- by Jack Kinsella
Editor's note: This was written by Jack Kinsella in 2004, but still applies today.
A culture war has been raging in the United States for years. Unlike traditional wars, it cannot be won by military action, but it is a real war being carried out on US soil by US citizens against one another.
For example, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom defied state law by allowing same-sex marriage licenses, a New York Times profile reported him sporting "a wide grin," "describing his motives as pure and principled," and cited his "business acumen, money, good looks and friends in the right places."
But when Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore also defied the law - by installing a Ten Commandments display in his public building - a Times profile said that "civil liberties groups accused Justice Moore of turning a courthouse into a church," while allowing that he had also become "an Alabama folk hero."
On the editorial page, the Times criticized Moore, likening him to George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door, but supports Newsom's protest and gay marriage.
America's culture war can be defined as conservative vs. liberal, Right vs. Left, rich vs. poor, Democrat vs. Republican but in reality, the war is between believers in Christ and believers in the world system, both inside and outside of mainstream Christian culture.
It isn't really a war between cultures so much as it is a spiritual conflict. For example, while polls show a majority of Americans oppose gay marriage, some of the country's top editorial pages support it.
"Same-sex marriages pose no threat to anyone but rather affirm a commitment of love, an emotion that is universal," says the Boston Globe.
"We believe that extending the benefits and responsibilities of marriage to same-sex couples would be fair and beneficial; we understand that many Americans feel otherwise," says The Washington Post.
"Clearly those who claim that it signals the end of civilization need to get their outrage odometers adjusted," says the Los Angeles Times.
Polls demonstrate that the culture war between Christ and the world is taking casualties within mainstrean Christian culture as well: A poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life suggests that opposition to same-sex marriage is widespread among white evangelical Protestants (84 percent) and blacks (65 percent).
Other mainline Protestant Christians showed a 20-point drop in opposition to same-sex marriage (from 64 percent to 44) and a 19-point drop among white Roman Catholics (from 60 percent to 41 percent) but only a 1-point decline among white evangelical Christians and African Americans. Do you see a pattern developing?
Another front in the culture war is the battle raging over Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ." Before it was even released, it had ignited passions across the country.
"Too gory!" exclaimed movie reviewers. The same movie reviewers loved Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" and "Pulp Fiction." Not to mention "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," and "Natural-Born Killers" all of which have achieved 'cult film status' and are immune to criticism. The same reviewers who criticized "The Passion" for its gore cheered the historical accuracy of the first thirty minutes of "Saving Private Ryan."
The culture war isn't over the movie, but rather the subject material - namely the Salvation of the human race. The world system doesn't like to think that it needs salvation, and it doesn't like to be reminded of the historical Jesus.
If the Passion of Jesus is real, then hell is real. And if hell is real, then it becomes decision time. And to the world, 'decision time' means giving up all the 'fun stuff' - something they would rather not do.
So rather than admitting outright that their real objection is to Christianity in general, they fall back on whatever seems safe.
Antisemitism, or too much gore, or historical 'inaccuracies' that didn't seem to bother anybody when reviewing "The Last Temptation of Christ" or "Jesus Christ, Superstar."
Abortion is another example - recently the Los Angeles Times corrected a review about a play that celebrated fertility (a favorite subject of the world) in which the reviewer called the play 'pro-life.' Although the play had NOTHING to do with abortion, the LA Times' editors changed 'pro-life' to 'anti-abortion.'
The words 'pro-life' are forbidden by the Times' editorial board because it might give the impression that if those opposing abortion are 'pro-life' then those who favor it are 'pro-death' or 'anti-life.' 'Anti-abortion' strikes the right semantic 'balance'; who wants to be 'anti' something? Especially since the opposite of pro-life is, by definition, anti-life?
Last week, the UC Student Senate passed a bill to give $2,400 to send 10 buses of students to a pro-abortion rally in Washington. That is considered 'education,' but you won't find public universities shelling out funds to send students to a pro-life rally.
Cincinnati's Xavier College ponied up $30,000 to pay lunatic left-winger Michael Moore to address the student body. Some students wanted to hear from conservative columnist Walter Williams. They even put up $10,000 of their own money. Xavier refused to kick in the balance of $3,000.00 - about ten percent of what they paid Moore.
That the world is well aware of the spiritual conflict is easily seen by the automatic assumption that anybody who is pro-life must be a Bible-thumping born-again Christian, so financing such a student trip would violate the alleged 'Separation Clause.'
Polls show the majority of Americans are pro-life, but the world system equates being pro-life to Jesus Christ. And hates it.
The spiritual war raging in America is taking place at the same time that a larger spiritual conflict has gripped the whole world. Unlike America's war, this one IS being fought using bullets and bombs. That war pits Muslims against Jews and Christians, which is what brought it to America's shores. Because America is rapidly becoming one of the last strongholds of Christianity left in the world.
While there are more Christians in China than there are Americans on earth, no nation on earth has more Christians per capita and no nation on earth exerts more global influence than 'Christian' America.
The culture war raging in America represents the opening skirmishes in the coming War of Armageddon that rages throughout the Tribulation Period.
Consider what would happen to America if, suddenly, there were no Christians remaining to continue the spiritual conflict with the world system. What if the only worldview left in America were the ones espoused by the liberal left and the God-haters?
What would it mean to America's global status? What if there was nobody to restrain Ted Kennedy or John Kerry or Jay Rockefeller's doctrine of internationalism?
What if there were no Christians left for Islam to fight?
One of the spiritual wars taking place in America right now concerns whether or not America is really a Christian country to begin with. In America, pledging allegiance to one nation 'under God' is already illegal. So is displaying the Ten Commandments on public land.
If there were no Christians, America's culture war would be over and the stage would be set for the War of Armageddon to begin in earnest. The Armageddon War isn't against the Church; it is against Israel and the Tribulation saints.
What would happen if, suddenly, Christianity disappeared from the face of the earth as outlined by the Apostle Paul. Paul had taught in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians of the coming Rapture of the Church.
"For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).
In his Second Epistle, Paul is specifically addressing a heresy that was being taught in Thessalonica that the Lord had already returned for His Church and that they had been left behind.
"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition" (2nd Thessalonians 2:1-3).
Paul outlines the spiritual conflict, saying that "the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way."
The NIV translates this same verse, "For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the One who now holds it back will continue to do so till He is taken out of the way."
The One Who 'holds it back' is the Holy Spirit of God indwelling the Church. The Holy Spirit is God. God is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere. The Psalmist wrote; "If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there" (Psalms 139:8).
It is only AFTER the restraining influence of the indwelt Church is removed, Paul says, that the Antichrist can come to power. "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His Mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming" (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Note that the text makes 'that Wicked' a proper noun, and that he will be destroyed by the 2nd Coming of Christ at the conclusion of the Tribulation Period. The identification of 'that Wicked' as the antichrist is obvious from the context.
After the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is 'taken out of the way,' Paul explains the 'strong delusion' that will cause the secular world to embrace the antichrist.
"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2nd Thessalonians 2:11-12).
The Rapture would decimate the United States, hand victory to the internationalists, the liberals, the homosexual movement, the God-haters and the abortionists in a war they undoubtedly will think they have won.
It is obvious that the only thing restraining evil today is the believing Church. For those to be left behind, the conditioning process has already begun.
The Rapture is at hand. That means there isn't much time left for us to fulfill our commission as watchmen on the wall.
The King is coming! Tell somebody.
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