Christians Sleeping - Antichrist Creeping
By Michael Bresciani (05/07/07)
Christians worldwide are recognizing the errors of the emergent church,
cults and pseudo Christian religions. What they seem wholly unaware of is
the fact that in America there is a movement to silence the voices that
are still preaching the true gospel.
Thursday May 3, 2007 was recognized as America’s national day of prayer.
Even as Christians gathered to petition God for many things, members of
congress met to debate and finally vote on hate crimes bill HR 1592. The
bill squeezed by and was voted into law with 237 yeas and 180 nays.
The fight is not over because for all of the individuals and organizations
who wrote their representatives to ask that they vote against the bill now
the same effort must be repeated to defeat the Senate version of the bill
referred to as the Matthew Shepard Bill S. 1105.
The Whitehouse top advisors have asked President Bush to veto the bills
and he has bravely and graciously committed himself to do just that. We
can be thankful that because many Christians were not even aware that this
bill even existed much less that it actually made it to the floor of
congress, our President knows what this bill actually means.
In a statement issued the morning of May 4, 2007 a communiqué from the
executive offices of the White House said…
“The Administration favors strong criminal penalties for violent crime,
including crime based on personal characteristics, such as race, color,
religion, or national origin. However, the administration believes that
H.R. 1592 is unnecessary and constitutionally questionable. If H.R. 1592
were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that
he veto the bill…
“H.R. 1592 prohibits willfully causing or attempting to cause bodily
injury to any person based on the victim’s race color, religion, national
origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The
Administration notes that would leave other classes of (such as the
elderly, members of the military, police officers, and victims of prior
crimes) without similar special status. The Administration believes that
all violent crimes are unacceptable, regardless of the victims, and should
be punished firmly…”
Both the house and senate versions of the bill are a direct affront to
freedom of speech and freedom of religion and if by some remote chance
they should become a permanent part of the law they will surely undergo
challenges in the Supreme Court about their obviously suspect
constitutionality.
The Hate Crimes Bill is a means of squashing the rights of preachers,
gospel witnesses, youth workers, journalists, and every ordinary citizen
to quote or explain to others what the Bible says about homosexuality.
Some of the events that have transpired during the fight against this
twisted bill are close to amazing. One scene that is hard to imagine is
that Rev Lou Sheldon and CEO Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values
Coalition were found standing alone on the steps of the capitol during the
house proceedings on Thursday. The absence of other Christians and
organizations speaks to the lazy hazy days of summer that has lulled the
church in America to a deep Laodicean sleep.
I got letters from several organizations and individuals that thanked me
for a previous article I wrote entitled “Christians Thrown to the Lions –
Not in Rome but in America.” Amazingly some of them stated that they
didn’t even know the law ever existed. If believers are not aware of a law
that will limit their ability to freely use and refer to their own Bibles,
what are they aware of?
Jesus said “A house divided against it self cannot stand” and that is the
single most important reason I have endeavored not to blatantly criticize
the Christian church. It is hard at this juncture not to scathe the church
for its sleepiness and distraction and it seems only fair to say that they
need this figurative boot in the butt before more is lost.
It has become apparent that the recent conclusions of the Barna Group that
say Christians are as equally influenced by media trends as are
non-believers is more than just another disconcerting statistical report.
It is rather and indictment. Fighting error is good but submitting to
ignorance seems to cancel the best efforts of the ecclesia (church).
It is estimated that between all faiths in America there are 177 million
believers. Conversely there are about a quarter of a million gay rights
activists who support bills like HR 1592 and S. 1105. When an army of
Christians that outnumber their foes seven times over doesn’t know they
are about to get squashed it seems safe to say someone is asleep at the
wheel or perhaps, asleep in the church.
Don’t be ignorant of this, the fourteenth amendment allows full protection
of the law to citizens of the United States including gays. Bills HR 1592
and S. 1105 only serve to police what we may say or think about gay
practices and no more. If America must resort to thought policing then
everything this country stands for has not just started crumbling but is
passing in a cloud of wind driven dust.
If you want to know more about the nature of these bills then search out
organizations such as the Traditional Values Coalition, Faith2Action,
Alliance Defense Fund, The High Impact Coalition, Repent America, Focus
on the Family, Americans for Justice, Exodus International and the Pacific
Justice Institute just to name a few. You will find names, addresses,
phone numbers and e-mail addresses of your representatives to speak to
about your concerns.
Americans should be reminded that one woman and a small Texas based
atheistic organization single handedly blasted prayer out of American
schools before the church ever heard the rooster crow. Madalyn Murray
O’Hair managed to ramrod a bill through the congress in the early sixties
that Christians have loathed ever since.
American is enjoying the high times of a burgeoning stock market,
prosperity and artistic freedoms not limited by anything but the
imagination. But there is another high time approaching. At its peak these
high times will end with a sleeping nation and a dozing church being
brought to its knees by changes they never saw coming. God forbid that the
unbelievers and scoffers are found standing around the wreckage wagging
their heads and saying, “they never knew what hit them.” The Apostle Paul
said it best. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to
awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we (first)
believed.” Romans 13:11
Rev Bresciani
http://www.americanprophet.org/
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