Preparing for the Coming Coercion

I am getting ready to give a talk about preparing for the coming coercion in our increasingly non-Christian society. Here is my introduction:

Introduction

Last year, I stood here and spoke to you about how the spirit of antichrist appears again and again in history and seeks to mandate its will with coercion. I spoke about how to identify that Spirit and why we should not comply with coercion. This year I want to build on the same idea to look forward to how Christians can respond to the trends we observe in our society.

If you read the Bible, and I am sure most of you here do very regularly, then you will know there are many passages which tell us to be good citizens, obedient citizens, etc. But many Christians can forget that we are called to be good citizens of two kingdoms, not just one. We are told to obey earthly authorities and seek to be good neighbours and citizens, and we are also told to honour God with our life and conscience and obey him above all else as citizens of heaven. We live in the tension between these two truths. This tension is increasing because Australia is becoming more hostile to Christian beliefs and teachings.

This is creating a bit of a culture shock for Aussie Christians, because Christians have had it so easy in Australia for so long. Our faith was still being tested, it was just being tested by ease and prosperity and abundance. It is very likely that going forward it is going to be tested by the taking away of these things.

This is hard for many Aussies Christians to accept, because we all just want to be good and obedient citizens and we always thought we were part of mainstream society and we just grew up with the belief that government could never be against us. But in history this happens often, even in the Christian West, and therefore we need to build new faith muscles that prepare us for the hard times coming. Australia is becoming increasingly anti-Christian and more and more coercive, and because of this, conflict with government commands is going to happen.

Let me demonstrate: If you are commanded to call a boy a girl, or a girl a boy, and therefore lie and blaspheme the image of God, will you do it? If you are told that the Bible is hate speech, will you stop sharing its words? Such ideas and events are increasing, and the fat happy days of excess are fading, and more and more your conscience is going to be tested by the sword of government, and you need to be prepared for this, and for a peaceful and firm response like the Apostles, “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). 

Are you prepared for this? Are you? We are told to aspire to live a quiet life, but we are not promised that we will have it. Are you prepared for what is very likely coming? Today that’s what I want to help you be, prepared to for the coming coercion. Let’s begin.

Pray that this talk goes well, and that people are blessed and encouraged to stand boldly for Jesus. And if you read this post after today, then just pray that God would help the message cement into the hearts of all who heard it, and pray that we can apply it. Also, pray for myself and yourself that we can be bold as times get tougher. Our God is the God of the resurrection, he is on our team, his people should be bold. 

I will share the full message here at another point.