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TOUGH TIMES AHEAD FOR U.S. CHRISTIANS
boblonsberry.com ^ | 02/17/14 | Bob Lonsberry

Posted on 02/17/2014 6:08:24 AM PST by shortstop

Being Christian in America increasingly means something very different from what it has meant previously in our nation’s history.

As the culture and its values change, so too does the position once held by the teachings of traditional, Bible-based Christianity.

Simply put, the Christian values once applauded by this society are increasingly being attacked by this society, and that growing antagonism extends not just to the values, but to the people who ascribe to them.

Bible-based Christians should be aware of that attitudinal shift, and of the adversity and persecution which will accompany it.

American society and traditional Christianity have a long and partnered history. The nation was initially settled by people whose Christian faith defined their lives and, indeed, brought them to these shores. And though their denominations varied, the core of their beliefs – and their respect for adherents to those beliefs – did not.

Christian virtues were admired even by those who didn’t practice them. Piety and faithfulness were seen as good traits across the society. That general respect was endorsing of and supporting of those beliefs and the people who practiced them.

It was good to be a practicing Christian, and Christian virtues were seen as a respected standard for all.

But the society has changed.

A rising amorality has defined those who preach morality as intolerant bigots. As the unchanging light of true Christianity has cast unflattering shadows on a darkening American heart, that heart has turned against that light. As the American popular culture has veered ever further from the strait and narrow path of Biblical Christianity, the culture has not been shamed, it has been angered.

And Christians are increasingly the target of that anger.

For centuries, Christianity has been a respected faith in America. In this day, however, it is becoming a reviled faith in America.

The haven this society has provided Christianity is potentially no more. And Christians will have to adapt to that, and perhaps recognize that this respite from persecution has been an exception to the historical rule.

Part of the antagonism will be a fight over who gets to define what “Christian” means. People with pretty vestments and fancy titles and contemporary views will continue to pollute the pulpit and cloud the issue. They will preach strange doctrines and consecrate ancient blasphemies, but their authority will come from man, not from the Bible or its Author.

Their partners in the attack on traditional Christianity will come from the newly self-appointed arbiters of right and wrong – the pronouncers of political correctness. Activists and politicians and celebrities, ordained by web hits and reality television, will conduct a modern Inquisition, chasing down any deviation from their godless views.

And that puts Christians in the crosshairs.

Real Christians.

The ones who believe what their great-grandparents believed 100 years ago, and what their Savior taught 2,000 years ago.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: christianity; lonsberry; values
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To: shortstop

I went to the Latin Mass again yesterday.

People there are dead serious

there is no lightheartedness

we know what the truth is, the evil in the country, the stakes


21 posted on 02/17/2014 6:48:11 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Mean Maryjean
...and his Democrat machine supporters...

That would be the corrupt MSM. Clinton survived, and Obama/Holder continues their lawlessness simply because the corrupt MSM allow them to. It isn't some political machine that allows this, it is the MSM, who brought down Nixon for far less, who frames the issues and chooses not to report on critical issues. Simply, the corrupt MSM is the veil being used to blind most Americans from truth.

22 posted on 02/17/2014 6:48:50 AM PST by Obadiah (I Like Ted.)
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To: abclily

Our society started changing when the muslim moved into the White House.

...come now...don’t you think the ease with which America accepted the decadence ushered in by the 1960’s had something to do with it...?


23 posted on 02/17/2014 6:49:10 AM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: abclily

Our society started changing in the 60s

California bears special responsibility for introduction of no fault divorce

Griswold and Roe v. Wade attacked our very foundation by authorizing the killing of children and the interfering with God’s plan by blocking births


24 posted on 02/17/2014 6:50:53 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: skeeter

Amen Skeeter!


25 posted on 02/17/2014 6:51:42 AM PST by Lake Living
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To: abclily
Our society started changing when the muslim moved into the White House.

Don't forget the Lewinski with the big Easter bible.

26 posted on 02/17/2014 6:52:49 AM PST by alrea ( By progressive they mean costs.)
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To: shortstop

I’ve always been a bit of a shutterbug, shooting photos of old buildings as I’ve traveled the towns and cities. In the last few years, I’ve thought it would probably be a good idea to make an extra effort to shoot old historic churches as well. Mainly, because the way the culture is going, with the intensification of hatred directed towards the religious, I expect many might be torched to the ground in coming years.


27 posted on 02/17/2014 6:53:59 AM PST by greene66
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To: yldstrk

I went to the Latin Mass again yesterday.

...pax sit semper tecum...et Dominus tecum...


28 posted on 02/17/2014 6:54:31 AM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: IrishBrigade

well that is the sad part, I used to go to Latin Mass as a kid

then the evil of Vatican II came along and they pulled a fast one

instead of continuing Mass in a language that is not “evolving”, ie Latin, Mass was to be in any language, and then the words started changing, the disrespect crept in and the meaning chnaged.

So I don’t understand the Latin Mass, but will have to learn it


29 posted on 02/17/2014 6:57:24 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: IrishBrigade

Does it mean Peace be with you and God be with you?

Thank you. I wish you the same


30 posted on 02/17/2014 7:02:02 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Texas Eagle

But Christ lives in me. It would be sad indeed if the world could not see enough of Christ in me to hate me as it hates Him... If u were accused of being a Christian today would there be enough evidence to convict you? A sobering and challenging thought


31 posted on 02/17/2014 7:04:04 AM PST by Mom MD
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To: yldstrk

Two big things that hurt Christianity in the 20th Century: the arguments of the higher critical movement from Europe and the challenges of evolution. Both ideas were never really answered in any meaningful or scholarly way and as a result they “festered” and tended to undermine the credibility of Biblical authority. They were a direct blow to the foundational ideas of the Scriptures. Both of have science been addressed but when the answers were needed they went missing in action.


32 posted on 02/17/2014 7:05:55 AM PST by Lake Living
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To: yldstrk

Society started changing with the nihilism of Europe after WWII and the “modernization” of the Roman Church culminating in the disgusting Vatican II.
The Church had always stuck to their guns when it came to traditional morality because priests were men with strong visions of right and wrong, and the will to shame those living immorally. Not now. We’re all psychological now. I sin, and I know damn well what my sins are, but it’s tough to find a confessor who will do his job.
Where are the prophets like days of old, sent to change the hearts of the Jewish people?


33 posted on 02/17/2014 7:07:54 AM PST by steve8714 (I love the early House Party movies. I'm whitey McWhite. So sue me.)
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To: Obadiah

The Prosperity movement has also contributed to the attack on the Church. These charlatans do their best to undermine the real reason to worship God.


34 posted on 02/17/2014 7:11:00 AM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: yldstrk

So I don’t understand the Latin Mass, but will have to learn it

...intellegere Missa Latina ardua non est...sed perseveratus sis...

...since I don’t know how to do internet links, I direct your attention to a website called ‘Grammar of Missale Romanum 1962’, which should open into a complete parsing of each phrase of the 1962 Missal, which would give you everything, and more, that you will need to know...


35 posted on 02/17/2014 7:18:04 AM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: shortstop

I’m going to kick a hornet’s nest here with this I’m sure, but this is my POV on the subject...

The Moral Majority inspired caricatures of the 1980’s bear some responsibility in this as well. The Tammy Baker’s, Swaggart’s, Tipper Gore and her attacks on rock music but not so much on “sexual healing” by Marvin Gaye, etc,. The inconsistency applied and the lampoonish behavior of the Jerry Falwell types gave rise to a generation of folks who viewed Christians as “insane”.

I wasn’t an active or practicing Christian at that time, but what I saw on the news and television coming from the Christian right and how they were presented by the media has done a lot to create this situation and the typical stereotype of a “Christian”.

It is easy to be mocked, demeaned and maligned when your own house isn’t in order...look at the charlatans and frauds that end up smearing Christianity because of their behavior and teachings...they do a darned good job of giving the secularists plenty of ammunition in their fight against God.

And those with a more refined approach to spreading the Word of God? Well, we’re just pigeon holed right alongside the kooks, frauds, charlatans and all that the secularists revile because they fear the power of a righteous society and the effects it would have on their lifestyles.

And 30+ years of lampooning Christianity has made it socially acceptable to do so...


36 posted on 02/17/2014 7:23:24 AM PST by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: IrishBrigade

http://gmr.sourceforge.net/grammar/gmr.html

Thank you!

My kid knows Latin, but I don’t

The really destructive thing that happened to me with Catholicism is that my parents, who went to J school at Marquette became hippies and fought the Church and I thought they were right until at some point I realized they were wacko...............


37 posted on 02/17/2014 7:27:55 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: shortstop

Colleges, the left, the irs, and this administration all hate Christians and are doing all they can to eliminate them (after taking all their money and giving it to screaming savages.)


38 posted on 02/17/2014 7:28:56 AM PST by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible traitors. Complicit in the destruction of our country.)
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To: Resolute Conservative

Very good point.


39 posted on 02/17/2014 7:37:05 AM PST by Obadiah (I Like Ted.)
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To: escapefromboston

Indeed.

BTW, I escaped from Boston 15 years ago! LOL!


40 posted on 02/17/2014 7:40:16 AM PST by left that other site
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