It feels like only yesterday…
I vividly remember the intensity many of us experienced during the COVID era. Our church was meeting illegally (and sometimes in secret) under threat of huge fines and even imprisonment. We would have people over to our house during restrictions expecting the police to show up at our door because of neighbours’ reporting. I was barred from travelling across borders in any way, going to restaurants, and even accompanying my children in hospitals (thankfully we never had to go), all because I refused to take an experimental gene therapy injection.
I also remember the intensity of our response, the collective response of the unacceptable, the unclean – the resistance. We boycotted any business that discriminated against us. We pulled our kids out of government schools. We took up farming and homesteading to be self-sustaining. We left churches and moved across the country to join with faithful communities of faith. We were getting ready for the worst.
It wasn’t just COVID either. As the Woke rainbow mafia turned up the debauchery, we were right there in counter-protest. We protested drag queen story hours, often as the minority. We preached sermons in defiance of godless legislation – illegally, I might add – to let the State know God alone controls the dictionary. We booked times in public libraries to read God-honouring books to our children. When the intensity of the tyranny and totalitarianism was thick, we responded in several different ways for the glory of God and the good of our families.
The slow drift into slumber
Eventually the insane mandates were dropped, and things went back to normal, whatever that is. Eventually the crazy queer push eased up a little bit, and we were glad to see it. For the last year or so, it has seemed like the ferocity of our enemies has faded, and in response, our resistance has softened significantly.
People eventually went back to the churches that had previously prohibited them from worshipping in person, even though these churches never repented of their evil. People eventually returned to the restaurants and businesses that treated them like lepers and barred them from patronage. People eventually stopped protesting the sexualization of children and just let the trannies have the libraries.
Last year we saw a reduction in the number of pastors who preached on Biblical Sexuality Sunday in defiance of godless laws. Last year fewer pastors booked time in public libraries to read God-honouring books to the children in their churches. It feels as if people have been lulled back to a comfortable sleep as things seem to have returned back to the way they were in 2019, and sadly, most people are fine with the way things were.
Easy times create weak men
Why has this happened? Why, after the intensity of 2020-2022, and after our unrelenting commitment to pushing back, have so many of us shrunk back into comfort? Have we forgotten that police officers beat and tear-gassed us for protesting on Parliament Hill? Have we forgotten that loved ones lost their jobs, were kicked out of school, and were separated from family members, often leaving their elderly relatives to die alone?
When the sea is raging and the storms are violent, sailors must jump into action, using all of their strength and wits to keep them alive. But when the seas are calm, sailors sit, drink, and argue over trivial things. When your team is down by 1 point and the championship is on the line, you give everything you have to win. But when you’re up by 3 you get comfortable, and run the risk of the other team’s edge tying it up.
We were in the midst of open and violent tyranny and totalitarianism, and we fought hard – on several fronts – for our freedom and for the glory of God. Then things died down a little bit, and because we were exhausted and wounded, we took the reprieve as an opportunity to rest and ease our resistance. This was both a strategic miscalculation and a foolish decision in our mission to advance God’s Kingdom on this earth.
Taking ground back, not just holding ground lost
Imagine if the Allied forces, after storming the beach at Normandy and losing so many lives, had decided to hang out on the beach and enjoy some fun in the sun. How foolish to deem a victory taking back the beach from the German forces. Afterall, taking back the beach was merely recovering what was lost, not advancing and taking more ground.
The only option, and the one taken by the Allies, was to continue to push inland and take more territory from the Nazis, and eventually defeat them altogether. The war isn’t over until the enemy is defeated. Temporary breaks from active combat are not an excuse to stop advancing into enemy territory.
This, I am sad to say, is what Christians have done in the last year or so. We pushed back against an evil State, godless ideologies, and all manner of wickedness during the intense COVID times. After the active tyranny came to an end, rather than press into enemy territory and take more ground, we were content to kick back and relax on the ground that we lost in the first place. Christians, as it were, basically decided to have a picnic at Normandy and rest from doing what we should be doing, which is engaging our enemies with the Gospel and storming the gates of Hell. If we persist in our apathy and comfort-driven activities, then not only will we forfeit the ground so recently recovered, but we’ll end up losing even more ground. In fact, the last 50 years is evidence that we have lost cultural and moral ground in Canada, and our nation is far worse off now.
Never give up, never surrender
If you are reading this, then I would plead with you, don’t let up, not for a second. If you know what I’m talking about and you’re continuing your advancement, praise God, and share this with other “soldiers” that have seemed to go AWOL. Don’t stop starting businesses, creating schools, cultivating your gardens, and growing your churches.
For those of you who were once engaged in the fight actively and have been lulled back to sleep, get off the sidelines and get in the fight. Now is not the time to enjoy the reprieve, because before you know it, our cultural and moral enemies will come back stronger with the next wave of tyranny and evil. It could be the Climate Cult, or the Queer Colonization, but they will come for even more territory.
How do you continue fighting? Well, in the same ways we fought just a few short years ago. Find a church that is not only doctrinally sound, but proved their faithfulness by honouring Christ during the most difficult of times (or who has since repented of their unfaithfulness). Continue to speak out against gender ideology, be it on social media, at city council meetings, at libraries, or from the pulpit. Consider how you might begin a business or join with other believers who have created businesses, and aim to support like-minded businesses as much as you can. Please, get your kids out of State-funded schools, and either homeschool them or get them into good Christian schools. Do whatever you can to be less dependent on the State and existing systems of comfort and convenience.
Finally, consider the reality that you probably won’t live to see the end of the current battle. If there is to be a reformation in Canada – a cultural turnaround – you will most likely be dead before it happens. Your mission might be to hand off a strong church to your children, who in turn will equip your grandchildren to finish the fight, plant the flag, and place the capstone upon the cathedral. Afterall, someone had to be the first off of the boats at Normandy, and even though they didn’t live to see the end of the war, their selflessness and commitment to the cause is exactly what created the circumstances necessary for victory.
God help us to be those kinds of soldiers in His army.
The reprieve we're currently enjoying is just the second step of the ratchet toward hell. We're objectively worse off than we were in 2019, and the next crisis will take even more ground for the enemy before offering another reprieve to lull us out of fighting.
I appreciate this blog and share your concerns Andrew and Bnonn. I suspect that part of this let up we are seeing can be attributed to a failure on the part of Christians to see or understand that they are indeed soldiers rather than survivors. I think many who fought were more so resisting (a good thing) - but from a defensive posture, in survival mode. Ultimately, it's unlikely for one to push forward when there is a failure to know the objective is to take ground in the first place.