I honestly do not know, save for God's grace, why judgment has not yet come to us. It is sheer arrogance among believers to think it's because we're sending so many missionaries around the world. (We are in fact wasting most of our resources on US.) As if God could not raise up missionaries out of stones! Perhaps only prayer for mercy has stayed his hand, the prayer of Abraham: “Lord, will you spare Sodom for one righteous?” Perhaps.

For a brief shining, tragic moment, our nation came together as one. But from the very moment we were attacked, I knew: “They will soon forget. THEY WILL FORGET!” And so we have. For one moment, the nation prayed. But we have forgotten why. Soon, it was business as usual. And worse. We've removed the 10 commandments from the courthouse in Alabama, but more, from our hearts. While a judge who upholds God's law was condemned and fired, a San Francisco court and mayor are applauded for BREAKING state law on gay marriage! This is INSANE, truly a fulfillment of the Prophet's words that men will call good evil, and evil good. We are far more spiritually corrupt than we were BEFORE 9/11, like the Proverbs said, a dog returning to its own vomit. As much as I despise Al Qaeda and reject Islam, one has to wonder: Seeing who we are, what our media does, the pornography and flesh-peddling we support, may there in fact not be a reason that those who gaze at us from Islamic nations see us as “The Great Satan”? Our hypocrisy was so clear to me in the days following 9/11 when I saw a sign over a strip bar saying, “God bless America.” He will not bless such national hypocrisy, and the edge of judgment is drawing near.

I am neither democrat nor republican. But from a long-range perspective, this is what I see: Most political and media pundits are saying the elections is about the economy and the war. “Peace and Prosperity.” As said a decade ago, “It's the economy, stupid!”

It is absolutely NOT. If you vote your pocketbook, God help you. How much are you for sale for? This kind of national view exposes the real heart of selfishness in us. It's all about US. OUR desires, OUR lust for more, OUR “rights”. (Rights used to mean our freedom to do the RIGHT thing - not our arrogance thinking no one can deny us anything WE want.) Such short-sighted selfishness will lead to disaster in a life, in a nation.

The election is not the issue. It is about the spirit of lawlessness which is overtaking our land. Laws are now being made to challenge, overthrow and denigrate God's Law. Do I need to draw you a clearer picture? GAY MARRIAGE? Banning the 10 commandments? Slaughtering babies? September 11th may have been a door of grace to see if we would truly turn to God. God must be fair. He has determined of Himself to go the distance with us before He allows us to implode, and I believe He has. It is NOT about the economy. It is about SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY.

The spirit of lawlessness has been furiously fighting in advance of the release of The Passion. Why? Because it clearly portrays Jesus' crucifixion and Satan's ultimate defeat. The hypocrisy of this fight is astonishing - media elite decrying the “unnecessary violence” of the film, the very elite who PRODUCED Natural Born Killers, Kill Bill and some of the most gratuitously violent films ever made! Andy Rooney even mocked God on 60 minutes, joking that God talked to him and said that Pat Robertson and Mel Gibson were crazy. I expect this movie to be a powerful tool of God. More internal decisions about following or rejecting Jesus will happen in theaters than in most churches put together on a Sunday.

Recently France moved to pass a law forbidding Moslem women to wear headscarves in schools. If you are rejoicing, don't. They also have forbidden the wearing of Kippas (yarmulkes) or stars of David, or crosses in public places. It is just the beginning. The day will come - perhaps precipitated by another large-scale terrorist attack by Islamic terrorists on our country - that it will be decided that ANY religious display or evangelism in public is ILLEGAL, and that ANY religious expression in public is dangerous and needs to be banned. Obviously, they will reason, we can't just discriminate against Moslems, right? So EVERYONE will have to conform. The problem is, in fact CHRISTIANS are the only ones who are COMMANDED TO BE PUBLIC AND EVANGELIZE! And where will that leave us? Either doing what most believers do now, unfortunately - not evangelizing AT ALL - or BREAKING A LAWLESS LAW. I for one have no intent on “keeping my religion to myself”. Neither should you, though I can promise you that the price of evangelism and truth-telling is about to go up.

Even now, those who are not afraid to speak to truth in or out of church are being categorized: “Divisive. Non-inclusive.” And the newest buzzword, “The Haters.” That's right. Christians are being called “the haters” by more and more people. And why? Because they LOVE THE TRUTH and are not afraid to challenge the lies. You who cherish God's Word and God's law will be called the haters by the lawless ones. Get used to it and more. And we ARE haters. We hate SIN. We hate SICKNESS. We hate poverty and drug addiction and sexual perversions of all kinds and pride and sensuality and pornography and child abuse and death. And it is because we LOVE the lost humanity Jesus died to save. So we hate everything that is murdering THEM. They cannot, and will not see that. “And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Do not expect people to thank you for being truth-tellers: expect them to hate you for that, except for those for whom the light of truth is a deliverance from darkness and evil. Most will only see that you are a bigot, sexist, homophobic, fundamentalist, a “hater”. I promise you, the spirit of lawlessness that has mass-brainwashed this world despises you already.

So do we hide? Circle the wagons? Enjoy church and hope we don't get caught? Worse, hope that we are not FORCED to publicly PROCLAIM JESUS? God forbid it! It is now that God is desiring to raise up a generation of truth-tellers who will throw caution and danger to the wind to “proclaim the truth with all boldness.” We must pronounce a death sentence on “apologize evangelism.” NEVER ONCE did Jesus or the apostles preface their word with, “I'm not trying to offend you.” Neither should we. Jesus did not stand and say, “Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around…we don't want to embarrass anyone.” NO! He said, “Follow me and do it publicly. It will cost you your lives. Do not follow unless you are willing to give all.” The Gospel is by nature an OFFENSE to all those who do not love the truth.

It is at this critical juncture in history that we will either have the spirit of Stephen, who spoke the truth as it pierced the heart of the people, causing them to rage and even gnash their teeth and costing Stephen his life, or we will cower behind the unconverted Peter's words, “I DO NOT KNOW THE MAN!” This is what lies ahead for us.

I pray that this generation, especially youth, will be given a holy boldness to speak the truth of Jesus. Speak it in the classrooms, speak it in the universities, speak it on your jobs, among your friends, speak it and DO NOT HOLD BACK. Dare to go against the current of lies and speak truth, no matter how unpopular it is, no matter how ridiculed it is, no matter what threats may come. Throw the gauntlet of truth down NOW while it is still day, “For the night is coming when no man can work.” Then when the night comes, you will still be speaking truth, and not cowering in a corner afraid someone will know that you are a believer. Before it is over, we will each be forced to either deny the Lord that bought us or to proclaim His power and truth. May God grant you the spine and the strength to make that decision in the LIGHT so that you will not deny the truth in the darkness to come.