Faithfulness in the Future

The assumption of power by the political left, which is taking both the White House and Congress, with the ideas of the hard left as the driving force, puts traditional Christians in a position in which we must take stock and assess our non-negotiables. As previous articles by this writer have tried to emphasize, there is no area of Christian life which is safe from the attacks of the secular left. This is because Christian doctrine is thought to be cruel, both in its sexual morality, and its belief in eternal punishment.

The secular left sees the Judeo-Christian tradition as the enemy, and will endeavor to destroy the Christian subculture. For the last two decades this has been done with antidiscrimination law and (as much as is possible in this country) hate speech doctrine. Now there are more direct attacks proposed on families and churches, using transgenderism (to destroy parental authority) and the general police power of the state (to require acceptance of the sexual revolution in churches).

It is the first of the two issues mentioned – sexual morality – that has been the presenting issue, both in the churches, and in the wider society. The increasing acceptance of non-marital sexual relations from the 1960s on, and the increasingly greater acceptance of divorce and remarriage – what might be called the initial phase of the sexual revolution – did not result in a great threat to religious freedom. While it corroded the national culture, Christians did not have to be involved with it, and there was no attempt by the state to require acceptance of it. But this was followed by the homosexual revolution, which was accompanied by civil rights laws, which are interpreted to mandate acceptance of homosexuality in all of public life.

Recent articles have pointed to attempts in other countries to require acceptance of homosexuality in private life as well, making any expression against homosexuality or adverse judgment against it in private life illegal. Church discipline on sexual matters in line with Biblical teaching would be illegal, since any expression adverse to homosexuality (including in particular saying that homosexuality is a sin) or advancing sexual abstinence would be illegal according to recent proposed legislation in the United Kingdom. As the Christian Institute in the U.K. points out, the effort to make the expression of Christian sexual morality illegal in private life is being led by former Evangelicals, underscoring that this is an attack on religious doctrine, not collateral damage from civil rights law. Similarly, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion and Belief has declared that all religious groups must be open to people without regard to homosexual behavior or inclination, gender identity, distinction in practice between the sexes (i.e., all clerical roles open to women), or participation in abortion.

Clearly, the above legal regime is not one Christians can live in. Biblically, we must be separate from sin, both in our individual lives and corporately. We can participate in life in the wider world – including befriending or serving nonbelievers – because we are in the world but not of it. But we cannot facilitate sin, as is demanded by the way in which sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) laws are interpreted, requiring complicity in homosexual or transgender behavior, not only service to persons identifying as LGBT. Similarly, we can be part of secular organizations which are not committed to Christian doctrine or morality (most organizations in our society are not specifically Christian), but we cannot be complicit in sinful activities of those organizations, or be part of an organization for which the advancing of sin is one of its purposes. Nor can we be part of churches or professedly Christian organizations which deviate from Christian doctrine or morals. Yet clearly, the new demands that even churches accept homosexuality and transgenderism would make churches that are both faithful to Christ and legal impossible. Faithful Christians simply could not participate in legal houses of worship.

The reach of the sexual revolution against Christian faith also extends into families, where parents, as it is proposed in Canada, will be required to accept a minor child’s identification with the opposite sex (or some self-defined gender). Further, any education in Christian sexual morality will be forbidden, as is proposed in the United Kingdom.

Thus Christian life at the individual, family, and ecclesiastical levels will be forbidden by law if cutting edge proposals prevail. Faithful disciples of Christ simply cannot be part of this world, according to Biblical standards. And in the case of individual life, where there is no place to retreat to, they will simply have to take whatever penalty is imposed.

The prospect of these great sacrifices leads to considering for what it is that we are making them. It is of course for God, whose glory and truth come first, before anything else. Life should consist in glorifying him. Because we are inclined to sin, we must be careful to obey him in all of life. Several years ago, when it appeared that Hillary Clinton was about to win the White House, this writer attempted to summarize Christian non-negotiables, which we must not deviate from, even under a hostile regime. In January 2021, we are at that point again. So it is worth rehearsing them again:

What cannot be given up for any penalty, including penalties our government cannot impose, is the core of Christian faith and morals. This is the faith proclaimed in the Bible, faith in a supreme personal being, incarnate in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection to deliver from sin and its consequences, and repentance from every known sin as identified from the commandments of Christ and the apostles, and those moral precepts of the Old Testament reiterated in the New Testament. While there may not be absolute agreement among individual believers on the precise extent of moral precepts (e.g., how and when should Christians keep the Sabbath, whether there are and what are Biblical reasons for divorce and remarriage), such central precepts as the worship of only the Biblical God, respectful use of His name, restriction of sexual relations to the divinely ordained marriage of man and woman, maintenance of personal prayer, and meeting and fellowship with other Christians are so clear that the lack of them means that one must be presumed not to be a follower of Christ.

This means being separate from sin both individually and corporately; we must not sin or facilitate sin in our individual lives, or be part of organizations professing to be Christian which include impenitent sinners or facilitate sin. While orthodox Christians differ on the point at which an organization is sinfully compromised, the principle of separation is clear from Scripture. God gratuitously loves sinners, but to have God’s love without judgment for sin, it is necessary to believe in Jesus and repent of what the Scripture calls sin.

Since the state is mandating that people commit sin in what they do and say and do not say, Christians must not comply with the state’s sinful requirements. In order to obey God they must suffer whatever penalty is given by the state.

This may mean loss of job, loss of friends and family, fines or imprisonment in our society. However, God’s requirements go beyond this. Biblically, it is clear that we are not to sin for any reason, including torture or death. The absolute which makes all the difference is the imperative of obeying God.

But we should also notice that by complying with sinful requirements we lose our identity as Christians, being in no important way different from the secular world in which we live. Revolutionary doctrine ends by destroying what it proposed to liberate. The sexual revolution is destroying sex (which can only be understood as the condition of being male or female). Identity politics is destroying identity by trying to give people what they want now in the interest of the identity they claim. Similarly for Christians to make peace with the cultural revolution destroys their identity as Christians.

The future is in God’s hands. We cannot know what it will be other than to have the assurance of Christ’s return, judgment, and the new heaven and the new earth. But until Christ does return, our duty is to obey God in all things, regardless of the cost.