“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Romans 13:11-14 NKJV
“In 1943, a Jesuit priest and anti-fascist activist name Tomislav Poglajen fled his native Croatia one step ahead of the Gestapo and settled in Czechoslovakia.”[1] Rod Drehr further explains that he assumed his mother’s name Kolakovic in order to evade the Third Reich while he invested in a band of young people whom he considered his “Family.”
In the book “Live Not By Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents” by New York Times bestselling author and senior editor at The American Conservative, Rod Drehr, he explains how totalitarian regimes cannot allow anything including faith and family to rival the state in the hearts and minds of citizens.[2] Under Soviet Communism in the 20th century, Eastern Europeans were subjected to immense suffering at the hands of wicked and evil men. Many of these were dissidents who persevered through a host of rebelutionary means beginning at home with their children knowing that their supreme allegiance was not to the state but to the KING of kings and LORD and lords.
In similar fashion, God’s Spirit has issued a wake-up call for His people to rebel against the totalitarian regimes which want your soul namely the flesh, the world, and the demonic forces of evil. These regimes keep multitudes blinded, apathetic, and too busy to give much heed whatsoever to the transforming power of the light of the gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus (Rom.13:11-14; Eph.5:14-17). Drehr further explains that:
“In the coming soft totalitarianism, Christians will have to regard family life in a much more focused, serious way. The traditional Christian family is not merely a good idea—it is also a survival strategy for the faith in a time of persecution. Christians should stop taking family life for granted, instead approaching it in a more thoughtful, disciplined way. We cannot simply live as all other families live, except that we go to church on Sunday. Holding the correct theological beliefs and having the right intentions will not be enough. Christian parents must be intentionally countercultural in their approach to family dynamics. The days of living like everybody else and hoping our children turn out for the best are over.”[3] (emphasis mine)
We must wake-up and connect the dots between MISSION MOBILIZATION and POLITICS and HISTORY and therefore be enlisted as a rebelutionary dissident for counter-cultural Christian intentionality. The secularization of the culture and apostasy of the church capitulating to woke paganism and cultural Marxism is wreaking upon the home and family. Our diabolical enemy understands that as the American church decreases in strength so will our missionary impact upon the unreached people groups among the nations. If we care about God’s glory being magnified through the salvation of rebel sinners among all nations worldwide, then we must care about the spiritual vitality of our country and our churches and our families. “This is Your Wake-Up Call to Fight for Your Faith and Freedom!” It’s time for rebelutionary dissidents to wake up, clean up, and man up to the praise of God’s glory in Christ Jesus!
I. It’s Time to Wake Up! – Rom.13:11-12a
- By Understanding Our Times-1 Chron.12:32 cf. Eph.5:14-17; Col.2:8; 2 Cor.6:1-2; Lk.4:16-21
- By Understanding Our Salvation-1 Cor.1:18; Eph.1:13-14; 1 Thes.5:8-9
- By Understanding Our Stewardship-1 Cor.9:24-27; 2 Cor.5:9-11; 2 Tim.2:3-7; Titus 2:11-14
II. It’s Time to Clean Up! – Rom.13:12b-13; Eph.6:10-20
- By Understanding Our Secularization-Jud.17:6; 21:25; Rom.12:1-2; Eph.4:17-19
- By Understanding Our Sanctification-Is.6:1-8 cf. Lev.; Rom.11:33-36; 1 Cor.1:2; 1:30; 2 Cor.5:21; 1 Thes.4:1-8
- By Understanding Our Standing & State-Gal.5:16-26; Eph.4:20-24; 6:10-20; Phil.2:12-15; Col.3:5-14
III. It’s Time to Man Up! – Rom.13:12b, 14
- By Understanding Our Spiritual Identity-1 Cor.6:9-11, 15-20; Gal.3:26-27; 2:20; Eph.5:8
- By Understanding Our Spiritual Power-Rom.6:3-11; 2 Cor.4:7; Gal.2:20; Eph.4:20-24; Col.3:9-11
- By Understanding Our Spiritual Mission-2 Cor.5:20; Col.1:27-29; 1 Tim.2:3-4
With striking similarity to Rod Dreher’s clarion in “Live Not By Lies”, New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas heralds an urgent wake up call to the Church to boldly stand again cultural Marxism in “Letter to the American Church.”
“I am convinced the American Church is at an impossibly—and almost unbearably—important inflection point. The parallels to where the German Church was in the 1930s are unavoidable and grim. So the only question is whether we might understand those parallels, and thereby avoid the fatal mistakes the German Church made during that time, and their superlatively catastrophic results. If we do not, I am convinced we will reap a whirlwind greater even than the one they did.”
“The German Church of the 1930s was silent in the face of evil; but can there be any question whether the American Church of our own time is guilty of the same silence? Because of this, I am compelled to speak out, and to say what—only by God’s grace—I might say to make plain where we find ourselves at this moment, at our own unavoidably crucial crossroads in history.”[4] (emphasis mine)
Just as Nehemiah led a biblical reformation, spiritual revival, and widespread revitalization in his day by rallying God’s people to take personal responsibility for the grass roots level, so must we do so in this our day. May our great God and Savior bless His servants with greater wisdom to understand the times, vision to see, and courage to initiate decisive action to the praise of His glory in Christ Jesus. Soli Deo Gloria!
[1] Dreher, R. (2020) Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents. New York, NY: Sentinel.
[2] IBID
[3] IBID
[4] Metaxas, E. (2020) Letter to the American Church. Washington D.C.: Salem Books.
