Have you seen the TV promo's?  A new series comes in January called soemthing like "The Book of Daniel."  In may, the movies will present "The Da Vinci Code."  Neither are kind to Christianity as it is presented in the B

Jesus tells us that we will have tribulation and persecutions.  John 16:33 may sum it up best.

John 16:33 (KJV) These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

It seems to me that the past twenty years have presented plenty of situations where Christianity has, directly or indirectly, been attacked.  Some of it has been obvious while other attacks are laid in the background.  Each is persecution of our faith, for it is an attack based upon the assumption that the Bible is not the true, faithful, literal Word of God.  Thus, Jesus is not really God and Christianity is false. 

The sad part about all of this is that, to my mind, there is no quick fix.  We can file petitions with local televeision stations and attempt to remove shows from the air.  Past efforts of this sort have mixed results.  Sometimes stores or entertainment companies back down, sometimes they don't.  Each effort takes a little bit of steam out of evangelism and makes Christians look bad.

On the other hand, I have great assurance in to facts.  First, the Bible does not speak about any type of mass protection, such as the petitions.  What is offered is the simple fact that Jesus has already won.  Our Lord and Savior has already overcome the world.  Second, the path to "success" is to make disciples -- not mass conversions based upon emotions, but the painfully slow process of teaching individuals about Jesus and inviting them to enter into a relationship with God.  We will be successful in this process, although not as successful as each of us will individually hope for.  The world is too hardened and into culture for any large number of quick conversions.

The Christian community should be faulted for having failed in this evangelistic effort over the past 100 years.  If the community had been more into evangelism and less into social efforts, if the community had kept Christ's victory in the fore-front and offered salvation to friends and neighbors, there would be more Christians.  If the body of Believers had more carefully led lives that reflected the beliefs of their faith as outlined in the Bible, fewer Christians would be following the ways of the world.  As such, the times would look different.

On the other hand, Paul tells us in places such as 2 Timothy 3 that as we move towards the end, the world will pick on us more and more.  The Book of Daniel and The Da Vinci Code are but two possible examples of such persecution.  Our petitions may be successful in some places, but not in all places.  The persecution will continue -- and become worse.  We should expect this and not be surprised.  In fact ...

Our response should be to further our efforts at winning others to Christ.  Tell as many people as possible about the Good News God offers to each individual person, no matter who they are nor what they spiritual condition.

Make your New Year's resolution to focus on your faith -- resolve to live out your faith in your daily life so that you are a walking Bible and resolve to tell as many people as possible about Jesus Christ.

Jim A