After 60 years of nativity scenes being displayed on public ground in the beach city of Santa Monica, CA, it appears that the tradition of erecting a booth about Jesus’s birth in a city park is coming to a close.  After a prolonged battle in the courts, the lawyer for the group of churches who are fighting atheist plaintiffs to keep the tradition alive has said that the battle has been lost.

One of the nativity organizers said:

“It’s a very sad day when a small number of people with an axe to grind, people who do not like Christianity, and who do not like God, are able to prevail by manipulating rules to censor our message from the public place where it has been displayed for the enjoyment of millions of people for nearly 60 years”

“It’s even sadder that a city government would allow itself to go along with this effort to try to snuff out a message that a small group of people did not agree with”

I will post more examples of this war on Christianity before the upcoming holiday season in the hope that it will sound off an alarm for the Church that this is the beginning of legal persecution of against Christians.  Once again, the Church needs to wake up and realize this is happening and pursue all avenues to fight it.  It starts with prayer and showing love to our neighbor, but it can move into the political and legal arena where we must vote for Christian principles, and possibly fight atheist groups in the courts.

The biggest irony here is that a country that upholds freedom of speech, and religion and who preaches religious tolerance is now beginning to turn against the religion of most of its founding fathers.  George Washington himself said in a speech to Delaware Indians in 1779: “You do well to wish to learn our arts and our ways of life and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention.” 

If the president of the United States would say this today to any group of people there might be riots and looting in San Francisco and Berkley in response, and there would be calls to impeach him.  But he would never say it, because in a TV interview he said he does not believe that [the religion of] Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.  Despite this statement, he claims to be a Christian.

As believers in biblical truth, we must understand the reasons for these attacks against Christianity.  The proclamation of gospel truth makes unrepentant sinners very uncomfortable.  The Church’s stand against depraved lifestyles and sin makes it seem accusatory in the eyes of unbelievers, and this is a natural progression of what Jesus stated in Matt 10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  

The Word of God is a sword that cuts deep into the soul of the sinner.  There are only two possible outcomes: 1. the sinner is convicted by the Holy Spirit and will repent, or 2. he will be hardened and become an enemy of the Gospel and those who proclaim the Gospel.  The ones who remain ignorant, when pushed hard they will probably also hate Christians for teaching the truth about their depravity.  We are now seeing more and more the enemies of the Gospel fighting back against truth.

It is time for the Church to proclaim the Gospel boldly and continue to fight for its right to do so!