Blood Moons and Yearning for Theophany

     I hate Tax Day.  Every year, it stresses me out.  I'm always just gritting my teeth to find out how much I owe this year.  Even after I discover just how bad the damage is, it's a relief, because at least the anticipation is over.  Once April 15 comes and goes, I breathe a bit easier.

     This year, at least there was something a little out of the ordinary to add some interest to what is usually a pretty rotten day.  That night, for those of us intrepid enough to be awake, there was a blood moon.  Of course, here in western Pennsylvania, most of it was obscured by clouds.  But it was up there, if you kept your eyes open.  My wife even got a couple little snapshots of it, mostly shrouded, but recognizable.  Unfortunately we don't have a camera with a proper telephoto lens, so it ended up looking like a tiny, orange-ish LED on something electronic.  Still, I appreciated the effort.  As for me, I was tired, and I knew about the clouds, so I stayed in bed.  I thought it was great that my wife was interested enough to stay awake, though.  She never does that, normally.

     It's always fascinating when God arranges for something unusual to happen up there in the heavens.  Most days roll into the next day, and the next, with little variation.  There's a sameness about it all that can feel tedious--especially when part of the sameness is a world that is torn by wars, violence, murders, and nations raging against the sovereignty and goodness of God.  Even the U.S. seems to be practicing its impersonation of a Psalm 2 nation.  In the midst of the tedium and the darkness, a change--any change--is good.  So when a sign in the heavens appears, people take note, and hope.

     Of course, the blood moon phenomenon carries particular fascination with evangelical Christians.  Most of us Joel 2:31 somewhere in the back of our psyches..."The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."  Powerful stuff, right? That's why evangelicals get a little excited when there's a blood moon.  Coupled with the phenomenon itself is the double-whammy: when blood moon tetrads (four of them) happen on Jewish holy days.  Historically, that has happened almost never.  Only eight times in the last two millennia, if I remember correctly.  On the few times when it has, something really momentous has happened in the life of the Jewish people.  In 1492, for example, Ferdinand and Isabella issued an edict expelling all Jews from Spain.  A tetrad of blood moons also happened in 1948, which is when God regathered the nation of Israel again for the first time in almost two thousand years.  The phenomenon happened again in 1967, which is when God give Israel the victory in the Six Day War.  So you see, the correlation is a little spooky.  John Hagee, and other prophecy experts, predict that something major will happen over the next two years as this tetrad covers four Jewish holy days.  Implicit in the tantalizing prospect is the question: "will the Lord come again?"  So there's been considerable buzz about this.

     Along with the buzz has come the disdain, of course--and it may surprise you that it doesn't just come from secular voices.  Among evangelical clergy and theologians, it has become trendy to pooh-pooh any excitement over Jesus' imminent return.  Many of them are rejecting the rapture and the Millennial, earthly reign of Christ, which I consider to be sad and misguided.  But I won't delve into that here...that's a whole other article, or series of them.  The part of the disdain I want to focus on for our purposes is a rant that goes along these lines: These Christians that are obsessed about blood moons and the end times are enemies of the Gospel.  They just want the Lord to return and spare them the responsibility of reaching the world for Christ.  That particular rant is often parroted to the point of being overplayed.  It's getting old, really--even older than the prophecy programs that really do jump to far too many conclusions.  At least those are upbeat...the trendy end-times naysayers just negate, and that's very tiring to listen to.

     Don't get me wrong; there's a needed caution within the anti--end-times-exuberance of the eschatological Ebenezers. (I saw a chance at alliteration, and I went for it.)  There really is a big problem with the idea that Christianity consists of 1) pray the salvation prayer and get baptized; and 2) sit in a church pew, sing hymns, and watch for prophetic signs until Jesus comes back to rescue us from all these sinful people.  That's unrepentant sin, as it is a willful disobedience of the one, big job Jesus gave us before He ascended: the Great Commission.  Remember the Parable of the Talents? The master gave his servants funds that, while he was away, they were to put to good use.  Remember what happened to the guy who did nothing--who buried his trust money in a handkerchief? None of us want to be that guy.

     So, sensible precaution, granted.  We get it.  Aside from that, I really believe that the trendy, anti-end times-exuberance police are missing the point.  They paint the motivations of us all with too broad a brush in assuming that everyone that gets pumped about blood moons is a Gospel-slacker.  For one thing, being vigilant about the quickly-advancing return of Christ has historically not served as a wet blanket for evangelism; just the opposite.  If we have any love for people at all (and how can you actually know God and not love people--1 John 4:7-8), prophecy fulfilled is a reminder that we're on a deadline!  It's getting closer all the time!  Prophecy spurs evangelistic fervor, instead of dampening it! Furthermore, we watch for His returning because....He told us to.  If you haven't done so lately, I'd encourage you to read the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.  The closing verse has Jesus giving us the moral of the story: "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." Vigilance about Christ's return is simply a matter of obedience--as long as that vigilance doesn't detract from our other obedience to the Great Commission.  So the next time someone rolls their eyes at you in response to your eager watchfulness, I encourage you to remember that our job isn't to be fashionably cynical, or to impress those who are; it's to be obedient. Keep watch.

     Here is another reason, however, that watching the signs of the times is a perfectly natural, and healthy, thing to do for Christians.  It's not that we don't love people; it's that we really, really want to see God.  Let me give you one of those $100 words that we're taught in seminary.  Don't worry, there won't be a quiz.  The word is: theophany.  Theophany is a fancy word for an exciting event: when God breaks through into human history.  Historically, God sometimes determines that the best route is to cut out the middle-man and come to us directly.  When God spoke to Moses out of a burning bush, that was theophany. The biggest example was when Jesus was born in human form of a virgin and lived among us.  MAJOR theophany.  These are the stories in the Bible that fill us with wonder and awe.  Just think of it; how powerful those encounters must have been!  The Red Sea parts.  God leads His people by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. How can anyone not thrill at the idea?  

     On the other hand, the fact is, God hasn't done that in, well, quite awhile.  Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to the Father.  The Holy Spirit came upon the Church in flames of fire on the day of Pentecost.  He did pretty amazing things throughout the New Testament.  We live in a time, however, when it seems like God hasn't broken through to human history in quite some time.  This links us back to what we were discussing earlier: the world seems a mighty dark place. Wars, violence, murder, persecution against Christians...all of this amounts to a heavy weight that Christians feel deep in their souls.  The church in the Western world, furthermore, seems to be dwindling.  Church attendance is down everywhere.  Most churches are plateauing or declining.  Dare I ask it?--do we fight with a temptation to feel that the Gospel is actually losing in our culture?  If this is the weight we carry around in our souls, it's no wonder that many of us really want God to break through.  We're tired. We're lonely.  We're sad.  We feel lost.  We just want some assurance that the Lord is still there, and that He's still on His throne.  We desperately want Him to come and save this wretched world from itself.  

     Do you know what's wrong with that desire?  Nothing.

     Still, I'd like to gently suggest there are some things we might be missing, and it might be because we just aren't looking in the right places.  Maybe it's hard for us to see it, since we spend so much time in our self-made boxes of wood, steel, concrete, glass, and drywall.  The truth, however, is that there are plenty of signs that God is right here with us.  Think with me on the words of Psalm 19:1-4...

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.

    The skies display his craftsmanship.

Day after day they continue to speak;

    night after night they make him known.

They speak without a sound or word;

    their voice is never heard.

Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,

    and their words to all the world. (NLT)

     As you know, I didn't grow up around here.  I come from the Land of Flat.  That said, western Pennsylvania still blows me away, even though I've been here awhile.  I sometimes ask myself whether you guys experience what I do when I'm outside.  When you see the huge hills covered in green timber...when there's a morning mist wisping among the trees, and a river sparkling down there at the bottom of a ravine...does it still seem like magic to you?  It sure does to me.  Of course "magic" isn't the right word--"miracle" is better. Remember Dr. Suess' famous book, Horton Hears a Who?  The people on the little micro-world were saved from oblivion by shouting in unison, "WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE!"  Also, this beautiful world that God has made practically yells itself hoarse glorifying God, day in and day out.  He designed it to do that.  He knew that we would feel lonely and frightened sometimes.  He knew that, as a toddler anxiously scans the room to make sure that daddy is still in view--that he is safe--we would need that reminder that God is still in charge.  So He made a good world for us.  He filled it with heart-stopping beauty, just so that we would have no doubt that a miracle-working Father created, and sustains, this masterpiece of His.  There's no way that a world like this just happened to happen.  And it's not like He finished the work, signed it, and walked away.  No, this is a work of art that requires constant, creative power just to continue existing.  It's a work in progress, in fact, and it is Christ's own creative power that keeps it spinning.  As Colossians 1:17 reminds us, "He holds all creation together."  So you see, every day is theophany, when you think about it.  Every bird that sings, every sun that sets--God made that happen, just then.  There's your Abba gently saying, "I'm right here, my son.  I'm here, my daughter."

     More significant than the theophany that is daily happening around you is the theophany that constantly happens in you.  We picture God the Father sitting up there on His Throne, and Jesus, God the Son, sitting at His right hand.  We know He will come back for us someday, but we get stuck in Acts 1 mode.  We scan the skies, waiting for Him to come back.  We track global earthquake frequency.  We stay up to the wee hours to catch glimpses of a blood moon.  Like I said earlier, there's nothing wrong with this, so long as the motives are right.  In all this watching for His return, however, we lose sight of the fact that He is also here.  We get stuck in Acts 1, forgetting to turn to Acts 2.  It was never Jesus' plan to leave us hanging, alone, waiting forlornly at the train station for Him to come and take us home.  When He started talking more and more about "leaving," His disciples started to get scared, and sad.  He hastened to tell them that He wouldn't be leaving in the way they thought.  He would never truly leave them alone.  In John 14:18-19 He reassures them: "No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me." (NLT)  The wonderful thing about God's love is that He knows it is not good for us to be alone.  He loves us, and wants to be with us, more than we're even able to suspect.  Even at the time of Jesus' departure, He made this promise: "...be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (NLT)  In John 14, Jesus was describing how He would keep His promise, even though He would ascend.  We wouldn't be orphans.  He didn't want our hearts to be troubled (vs.1).  Instead He laid out the arrangements already made so that they would continue to experience theophany all day, every day: "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you." (vs. 16-17, NLT)  "Later," of course, means the Day of Pentecost.  That promise was fulfilled long ago.  If we walk with the Lord, we now have the full blessing of the permanently-indwelling Holy Spirit.  

     Even while we wait for the return of God the Son, we should never feel that we have been left alone in a big, evil, scary culture.  So, why do we?  We, of all people, should be the last ones to lament, "where is God?"  Those are the world's lines, according to Jesus.  A lost world has no frame of reference for experiencing a God who is here with us, now and always.  They are missing the spring of living water, welling up to eternal life.  They do not have the Holy Spirit abiding 24-7 in their souls, breaking through into their personal stories every day.  It's understandable for them to feel lost and alone.  It does not make sense for us, however.  Again, why do we feel like that?  The answer is that we do not listen.  We do not walk with Him as we ought.  It is no wonder that we feel God is nowhere to be found if the sum total of our relationship with Him is to spend a couple of hours singing hymns and listening to someone preach on a Sunday.  Too many of us sing about Him, and listen to someone talk about Him, yet never taking the time to get to know Him, to experience Him, for ourselves.  Let's be honest: it's not likely that we will, either, unless we take a critical look at how we are living.  Every waking second, we fill our time, our minds, and our ears with so many distractions.  Not to say that we shouldn't be about our responsibilities, but all of those things can and must flow from the friendship, strength, and center that we experience as we talk to Him and listen, really listen, to Him as He speaks to us from His living and active Word. He doesn't want you to be alone, so He gave you brothers and sisters in the church to listen to, pray for, and support you. In fact, He sometimes comes to you through them.  If you do not make the time to live with your Christian family in authentic community, you will feel needlessly alone.  If all you are and do does not proceed from that center, you will feel just like the orphan that Jesus pointedly does not want you to be.  God's perceived absence is not His fault.

     Will this particular series of blood moons usher in the return of Christ?  Wouldn't it be fantastic?  But the answer is the same as it's always been.  Maybe, maybe not. I'm in the same boat as you.  I get tired, and burdened, and I really want Him to come and take me home with Him.  There's nothing wrong, or unscriptural, about being vigilant, watching the signs, yearning for theophany.  If this doesn't turn out to be "the big one," however, I don't want you to get all downhearted.  In a real way, you don't need to wait for God to break through into your personal history; He is already right there, with you.  He never left you to begin with.  His Holy Spirit is a seal upon your heart, an inner beacon which constantly whispers, "I am here, and you are my child" -- if only you will listen.  In the meantime, you and I have a job to do.  There are plenty of people that you see, every day, that ARE orphans, lost and alone.  God put you where you are so that you can reach out your hand to them and say, "come home with me."  He put you there to love them home.

And if this tetrad of blood moons doesn't turn out to be THE time, you and I can still be very much encouraged and hopeful.  I definitely take them as a sign.  At the very LEAST I take them as God's message and sign to His children. The message goes, "I haven't forgotten my promise, no matter how it may seem to you.  I'm trying to get as many to come home as possible; I don't want anyone left alone. But I will come, when the time is right.  And it will be soon."

 

"The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief."  -- 2 Peter 3:9-10 (NLT)

Appreciate the Spark-Makers

I am a fan of history--the farthest thing from an expert, but just a very interested dabbler.  As I read history, I especially appreciate the insights I gain on human nature and its pitfalls.  I’m currently getting quite near the end of a large tome on the war in Vietnam.  That subject holds particular interest to me, because my father fought in Vietnam, with the U.S. Army, from late 1965 through mid 1968.  I am always trying to wrap my mind around what sort of experiences he must have had.

The book I have nearly completed deals extensively with the decision-making processes that led our nation’s leaders into our embroilment in Vietnam, and what led them into the mistakes they made.  Please note immediately that I am not making a political statement on the war itself; I am quite proud of my father and his service.  Nonetheless, I do feel some mistakes were made by the political and military leadership at the time.  I was somewhat amazed that in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, there seemed to be a predilection toward hearing only the sort of news they wanted to hear.  In other words, there was a bias toward hearing good news, at the expense of accurate information.  Those who came with glowing reports were rewarded and promoted; those who issued warnings were shunted aside and in some cases even dismissed.  Diplomats and military leaders figured this out quite readily, and several tended to skew their reports so that everything was made to look rosy. Again, this wasn’t always the truth, but they knew that’s what their superiors wanted to hear.  Sadly, this bias sometimes led to very ill-informed decisions, and it cost lives.

Behind the historical facts, which are hotly debated, there is a lesson that is timeless.  I think there is definitely a tendency in people which preconditions them to accept only those things they want to hear and see.  We often read only books or articles which agree with our viewpoints.  We tend to select friends who see eye-to-eye with us.  We want to see ourselves in the best possible light, and can choose not to see parts of our character that are less-than-desirable.  On the other hand, we often try to distance ourselves from viewpoints and people that challenge, disagree with, or criticize us.  We grouse about that unpleasant co-worker or boss, and try our best to avoid them.  We might disqualify potential friends because they disagree with us or rub us the wrong way.  We even tend to shun Christian brothers or sisters for the same reasons.  In general, it is our instinct, when encountering people that confront us in some challenging way, to try to exclude them from our lives as much as possible.

Should we do this?  Granted, there are plenty of people around who thrive on negativity.  They kill ideas before they’re even fully-conceived.  They have nothing good to say about anyone, and seem to derive perverse pleasure out of stirring up arguments -- they make trouble for fun.  I don’t think there is anything profitable to be gained from being in the company of that type of person, let alone listening to what they say.  Are all of our critics like that, however?  Can we so easily dismiss them?  If we do, we might be making a serious mistake.

None of us enjoy hearing from critics or dissenters.  We should realize, however, that those might be the very people we should listen to very carefully.  Rarely do people learn anything worthwhile when things are going smoothly; most of our biggest life lessons come from hard times and conflict.  God understands this completely, and makes use of it.  Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”  In my kitchen, there is a knife block that contains all kinds and lengths of knives.  There is also a long, tapered wand that is used for sharpening them.  How do you sharpen a blade?  That’s right, it happens through friction.  Iron sharpens iron by rubbing together, creating heat, and knocking off the rough edges.  If we are wise, we will understand that God sometimes brings people into our lives who will teach us important lessons -- and they will do it by challenging us.  They make sparks, bringing friction.  Although uncomfortable, being challenged is the best way to learn lessons that will last.

Because of this, the Bible also states that wise people give careful consideration to those who challenge them.  Proverbs 9:8 makes this keen observation: “Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.”  Proverbs 19:25 adds, “rebuke the discerning, and they will gain knowledge.”  In several such verses, God teaches us that what often separates a wise person from a fool is his receptiveness to criticism.  Foolish people tune it out completely, to their ruin.  Wise people weigh it carefully, sift nuggets of truth from it, and learn important things about themselves which they would never have seen on their own.  They learn to genuinely appreciate those who challenge them so that they may grow.  

Looking back through history, I really wish that some of our leaders would have been wiser.  They shouldn’t have automatically assumed that those who disagreed with them were enemies.  If they had listened and heeded, some costly mistakes might have been averted.

In just the same way, I hope that you and I will gain wisdom from those who challenge us.  We have an amazing capacity for self-deception, seeing only what we want to see while remaining blind to real perils to our success and well-being.  It is an act of grace that God sends us people who can see clearly where we have blind spots.  They are not our enemies, even though their criticism may sting.  They may even seem abrasive or create sparks in our lives.  Often, however, they genuinely mean us well, desiring to steer us away from disastrous mistakes.   Quieting down our defensive reflexes and pausing long enough to listen and consider may do us a service for which we will be grateful our whole lives.  God grant us wisdom to recognize friends that we may have initially mistaken for enemies.

Are "Real Men" Unemotional?

I was born in 1970, toward the beginning of the so-called "Generation X," so I was able to see a transition between the traditional and newer ways.  Some traditions are very good, and should be maintained or recovered.  Other traditions were not so good, and they needed to go.  Some still need to go.

One tradition I would like to address quickly has to do with what it takes to be "manly."  Once again, on the hinge between the "old" and the "new," I've been witness to different paradigms of "manly" conduct.  In previous generations, it seemed that the manly template was a fellow who was emotionally quite buttoned-down.  To be manly, you weren't allowed to be mushy, to cry, or to be vulnerable.  You had to be the impassive, detached rock from whom everyone else would supposedly draw strength.  As the hinge began to turn, however, the idea of the emotionally-aloof man came under fire.  The traditional "manly" template seems to be passing away.  Should it?  Or, are we younger men becoming spineless wimps?  What most interests me, however, is not how Americans conceive of the "real man."  I want to know how the Bible defines manly behavior.

What about this premise: "real men are unemotional and must show no vulnerabilities?"  It is a false premise, and unbiblical to boot.  It was a commonly-held premise in men from about the baby boom generation and previous, but it has since been largely discarded, thank goodness.  It did more harm than good.  I still believe that our wives and kids should be able to look to us for strength and assurance--but believe me, they don't draw an ounce of security from a husband or Dad who cannot express love or let them know that it is safe and healthy to have deep emotions.  In fact, detached husbands and Dads often unknowingly cause deep insecurities that will plague family members for years.  Remember, the only way we men can lead is by example.

Now for the Biblical part.  Biblically, man is assigned spiritual headship over the family unit, but "headship" is not the same thing as "boss."  God makes us men to be stewards of our wives and children, with the task of helping them to grow as close in relationship to Christ as possible, and guiding them to discover the fullest flowering of the gifts and destinies that God has placed on their lives.  This is the meaning of the teaching of Ephesians 5:21-33, if you would like to read that passage.  I recommend it.

Now, God has created all of us, male and female, to be very much emotional beings.  God Himself is emotional (Jesus is the perfect representation of the Father, and it is obvious that Jesus has very deep emotions).  Though our spiritual lives transcend emotions, emotions are nonetheless tightly woven into our spiritual lives.  Thus, in order to be healthy spiritually, it is absolutely necessary to be emotionally healthy as well.

Let us return to the Biblically-defined role of the husband as the spiritual steward of his family.  If we men want to guide our families to discover maximum spiritual health, we must therefore guide them to emotional health as a key component of that goal.  If we set a tone of emotional distance and un-approachability,  our children (and particularly our sons) will not get the nurture they need to be both emotionally and spiritually mature.  Our wives, in particular, need strong emotional bonding in their relationships, especially with their husbands.  If we stand aloof emotionally, their hearts will not receive the emotional nurture they need to become everything they can be, spiritually, for the Lord.

Even though men are LESS reliant on emotion than our wives, we nonetheless still require vigorous emotional health to guide our families to emotional and spiritual health as well.  We cannot share what we do not have.  For men to be emotionally healthy, we too must allow ourselves to feel deeply and be vulnerable enough to let our wives, children, and male friends, strengthen us both emotionally and spiritually.  We cannot be helped unless we let ourselves be vulnerable.  So, emotionality and vulnerability are essential for our health, and for our ability to fulfill our God-given task of the spiritual stewardship of our families.

Therefore, Biblically, real and God-serving men must be both emotional and vulnerable in order to be successful in fulfilling our purpose.

Fight, or "Duck?"

There has been quite a lot of controversy going on this holiday season, a time when we're all supposed to be completely wrapped up with Christmas preparations and festivities.  The controversy to which I refer is the firestorm surrounding the "indefinite suspension" of Phil Robertson, patriarch of the starring family on A&E's "Duck Dynasty," the #1 highest-grossing television show in cable TV history.   It seems they mistook the reason why the show was so popular.  Perhaps these Hollywood types thought they were making money by poking fun at just how "redneck" this family is.  Even as they chuckled into their elitist sleeves while taking millions to the bank, I suspect they believed their success was due to America's laughing at the Robertsons right along with them and feeling oh-so-superior.  Sure, we Americans in "fly-over country" were laughing, but not for that reason, and that's not why we made the show so phenomenally popular.  

Millions love this family because they represent intrigrity, ethics, common sense, family values, and, most of all--faith.  All things that used to be in plentiful supply in our nation, but unfortunately they are at a premium nowadays.  A&E obviously didn't comprehend why we love this family, because when our buddy Phil simply voiced his deeply-held beliefs without apology, they canned him for it.  By seeking to publicly humiliate this man for his faith, the network seems unaware of the fact that they also insulted millions of freedom-loving Americans who happen to own some of the same values.  The backlash from Americans has shocked the network.

The internet has been literally flooded with reactions to these developments, both pro and con.  I think some of his words were ill-advised and frankly, crude, but I support his stand upon the Scripture and his freedom to speak forth his beliefs in any forum.  What can I add to the conversation? Honestly, so much has been said about outrage and calls-to-action that there is little I can say to add to it.  However, I would like to remind Christians of some things that I believe are necessary if we are to respond to all this in a way that lifts up Jesus.

The first thing I would like to suggest is that we really need to adjust our expectations.  What I'm about to say will be the hardest to accept for those of us who have grown up in an America where the Church has enjoyed a position of strong cultural influence and completely unfettered religious liberty.  I still remember those days, myself, and I miss them just as much as you.  But--need I say it?--that America is no more.  I know that the Bill of Rights provides freedom of speech and religion.  Those rights are absolutely precious, and we should speak up for them.  However, I must ask you to take a wider view of history, and ask yourself this question: for how much of the Church's history have Christians been free to speak and act our faith as we saw fit?  The answer: very little, and in very few places.  For most of our history, Christians have had to spread the Gospel under direct threat of persecution, arrest, torture and death.  Ungodly people really do not like being told there is a God to whom we will give an account.  When they are in power, they invariably pass laws to prevent Christians from telling them that.  America, once widely a "Christian nation," isn't anymore.  And to be realistic, the likelihood is that the rights we once had will be taken away. As should be clear to everyone, they already are. Religious liberty is the extreme exception, not the rule, of history.  Should we roll over and just accept this silently?  Of course not.  However, we need to have reasonable expectations if this battle is to be undertaken effectively.  And what should those expectations be?

As much as it may surprise us that there a great many who want to silence and marginalize us for our faith, it really shouldn't surprise us at all.  This leads me to my next point: God's Word promises us that we will be hated by those hostile to God.  The New Testament says this in many different ways.  1 John 3:13 cautions us, "Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you." (ESV) John had just related the story of Cain and Abel, asking why the one killed the other.  The answer was that while Abel's deeds were righteous, Cain's were evil.  The simple fact of Abel's display of a righteous life was sufficient to drive Cain to kill. Today, as well, the mere existence of people trying to live a God-honoring life is a witness to those who do not.  Even if we were to say little or nothing, the very lives we lead are a testimony against them.  It should be no shock to us, then, when some folks go out of their way to remove us from the picture.  

The other reason we should expect hatred is that the Lord we serve was hated for His life and teaching.  He proclaimed God's love and grace, did incredible healing miracles, and showed unprecedented kindness to sinners that were untouchable by polite society.  Nonetheless, even in His works of grace He exhorted people to "Go and sin no more."  He was the ultimate paragon of love, and yet He pointed toward our responsibility to repent in preparation for the coming Kingdom.  They crucified Him for it.  The only way anyone can credibly call himself a Christian is to emulate the life of Christ with God's help.  Jesus reminds us, furthermore, that such emulation will lead to the same responses He experienced Himself.  In Matthew 10:24-25, Jesus reminds the disciples that true disciples will be like their teacher, and servants like their master.  Even as the holy Son of God was called the devil, they will speak yet more abusively to His followers.  Again, we really shouldn't be so shocked.  You may say, "Yes--but this is America!"  Yes it is, and yes, we should speak up in favor of our rights.  However, I remind you that true religious liberty has rarely happened or endured throughout history, and we need to realize that unless The Lord returns very soon or sweeps the country with revival (and He absolutely can do that), we might be on borrowed time here. Again, we should not let this simply go unchallenged, but having the right expectations will inform the manner in which we hold forth for our rights and for the Gospel.

If we are to engage the culture on the issue of religious freedom, it is essential that we do so with the correct demeanor.  Remember my first point: that we must adjust our expectations.  It is time to face the truth that Evangelical Christianity is not "on top" anymore.  We must therefore not act as if we were.  The New Testament Church turned the world on its ear, but it was on the margins of a pagan society.  Today, we are not quite that far on the outer edges, but we're headed that direction in a hurry.  If we are searching for a way we can work for the transformation of our culture, we had better look to the New Testament Church for our example, instead of the American church of yesteryear.  The early Christians could not dictate laws or morals from a position of strength, as if everyone would hop to it with a snap of the fingers.  They had to present their case gently, respectfully, and in a winsome way.  To be sure, they were unmoving in their convictions, but their game plan was not to dominate.  It was to inspire.  We must emulate their example.  I have never been a fan of angry marches, raised fists, and shouted slogans.  Worldly people love to use those in their causes, but I don't feel that they do very well in conveying the character of Jesus to those whose attention we are trying to gain.  The Gospel means "good news," and it should be communicated with love, with a smile, and resolutely maintained in a winsome manner even if we are shouted down or even one day incarcerated for proclaiming it.

I am all for engaging issues that are important to us, but I believe we should engage them as Jesus would have done.  He never gave the "what" without also giving the "why."  He didn't just shout that the worldly order was wrong; He contrasted it with the ethics of the Kingdom of God to show how things should be.  He didn't just call the Pharisees and teachers of the law hypocrites; He demonstrated how they'd drifted from the values of God's reign.  At every point when people would listen, Jesus explained things.  If we have any hope of preserving our freedoms, we also must explain why those freedoms should be treasured by all of America.  We should explain what they will lose if they abandon them.  We should talk to people about the Gospel, but we need to explain our reasons for believing in it.  All the while, this must be done in a calm, reasoned, and loving fashion.  No slogans, and no name-calling: just love and and a well-reasoned message.  We mustn't cave into the temptation to be negative or reactionary, but stay loving even as we calmly refuse to back down or be silent.  

The real trick will be whether or not we persevere in our faith at the point when, and if, systemic hostility begins to come our way in America, and whether we can show forgiveness and love toward those who may persecute us.  Remember that Jesus maintained genuine love for all even when they "took" His religious freedom away from Him.  He strictly enjoined us to love and forgive as well in such circumstances.   We are to return love for hated, and blessing for cursing.  We are in a war, yes -- a war for freedom, but more importantly it is a war for men's souls.  We must not mistake the world's method of war for our own, however.  The world's methods entail anger, hatred, shouting, force and violence.  Our methods must be love, gentleness, peace, humility, reason, compassion, acts of service, perseverance, and even sacrifice.  As Paul reminded us in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, "though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds."  Yes, friends, the war is on...but let's see to it that we are fighting the right sort of war.