Watching the current majority leading our nation is like a day at the circus. The bizarre and breath-taking acts filling the center ring provide a never ending assault on freedom and decency. The latest trapeze act could leave pastors suspended in mid-air with no safety net!

I was just informed that a vote on Hate Crimes may happen this week, probably on Thursday. As you know, Hate Crimes legislation passed the U.S. House (HR. 1913) and an amendment (S. 909) to a Defense Appropriations Bill passed in the U.S. Senate. However, the differences between the two versions mandate that the matter go to conference committee for harmonization. Now Congress is poised to take a final vote. If approved, President Obama will sign this dangerous legislation into law.

Why the cause for alarm? Because if passed, this Hate Crimes law will eventually result in efforts to silence pastors, churches, and other faith-based organizations who publicly and peacefully oppose homosexuality on biblical grounds.

“Hate crimes” laws are a part of a comprehensive plan by radical homosexual activists who seek to redefine morality, marriage, the family, religious freedom and life as we have known it in America. Peter Sprigg, Vice President for Policy at the Family Research Council, has outlined the major components of this insidious, decades long effort, which directly threatens the liberties we hold dear:

1. Have homosexuality removed from the ‘mental disorder’ categories by the American Psychiatric Association. (completed)

2. Persuade us that homosexuality is inborn and not a choice made by homosexuals. (ongoing)

3. Add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to categories of protection under anti-discrimination codes. (ongoing)

4. Force homosexual curriculums into public schools, even to Kindergarten. (ongoing)

5. Redefine marriage from exclusively heterosexual to include same-sex ‘marriage.’ (ongoing)

6. Demand enactment of hate crimes laws that punish bias against homosexuals, cross-dressers, and the gender confused. (ongoing)

Former presidential speechwriter, David Frum, has prophetically declared this warning:

“When you decide to extend your nondiscrimination principles to behavior condemned by your society’s major religion, you are embarking on a course that will sooner or later require the state to police, control and punish adherents to that religion.”

This is what the future holds for people of faith. Please take a moment to call your Senators and Representatives NOW. Here’s the number: (202) 224-3121.

 Solomon warned us about the grave consequences (no pun intended) for those who fall prey to the spirit of seduction. He writes,

 “She’s dancing down the primrose path to Death;  she’s headed straight for Hell and taking you with her. She hasn’t a clue about Real Life, about who she is or where she’s going.”

For she has been the ruin of many;  many men have been her victims. Her house is the road to the grave.  Her bedroom is the den of death.

This leads to my final point about the seductive spirit of socialism:

Like the seductress, socialism will eventually consume you, your family and your freedoms.

In Isaiah 10:14, we read a prophecy about the King of Assyria and his lust for more and more power. The description is truly fitting of the behavior all godless governments.

‘I’ve done all this by myself.
   I know more than anyone.
I’ve wiped out the boundaries of whole countries.
   I’ve walked in and taken anything I wanted.
I charged in like a bull
   and toppled their kings from their thrones.
I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured
   as easily as a boy taking a bird’s eggs from a nest.
Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse,
   I gathered the world in my basket,
And no one so much as fluttered a wing
   or squawked or even chirped.’

We must keep in mind the fact that, behind all the news headlines political posturing, we are experiencing a spiritual battle. Satan’s goal from the very beginning was to control the earth and the earth’s inhabitants. He seeks to accomplish his purposes through false ideologies finding their expression through people. When the godless rule we see an ever-increasing lust for power and control. The current administration’s unending grab for federal control is a contemporary example of same behavior Isaiah described by the King of Assyria. Like a farm boy harvesting the eggs  from the henhouse, big government snatches more and more of the rights and freedoms from an unsuspecting and uninformed electorate. If left unchecked, socialism leads to the gradually increasing control of all things by the State.

What will be the fruit of socialism?

1.The loss of liberty through oppressive regulation and control

2. The loss of prosperity through excessive taxation and redistribution of wealth

3. The loss of the ability for the church to disciple nations through the trampling of religious liberty

Under the King of Assyria’s reign of tyranny, the Bible tells us, “there was no one who opened his mouth with even a peep” (Isaiah 10:14, NKJV).

It’s time for the chickens to start squaking before all the eggs are gone, the pot is boiling on the stove, and the farmer’s making his way to the henhouse with his axe in hand.

In my last blog, I tried to establish the fact that much of the foreboding forecast we are hearing from the liberal talking-heads is a smokescreen. Americans, when compared to our Socialist European friends, enjoy a higher standard of living. Even “poor” Americans are better off than the  middle-class European!  So the logical solution is really quite simple: Keep your Socialism!

But part of the problem with socialism is that, in addition to the atmosphere of dissatisfaction and despair it intentionally creates, it also has the nasty problem of over-promising and under-delivering. Which leads to my second point:

Like a perverse woman, socialism promises more than it can deliver. She seeks to draw us away from our covenant partner.

Socialism, like a seductress, strives to steal our affections away from our covenant partner. She alluringly promises provision, security, comfort and… the world! And herein lies the problem. Socialists see government as “god.” The government becomes their provider from cradle to grave, their savior in times of trouble, the solver of all their problems, and that which inevitably brings peace and utopia.

Author Stephen McDowell writes,“Socialism is man’s attempt to build his kingdom, through which he tries, on his own terms, to take dominion of the earth.” Socialistic governments will act as if they are sovereign in all things. When the State stands in the place of God, the people develop an idolatrous dependency upon the State instead of God. This is the very essence of sin.

Fortunately, the Lord will not tolerate this perversion for long. In Isaiah 54:5, we read, ”For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His name;  And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel;  He is called the God of the whole earth.”

The Lord is our Husband. He alone is our Provider. The Lord of heaven’s armies is our Defender and Protector.  And make no mistakes; He is the God of the whole earth. This planet belongs to Him. When earthly governments rob Him of the glory due to Him alone by stealing the faith and affections of the people, God cannot remain silent. He will act. His glory depends on it! 

The children of Israel, God’s covenant bride, lost her first love and turned to the surrounding nations for instruction.They wanted an earthly king like their pagan neighbors. The Lord exposes Israel’s adulterous heart:  “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer.” (I Samuel 8:5-7)

Is this not the heart of the crisis in America today? Who will rule over us? Will we have Christ as our King or will we look to the governments of man to care for our needs?

 The Lord’s command to us is clear: “Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband (Jeremiah 3:14). As Americans, we must choose between our Husband, the Lord, or our current mistress, the State. The future of our nation depends upon it.