Americans should be dismayed by the fact that the single most effective force for good in the West, which has done so much on behalf of the powerless and weak, referring to Christianity, is under virulent, relentless attack from the Left!

The issue of slavery has become a hot topic of our day, and many seek to blame Christianity for its existence. Slavery began thousands of years before Christ and continues to this day across the globe, yet it is Christianity that has been the greatest force in the history of the world directed at limiting and ending slavery.

Where the Gospel of Christ has spread, slavery has abated or vanished as an accepted institution.

Law and order, submission to authority, bearing patiently with others’ failures, the legal theory of “innocent until proven guilty,” turning the other cheek, and similar forms of “pouring oil on troubled waters” may not be recognized as springing from Christianity, but are in fact, important Christian virtues.

Government designed for the benefit of the people and not the rulers is almost exclusively Christian in nature. It is said that in the flyleaf of his translation of Scriptures (circa 1382), John Wycliffe wrote,

“the Bible is for a government of the people, by the people and for the people,” meaning that tyranny is not supported by the Bible.

According to the Scriptures, then, government officials are servants of the people and not vice versa. This provides a primary clue for tyrants’ universal hatred for Christianity and should raise suspicions in thinking peoples’ minds regarding the Left’s hatred of all things Christian.

Where tyrants rule, Christians languish in prison cells and die. And we are not surprised by this, for Christ warned in His Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7,

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against your falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in Heaven…” (Matt 5:11, 12 NKJV).

Strangely, the Left has also targeted America’s historic work ethic, which is derived from the Bible. One would think that working hard is so obviously good and right that no one would even consider undermining it! Such would be akin to hating motherhood and children!

But then, the Left hates motherhood and children, so, it is not surprising that the emphasis on hard work which has driven America’s economic success, middle-class prosperity, and world dominance has become another target of the Left.

It may be that Christianity’s greatest contribution to America is as the nation’s conscience, an internal check against evil, and a prod within the nation’s psyche to submit to God and do the right thing; and in those instances of national failure, to pay whatever price necessary to make it right!

We know instinctively the risk a person without a conscience poses to others, so why would we think a nation without a conscience would not be a disaster many times over? But it may be this attribute of Christianity that most irks the Left.

Leftism, rooted as it is in atheism and humanism, detests the idea of objective good and evil and demands a license to do whatever one chooses. You may believe that Christianity is a poor source of the nation’s “conscience.”

I would ask you to provide a better one! Just understand that it is due to the rejection of objective morality, such as what Christianity provides, that massive atrocities against citizens have generally characterized nations where leftists rule.

While America’s constitution and laws were based upon the Founders’ understanding of the Bible and Christianity, Christians have made little effort to control the behavior of people beyond what is necessary to maintain a safe and stable culture. This is due to the doctrine of “separation of church and state,” which was almost exclusively a Baptist and Anabaptist principle for the first two thousand years of church history but was normalized by America at its founding.

Thus, for nearly two hundred and fifty years Americans have been largely free to live their lives as they chose with little governmental intrusion. With the Left’s efforts to crush Christianity, the continuation of these liberties is in serious doubt. Anyone who disagrees with the norms prescribed by the Left is increasingly finding the heavy foot of government on their throat.

And so, there you have it. Despite its failures, millions of people from around the world are coming to America or seeking to come here, proving that there is not and never has been a place like America. Her liberties, opportunities, prosperity, and goodness are rooted in her Christian heritage and will dissipate like dew on a hot morning if biblical principles are removed from the common culture.

Make no mistake: The efforts of the Left to sideline Christianity will serve only the purposes of the power-hungry tyrants pulling the levers of our cultural and political machinery. Those who think they are doing the poor and disenfranchised a service by undermining Christianity are pawns of the powerful.

If Christianity were put on trial in America to face the charges leveled by the Left, the evidence would show that believers do not dox their opponents, seek to get them fired, or labor to destroy their businesses. No, that would be the Left. Rather, Christians seek to obey the law, do good to all, sacrifice for the weak and powerless, and most of all, point the suffering to their only hope, Jesus Christ.

Thankfully, God remains upon His throne and will ultimately determine who will succeed in their striving for power and who will not. He will call to account every tyrant and every traitor, and to those who repent and trust in Him alone, He promises an eternity of peace in the Kingdom He will finally establish, supplanting all of men’s corrupt and exploitative attempts at empire.

In the meantime, we do well to learn to live in a world infected by sin, torn by conflict, and burdened by failure. Those who trust Him can weather the storms of time and arrive safely in eternity to dwell with Him forever! It is as one saint wrote,

“Hammer away ye hostile bands! Your hammer breaks. God’s anvil stands!”

All are safe who trust in Him.

Christ Himself calls to us,

“Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”