VIEWPOINT with Chuck Crismier
WHERE WAS GOD?
This is viewpoint with attorney and author Chuck Chris Meyer. Viewpoint is a one hour talk show confronting the issues of America's heart and home. And now with today's edition of Viewpoint here is Chuck Chris Meyer. Are you prepared to hold fast to your faith? That's the question before us here today on Viewpoint. And I'm glad that you've joined us. This conversation is always with ever increasing conviction, talk that transforms. And this is also the day of remembrance of the Holocaust. That's right. And a very famous rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, who passed away in 2020, asked the question, where was God? Where was God when that happened? Maybe you've asked that question too, where was God when certain things happened in your life? Where was God when persecution was taking place in Nigeria? Where over 100,000 Christians in the last few years have been slaughtered? Where is God in the United States? When Taylor Swift mocks Christianity with her new musical song? Where was God when Nigerian pastor just last month lost his life in Nigeria through anti-God bandits? Where was God? And then Benjamin Netanyahu tells us that now is the time for choosing. In other words, there's something about this time that is advancing very quickly toward an end that very few people were expecting but is happening right in front of our eyes. And indeed, over and over again now, we're being told by leaders in this country, yes, even by Christian leaders in this country that we are in the end times. Greg Laurie just came out, Pastor Greg Laurie out there in California just came out with a statement. Yes, indeed, we're in the end times. Over and over again, we're being told that, but it's like we don't quite get it yet. And what is the characteristic of those times? Well, what were the characteristics of Noah's time? Violence covered the earth and gross violence, dark as the people. Violence covered the earth, men's hearts were wicked beyond imagination, and God said enough is enough. Where was God? He saw it all. God saw it all, and he said, enough is enough. So when will God say enough is enough now? Well, we're told by Jesus that he won't say enough is enough until there's been massive persecution. That's what Jesus said. The Apostle Paul referred to the same thing. The Apostle Peter reinforced the message tremendously. So where is God? Has God determined to protect everyone against this massive persecution coming upon the earth? Has God protected the Jewish people from the Holocaust where 6 million lost their lives? What to mention, another 6 million of other outsiders that Hitler and his mob decided were unacceptable in civil society? Where was God? We asked this question because in America, we have a kind of a strange view. We really do. It's what you might call the exceptionalist view. We're the exception to almost everything, everything that ever happened to the world, everything that's going to happen to the world, including God's law itself. We're the exception because God loves us so much. Well, he loved Israel so much too. Remember, he called Israel the apple of his eye, his chosen people, and yet they still suffered massive persecution and are going to do it all over again if you read the book of Zechariah correctly. And so today on Viewpoint, we're going to take a look at this and indeed what a horrible thing the Holocaust was. But what a horrible thing is happening right now, now all across America and around the world, about 360 million people are under severe persecution. For Christian faith, 360 million and it's increasing dramatically year by year. Why and where is God? That's an interesting question. Where was God in the Holocaust? And so we want to hear from Rabbi Sacks, Lord Jonathan Sacks. He has given us a short piece on Israel National News that I think is worth all of us hearing. It's only about three and a half minutes in length. Please listen up. People sometimes ask me, where was God at Auschwitz? I don't know. But Jewishly, it's the wrong question. The real question is, where was humanity at Auschwitz? God never said he'd stop his harming one another, but he'd give us a moral code. The commandments engraved in stone, which taught us how to stop ourselves. Where was humanity when old men and women were being murdered? Millions being gassed. Children thrown on the flame are still alive. The real question, so painful we can hardly ask it, is not where was God when we called to him. But where were we when he called to us? This is what the Bible warned against in its very first chapter. When God said, let us make man in our own image after our own likeness. When human life is no longer sacred, Auschwitz becomes possible. John Katz was one of 50 prisoners, ordered to dig their own grave and then stand in front of it to be shot. Before the guns were raised, he asked the guards permission to say "Kael Molyrachamim", the Jewish prayer for the dead. It was granted. He sang it, and the guards were so wooved by the beauty of his voice that they took him out of the line and kept him alive to sing for them. But Auschwitz was liberated. He sang the prayer a second time. For all those who had died, Kael Molyrachamim. Oh God, full of compassion, grant rest to those who have gone from this world, and shelter their souls under the wings of your presence. We must never forget the Holocaust. Never again may we walk down the road, but begins with hate and ends in attempted genocide. Towards the end of his life, Moses summoned the Israelites and said, "I've said before you life and death, the blessing and the curse, Wachartobachain, therefore choose life." Choose didn't despair. The survivors built new lives, new communities grew up elsewhere. And in the state of Israel, we've come together as a people again, building one of the world's oldest and newest countries, and singing "Am Israel's High." The Jewish people lives. For me, faith after Auschwitz is the courage to live and bring new life into the world. Never forgetting those who died, but never yielding to despair. It means fighting for a world in which we recognize that those who aren't in our image are still in God's image. It means remembering for the sake of life and humanity and hope. And on the faces of Jewish children, I see a people who walk through the valley of the shadow of death, coming to life again, cherishing one, sanctifying, and knowing that in it is the breath of God. Remember us for life, no king, delights in life, and writers in the book of life, for your sin. For your sake, amen, of life, amen, of death. Once upon a time, children could pray and read their Bibles in school. Divorces were practically unknown as was child abuse. In our once great America, virginity and chastity were popular virtues and homosexuality was an abomination. So what happened in just one generation? Hi, I'm Chuck Chris Maier and I urge you to join me daily on Viewpoint where we discuss the most challenging issues touching our hearts and homes. Could America's moral slide relate to the fourth commandment? Listen to Viewpoint on this radio station or anytime at saveus.org. Again, I welcome you back to Viewpoint. Where was God? Well, the question is not where was God, but where was humanity? That was the interesting twist coming from Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. It is three and a half minute message to all of us. It's not where was God. It's where are you? Where have we been? For instance, I'm thinking back to the reading of the book of Isaiah, for instance, the book of Jeremiah. My wife and I are currently reading through the book of Jeremiah in the mornings. And what we're discovering is that for many, many years, God sent Jeremiah to speak to the leaders and also to the people he stood in the gate of the Lord's house. He stood in the gate of the city of Jerusalem to us to catch all the people and deliver God's due process message. To warn the people of that which was coming because of their refusal to hear his voice. Their refusal to obey his voice. You see, they could hear it, but they wouldn't do anything about it. In fact, when Jeremiah delivered the message to them, they said, "No way, nohow." We're not going to do that. We're going to do our own thing. And so God says, "Okay, you're going to do your own thing, but I'm going to do my own thing." So after years and years of due process of notice where God had said, "I will not do anything, but what I give the word and warning through my servants, the prophets," then he said, "Okay, that's enough." And so they were sent off to Babylon for 70 years. That wasn't the first time people were sent off. In the 10 northern tribes, they were sent off by the Assyrians 135 years earlier, dispersed throughout the world. So then in 70 A.D., after the Jewish people had been back from Babylon and rebuilt the 2nd Temple and so on, then all of a sudden God said, "Okay, you're still not living up to my calling. You even crucified my son, you in conspiracy with the Romans, and so you're out of here. I'm going to give you 2,000 years to think about it." So he dispersed them, burned down the temple, tore it down, blocked by block, sent them throughout the face of the earth. And then he said, "But in my mercy, ultimately, I'm going to gather back a remnant. And I'm going to gather you back because it's my land, and I promise this to Abraham. Isaac and Jacob, so I'm going to fulfill my part of it just because you didn't fill yours. I'm still going to fulfill mine." Now, here's our problem is we think about this issue of where was God, and where is God today, amid rising persecution in the world, and anti-Semitism against Israel, which we're seeing dramatically even this very day. The problem is we just don't see why God's viewpoint. We don't see why he, having created us in his image, is become so incensed in spite of his mercy and his patience with us. He says, "I can't deal with you anymore. You're incorrigible. I raised up children and a family, but you don't do anything that I ask you to do. You don't do anything I ask you to do." So he turns us over for a spanking. Now, those spankings can get worse and worse. They can. They can get worse and worse, just like a parent might discipline a child in one way and then ultimately spank them. And God says, "If you love your kids, you're going to discipline. You're going to spank them. Spoil the rod." I spoil the child. You either use the rod or you spoil the child. So look, what we're saying here is God is still in the midst of it all, but we just don't get it. We do not understand God. We don't want to understand him because we want to do it our way. So Israel is going to be judged. God says, "I'm going to judge you double for all your sins." Yes, in spite of the Holocaust, he's going to judge double for all their sins. The same is going to be true for professing Christians. You knew something was coming, didn't you? Here comes the knuckleball or the curveball or whatever. The same is going to be true for professing Christians. Because God's not going to put up with rebellion. He's not going to put up with rebellion in his own house. And then again, the whole world is rising up against God himself. No question about it. The whole world is rising up against the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That's what the rise of Hamas is all about. It's not about a Palestinian state. They're not interested in a Palestinian state. They're interested in destroying Israel. Period. Why? Because they hate the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They do. They don't want any Israelite to survive. They don't want Israel to survive as a nation because it represents that which is antipathy to Muhammad and their severe form of a different God, Allah. So they're doing Allah's will. There are others who are not trying to do Allah's will but are trying to do the will of, well, just hating God and hating anybody who stands for God. Anyone who stands for the name of Jesus Christ. And so what we're finding is this is multiplying rapidly. When I began writing the book, When Persecution Comes, I believed I was very convinced it was timely and that God had put it on my heart to write it. I had no idea friends how rapidly that would become a reality. It's exploding across our computers every day. If you have eyes to see, it's there everywhere. I'm going to share a few things with you here today on Viewpoint so that you can see. We need to be able to see the reality of what is coming and why it is coming. And we're going to ask ourselves. People are going to ask themselves where is God or where was God. Keep those words or those questions in your mind as we go through our conversation here today on Viewpoint. Viewpoint does determine destiny. A Nigerian pastor's murder sparks a sobering response to a horrific persecution. They say in Nigeria, we can no longer bear this. This just came out on May 1st. The Reverend Manasseh Ibrahim was killed as he traveled just a week ago, traveled to provide ministry to church members. This is the kind of Islamic violence that is taking place throughout Nigeria. He was on his way for a pastoral church administration when he was ambushed. A pastor who's reporting on this lamented the intense violation or violence and persecution Christians are facing in the region, noting the believers, quote, who are direct victims of banity and insurgency in can do a state, are fed up with the inability of Nigeria government to find a lasting solution to the incessant killings of innocent Christians. They don't want to find an answer because of politics. They're trying to protect the Islamic majority because it's so violent. And so the Christian minority, they will not protect. So this pastor says Christians have had enough of these murderous and dangerous actions and implored the government to help, but they're not going to help. The hard push of Christians to the wall through incessant attacks is enough, he wrote, "We can no longer bear this brunt." So CBN News has reported the situation in Nigeria is dire. The wife of a Nigerian pastor was murdered by terrorists as she traveled home with her two-month-old baby. The Reverend Charles Onaholi, a getchy, a Catholic priest, was slaughtered while driving in Nigeria. Violence in Nigeria broke through the global news cycle. A year ago, when Deborah-Manuel Yakuba, a 25-year-old Christian college student, was stoned to death by a Muslim mob. And the killing was purposely filmed and shared on social media to horrify the whole international community. Opendoor's World Watch List this year placed Nigeria in the number six spot in its rankings of nations where anti-Christian persecution and discrimination are the worst. That's in Africa, friends, that everybody is telling us is experiencing a Christian revival. More than 82% of Christians killed across the globe last year for faith reasons were in Nigeria. Jeff King was joined us here on this program a number of times recently. He's president of International Christian Concern, one of the world's most knowledgeable experts on religious freedom and persecution, said most Americans have no idea what's going on in Nigeria. But imagine this, for the last 20 years, probably up to 100,000 Christians have been murdered. Three and a half million Christians, their lands have been taken from them, and the government's pretty much doing nothing. That's in Nigeria. Over two Nigerian universities, one federal and one state, have reportedly barred Christian students from being able to use any facilities for worship or fellowship. Now that's just one place, one place in our world, where is God? Where is God with all those Christians who are sincere and seriously tried to stand for their faith? And having done all to stand, to stand, even though they're being assaulted, persecuted, and murdered? Jeff King says basically, we are frogs in the cattle here in the United States. And the bubbles keep coming up under us. Remember, he's the president of International Christian Concern, and he said, "referred to a particular case in Houston, Texas, Stacey Barber, a school teacher, who sued the Katie Independent School District near Houston after her principal reprimanded her last September for prey with two teachers at the school's flagpole as part of the CU at the Pole, which is an annual international event. The administrator reportedly told her that teachers were not allowed, not allowed, to pray where students could see them and be influenced to join. Teachers were told they could not pray in any location where students would be present, even if this praying occurred before the school day began. And Stacey Barber had previously been barred from starting a campus chapter of Students for Christ and the School Board instituted a policy mandating that employees will neither advance nor inhibit religion. In other words, you can't do anything about it. Employees may not promote, lead, or participate in religious activities or non-curriculum related student groups, the policy stated, which is blatantly unconstitutional, by the way. So King warned that the same trends his nonprofit has been tracking and advocating against overseas are increasingly manifesting in the historically free nations of the Western world. That's the point when we want to get across. This is happening increasingly in the historically free, religiously free, and even albeit Christian nations in the Western world, including the United States. He pointed out a corrupt and cumbersome judicial process and proliferating hate speech laws as the main prongs of the attack on Christian beliefs. King went on to explain that dictators and despots will promise religious liberty out of one side of their mouths while at the same time effectively mandating the religious citizens, keeping their opinions to themselves and out of the public square. He said, if that sounds familiar, there's a reason, because the big picture and what people need to grasp is that what's going on here in the West. And that's what a lot of people who dislike Christianity are proposing try to push forward. Right here in the West, in countries where leaders possess antipathy toward Christianity and politically weaponized judicial system plays a key role in chilling speech and driving Christians to self censor, he said. For instance, for instance, in India, where Christians are increasingly persecuted and their churches vandalized despite the guarantee, the supposed guarantee of religious freedom in the country's constitution. They have religious freedom in their constitution, but it doesn't matter in India. Why? Because Mr. Modi there in India has declared we're going to be a pure and holy Hindu state. We are not going to have any Christianity. We're not going to have any Islam. We're not going to have, especially not any Christianity. So the law purports to stand for freedom, but the law, but the ones who enforce the law do not. And that's what we're seeing right here in the United States. Aren't we? We'll be back. There is so much more about Chuck Chris Meyer and Save America Ministries on our website, SaveUS.org. For example, under the marriage section, God has marriage on his mind. Chuck has some great resources to strengthen your marriage. First off, a fact sheet on the state of the marital union, a fact sheet on the state of ministry, marriage and morals. SaveUS.org. Marriage, divorce and remarriage. What does the Bible really teach about this? Find all of this at SaveUS.org. Also, a letter to pastors, the Hosea Project, SaveUS.org. And many more resources to strengthen your marriage. It's all on Chuck's website, SaveUS.org. Again, you can listen to Chuck's viewpoint broadcast live and archived Save America Ministries website at SaveUS.org. It's always wonderful to be able to join with you here on viewpoint to talk about the things that really matter. The things that matter most from God's viewpoint. Now, yes, we're seeing massive anti-Semitism, and we're seeing our college campuses overwhelmed with the most ridiculous claims totally inconsistent with facts. They just don't understand the facts. They don't know history. They know nothing that they're caught up in an emotional carry-on against both Jews and against Israel. All because of the lordship of their misinformed feelings. And this is what happens. It's mobocracy. It's not democracy. It's mobocracy. And it's precisely this kind of action, uninformed action, that our founders in this country feared from democracy, pure democracy. So they said, "We're not going to do a pure democracy. We're going to have a representative democracy, a representative government." In order to try to protect against the excesses of ungodly mobocracy that stems from democracy out from under God's control, out from under self-control. And so that's where we are. And because we're becoming increasing God less in our country, and the word of God carries much less authority today than it did, say, 25 years ago. And our students are being indoctrinated into God less-ness and antipathy toward everything that was readily even remotely related to God in the founding of this country. And then denigrating all of those things, you can see where our students are today. And they are becoming the engines that are being used by powers, unseen powers, such as George Soros and others who are pursuing globalism at all costs. They are being used as the henchmen to carry out these agendas, your kids, your grandchildren. Now, as we continue to look at this issue of persecution, and in the context of Holocaust Remembrance Day today, you see, they go hand in hand. Just as the Jews were persecuted by Hitler, and not just by Hitler, there were massive pogroms in Russia that actually ended up driving out over a million Jewish people. There were air lifts, remember, that came out early on in Israel's rebirth. Air lifts coming out of Russia because the people were so persecuted. The anti-Semitism was so great in Russia. They're still coming from there. And that's exactly what God had said through the prophet Jeremiah that he would bring them from the north, and he did, and he still is. But he's going to bring them from the west, he's going to bring them from the east, he's going to bring them from the south, and he is doing that. They've come from the south. Jewish people in the Middle East have virtually completely fled from all the countries of the Middle East to Israel. The same is true for Christians. The Middle East was full of Christians, such as Iraq and Syria. These were in Egypt. These were bastions of the Christian faith. The early Christian faith. There hardly any Christians left there. Why? Because of massive persecution. They are not wanted. We don't want you here. You're out of here. Now, the same spirit is rising in Europe and America. For instance, one of the interesting things that we have to look at here is what's happening, say with regard to Canada. What's happening in Canada? Well, Canada has become one of the worst countries for persecution. One of the worst countries for persecution. Who would have ever believed it? Jeff King, who is president, as we were saying, of the Washington based international Christian concern, said that the most egregious hate speech laws are in Canada and Europe. And it's also emerging in the US with proposed legislations, such as the Equality Act, that uses social issues in order to prevent Christians from being Christian. In other words, they can't agree with the word of God. They can't act according to the word of God. They are restricted from being faithful to Jesus and His commands, all under color of law. So King observed that the American culture itself has shifted dramatically within the past 30 years or so, and that the population has been softened up to the creeping totalitarian and anti-Christian impulses of their political leaders, including Joseph Biden. So, from here, we want to ask ourselves the question, again, where is God? This headline came out just a week ago. Now it's the United States that gets caught persecuting Christians. The West and the United States, who would have ever believed this, but it's been happening. Just look at what's happening in Colorado. They despise Christians in Colorado, and they're doing everything they can to attack them. Business people, it's happening in Oregon, it's happening all over the country increasingly, and even though the Supreme Court comes against these courts and so on, these various states, they keep doing it again. They're lawless, absolutely lawless. Their hatred against Christians is so great that they will do anything to keep your mouth shut, to keep you from even living out your faith in the course of your business, your own business. So, before we go any further, I want to reiterate something to you all concerning the persecution project that we launched a couple of months ago. As you know, my new book, When Persecution Comes, is at type setting as we speak, and a number of folk leaders across the country now are sending in endorsements concerning that book. Some of the most amazing endorsements, I might say, because they realize you're under something here. Nobody's really saying what you're saying. This must be said, and friends, you have the opportunity through the persecution project to really make a difference, to be God's hand extended to get this message out, and here's how we, the idea for accomplishing that. For your gift to $250 to save America ministries. When the book comes out in August, we will provide to you 10 copies of this book. It's a substantial book. Then you will be asking the Lord, whose hand should I put this book in? Now there's one person that I want to make sure you put it in, and that's your pastor. You must put the book in the hand of your pastor. Really? He needs you're going to be God's agent of service of process to give that message to your pastor. That's what it is. You're going to give him notice by giving in the book and telling him why you're giving in the book, because you want him to take a serious look at it, and consider, and get back to you on it. Don't light him off the hook on it. Ask him to get back to you on it, and if he doesn't, go to him after a couple of weeks, and ask him about it. This is how things work, friends. We have to work the word. These things don't happen by osmosis. You can't force somebody to believe something, but we can make it very difficult for them not to at least be informed. That's what God does. That's where his mercy comes in. His mercy and patience is presented through what we call in our law system due process. God makes it impossible for people not to be informed. That's why Jesus said this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to the whole earth, and then shall the end come. The people must be informed. What they do with it is their problem, but they must be informed, because God is a God of due process. He's just, and he's fair. Now with persecution coming rapidly, people need to be prepared. You need to be prepared. Your family needs to be prepared. Those in your spheres of influence need to be prepared. Those where you weren't need to be prepared. And this is not a evangelistic book. This is a book as a message to God's people. Those who profess to be followers of Jesus. They're the ones that are going to be persecuted. And if we cannot stand in the evil day, then where's the hope? So what you're going to be doing, you're going to be an agent of hope. This book is an agent of hope. We actually have two or three chapters dealing with hope. It's a book for parents and for grandparents, specific chapters for parents and grandparents. It's a book for pastors and leaders, specific chapters for pastors and leaders. It is a very important book. When persecution comes, preparing hearts, prepareless times. So, how can you be involved? Well, you can give us a call at 1-800-SAVEUSA, 1-800-SAVEUSA. Or you can go to the website, save us.org. We have a very special place there where you can sign up for the persecution project. Or you can write to us at save America Ministries, P.O. Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 2-3255. When you write your check, put persecution project on it or a note, okay? $250-10 books. If you want more than 10 books, in $250 increments, $500, we need to get the message out. Help us to get prepared for this so that we can launch quickly in August. We'll be right back. Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a heart longing for a greater fulfillment in our practices as Christians. A recent study showed 53,000 people a week are leaving the back door of America's churches in frustration. What is going on? Why has there not been even a 1% gain among followers of Christ in the last 25 years? Could it be that God is seeking to restore 1st-century Christianity for the 21st century? Jesus said, "I'll build my church." Is Christ by His Spirit stirring to prepare the church for the 21st century? The early church prayed together and broke bread from house to house. They were family. And it was said by all who observed, "Behold how they love one another." Incredible. But the same can be found right now. Go to save us.org and click sell church. We can revive 1st-century Christianity for the 21st century. It's about people, not programs. It's about a body, not a building. That's save us.org. Click sell church. Welcome back to Viewpoint. I'm Chuck Chris Maric. Again, the question that hovers over our conversation here today. Starting with Rabbi Sacks talking about the Jewish Holocaust, asking the question, where was gone in Auschwitz? And then he concluded, "Well, the question was not where was gone. Where were the people? Where were the European people? Where were the American people? Where were the people that could have stood against this vicious anti-Semitism, which is just Jewish persecution is what it is. Persecution of Jews. That's what anti-Semitism is. But now we're talking about Christian persecution. Because as the Jewish people know and have voiced right here on this program, what's happening with Israel and the Jewish people today will be climbing all over the backs of Christians tomorrow with every bit as much vitriol, venom, and it's happening already. It's happening already. So where was God? Where is God when these things are happening? You might ask the question, "Well, why isn't God preventing this?" He never promised to contrary to what somebody might have told you. In fact, he promised you just the opposite. Jesus promised just the opposite. He said, "All will be persecuted. If they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you." Paul said, "Why do you think you should be different?" Jesus said, "Why should you be different than your Lord? If they persecuted me, they persecute you." So that's the step. That is the given. And it's happening. It's been happening through time. But the vigor and vitriol and venom of it is ramping up. First, throughout other areas of the world, and now it's made its way. It's not just coming here. It's here. It's rolling in like a fog, first appearing on little cat feet, and then you're totally enveloped. So the question is, when we're enveloped with this, are you prepared to hold fast to your decision to follow Christ? Don't answer too quickly, my friend. At the 2024 march for the martyrs held in Washington, D.C. in honor of persecution Christians, a unique perspective was raised. If not unique, then certainly something seemingly under-discussed since Sarah Holliday in the Washington stand. While considering global Christian persecution, the event speaker, Christian Tremino, asked the question, "What about the American church? Are we prepared? Should persecution come our way?" It's already here, friends. But Tremino raised a prominent point. Overseas, he said, where being Christian can be a death sentence, believers face one of the most complex decisions almost daily, to be spared from torture by renouncing the faith or to choose to follow Christ no matter the cost. He said, "Let's look at some facts and statistics." The number of persecuted Christians is increasing rapidly in four short years. The persecuted went from roughly 265 million in 2020 to 365 million in 2024. That's a lot of people murdered from prison, tortured, and beaten for their faith in Christ. According to Open Doors U.S., one believer is killed for their faith every two hours. For those who aren't killed so far in 2024, just in 2024 so far, 4,100 Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced, or imprisoned. 3,900 were abducted, more than 3,200 were raped, sexually harassed or forced to marry non-Christians. 43,000 were physically or mentally abused, and nearly 300,000 were forced to leave their homes, go into hiding or fleet to another country. Pretty staggering statistics, aren't they? So, can you imagine now how excruciatingly painful it has to be to decide to follow Christ while being held at gunpoint by a terrorist? Like the young lady years ago there in the Colorado High School, how about if your family got kidnapped and the only way to freedom was to renounce your faith? What would you do? How would you be able to think if your church is ransacked by angry God-eaters, killing anyone who refuses to back down for their faith, or just burning the church and everybody in it alive like they do in Nigeria or India? Yet when you hear the testimonies of those who suffer unimaginable persecution, it's a death sense they bear with joy because of the glory of their eternal reward. That was the characteristic of people, Christians in the early church. Christians, no matter where, need to be able to make this kind of tough decision, and the time to make it, friends, is now. That's why this book is so critically important. It's going to strengthen you. God wants you to be strong. The angels of heaven would cheer you on. The Holy Spirit will empower you, but we have to choose. And the time to choose is now. If you wait, it will be too late. Your emotions will carry you away. We need to make this kind of decision. So as the speaker there at the March for the Martyrs in Washington said, Americans seem to be in a position where we're decreasing opportunities to make tough decisions. In other words, everything's too easy. For the comfort of our homes, we can order food, groceries, and just about anything you could think of. Our phones allow us to get in touch with people next door across the world in an instant. We created these easy pathways while increasingly losing the practice of making hard choices. We do make some tough decisions in America. The difference is we often associate tough decisions with temporary, worldly outcomes. Take job perspectives, for instance. What we're going to eat, wear, or do the next day will often occupy our conscience. Thought worthy quandaries that require decision making. But these are first world problems, ultimately affecting our life on earth. What I want to discuss and what we're doing discussing today and in the book When Persecution Comes is the tough decisions of faith affecting us into eternity. Really, when observing the harsh persecution around the world, we shouldn't be merely overcome with grief but understand the reality at any moment. It could be ours. And as the speaker there in Washington said, I can't help but wonder if we're prepared to stand up for Christ, a matter of the cost. Do you know that most of the leaders that are endorsing this book believe that, that most Christians are not prepared? Just not prepared to stand. I have at least two if not three right now that specifically say that. Does that not sound like we ought to take this seriously? Are you ready to be hated for standing firm in your faith for Christ? I mean, Jesus said, you'll be hated by all for my namesake. You see, it's the name of Jesus. It's not the name of God. Please don't be deceived. Almost everybody believes in some God. The Hindus believe in God, three million of them. The problem is not with God. The problem is with Jesus. Jesus said, I am the only way, the only truth, and the only life. No man will come to the Father but by me. Do you believe that? I mean, really believe that? Apparently your children don't, or most Christian children don't. Over the past eight years or so, the statistics are clear. Only 20% of professing Christian young people believe that Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. They believe there are many ways. They are already prepared to succumb to persecution. They will succumb friends. And do you know what that means? They will not inherit eternal life. Please understand this. This is not a game. It's not something to massage with psychological machinations. It's a spiritual reality. And when that infamous mark comes, just think how many people are going to succumb. That's going to present the ultimate choice of persecution. You think that's not persecution? Well, what if you're told? You'll have no ability to buy or sell. If you don't receive this mark, which is an unalterable commitment from Jesus viewpoint to a counterfeit Christ in his system, if you don't receive that, you'll not be able to buy or sell. Conduct business. Get food. Get gasoline. Or whatever. Are you beginning to get the point? You don't want to hear it. Nobody wants to hear this, friends. Nobody wants to. I don't want to even have to share it with you. But I have to because God tells me to. This is why he called me to leave the practice of law at the height of my career, to plead his ultimate cause in the land as a voice first to the church, declaring vision for the nation America's greatest crisis hour. I'm using every avenue available to plead God's ultimate cause. In due process to his people. And just as it was in Jeremiah's day, in Isaiah's day, in Ezekiel's day, in Joel's day, in Amos's day, the majority don't want to hear it. Okay. Well, I have to accept that. But you do need to be put on notice. You do need to be given adequate choice. And that's what we're talking about. So following Jesus is the best decision we can make for our eternity. Yet that decision for him also leads to challenging decisions during our earthly endeavor here. We need a church in America willing to stand on the entirety of the Word of God in every person's life. It will be willing to say these things. That's why you need to get a copy of that book in the hand of your pastor. You need to be part of the persecution project to get the message out. You can be God's and extended. I don't know who your friends are. We don't have sufficient funds to get the book out that broadly. But you can be a partner in this effort to do that. I believe God will bless you for that. Ultimately, any time we compromise or unwilling to trust the Lord and stand firm in any situation is just another incidence where we might look back and ask ourselves, did I really trust God? Did I really believe him? You see, these things encroach upon us very quickly and subtly. So, look, it is an incredible, I don't want to call it a burden. It's an incredible opportunity and blessing to be able to voice these things. It's the love of God that constrains us to say what is being said here today. The love of Christ that constrains us. God doesn't want you to fall away. There is going to be a massive falling away. The other people have talked about it. It will happen. Don't you be part of it? So prepare today. This book will help you to train your children and your grandchildren. You can read it together with them questions after every chapter, my friend. It will help you to do that. You won't find a better tool anywhere. Thanks for joining us. Become a partner, friends. Go to the Persecution Project. Become a partner that way. If you're not wanting to be involved in that, then please support what we're doing here in every respect. Do it today. The other guy is not doing it. God bless you. You've been listening to Viewpoint with Chuck Chris Meyer. Viewpoint is supported by the faithful gifts of our listeners. Let me urge you to become a partner with Chuck as a voice to the Church declaring vision for the nation. Join us again next time on Viewpoint as we confront the issues of America's heart and home. [music] [music] [music] [BLANK_AUDIO]