17 April 2023
Reminder: I chose the alias "Catacomb Resident" to evoke the idea of Christians in Rome hiding from persecution. We are in a time of tribulation, and things have just gotten started. However, the biggest threat is not the Beast of government; it's those who claim Christ. Job's greatest sorrow was his so-called friends.
Government and pagan social influences are bad enough, but we know what to expect from them. No one serving Christ is surprised that child welfare agencies and courts have become the greatest enemy families ever had, seeking to manipulate children into transsexual lifestyles in order to attack normal life, among other sins. Anyone with sense is going to flee those jurisdictions.
But Covenant faith is not their target; it's the conservatives. The "normal life" as defined by conservatives was materialistic and empty in the first place. We should never have placed our children under a conservative government care either, because all western government has always been contemptuous of the Covenant. This is not really our fight; no voice represents us in the public debate.
In the Book of Acts, the Apostles struggled most against the religious leaders of Judaism. Trying to get them to see their promised Messiah had come was an act of war in their eyes. They were demanding a different Messiah, one that catered to their sense of human national pride. Wherever Paul went, he never stirred up trouble; it was always Jews. The worst thing the pagans did was to dismiss him, as in Athens.
The Pharisees cooked up a plan to infest churches with Talmudic teachers, pretending to be fellow Christians, but secretly trying to find ways to derail the Apostles' teaching. By the end of the First Century, the Judaizers had pretty much won. The Hellenized Talmudic legalism became a feature of church leadership even before John died. The disputes between various teachings were mostly a matter of shallow semantic feuding, a trademark of Pharisaism. Heresy in the early church was frequently defined as using the wrong words, nothing more.
I've faced that kind of attack often enough. There was no effort to discuss and see if the difference was just a matter of artistic flavor. What I got was an attack out of the blue that missed the point entirely. The worst is when it comes from someone who previously pretended to be a friend, or at least pretended to be collegial.
As tribulation grows, you will quickly learn who your friends are. You may be surprised at how many professing Christians turn out to be enemies.
This is not going to be like it was during the Roman persecution. Our tribulation is actually more global and, eventually, more catastrophic. At the same time, any persecution is likely to be purely political in nature. And because the Judaizers had already succeeded long ago, Jews as a whole have moved on to other things. They really don't pay much attention to Christians, per se, except to seduce them into Zionism.
Don't get the idea that I consider our Radix Fidem brand of faith somehow central to God's plans for this apocalypse. He has a great many servants in faith who think altogether differently. The issue is that faith and conviction will produce more variety than is comfortable for those seeking to build their kingdoms. We are simply one expression of something God is doing all over the place. It's very important that you learn to identify faith and conviction by how it works in God's people.
Whether they recognize it or not, those people are your allies, and maybe some of them will be family. Be prepared to encounter them. In order for this to work, there is no way we can avoid leaving ourselves open to insider attacks. That's just part of what we face. God can handle it, and He'll use us to testify of His glory.
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