Snakes In The Garden

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The main catch cry of the Church that sides with the world as persecution of Christians increases in Australia will not be: 

"We agree with the world on that particular matter of sexuality, science, medicine, or public policy, etc." 

It will be: 

"He deserved to be persecuted, because he didn't say it as I would say it" or "he decided to stand on an issue that I wouldn't have, so it's not really persecution, he made the rod for his own back."

The signs of this attitude are already there. In fact, it has already happened to the likes of Israel Folau and others. We see often in Australia when a person stands on the traditional bible teachings on sexuality, gender, government authority and more, that many conservative Christians are more interested in critiquing how those people stood, rather than defending them for standing. 

Prepare to see your brothers and sisters in the faith abandon you to take shelter under this concept: "This isn't the time and those aren't the right words." You'll likely see it happen to someone you know, maybe even to yourself.

They'll say, "Mate we agree with what you said, just not how, when, or why you said it. Therefore, you deserve to lose everything, it's your own fault."

"It's not time to stand" will be their motto, right up until the moment when there is nothing in the Bible that you'll be able to talk about without drawing heat. 

I am convinced that though some of this comes from a well-intentioned desire on behalf of certain teachers to do their best to explain the gospel and Bible well to people, that a lot of it comes from bad influences in the Church. Snakes in the Garden that want to do all that they can to stop you from making a bold stand. We were warned about such people rising up in the Church. You should not be surprised that they appear. 

If there is any time to stand on the controversial teachings of God's word publicly, it is now. It's only going to get harder, start preparing yourself to be ready to stand when it is harder to stand. Dropping out now, is only going to make it harder for you to know when to stand in the future, because you'll train yourself to hide the clear teaching form people out of fear of their offense. Just be bold.