During my formative years of the 1950s and ‘60s, the Christian standard for sexual relationships was abstinence, except in the biblical covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. There were no acceptable exceptions. My recollection is that Christians and even non-Christians embraced this biblical norm. Deviant behavior, such as homosexuality, was viewed as sin.
Since the 1980s, however, the homosexual community has sought tolerance for their sexual preference. The cultures of the world have conceded. As homosexuals achieved their goal, they turned increasingly intolerant toward those who granted them tolerance. If this continues, there will be increasing persecution against those who embrace a biblical norm of sexuality.
Persecution is not new to Christians. Rather, persecution has been common for most of Christian history. During the first three hundred years after the advent of Christ, persecution against Christians was the norm for the known world. The apostle Paul told his spiritual son Timothy that all who seek to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.1 This persecution included martyrdom. According to some, the number of Christians who have been martyred since the time of Christ is estimated to be around seventy million.2
Intolerance of the followers of Jesus began early in Christian history. Acts chapters 7 and 8 record examples of persecution that broke out in the first century AD. Orthodox Jews, who rejected the claim that Jesus was the Christ, went house-to-house incarcerating Jews who believed Jesus was the Christ. The persecution began with the martyrdom of Stephen,3 a food distributor who was arrested and brought before a kangaroo court but dared to stand on his faith in Jesus as both Lord and Christ according to Old Testament prophecy. The persecution and murder of Stephen was supported by Saul of Tarsus (later called Paul)4 who, in time, would switch sides and become a follower of Jesus. But before his conversion to Christianity, Saul, functioning under the authority of the religious leaders, carried out home invasions to incarcerate people for their belief in Jesus as the Christ of the Old Testament.
Widespread persecution of Christianity stopped in the fourth century AD. Since then, it has occurred periodically around the world. Today’s culture is on the precipice of returning to widespread persecution, which could mean home invasions, incarcerations, and martyrdom.
A harbinger of this was displayed in August 2020 at the Democratic party convention in the USA. Party leaders submitted a preliminary draft of the party platform that eliminated any reference to God;5 in the final draft, however, religious rights were included, albeit tepidly. The preliminary draft signaled, at least, a declining interest in supporting religious rights. This may be the first time in the history of the party that it is on the verge of rejecting God in their ideology and therefore in their policies.
Has the Democratic party become the party of the antichrist—the spirit that opposes Jesus as the Christ? If so, Christians and Christian norms will have no standing with the party. Without Christian norms as a transcendent guide to the truth, historical biblical norms will be abandoned. Axiomatically, the seminal Christian value of love6 is the basis for American material prosperity and global prowess.7 The corollaries of Christian love include virtues such as humility, self-sacrifice, truth, honesty, integrity, faithfulness, hard work, excellence, discipline, diligence, perseverance, trust, and interdependence. If these Christian values are rejected, what will be the values of the spirit of antichrist? And what will be the resulting culture based on the values of the spirit of antichrist?
The eighteenth-century French Enlightenment was an example of a culture built on the premise of atheism—the spirit of antichrist. This experiment was driven by the seminal value of human autonomy. The end was abject failure. Here is a description by one commentator:
What ultimately and abruptly killed the Enlightenment, however, was the French Revolution. Begun with the best intentions by French citizens inspired by Enlightenment thought, the revolution attempted to implement orderly representative assemblies but quickly degraded into chaos and violence. Many people cited the Enlightenment-induced breakdown of norms as the root cause of the instability . . .8
If the Enlightenment failed because of the breakdown in societal norms, why would one expect another atheistic experiment to succeed?
If the American people embrace another experiment with atheism, it could be worse than the failed French experiment. For example, consider social norms. Presently, there is a bias in the American culture to accept nonbiblical sexual morality. Without transcendent biblical values, people will create their own societal rules. For the Democratic party, these rules will, apparently, be defined by the LGBTQ+ activists who are increasingly intolerant of Christianity.
If the Democratic party gains control of the legislative and executive branches of the US government, Christians should not expect tolerance. Persecution is likely to break out as it did in the first century. Teaching based on the Bible as historically understood by Christians will not tolerated. Christians will be scattered, pulled out of their homes, and incarcerated. They will have no voice in the policies and practices of the government and may even be eliminated from participating in the economy, which means Christians would not be legally allowed to buy, sell, or be employed.
If the persecution of Christians is severe, they will be forced to live in illegal self-sufficient communities. Such a lifestyle is beyond the knowledge and experience of most Christians today. Therefore, if the persecution is initiated rapidly, the carnage among Christians could be dramatic.
My anecdotal experience is that most professing Christians consider this scenario unthinkable and, therefore, reject it. But because one does not like a scenario doesn’t mean that it may not happen. Christians must be willing to face reality regardless of how painful it may be.
In considering the difficultly of what could happen, Christians must remember that in Christ we can endure all things. Jesus is still Lord over everything and everyone, even if Christians are incarcerated and martyred, like Stephen, for believing in the Christ of Scripture. Be encouraged by the words from the apostle John about the battle with the spirit of antichrist:
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them,9 for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4 ESV)
May the Christians of the world today be empowered through the Holy Spirit to victoriously, in faith, stand against the spirit of antichrist as Stephen and Phillip did in the first century, even if it means hardship, incarceration, and martyrdom.
