Thinking Ahead
One of my hobbies in the past has been competitive trapshooting. This sport is essentially clay target shooting where the difference between winning or losing a championship can be one target out of a thousand. Since it is an outdoor sport, a major variable is the weather conditions each day tournaments are held. Early on in my competitive days, I struggled greatly in poor conditions because I had never experienced them before. I would have to shoot in 30-mph winds for the first time during competitions while trying to compete against All-Americans. I would quite literally be wiped off the field since I had no preparation in place because I was so new I had never even seen these conditions when practicing. The All-Americans had experienced them many times in their past years of experience. I, however, stood no chance against them. If I was shooting on a clear day, then I could quite often hold my own. If the conditions were poor, then my lack of preparation because of my inexperience showed itself.
As I continued to shoot for years and years something began to change. Not only could I compete when the conditions were good, but I could also post competitive and shockingly even winning scores at times during horrid weather. You see, when I was inexperienced the All-Americans were so far ahead of me I could not even stay in the same ballpark. As I began to gain experience, then the ground began to level out a bit and the winner would be decided by whoever executed the best and not by experience. Once I progressed even more I found I was more experienced than some great shooters in those conditions. That meant, I went from being the guy unprepared to being the shooter who was ahead of the curve. In fact, sometimes it was even an advantage towards experienced shooters for there to be bad conditions. It seems to me that in our current climate here in America those who hold to conservative values are acting like inexperienced trapshooters in 50-mph wind gusts while leftists are acting like All-Americans who have no difficulties in those conditions. The Left is so far ahead of the Right, that they are not just thinking about how to survive the current climate, but how to thrive in it.
The Danger of Being Behind
If I was behind as a trapshooter, the stakes were not that high. I simply lost a championship trophy. However, the stakes are much higher when conservatives and specifically many Christians are behind the curve when it comes to what is going on in our country. Perhaps you are wondering what I mean when saying conservatives are behind leftists? Take social media as an example. Recently we have seen conservatives being kicked off Twitter and Facebook in droves. Parler had become known as the platform conservatives could still use because it allowed free speech. However, it is now being banned by tech giants like Apple, Android, Amazon, and Google. This fact means that conservatives are increasingly finding themselves de-platformed and are having to scurry in order to keep their voices from being completely silenced.
Contrast that with those who are on the left. The tech companies and social media platforms are driving their agendas. It is not the left who is being silenced, it is the right. Even though I disagree with them completely, we must say that the left is ahead of the curve and not behind it. Are we foolish enough to believe that is a mere coincidence? Or, do we have the humility as conservatives to say that the left has out-prepared us in many ways? If we are going to correct the issue, we must first have the humility to say they have outdone us on this matter.
Learning From The Mistake
Of course, social media is just one of many examples I can utilize. The Left has also outperformed conservatives since they have the government, the school systems, and most institutions pushing their agenda. However, just as I was able to catch-up and even sometimes outperform All-Americans, it is my contention the radicals can not only be caught up to but also surpassed. Truthfully, conservatives are outflanked, outgunned, and outmaneuvered in terms of who controls the institutions at this moment in American history. However, there is a path to bring reformation and that means we are going to have to be diligent. The first step for Christians is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and proclaim the truth of Scripture. That is pivotal in this moment. Leftist ideologies have infiltrated many “professing churches” in our day. We combat that by fully proclaiming the counsel of Scripture and the true Gospel both to the church and to the world.
Another crucial element is elevating the family. Leftists (Marxists, Communists, Socialists) are intelligent in that they comprehend the power of training young people. Christians have been all too happy to send their children to the temple of atheists and Marxists known as the public school system. Because Christians parents neglected the training of their children and churches have abrogated the responsibility of discipleship, the Marxist Leftists have been successful in acquiring most of the present generation. Let’s be clear, they didn’t get this generation through sound argumentation. The left cannot tell the distinction between a man and a woman, they believe in hundreds of genders, clearly, these are not people with great intellectual arguments. But, they are individuals who understood that to get what they want they did not need good arguments so long as they excelled in manipulating the emotions of people. That is why they rally for “social justice” while burning down buildings and destroying businesses. The argumentation is illogical, but they are able to play to emotion and get people to do their bidding.
Since the arguments of the Left are particularly weak, that means they can be easily overcome in the present generation if Christians have the courage to fulfill their duty and proclaim the truth. However, we have to be smart about this action. You cannot simply say God calls us to “justice” you have to define what that means. The Marxist idea of justice and the Christian idea are two completely separate concepts. If we do not clarify that distinction, then we will fail to communicate. The argumentation is simply defeated with Scripture, but we must communicate clearly in our presentation of that truth.
Being Diligent About The Future
As we noted, one thing which marks Leftists is that they are constantly thinking ahead. They see the COVID crisis as an opportunity to shape the future with a great reset.1 Conservatives and Christians are largely still trying to determine how to respond to COVID while leftists are already pursuing how to leverage it for their benefit. Which perspective do you think will be victorious in promoting their agenda through Coronavirus? Many churches know the Left is going to be quickly coming after them because Christians proclaim biblical Christianity. You know that is true, but are you doing anything about it or are you going to wait until they attack you? What if you talked with politicians about those concerns and began to raise awareness as to why freedom of religion is necessary? What if you began to save money in your congregation for the legal battles ahead? How about you focus on educating young people in your church and local community about why freedom is a necessity and Marxism is evil and how to recognize it? Do you think you would be ahead of the curve instead of behind it? You would be much more prepared and stabilized for attacks against your local church. You would have an educated congregation, an educated local populace, and eager politicians ready to stand with you.
However, what if we did all of that on a regular basis? What if we as Christians were not merely focused on responding to attacks from those who oppose the faith, imagine if we were actually focused on proclaiming Christianity all the time? If we did our jobs, then the ideas of Marxism could never infiltrate this society because our young people would have seen them for the awful lies they truly are in reality. Being proactive as a Christian means that we bring the Word of God to bear against all evil ideologies and we constantly proclaim the truth. If you are grounded in Scripture you are not going to be ready to burn down buildings in the name of “social justice.” You also are not going to be jumping on the bandwagon of censoring those who disagree with you because you understand the concept of free speech. So, you will bring sound argumentation against their views to show the logical holes in it instead of silencing them to defeat them. The bottom line is that the only excuse for the Leftists, Marxists, and Communists outthinking us in our society is simply because Christians have largely failed to perform their duty. Let us then be humble enough to realize our error and repent, but courageous enough to move forward and proclaim the name of Christ as we should have been all along!
Sources
1 https://www.weforum.org/great-reset/
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