Over the past ten years, the U.S. Gulf Coast has experienced some terrible hurricanes. Knowing storms are an annual occurrence, the levy system was eventually built to help withstand the onslaught of the ocean waters and prevent flooding. Those levies have not always proved effective, especially when needed repairs are ignored or put off for another time.
Weakened defenses put everyone at risk, allowing storms to bring irreversible damage.
Eric Metaxas wrote in his excellent work on Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
He [Bonhoeffer] identified “the Greek spirit” or “humanism” as “the most severe enemy that Christianity ever had.“
Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Think back to Israel’s history. When trust waned, and obedience to God’s law failed, the people were vulnerable to attacks from within and without. Bonhoeffer saw the erosion of Christian faith with the rise of secular humanism, which thus made Europe vulnerable to the invasion of Nazi doctrine.
While I am not pushing for governments to become theocracies, because they don’t work; I do advocate for strong faith in the lives of individual citizens. Only then can any country withstand attack.
The Europe of today looks nothing like the pre-war continent. Secularism’s foothold has left the church in a weakened state, with many closing their doors for a lack of faithful members. Thus, as Islam came in through immigration, not only are churches turning into mosques, but laws are coming under submission to Islamic values.
The increasingly value-less culture of the United States lags not far behind. For whenever values can be changed and amended on the whim of the mob, anything goes, and attack seems imminent.
The changes we are witnessing in our cultures make the prophetic words of John even more believable. We can see how it can easily happen that knees will bow to a charismatic, global figure:
All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.
Revelation 13:8 NIV
Pray the Church in your country will stand strong in the face of attack and remain firm till the day of Christ’s return.
Grace and Peace