Is the Church experiencing global persecution? For true believers, the answer to this question is yes. We are living in dangerous times for the faith as we see and hear about unfathomable persecution as well as churches succumbing to pressure from secular forces to reject the Lord and to teach an adulterated doctrine. This great deceit is corrupting the Body of Christ and is distorting the truth. The institution that Christ established 2000 years ago is being dismantled before our eyes. We can’t help but to be reminded of Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
As part of Illuminating Faith’s pursuit of the revival of the Church, we scour the internet to find information regarding the State of Christianity. One article we recently discovered comes from RT.com which posted an article regarding the despicable act of the Church of Sweden to change Christian theology. The church has decided to change its handbook to exclude/dissuade its church from using the words “Lord” and “He” to reference God. According to this new direction, it’s not appropriate to use gender identification words to describe God. A gender specific description of God insinuates that God is human, even more so, God is a male. Something abhorred by radical feminists and the left in general who seek to control speech and to rewrite the Bible. Not only is this inaccurate, it’s blasphemous.
For those who don’t know the faith, let’s take a moment to review the foundation of Christian theology. Christianity is a monotheistic faith, one that believes in the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is explained as God being three yet one: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The New Testament is clear on the reference that Christ makes to the Father and the relationship between Jesus as the Only Begotten Son of the Father. However, the Church of Sweden has decided to take radical stance on the theology and has chosen to reject it by refusing to use the word He and Lord to reference God. In our opinion, this is nothing more than fulfillment of the aforementioned scripture (Isaiah 5:20)
If we further dissect the issue at hand we will uncover a greater issue. The forces of Anti-Christ are attempting to rewrite the Bible. Christ is a barrier to them and Christians are an impediment. Their strategic initiative is to wipe out Christianity through restricting free speech and demonizing the faith, deeming Christians as sexist, racist, bigoted, etc. It began with Political Correctness and has morphed into full control of communication. The rise of false prophets and blasphemous doctrine has consumed the faith, and in the case of the Church of Sweden, it seems as though it has adopted Progressive Christianity. Essentially, Progressive Christianity “seek to reform the faith via the insights of post-modernism and a reclaiming of the truth beyond the verifiable historicity and factuality of the passages in the Bible by affirming the truths within the stories that may not have actually happened.” To sum it up, it’s a perverted interpretation that goes as far as to deny homosexuality as a sin. Furthermore, it seems as though other so called “Christians” in Sweden such as, the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sweden, Antje Jackelen shares the gender neutral view as well. She has been quoted in saying, “Theologically, for instance, we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human,”. Her view is in conjunction with progressive values such as the ones stated by Radical Feminism which aims to eradicate the traditional family and exterminate patriarchy. For the gullible, misguided and Bible illiterate “Christian” who thinks they are somehow on the side of justice and the pursuit of alleviating suffering of women need to carefully analyze this secular ideology (as well as all secular ideologies) to test its validity according to scripture. This view is simply a ploy by Satan to destroy God’s order and creation. Satan has tried to destroy mankind from its creation and we are still in an ongoing battle. When we eliminate men from society and consider men to be evil (as some progressive have openly stated) we risk destroying society. The true Christian knows exactly how the Lord sees both men and women. God created both man and woman and loves them equally. As a matter of fact, He loves us so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for our sins (John 3:16).
The Bible is clear on the order and the manner of respect and love we should show for each other. One example is given to us in reference to marriage and the dynamic between the husband and wife. The Apostle Paul states in Ephesians 5:21-31:
21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
Therefore, we must guard ourselves daily from these Anti-Christ ideologies/false teachings and stand against the demise of the faith. Test everything according to scripture and make sure that the views you accept is approved by God. Once again it’s our opinion that we are living in the last days, therefore, there is great perversion and deceit. Let’s heed the words of Paul the Apostle in Romans 12:22:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. AMEN
