For Christians in our nation, the last decade has felt like holding onto the outside of a high-speed train. Fueled by exponentially increasing sexual license, it keeps picking up speed.

Many have made the choice to climb inside the train, but the cost—not just silence, but unequivocal and vocal support for the LGBTQ agenda—is high. Those of us who remain committed to a biblical worldview on marriage and sexuality, on the other hand, are still on the outside, being battered and dragged along.

It’s no longer feasible for us to hope for a quiet, free life in which we can hold our beliefs, share them when an opportunity arises, and teach our children what the Bible has to say about God’s design for sex, gender, marriage, and sexuality.

No, in a culture that now looks with suspicion at parents fulfilling their God-given role in their children’s lives (you know, guiding, guarding, and disciplining them), simply passing along our beliefs represents a threat to our LGBTQ neighbors and their way of life.

The 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized gay marriage seems so long ago. Compared with the deviance now on display across the nation, it seems like small potatoes, but as we all know, it was one among many events that laid the groundwork for where we find ourselves today.

During oral arguments on Obergefell, conservative Justice Samuel Alito expressed concern over what a decision to legalize same-sex marriage would mean for religious liberty and freedom in general. He was assured there was nothing to worry about, but as we all knew at the time and most certainly know now, his concerns were well-founded.

In the intervening years, we have seen what many predicted come to fruition: the marginalization and silencing of pro-biblical marriage voices, the mainstreaming of homosexuality as one of many possible expressions of sexuality, and now the insidious, all-encompassing reach of the transgender agenda.

Perhaps most alarming, whereas LGBTQ-related public policy in the past had been largely limited to adult behavior, it has now spread to our nation’s children. With the help of the public school system, social media, and a shockingly complicit medical establishment, U.S. kids are coerced daily to pin their struggles on a mismatch between their bodies and their minds and to take drastic, unproven steps to resolve it.

It isn’t hard to see the power Satan wields in this area as he poses the ancient question, “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1) to men, women, boys, and girls in desperate need of someone to tell them the truth. As Jesus said,

“When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Jesus also said the Enemy comes to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10), so of course he delights in mutilated bodies and inherently infertile unions.

As unpleasant as it might be, we must consider what the future might hold. Every time the LGBTQ lobby reaches a new dubious milestone, one might hope they have finally achieved all they set out to do. “Surely,” some think, “they can’t go any farther. Surely they are satisfied at this point.” But if the last 10 years have revealed anything, it’s that they will never rest until they enjoy equal status with “traditional” individuals and families and absolute acceptance from their neighbors, especially Christians.

But why is it that among the Abrahamic faiths (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity), which all condemn homosexuality, Christians are singled out? Quite simply, it is much more a spiritual battle than a physical one. Islam and Judaism do not present a threat to Satan. He hates the God of the Bible and those who follow Him. He seeks to sow that same hatred among men.

In a recent article in World Magazine, writer and speaker Rosaria Butterfield (a former lesbian and tenured professor at Syracuse University who is now a believer, pastor’s wife, mother, author, and much more) wrote of the part she had played in setting the stage for the cultural moment in which we find ourselves.

Later in the article, she turned her attention to the future of the LGBTQ movement, writing these stunning words that no doubt speak to her own experience before she surrendered to Christ:

The gay rights movement has won its prize: legal marriage in all 50 states. So why isn’t the gay revolution over? Why didn’t activists declare victory, pack up, and go home? Because the gay marriage movement was never merely about legal inclusion … No, the campaign for gay marriage was always a moral revolution, not a legal one. Activists thought the freedom to marry meant freedom from that quiet internal soul-whisper that something isn’t right. They were fooled into believing that contrary voices came from the outside, from Christians and rednecks, when in fact it was baked in at the Creation.

Is it any wonder they are so angry? It’s as though they have an itch that, no matter how hard they try, they can never reach. There is a pain that, no matter what doctor they see, no treatment can diminish. It’s heartbreaking to consider how haunted they must feel, even as they blame bigots and haters for their discontent.

The men and women who push the LGBTQ agenda expect and demand acceptance, but no amount of support will ever change the fact that in their sin, the “Hound of heaven” is pursuing them. Some have been running so long they cannot hear the Holy Spirit, but if we believe God’s Word, we know that no one is beyond His reach.

So as believers today, when insanity rules the day and disagreement is construed as hatred, how ought we respond? To be sure, there are political answers for the agenda being pushed by those in the LGBTQ lobby. But if we have a kingdom perspective, we know even an ideal government or the most ironclad laws are temporal.

In light of these spiritual realities, the only chance we have of stopping the momentum we are seeing is to confidently, joyfully, lovingly, and relentlessly share the gospel. This is not an oversimplification—the gospel alone will stall the LGBTQ movement.

Friend, just as we fight for the lives of the innocent in the womb, we must recognize the infinite value of these men and women; these image-bearers of the God we serve. Their souls must be our priority, with a return to biblical policy and culture as a hoped-for consequence of changed lives.

Our neighbors are hurting. Deep down, so many know something isn’t right; that they are not living in alignment with God’s design. Christ alone holds the key that can silence the “soul-whisper” they hear and replace it with a joyous shout, “my son…was lost, and is found!” (Luke 15:24).

Let’s pray for the love and the opportunity to be the ones who “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11).