As the shadow of death continues to fall upon the United States of America, we grieve over the emboldened assassination of all truth and natural righteousness in the concourse of human living. In 2020 we witnessed the mandate powers of draconian governors shut down an entire nation under the guise of a pandemic promoted by the social media as well as by fake science. Almost daily we were bombarded by a unified repetitive voice announcing the darkness and looming power of this unknown virus as it crept across the world. Rarely any other news item was broadcast; a captivating obsession was heralded growing fear and panic throughout much of the nation. Our president warned us that the power of fear could be worse than the virus itself. Nonetheless, those controlling the news media took advantage of the crisis promoting an inconsistent and hypocritical public voice of so-called scientific and medical authorities while the nation was forced to its knees. Nearly every business establishment was shut down for months in 2020, as the state dictated what was “essential” and what was “not.” America’s citizens submitted, yielded, and bowed to the political leaders who were infatuated with the flexing of their governmental mandates.
It is more and more evident that winds have been blowing our country in another direction from former years. We departed the paradigms of blessed ways and were forced into a new country, a new way of living, a new way of working, and even a new way of worshiping God. Churches in many states were closed, some for many months. The concept of “virtual” and “streaming” became the common manner of meetings both in business and worship. It was a year that radically changed human life and living in America. Because of that year, we will never be the same again. Every segment of society was affected, including our approach to worship.
The Year 2021
The year 2020 was merely a prelude for the year 2021. It was a foregone conclusion that Donald Trump would be overthrown, and the dark paradigm shifts of the Liberals would swiftly take place with little resistance. The country now has come to rest in the hands of a foolish shepherd with rhetoric lies as the foundation of a new administration.
Rising early this year has been a diabolically inspired act of Congress called “The Equality Act.” On February 25, the United States House of Representatives passed this bill by a vote of 224-206. From the Christian perspective it is an anti-Christ bill that would result in anyone who holds anything even resembling a biblical Christian view regarding marriage, sexuality, gender, as well as women with child and the beginning of life, to at best be classified as an enemy of the state, and even as a domestic terrorist. The bill is written with the intention of depriving those who hold a biblical worldview of their legal and Constitutional protections.
President Joe Biden is the second Catholic elected president; the news media make much of his so-called religious beliefs. But as we find ourselves in the wake of his sweeping Executive Order on gender identity and sexual orientation protections, his aggressive moves on abortion, and the appointments of particular cabinet officials, it is very clear that this president has no principles that would identify him with any Christian faith. The Executive Orders during his first weeks of office have clearly proven he is a man bent against God, the Word of God, the righteousness of God, and the saints of God.
Though much could be said of his anti-American Executive Orders and promotions, perhaps the greatest grief to date has been his strong promotion and promise to get the Equality Act passed in his first one hundred days. It truly will be the most damaging piece of legislation ever to come before the House of Representatives and the Senate. This bill arose back in May 2019, but the Senate did not take up the bill after it passed in the House. Now, with Democrats in control of both chambers and the White House, the bill is more likely than ever to become law.
The Equality Act and Its Motive
The Equality Act overtly makes at least fifty-nine obvious changes to a number of federal laws that have been longstanding. Among these laws, the following will be affected: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Government Employee Rights Act of 1991, the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the Fair Housing Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and even the Jury Selection & Services Act. These laws address public education, public accommodations, public facilities, housing, employment, federal grants and loans, transactions involving credit, as well as how juries are selected. The Equality Act adds the term sex to some titles like “public accommodations,” and adds sexual orientation and gender identity in nearly all federal law, while also greatly expanding the scope of public accommodations.
Originally and narrowly limited to restaurants, hotels, theaters, and other establishments, the definition of public accommodation under the Act would be unilaterally expanded to include “any establishment that provides goods, services, or programs.” And it would include “a store, shopping center, online retailer or service provider, salon, bank, gas station, food bank, service or care center, shelter, travel agency, funeral parlor, or establishment that provides health care, accounting, or legal services.”
We have come to an America that has consciously become fearful of any concept of “inequality.” Now, this fear of inequality calls upon us to accept such perversions as L(lesbian), G (gay), B (bisexual), T (transgender), and Q (Queer). American Christians have benefited from the U. S. Constitution and the liberties that are declared in it. But the Equality Act will be a deadly poison to destroy the protections for religious beliefs and will demand politically correct speech; this bill will require acceptance of immoral curricula in schools as well as even the acceptance of the contemporary fake science. This Act will seal for Christians the destruction of a free conscience and the free exercise of that conscience. Once again, the problem will arise for Christian businesses in the areas of goods, products, and services such as bakers or caterers who abstain from assisting the sodomite crowd because of the Bible and a biblical conscience. Heretofore, there was the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993, which has been somewhat of a protection for the rights of Christians. However, if the Equality Act is passed, there will be no law to protect the Christian business. It will demand that the children of America be indoctrinated about the fake science biology—that they can choose their gender by pretending to be whatever they want to be, denouncing the gender the Creator’s divine work made them to be. The Equality Act will force all educational institutions, including Christian schools, to be subject to sex education, generic bathrooms, and even the so-called “gender identity” protections in all sports. There will also be regulatory appointees to make sure the law will be carried out to its fullest extent. Every school will be demanded to incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity into the curriculum in all schools.
The reality of Washington now is that there is an administration that not only has been promoting fake news but also fake science in peddling the lie concerning false information about the coronavirus. But this now includes the false or fake science of the gender appointment of human beings. Individuals will have the right to change their gender because they “believe” or “feel” they are in the wrong body, and that God made a mistake in their formation in the mother’s womb. And then there are the bathrooms in all public places that must be gender neutral. Employers, charities, and medical providers would be forced to pay for or perform sex-reassignment surgeries. Even the prisons will have to become gender neutral.
The Equality Act will become a “super-protection” for the immoral sodomite crowd and the perverts of our country. They have called this Act “bipartisan”; but there were 223 Democrat co-sponsors in the House and no Republicans; this proves this is a one-sided perversion of desire.
The bill will absolutely destroy all faith-based protections for religious Americans, those who subscribe to a Judeo-Christian ethic that dictates a biblical perspective of “sex binary”; it will not recognize the value of unborn lives nor establish marriage as between one man and one woman.
The Equality Act has been called by Conservatives as “the most invasive threat to religious liberty ever proposed in America.” It would amend the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 by forbidding discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” But there are other scenarios that would be affected by this Act. Faith-based hospitals and insurers could be forced to provide gender-transition surgeries and therapies that would violate some medical doctors’ or nurses’ religious beliefs. The Act would permit children to seek gender change without parental knowledge or consent. Faith-based adoption and foster care agencies could be forced to place children with same-sex couples or lose their licenses. Sexual assaults on girls in bathrooms and showers could escalate. Christian schools would be forced to violate their beliefs regarding homosexual activity and LGBTQ behavior, or face fines, censure, or jail time. Churches who rent their facilities out to the public could be forced to rent them for same-gender marriages and even for other LGBTQ events.
Both the hearings and voting are now before the Senate. As for the outcome, we must acknowledge that this is uncertain due to the Senate’s fifty-fifty partisan composition. The president admitted recently that passing the Equality Act may take longer than one hundred days, but he was committed to it.
Andrew T. Walker wrote in “The Gospel Coalition” the following:
The bill represents the most invasive threat to religious liberty ever proposed in America. Given that it touches areas of education, public accommodation, employment, and federal funding, were it to pass, its sweeping effects on religious liberty, free speech, and freedom of conscience would be both historic and also chilling. Virtually no area of American life would emerge unscathed from the Equality Act’s reach. No less significant would be the long-term effects of how the law would shape the moral imagination of future generations.
Under the Equality Act it is clear that the intention of the government is to destroy anyone who has a biblical worldview, truly to “cancel” their culture. Christian schools, churches, and religious hospitals could be forced to accept the government’s mandates about sexual orientation and gender identity. Christians could be fined or lose their jobs for using the wrong pronouns of political correctness. The Act could force churches and Christian schools to hire people who do not share the same beliefs and mission, especially those who would be against our beliefs in the matter of sodomy and all the perversions that flow from this lifestyle.
Not surprising, the large corporations have also fully endorsed the Equality Act. Such corporations are Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Coca-Cola, eBay, Facebook, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, PepsiCo, UPS, Verizon, and Wells Fargo.
Conclusion
We find ourselves in the End-time battle of worldviews. Everyone has a worldview. A worldview is that set of beliefs and presuppositions controlling everything about one’s perception, thinking, and doing. Every politician, every business employer, and every common man are the product of their personal worldview. And no less of a reality is that of the Christian’s. Yes, he or she too has a worldview, a presupposition that controls what and how he or she believes what is believed. The Christian’s worldview is based upon the Bible, which is the infallible and inerrant Word of God that must govern every aspect of existence. To Christians, this worldview truly becomes an integral and inseparable part of who they are, what they believe, and how they respond in life. And again, we must understand that equally true, every unbeliever has a worldview that controls his or her life.
In the light of this governing truth, the conscience of a Christian is equally based upon this worldview. The inner judge—the conscience—is educated by that blessed book, the Bible. We read in Acts 5:29 of Peter declaring, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” When Martin Luther confronted the august body of Romanists at the Diet of Worms in 1521, he declared, “It is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.” Our day is yet ahead to face the foes of hellish men, the forerunners of the coming Antichrist.
This is an hour when the Christian and the local church must firm up the prayerful thinking of their beliefs with true affirmations and persuasions of heart and mind according to the Scriptures. How often in church history it has taken confrontation and controversy to bring to clarification the belief of soul and conscience. The stand that we must take as Christians and as remnant churches across this nation may cost us both our property and ministries, perhaps our very lives. But we dare not yield to the powers that are bent to become a hellish force to change our thinking, persuasion, and biblical living.
The Equality Act is an attempt by the present ungodly leadership of our country to make a new world order out of the United States of America and the entire world of humanity. It desires to destroy the founding principles of this country and create a new society of Sodom and Gomorrah. These paradigm shifts are designed to bring about the final “shift” in creating a new socialistic government that will be a precursor to the coming of Antichrist. The leadership that marks our country today is unrelenting in its devilish drive for control, inscrutable in its ways, and empowered by draconian personalities that have arisen as from the bottomless pit. May God have mercy upon us at this hour!
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (Isa. 5:20).