Gary Varvel: America's greatest threat to Christians

Biden gives America a downgraded credit rating

GARY VARVEL

AUG 8

The only time America’s credit rating has been downgraded was during Democrat President Obama’s administration in 2011 and Biden’s now.

by Gary Varvel

Besides Satan, what is the greatest threat to people of faith? Answer: Government.

It’s estimated that 70 million Christians have been martyred since Jesus walked the earth. The Nazi government alone is responsible for killing 1 million Christians along with 6 million Jews. Between 1917-1950, 15 million Christians were murdered in Russia. Communist China killed 700,000 between 1950-1980 and so it goes.

In Romans chapter 13, God commands people to obey the government. But when the government violates God’s design, it loses its Biblical authority. In the similar way, God has given husbands and fathers authority to lead their families. But if a husband/father leads in a destructive or abusive way, he forfeits his right to lead.

Even though the Apostle Paul wrote Romans 13, he got in more trouble with governments than any other person in the New Testament. Why? Because those governments violated God’s design and tried to stop Paul from planting churches, a mission that God had given him.

The Bible gives us 2 reasons why governments become corrupt:

People are sinners
The devil controls governments. 1 John 5:19 (NIV) says, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” Jesus called Satan, “The ruler of this world.” (in John 12:31; John 14:30 and John 16:11). In John 8:44, Jesus told Israel’s religious and political leaders, “You are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does…”

Godless governments are sinners controlled by Satan with authority to restrain other sinners when they break the law. Without God, it is a system destined to eventually fail when it becomes corrupt and rewards lawbreakers and threatens law-abiding citizens. Sound familiar?

Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil, good and good, evil…”

Calling good evil is happening in America today. For example, Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission is a Christian non-profit ministry that provides services like its soup kitchen, mobile showers, and recovery programs to the needy since 1932 during the Great Depression.

But Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission was sued in 2017 over its anti-LGBTQ+ hiring policy after it declined to hire a bisexual lawyer who applied for a job. They lost the case and the appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear their case.

It’s happening again this year as the Yakima Union Gospel Mission is suing the state of Washington Law Against Discrimination, which prohibits sexual orientation discrimination in employment and argues that the defendants "view the Mission's Christian behavior requirement on marriage and sexuality as unlawful sexual orientation discrimination under the WLAD.”

Look, the reason these Mission agencies have successfully served Seattle for for so long is because of their faith in Jesus Christ, adherence to the Bible and hiring people who believe the same. Twenty-five percent of their employees of the Union Gospel Mission are former clients whose lives were changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The First Amendment gives them the right to freely exercise their religious beliefs.

But as the number of ungodly people who work in government increases, they will demand that people of faith change their beliefs. This is demonic.

The Founding Fathers understood the importance of Christian involvement in government. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court said, “Providence (God) has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. National prosperity can neither be obtained nor preserved without the favor of Providence.”

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Unfortunately, Bible-believing Christians are not as involved in leadership positions in government and schools today as they were at our nation’s founding. As our culture becomes more secular (godless), Christian institutions that don’t compromise their faith will be persecuted.

Isaiah 59:15 says, “…whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.” In other words, when people of faith, like these two mission agencies, refuse to hire unbelievers, they become the target of the government.

This is why government is the biggest threat to people of faith.