"²²Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. ²³All the people were astonished and said, 'Could this be the Son of David?'' ²⁴But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, 'It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.' ²⁵Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? ²⁷And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges'." -- Matthew 12:22-27

After 9-11, patriotism was hip. It was in. It was the name of the game. People forgot their politics and joined together as Americans. No longer were there any "hyphenated americans". No, we are all Americans. We were united. United we stand became a popular catch phrase. As a matter of fact, while my family and I were moving to Mississippi, we did a sort of backwards Lois and Clark expedition, stopping at all the mains sites, and a few tourist traps, along the way. While at Mt. Rushmore National Park, I picked up a mug, it has a picture of the monument with the American flag in the Background, with the words "United We Stand" running along the bottom. For a time, Americans were united, and look at what we accomplished! In just a few short months, we eliminated the safe harbor of our enemy. In just a few short months, we restored freedom to hundreds of thousands of men and women. We did it quickly and efficiently, because we were united.

Back in the early days of warfare, people would barricade themselves in castles. Their enemy would lay siege to the castle and try to force their way in. In order to bust down the gates, they would use a battering ram. Battering rams consisted of a large tree that would be felled and, either sharpened at one end, or have an iron head attached. As gates became stronger and more fortified, current battering rams became useless. No longer would one log by itself be enough to bust down the gates of the castle. As early war fighting became more complex, so did the engines of war. Battering rams now contained wheels, a canopy (or cai), and consisted of many logs lashed together. These improved battering rams became so effective, they began to be used to knock down the walls of the fortifications as well! Where one log by itself could not even knock down a gate, many lashed together to bust through walls! One log by itself was completely ineffective, but when the logs were united, look at what they accomplished!

After Peter confessed Jesus was the Son of God, Jesus told him, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 18:18, NKJV). The church will act like a battering ram to the gates of Hades and those gates will have no chance again it! We will take the fight to the enemy, and we will prevail. That is great news from our Savior, isn't it? However, one look at the world today, and we see that just is not the case. It actually appears that Hades is prevailing over the church.

Just before writing this article, I read a news story about a county in California that was given two weeks by the ACLU to remove a cross from their town seal. Los Angelos County uses the cross as part of their seal to denote the mission that the town was founded on. It is part of their history. It is part of who they are. Yet, the ACLU demands that they redo their seal and get all new stationary, plagues, paint jobs for their vehicles, etc. Tens of thousands of dollars it would cost them to remove part of their history. But because that history has a cross, it is "illegal". Yes the symbol of our Savior is becoming illegal in this country. The town of Redland, IA, was forced to do the same thing by the ACLU not all that long ago.

I am by no means a conspiracy theorist, but one look at the news shows the ACLU's campaign to rid this country of every hint of Christianity. Last year, Judge Roy Moore made national news by refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments. Now, granted, that particular episode was controversial for many reasons, however it is also the only one to make the national news. What you will not see on the national news is a monument in Utah, that had been there forty years, targeted in 2002 by the ACLU, forcibly removed from in front of the Municipal building. What you will not see on the news is a monument in Idaho also targeted by the ACLU because the ten commands are located along the bottom of the monument. It is not a monument of the ten commands, merely one that contains them somewhere on its base. It is contains six other historic, legal documents, including the Magna Carta and the state's constitution. However, the mere presence of the Ten Commandments on a monument in a city park is illegal according to the ACLU.

All over the country, small towns are being ordered by the courts not to open their meetings with prayer, town seals are being demanded to be changed, lifestyles that go against human nature are being forced out into the open, and monuments that have any mention of anything to do with Christianity are being forcibly removed. Anytime there is resistance, the ACLU files a lawsuit. Their suits are not based upon our constitution, but rather "precedents" and guess how these precedents were started? One ruling, but one judge. That sets a "precedent" for other judges to take thing one step further. For example, a federal court has ruled that it is illegal for students at the Virginia Military Institute to say a nondenominational prayer before meals. That has set a precedent. The ACLU is now thinking about going after the Naval Academy next.

That's not all. With the judges on their side, and the precedents set, the ACLU will start targeting churches directly. After they have finished removing every trace of Christianity from this side of the church doors, the ACLU will move to target the pulpit. This can't happen, you say? This is America, you say? We have freedom of religion, you say? While you would be right on the last two, this can happen, and it is happening. In Canada, parts of the Bible have been declared "hate speech" and there is a movement to do that here in America as well. How can this be happening? Separation of Church and State. It is in the constitution, right? WRONG! The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Nowhere in the constitution will you see the phrase "separation of Church and State". The statement about a wall of separation between church and state was made in a letter on January 1, 1802, by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut. The congregation heard a widespread rumor that the Congregationalists, another denomination, were to become the national religion. His letter states:

I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.

You are not going to like the answer. Though it is simple, it hurts: It is our fault, Christian's fault. We allowed this to happen. Rather than stand for the truth, that is Jesus, we prefer to stand for ourselves and our own ideas. Rather than fight the enemy, we prefer to fight each other. Instead of loving like Christ and accepting our co-heirs, we have usurped the throne of judgment, condemning all who have the audacity to disagree with our own human wisdom.

There is no finger pointing here. All Christians are to blame. Each and every one of us. Jesus warned us. He told us, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand" (Matt 12:25). Rather than heed the word of our Lord, we have bitterly divided ourselves. Faction after faction of Christians have broken apart, lambasting each other as apostates. No one is safe and no one is immune. Every single Christian has been affected by this in one way or another. There is not any single one of us who have been untouched by this division, and yet, what has been done about it? Nothing. We can see that Christianity is under attack, but we still choose to fight each other instead of the enemy! We are divided, and we are falling fast.

At this point, if any of you are still reading, you are most likely thinking, once again, that I have fallen off my rocker, and while you would be correct once again (I fell a long time ago), that does not change the fact that Christianity is under attack. The ACLU has no interest in what every religion does in this country, only Christianity. Consider the following:

• In Arizona, plaques containing Psalms from the Bible were ordered removed from the Grand Canyon. That park is a Federal Park, and having Bible Verses present on Federal land constituted "establishing" Christianity by the U.S. Congress. The plaques containing Hindu sayings, however, were permitted to remain as they were and untouched.


• In California a man sued the schools (and won), because his daughter (of whom he does not even have custody) had to say the words "Under God". So our children are not permitted to say the pledge because "God" is mentioned, however the schools are allowed to force people to learn the religion of Islam, and hang large banners out front that state "There is no god but allah and Mohommed is his prophet."


• In New York, a teacher was fired merely for having a Bible at his desk. He did not teach from it, or even mention or hint about it to his class, he only read it at lunch, while his class was outside, but the fact that a Bible was located in a school building merited his being fired. Meanwhile, a police precinct is permitted to display the koran in a glass case just inside their main entrance.


• At Rutgers University, a Christian group was told that it was guilty of discrimination because it required its officers to be Christians. At Tufts University, a Christian club was punished because it wouldn’t allow a bisexual to be a leader in the Christian club. These same schools sponsor and endorse clubs devoted to homosexuality and bondage.


• In Marietta, GA, the city government ordered a couple to stop hosting a Bible Study in the privacy of their own home, yet when it comes to abhorrent behavior such as sodomy, the courts have ruled that it is something private between consenting adults and the government cannot regulate what goes on in the privacy of the home.

¹⁸If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. -- John 15:18-19

The world hates us because we are different. We are not part of their system, we do not hold their values, and we are not like them all. No, we have been called out to be separate from the world, only they do not want to let us ago. I once knew a girl who had been heavily involved in witchcraft. She stopped practicing, and eventually came to be saved. Once she was saved, however, she started having some problems. She was being stalked, if you will, but the demon she used to worship. The demon that once enabled her to perform her magik, did not want to let her go. As a new Christian, she did not fully understand that it no longer had any power over her, and the demon made the most of it. It hated her because she left it and became part of our family. The world hates us for the same reason: we have left it and become part of God's Family. That girl did learn that she had the power and authority in Christ to overcome that which once held her captive. It was only by Christ that she overcame. It is only by Christ that we can overcome the world.

Satan is the prince of this world, and he wants to keep every single person entrapped in his "system" that he possibly can. God created man to be in a relationship with Him, and Satan knows the best way he can hurt God is to get between Him and His creation (via sin). Our Father wants everyone to be with Him, and Satan wants keep everyone from our Father. Thus, the world will do its best to eliminate Christianity. Those who have left, who have been taken out of the world and set apart, will be persecuted by the world, and severely in some cases. Unfortunately, we do not need the world to persecute us, for Christians are doing all too good a job at persecuting ourselves.

Jesus has already overcome the world. Jesus is greater than the world. Jesus, who is inside us, is MUCH GREATER than the devil, who is in this world. A head on, direct assault against Christianity would fail by itself, that is, if Christians were not helping by fighting against each other.

When I was a kid, I was active in the Boy Scouts of America. One time, our scoutmaster told us a story about some chickens that were protected by some fierce bulls. It seemed a certain coyote had his eye on those chickens; only there was no way he take on even one of those bulls, let alone the whole lot of them. The bulls, for their part, took protecting those chickens seriously. They formed a ring around the chickens, standing shoulder to shoulder with their horns facing out. Their ring was impenetrable. There was no way the coyote could get past them.

The coyote, recognizing there was no way he could get through the bulls, came up with a sly plan. He bravely walked up to one of the bulls, in the guise of asking a question. Once he had the bull's attention, he took hold of its horn and pulled the bull's ear to his mouth. He whispered something into the bull's ear which made the eyes go wide briefly. However, the bull shook off the coyote and the circle tightened. The coyote walked around the circle a bit and did the same thing to another bull, then another, then another...

Eventually, one of the bulls turned on his neighbor, then another, than another. Soon, the bulls were fighting against each other and the poor chickens were left defenseless. The coyote was than free to go after the chickens, and he ate until he was full. Satan has done the same thing to the Church. Peter tells us:

⁸Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. -- 1 Peter 5:8-9

The devil wants to devour us, just like the coyote did the chickens. The Church however, is too strong a force for our enemy to take on, so, like the coyote, he has gone around whispering in peoples ears, one after another, after another, after another....

The result has been disastrous for Christianity. Not only are there tens of thousands of different denominations or groups, those very factions set out to destroy each other and do far more damage than our enemy, the devil, ever could. Satan hates us, thus the world hates us. They want to destroy us. A direct assault on Christianity itself would fail, so the enemy has succeed in dividing the Church. As a result, the mass assault we read about in the news is having far too much success as well.

By now you are probably thinking things look pretty bleak. At least I hope you are, because, well, they are. This situation is grim. Each church has been forced back to its last hill, and ammunition is running dangerously low. What Christians do not realize is that each of our hills are connected. There are tunnels running right beneath the enemy, and if we use those tunnels, if we can support each other, we can vanquish the enemy one hill at time. Then we can start to take back some of the ground we lost. We can only do so if we join together though. If we keep fighting separately, or worse, if some of those hills keep fighting each other. We do not stand a chance.

⁵⁴When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
    ⁵⁵"Where, O death, is your victory?
       Where, O death, is your sting?" ⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. -- 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

³This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, ⁴for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. ⁵Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. -- 1 John 3:3-5

Jesus Christ is the tunnel which links all our hills. If we can join together in Christ, we can stand our ground. If we can join together in Christ, we can eliminate the safe harbor of our enemies and restore freedom to millions of men and women. We can overcome the world. We can be victorious. The key here is Jesus. Jesus has vanquished death; He has overcome the world. With His death on the cross all our sin was crucified. With Jesus' resurrection, our life and victory has been guaranteed. Jesus Christ became victorious over life and over death, so that through Christ, we may have victory as well:

¹⁴Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- ¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. ¹⁶For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. -- Hebrews 2:14-16

⁷Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." ⁸In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. ⁹For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son."

We are all children of Abraham, through Christ, and through Christ we are promised the victory. However, Christ has been absent from our battle! There is very little love in Christianity today, and it shows. Love has been replaced by judgment, encouragement by shame. We are too busy tearing each other down instead of building each other up in love, and it is literally destroying us!

We need to put aside the things that make us different...not compromise them, not forget about them, but lay them aside and make Jesus our focus. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. We need Jesus. We need love. We need each other. Right now there are over ten thousand individual logs tapping at Hell's gates. Not a single one of them is being effective. If we can lash ourselves together using the rope of our Savior, then we will be effective. As a matter of fact, we can only be effective if we work together. And then, only if we make Jesus our focus. If we can do that, the gates of Hell will not stand a chance!

United we stand, divided we fall. Right now Christ's Church is divided, and we are falling fast. Only by being united can we stand. If we can be united in Christ, then we can stand firm on the truth. Christianity is under a fierce onslaught, not just in America, but all over the world. Instead of fighting each other, Christians need to start supporting each other. When the ACLU tries to get the Federal Courts to establish Atheism as the national religion, we should call them on it. If we are fighting each other, we will not have the time or the resources, nor will anyone pay heed to what we are saying. Our infighting discredits us in the eyes of the world. The ACLU and like-minded groups (GLAD for one), are using our own weapons against, and we are too busy fighting each other to notice! We need to stop. We cannot carry on as we have been. We need to be examples of Christ's love. We need to show that love to each other and to the world. We need to be one in our Savior. Only by standing together to do we have a chance at stopping the massed assault launched against us. Only by relying on the Lord Jesus Christ do we have a chance at overcoming the world. Only united will we stand. Only when we unite in Christ, we will be able to stand firm on the Truth.