But none of that is true. This isn’t 20, 30, or 40 years ago when two opposing parties fought it out. Today, you have one ruling elite – which includes members of both parties – that seeks to eliminate even the possibility of opposition. The things that make a democracy a democracy – an informed populous, free speech and debate, and petitioning for the redress of grievances – are the things that are under attack. They are targeting the foundations of democracy and calling the wreckage “democracy.”

We need to understand what is happening so we can fight it. The way we fight it is to reject their premises. Look at what JD Vance is doing. Every time he talks to the regime media – and he talks to it all the time – unlike Harris, who would get a tongue bath instead of a tongue lashing like Senator gets. JD attacks the premises of the questions and refuses to back down. He won’t apologize for standing up for the normal American citizens of Springfield. He won’t be shamed into allowing them to be treated like serfs. We must refuse to accept the regime media’s premises and ruthlessly use the power that we will take back at this election to undo the damage the elite has caused. Let them call us “unChristian.” Let them call us “racist.” Let them call us “transphobic.” Who cares what they say? It’s time to take back our power and crush them. And to do it with a smile.

With 52 days until the election, if it occurs to you that leftist and those who absolutely must vote Democrat dislike much of what they encounter in society, you’re not alone. If any institution in American society, decades or even centuries old, has helped us to flourish, Democrats and leftist, in general, are against it, even if they have not articulated this view to themselves.

They have great disdain for white men and Republican women. They seemingly have disdain for everyone here who is not black, gay or transgender, while completely loathing black Americans who have escaped from liberal plantation.

Leftists are not for free speech unless, of course, it’s speech with which they agree. They don’t want any dissenting opinions. They know they are right, and why should anybody else have a voice? If anyone has an opposing opinion or a view that does not cut the muster with leftist doctrine then they regard that person has a heathen, or potential terrorist, who shouldn’t be free to walk the streets.

Capitalism is Oppressive!

Growing indications, for many years running, reveal that leftists dislike capitalism. They say that it rewards the rich and impoverishes certain neighborhoods. It is an exclusive club for white males, they say, and has done no good for our society, or the world.

Many leftists would do away with private property if they could, except for their property. As for getting ahead by merit? They won’t hear any of it. They believe that merit is a rigged game. They are all about diversity, equity, and inclusion – the three pillars of social destruction. Equity, according to Kamala Harris is the solution to economic disparity, but in reality, she is merely espousing socialism.

Leftists are ecstatic about our unfair and biased press, but they will never say so. As long as the mainstream media carries their water, leftists are happy to have alternative news bite the dust. They can’t stand Fox News, which actually is closer to center, during daytime broadcasts, if you ever listen to it intently. Elon Musk is the devil because he converted X (Twitter) into a free speech platform.

Rights for Me, Not for Thee

They are averse to the U.S. Constitution unless, of course, it benefits them. They believe it’s an outdated document, written of course by rich, white, male slave owners who had no touch for the common person. If they could, they’d replace the Constitution with something else, but who knows what? Don’t even question whether or not leftists support patriotism. To them, patriotism is a dirty word. Western civilization itself is tainted in their view.

Equal justice under the law? No way. Witness the number of people on the right who’ve been raided by the FBI or incarcerated for their political views, not for any crime they’ve committed. Then consider legions of leftists who have committed serious crimes and walk away as a result of low or no bail.

Leftist politicians claim they are for transparency in government and then spy on the opposition: senators and representatives, journalists, and even ordinary citizens. They feel no remorse for doing so.

Leftists pretend they are human rights champions. Not so. Certain groups ought to have full rights, in their opinion, while others should not: the aforementioned white men, Republican women, and blacks who lean right.

Families and Neighborhoods to Decimate

Leftists actively seek to decimate the family. They don’t like fathers or mothers. They call mothers “birthing persons.” Leftists do all they can to ensure that science, which is supposed to be impartial, is tilted in their favor. They believe that males can have babies, so they, too, might become birthing persons.

Today, they are attacking our children. Through indoctrination in the schools, they ensure that students hate America, hate white people, and question their own gender. Leftists have no respect for unborn children and would allow abortion up to the day before natural birth, and in some cases even afterwards. There’s a term for such activity, it’s called murder.

As for public safety, civic order, and police, only one party routinely calls for defunding the police. We’ve seen dramatic rises in murder, rape, robbery, vandalism, looting, and arson in Leftist Democrat-run cities. As a result of district attorneys funded by George Soros groups, perpetrators are back on the streets in 24 hours or less.

In God We Don’t Believe

Leftists have little reason to like religion. If God exists, then humans are not supreme. From the leftist point of view, believing in God is for the feeble-minded. They do have a religion though, green energy, but they don’t know that it’s their religion.

In sum, leftist are a nasty lot, seeking to destroy our civilization as quickly as they can. They’re nihilists who, in the end, will be left with nothing.

The only possible moral frame in which Israel can be blamed for Hamas’ monstrousness is a relativistic one, in which barbaric evil can be projected onto the “root cause” that the West is bad. There is a reason so much of the left views America’s loss of the Vietnam War as a victory, or sees the Afghanistan pullout as a triumph, ignoring the viciousness of the Viet Cong and the Taliban. In this view, the cruelty of the West’s enemies is merely a response to the West’s own cruelty — and the evidence of that proposition is the existence of our enemies. If we were kind, generous, and tolerant, we would have no enemies, goes the logic — thus the presence of our enemies demonstrates how fatally flawed we are.

This perverse philosophy gives ammunition to the world’s worst human beings. Depriving evil actors of agency means leaving them free to pursue their worse designs, secure in the knowledge that the more savagely they act, the more they will be excused for their cruelty. The West, in this view, can never triumph through any means but surrender.

This philosophy will destroy the West from within as well as from without. Cowardice is the greatest aid to evil; in fact, it is its own form of evil, for without it, evil could never win. A self loathing West, incapable of distinguishing between those who kidnap and murder hostages in pursuit of Islamist theocracy and those who seek to free those hostages is a West that simply cannot survive.

“I think the fact that they were alive and murdered right before they could have been saved—that broke it. That’s a breaking point for a lot of people—[they] are on the edge of their seat, and they realize that sitting at home is not going to do anything.” This is how one protester explained the mass demonstrations that have filled streets in Israel this week. For almost a year these 6 people were held hostage by Hamas and when their rescuers came near to set them free their captors executed them…this is demonic in its cruelty.

The crowds have been the largest since October 7 and included a general strike on Monday that brought much of the country to a halt. Many blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to make a cease-fire deal that would bring the hostages home. For his part, Mr. Netanyahu continues to insist on a long-term military presence along Gaza’s border with Egypt, even as this reportedly is holding up a hostage deal that many analysts consider vital to Israel’s interests. When asked whether the prime minister is doing enough to secure a deal, President Joe Biden responded, “No.”

Whatever our views regarding Mr. Netanyahu, we must not forget that Hamas created this crisis when it invaded Israel on October 7 and massacred some twelve hundred people, committing war crimes too horrific for description here. Hamas also abducted 251 children, women, men, and elderly people. As described above, then they murdered six hostages, shooting them multiple times at close range before Israeli troops could rescue them. They threaten to kill more hostages if Israel attempts further rescues. The group’s political leader, Yahya Sinwar, was charged yesterday by federal prosecutors with planning and carrying out years of terrorist attacks in Israel, including the atrocities of October 7. If the terrorists could travel back in time, they say they would do it all again. They vow to repeat the horrors of October 7 “again and again” until Israel is completely destroyed. The group’s founding document clearly calls for the genocide of the Jews and the destruction of Israel to “liberate” Palestine. These are their words.

This ongoing tragedy illustrates the deep and pervasive power of ideology to change the world, for evil or for good.

“Progress, infinite progress!”

In the writings and thoughts of the philosophical theologian Paul Tillich. You can find his sermon “The Shaking of the Foundations” to be among the most powerful of all his works.

Published three years after the atomic bomb brought an end to World War II, Tillich noted that there was a time when science persuaded us “to believe in our earth as the place for the establishment of the kingdom of God” and “to believe in ourselves as those through whom this was to be achieved.” These false prophets cried, “Progress, infinite progress! Peace, universal peace! Happiness, happiness for everyone!”

But then science gave man the power “to annihilate himself and his world.” Now, according to Tillich, we know that we are not achieving “infinite progress” and “universal peace.” (shades of the Tower of Bable here)

He was right: Israel is facing the greatest existential crisis in its modern history. Iran is closer than ever to a nuclear weapon. Nuclear powers China, Russia, and North Korea are aligned with Iran in opposition to the West. The COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to be the last. Genomics could lead to genetic manipulation that alters the essence of what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence could threaten our very existence.

Tillich’s warning is still valid and urgent:

Man is not God; and whenever he has claimed to be like God, he has been rebuked and brought to self-destruction and despair. When he has rested complacently on his cultural creativity or on his technical progress, on his political institutions or on his religious systems, he has been thrown into disintegration and chaos; all the foundations of his personal, natural, and cultural life have been shaken. As long as there has been human history, this is what has happened; in our period it has happened on a larger scale than ever before. Man’s claim to be like God has been rejected repeatedly, and now once more; not one foundation of the life of our civilization has remained unshaken.

In response, let’s exchange the secularist ideology of our day for the foundational ideology espoused by our Savior. Jesus taught us that the greatest commandments in Scripture are to love our Lord and to love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39), explaining that “on these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (v. 40).

Why are they so foundational?

Other laws seek to prevent sin by regulating behavior, but we cannot sin against God when we are in love with him. Nor can we sin against our neighbors when we are in love with them. Instead, when you “delight yourself in the Lᴏʀᴅ,” then we all position ourselves to experience his best such that “he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

What, then, are we to do?

One: Since “love” is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), we need to submit every day to the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), then pray through the day for him to empower us to love our Lord and those we meet.

Two: Make love the heart of our service to others. We are commanded, “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14, my emphasis).

If you watch two people fishing at a pond and think of Jesus’ assurance that he would make us “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). You cannot see the bait fishermen are using, but we can assume it is not a shoe or a hammer. It is something that would attract the fish they sought to catch. What do humans want more than to be loved? Thus, when we love our neighbors as unconditionally and sacrificially as we love ourselves, we draw them to the One who is love (1 John 4:8). They respond to our love by turning to its Source.

Tillich closed his famous sermon:

“In these days the foundations of the earth do shake. May we not turn our eyes away; may we not close our ears and our mouths! But may we rather see, through the crumbling of a world, the rock of eternity and the salvation which has no end!”

The left (not classic liberals, who are different and disappearing) has turned its activism into a religious pursuit, with devastating effects on Western society.

There was for many years an amazing rabbi. He was an American whose family came over to Israel during the Six Day War. The Israeli press at the time thought that they were so crazy that they wrote articles about “those nutty Americans” coming during an active war. This rabbi used to say that he wished that someone could prove to him that there was no God. It would save him a fortune on kosher food, would free up his Saturdays for shopping or traveling, and simply make his life easier. That no one succeeded did not mean that he was not open to the challenge until his dying day. He was the opposite of what in Israel is known as “rosh ba’kir”–literally, having one’s head stuck on a wall. When someone absolutely refuses to listen to reason, he is accused of having his head stuck on the wall.

I thought about this expression when I saw a picture from the recent uprisings in England. A group of protesters were confronted with counter-protesters, some who had signs stating, “Immigrants Welcome Here.” Like many things in public discourse, the sign is somewhat deceptive. Do you welcome immigrants who would knife your daughters? Do you welcome immigrants who will tell you what to wear and how to live your life according to Sharia law? Do you welcome immigrants who take over parts of your cities and make you unwelcome, or will not even let you in? Everybody likes a smiling, productive, and affable immigrant. That is not where the problem is.

Unlike the rabbi who was open to listening to opposing views and opinions, those on the left have rendered their ears inoperable. You can’t debate them. You cannot reason with them. You cannot compromise with them. And the reason is very simple: they are in the thralls of a modern God-alternative religion. Tuesday was a 25-hour fast day in commemoration of the destruction of the two ancient Jewish temples and many other tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people over the millennia. New prayers were added for the pogrom of 10/7 of last year, as this is just one more horrible event in Jewish history. During a fast day, one does not eat or drink. Those who can, take off from work. Many spend much of their day at the synagogue where special prayers are said for national tragedies, new and old.

On the face of it, a fast day works against your own interests. In order to be strong and alert, all humans need to eat and drink. And going to work is at least outwardly more productive than sitting on the floor of a synagogue or church and saying ancient prayers. So why do we do things that would appear to be against our personal interests? The answer is that it is a sacrifice for religion.

In religion, one often does things against his or her outward interest because the faith demands the same. Not giving to charity would save anyone money, but there is an expectation from God as codified and quantified by the Torah as well as the New Testament Bible of how much and to whom to give. One is not surprised when a religious requirement goes against a person’s interests, as the practitioner is striving to sacrifice their selfishness and connect to something larger, namely God. In fact, charity has befuddled evolutionists. One is of course better off keeping all of his money for himself and his offspring. They finally concluded that charity helps keep a community alive which is ultimately in the giver’s interest. (Pathetic apologetics)

And thus, when we live in a highly secular age, the cause du jour becomes like a religious experience. Those holding the signs welcoming immigrants will welcome them even from their graves. A few years ago, an immigrant raped and killed a young medical student who was the daughter of the EU officer in charge of immigration. He made sure to say after his daughter’s murder that immigration will continue. And the same is true in the US. Jews for Palestine and Trans for Hamas don’t care that their new friends will slit their throats or push them off of any remaining tall buildings in Gaza. Theirs is a religious experience of dogmatically “doing the right thing” even if it works totally against their persons and interests. We cannot come to any compromises with people engaged in acts of religious fervor. Just as if someone told me prayers to an unseen entity is a waste of time, such an argument would fall on deaf ears.

The pseudo-religious left are enthralled in an ideology that gives them the religious pleasure they have rejected, and all humans innately want. Sitting on a road to end oil or protesting for Palestine without even knowing where it is on a map is a religious experience on par with sitting in the pews and belting out a psalm in an unknown language like Latin or Hebrew with all of one’s heart. The Marxist ideology becomes their original document replacing the Bible and the Torah, their unerring guide for life and action. Pointing out that unfettered immigration both in England and in the US harms the locals, increases crime, causes heightened social tension and lowers wages means nothing. The new teachings demand that we destroy our formerly wonderful country. We are bad people for sins of the past, many died to overcome these sins, but we are guilty of hogging so much good for ourselves, we must now share the goods with people who literally and legally can treat women and children as property, still are committing the sins we admitted to, died for, and made laws against. These people still have actual slavery, stone women for showing too much skin, hate their new hosts, and have stated openly that they have come to conquer them. The same goes for abortion, trans, and whatever the subject of the day is. The ideology has taken on religious proportions approaching things like the Spanish Inquisition and cannot be discussed or brought to compromise. The press will refuse to do its job to interview a presidential candidate in order to protect the new leftist faith. It’s my way or the highway on steroids.

Every sentient being knows that overall men are stronger and faster than women. Data support such a conclusion. The fastest woman in the pool would not make the cut for the men’s final for any race you choose. That is the reason women’s divisions and Title IX were first created. But we now have the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and top-flight researchers and doctors telling us that a “trans woman” is a woman in every way. Of course he is not. But the needs of the ideology will easily steamroll truth and scientific data. When a hotshot astrophysicist said that one day he could be 20% male and the next day 20% female, my kids were stumped. I told them that it was easy to understand. If he tells the scientific truth, he will be shunned. His grants will dry up as will his invitations to the right parties. But if he gives some mumbo-jumbo about changing his percentage of womanhood each day, he will be the talk of the town, the belle of the ball. Keeping relevant and the money flowing is more important than telling the scientific truth that trans women are men with serious personal issues. Hiring professors because they wrote an article on sic. “decolonization” will get you hired, but writing an article about how the entire history of the world and every civilization that ever has been, was a colonization will get you fired.

Ideological purity is the order of the day. Just as a fellow bringing a ham sandwich into an orthodox synagogue would be shunned, so too any politician or news personality who says that he supports some limits on abortion or that guys cannot become gals will find himself out in the cold. The ideological left brooks no heterodox opinions or views. You hold the line on all subjects or you are out. Elon Musk and others said that they were left-center, but today they support Donald Trump because their former position in Democratic and liberal spheres no longer exists. Leftism has become a religion that cannot be questioned.

There are some Christians in this country who worry that heathen hordes may one day arrive on our shores, armed with guns and knives and bombs, to crush our Christian way of life and destroy the American church. They worry that Christendom will come under brutal assault by these hypothetical savages—that they, clinging tearfully to their Bibles, will be dragged into the town square and beheaded in front of cheering, bloodthirsty throngs. They worry that we believers in the West may finally suffer the same persecution those in the East have faced for two thousand years and some face even now. To be honest, they flatter themselves. Most American churches are no threat to them here anymore with our brand of “Christianity.”

In the days of Jesus, the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, were seen as guardians of the truth much like our western church. However, they often distorted and totally ignored the teachings of God’s word for their own benefit, rejecting the true message that Jesus brought. In a similar vein, let’s reimagine the state of modern American Christianity, comparing it to how the religious leaders of Jesus’ time treated truth, while contrasting it with the earnest persecution faced by churches in the East.

Imagine a group of heathens (or haters of Christianity) arriving on American shores, ready to persecute Christians they believe threaten their way of life. They expect to find a nation steeped in genuine Christian faith, but instead, they find a strange form of paganism. They see worship not of the Christian God but of celebrities, politicians, and material possessions. Much like the Pharisees who outwardly appeared devout but inwardly were corrupt, these supposed Christians have replaced true worship with new idolatry.

The heathens, expecting pious believers, find instead a society obsessed with self and pride. Modesty, discipline, and obedience, core teachings of Jesus, are ridiculed and discarded. In fact they seem to stand and preach the opposite of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.  These heathens find that sexual immorality is rampant and celebrated, mirroring how the Pharisees ignored the weightier matters of the law, such as justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23).

As they delve deeper, they see the disintegration of the nuclear family, a clear contradiction to Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 19:6). Divorce is rampant in the church itself, and even celebrated, reflecting the Pharisees’ own laxity in upholding God’s commandments.

Their search for true Christianity leads them to the modern churches themselves, but what they find is disheartening. These churches resemble social clubs or entertainment venues more than houses of worship. The messages preached are empty, devoid of biblical truth, much like how the Pharisees added their traditions to God’s law, obscuring its true meaning (Mark 7:8).

The heathens encounter various types of churches: ones that look like rehab centers where pastors deliver self-help talks, mega-churches focused on prosperity with no mention of sin or repentance, and churches that resemble empty shells with leaders who are more concerned with modern sensibilities than biblical truth. Again, like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time they are more concerned with their own power and traditions than with the true teachings of God.

In a desperate attempt to find real Christians, the heathens kidnap 100 congregants and pastors, demanding they renounce their faith. The responses are dishearteningly conformist and weak, reflecting a lack of true conviction. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time failed to recognize Him as the Messiah because they were blinded by their own interpretations and traditions.

However, among the hundred, one person stands firm, boldly professing his faith in the core tenets of Christianity. He declares belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the teachings of the Bible. This lone believer represents the remnant of true faith that still exists and will always exist, much like the faithful few in Israel who recognized Jesus for who He truly was.

The heathens are ready to martyr this true Christian, but the crowd, including the so-called Christian leaders, denounce him as a fundamentalist. The Pharisees did the same to Jesus and sought to kill Him (John 11:53), showing that they were more concerned with maintaining their status quo than embracing the truth.

The heathens, now realize that the faith they came to persecute is already dead in the hearts of most, and they depart in sorrow. They sought to destroy Christianity but found that what they aimed to kill was already lifeless. This reflects the spiritual decay Jesus condemned in the Pharisees, calling them whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside but full of dead bones and uncleanness inside (Matthew 23:27).

In stark contrast, Christians in the East face severe persecution for their faith. These believers live under constant threat of violence, imprisonment, and death. Churches are bombed, pastors are executed, and congregants are jailed for merely gathering to worship. This is reminiscent of the early Christian martyrs who faced lions in the arena for their unwavering commitment to Christ.

Eastern Christians know the true essence of carrying one’s cross daily, as Jesus commanded (Luke 9:23). They understand the cost of discipleship and stand firm in their faith despite the life-threatening consequences. Their situation highlights the profound difference between genuine faith and the superficiality we often see in the West.

The religious leaders in Jesus’ time clung to their distorted truths and rejected the genuine teachings of God, many modern American churches have strayed far from authentic Christianity and also cling to teaching that is nothing like that of Jesus. They have embraced a form of godliness but denied its power (2 Timothy 3:5). The heathens’ futile quest to find true Christians to persecute has been reserved for the real practitioners of Biblical Christianity, we sadly are unworthy of the persecution True faith brings. The one bold believer’s declaration like Christ, stands in stark contrast to the hollow practices that dominate much of contemporary western Christian culture. Meanwhile, the courage and steadfastness of Eastern Christians under persecution remind us of the true cost of and the mark of, following Christ. It is the vibrant, life-giving faith that should characterize the western Church, but sadly dose not.

So do we think that this road that leads to destruction is marked as that? No, it is marked as the road to paradise, prosperity, and success physically and spiritually. That is the problem with the “wide gate” it is a lie.

God promised Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom if He found ten righteous people there. He did not find them. Sodom was destroyed. I sometimes wonder if He would be able to find His ten here in America, the new Sodom. It is clear that we are no longer living in a Christian country. Christianity is dying here and dying rapidly. The Christian faith can never pass away from the world, but it can be rejected by men and by nations. A man cannot remove Christ from the universe, but he can remove himself from Christ. A nation cannot chase the church from the face of the earth, but it can chase the church from its borders. Today, around 70 percent of Americans claim to be Christian. Even this number represents a marked decline, but the problem is not the decline in professed believers. But the problem with the 70 percent is that it is not really 70 percent. The 70 percent is mostly composed of the sort of Christians who cannot be readily distinguished from atheists.

Indeed, the average American believer shares many similarities with the average American unbeliever. If you were to follow him around, track his movements, listen to his conversations, observe how he spends his free time (much like our iPhones already do), you would find no hard evidence that he believes anything at all lies beyond the veil of physical existence. He speaks just like the non-Christians, dresses just like them, carries himself as they do, watches all of the same television shows, consumes the same kind of media, indulges in the same vices, and feels the same lack of guilt for those indulgences. Everything is the same. It is a life of Self-Deception.

Ask the average American Christian to tell you how his life would be different if he didn’t believe in Christ, and I believe he will struggle to provide a single example. And this fact will not trouble him. He is supremely confident in his own spiritual complacency, and he is encouraged to continue that thinking with sermons that never mention sin or re categorize sins in the bible as nothing to worry about or even things to celebrate. The modern American Christian laughs at the very notion that God might send him to Hell. He has no problem believing that some people are damned—a lot of people, even—but not him. He lives in a fog of cowardly and comfortable delusion, and it grows thicker by the day.

The fog consists of a whole tangled mass of self-deceptions, some that we say out loud and some that we think to ourselves but would never say. It is those self-deceptions, those comforting delusions propelling us along the broad road that leads to destruction, these self-deceptions, ironically, do not originate with the self. If we take our faith seriously, we will recognize them as Satan’s handiwork. They are part of the extraordinarily effective battle plan that the Evil One has devised for the West. It is quite a different plan from the one he has been using in other parts of the world. Indeed, the enemy has only two strategies, and they lie on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The first tactic is the simplest, oldest, and most direct: kill the Christians. We see this unfolding across the world on an unprecedented scale. We hear about it on the news only sparingly, and never with the word “persecution” attached. But still the ground all over the globe is soaked in the blood of Christian martyrs. Of course, the extermination of Christians in the East is ignored by American Christians and the church in this country just as completely as it is ignored by the media. We don’t care. Not really. It is all too far away for us to notice. Too distant both in geography and experience. We carry on, then, as if the church is not under siege, as if war is not being waged upon us all. The situation brings to mind the scene surrounding the Battle of Bull Run at the start of the Civil War.

For those who are not familiar with the Battle of Bull Run, the Union so expected to win, and to win so easily, that Union sympathizers came out to the battlefield with blankets and picnic baskets, as if for a performance of some entertainment. They sat off on the sidelines, lounging in the shade and drinking tea while an awful battle was fought in the distance. The picnickers would soon be grabbing their blankets and their baskets and running for their lives—the fight did not play out as they had anticipated— but the silliness, arrogance, and obliviousness of those spectators reminds me of our silly, arrogant church in the West. We are relaxing, having our picnic, and eating our sandwiches, even as a violent and desperate fight rages on. Men are bleeding and dying and crying out in anguish while we nap comfortably in the shade. I would say that we are like the apostles in Gethsemane, but that would be giving us too much credit. Their spirit was willing while their flesh was weak. Our spirit is weak and our flesh even weaker.

A recent report tells us that Christian persecution is worse now than it has ever been in history (160,000 estimated killed for their faith last year). Christians in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, North Korea, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Egypt, Ukraine, China, Gaza and many other countries are regularly imprisoned, tortured, beaten, raped, and martyred. Their churches are destroyed. Their houses burned. They meet and worship in secret, risking their lives in the process. They live every moment in constant danger. There are many examples of this persecution, but I’d like to point to just one example from a couple of years ago, because I find it especially tragic and instructive, and I think it provides a striking contrast between the Middle Eastern brand of Christian and the Western brand.

A group of Egyptian Christians were in buses headed to a monastery in the desert. Islamist militants boarded the vehicles with guns, but they did not begin shooting right away. Instead, they pulled the passengers out and interrogated them. The pilgrims were first asked if they were Christian and then told to abandon Christ and convert to Islam. When each person refused to renounce his faith, he was shot in the head or the throat. Apparently, all of the victims, even the children, died heroically in this way. They would rather die than let go of Christ. And so, they did die, and now they are forever in Our Lord’s embrace. They let go of the world and fell straight into the arms of God.

Now, imagine confronting this yourself. Imagine what would be happening in your mind as you kneeled there in the sand with the cold barrel of a gun pressing against your temple. There are two questions, remember, not one. You must choose martyrdom twice.

First: “Are you Christian?” You can escape death right here. All you need to say is “No.” One word. One syllable. One syllable will save your life. That’s all it will take. Just tell them no. You don’t even have to believe it in your heart. It’s just a word. No. Say it, you scream to yourself. Say it. No. But the Holy Spirit comes over you and steadies your soul. You reach into a reservoir of courage you didn’t know you had available, and you speak the simple truth. “Yes.”

Second: “Will you renounce Christ and convert to Islam?” Perhaps you didn’t know there would be a second question. You thought they’d kill you after you answered affirmatively to the first. But now you have another chance to save yourself. Another chance to avoid a violent death out here in the middle of nowhere. The enemy (The Devil) whispers to you, “hey this may be a message from God. He wants you to live. You have things to do. You have a family. You have a purpose on earth. Just say yes. Also, one word, one syllable, Say yes and renounce. Say yes and betray Christ. He will understand. He does not expect you to be unreasonable.” Most people would say yes, wouldn’t they? It’s a perfectly normal response. You mustn’t be extreme. But again, the Holy Spirit gives you strength, and you see Christ on the cross looking gently down at you: Stand firm, Christ says in your heart, and today you will be with me in paradise. So, you take a breath, the last you will ever take on earth, you look your persecutor in the eyes, and with great calm and something almost like joy you say, “No.” How many of us have a faith like that? The Egyptian martyrs were willing to give up everything for Christ. How many of us are willing to give up anything—let alone everything? Most of us will lash out bitterly if we are asked to make any sacrifice at all, any adjustment to our lives, any change to our lifestyles, any ridiculous annoyance in traffic. We will shriek in horror if anyone suggests, say, that we give up watching certain television shows, movies, or listening to certain music. We will explode in fury if anyone questions whether a Christian ought to watch pornography, or dress provocatively, or use profanity. We will laugh and mock and practically spit at any critic who dares to look at something we do, something we enjoy, something that gives us pleasure, and question whether it is proper. Most of us, if we are being perfectly honest, cannot think of one thing—one measly thing—that we greatly enjoy and have the means to do yet have stopped doing because we know it is inconsistent with our faith. I do not believe that it is an exaggeration to say that the average American Christian has never given up one single thing for Christ. In fact most believe it somehow will just be nothing but adding to every pleasure and success in life. If I honestly look at my own life, I see that I seem to be in a constant state of flight. Fleeing from almost all sacrifice. Fleeing from suffering, running to comfort. I have rarely felt any pain or undergone any trial without kicking and screaming and trying to wriggle myself out of it.
Our culture actively fosters this kind of cowardice. And now many of us western “Christians” have descended into a state of total worldliness. We have compared God’s program to the world’s program and opted for the latter, because it does not involve suffering. So, would we give up our lives? Not a chance on earth. Put a gun to our head and we will do whatever you ask. There really is no need for the gun to our head. You could just put it to our televisions, or our phones, or video games, sneakers even. Christ has already told us what it means to follow Him. Give up everything, He commands. Embrace your suffering. Carry your cross. Go hungry for Me. Bleed for Me. Die for Me. “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25). Christians all across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia have found their lives because they heard these words of Christ and took them literally…actually believed them. Just think of what these martyrs in Egypt were doing in the first place when they were killed. They were traveling out into the desert on a pilgrimage to pray at a monastery, despite the enormous risk that such a journey entails in a Muslim country. However, many of us can’t even be bothered to get up on a Sunday morning and drive twelve minutes to church. Our churches aren’t in the desert. There aren’t any Islamic militants patrolling the area, looking to put a bullet in our skulls and turn our children into slaves. What’s our excuse? We don’t want to get up on a Sunday or Saturday morning. It’s a hassle. It’s boring. The seats aren’t comfortable. We had an argument with someone at church and it might be awkward to see them. We don’t like the sermons. The pastor was rude to us once. We don’t “feel welcome.” And so on.
We are pathetic….

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