A Vision of the Struggle to Come

A vision of worldwide terror was seen by author Martin Mawyer, president of Christian Action Network, who wrote about the prophecy in his book, “You Are Chosen!”, months prior to the outbreak of COVID 19.

Martin Mawyer

Say or think what you like about dreams. Some people think of them as supernatural, prophetic or borderline miraculous; others see them as the random, nonsensical byproducts of sleeping but still busy brains.

As I age into my mid-sixties, I certainly do not see myself as a young man having “visions.”  But I am certainly old enough (or is it young enough) to have dreams charged with a significance that is sometimes striking.

While writing these latter chapters I had one such dream. It came to me the night after our annual board meeting at Christian Action Network. During that meeting I suggested to the directors the idea of producing a film exposing the current radical agenda of the homosexual movement.

I proposed naming the film Stolen Rainbow. 

God did, after all, create the rainbow as an “everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” (Gen. 9:16)  It has always served as a visual symbol of God’s creation of life and His love for humankind.

Militant homosexuals have stolen the imagery of that rainbow, however, just as they have hijacked such words as “gay” and “pride,” to promote a lifestyle of debauchery, self-delusion and isolation. Perhaps most tragic of all, they have re-forged the rainbow into a weapon against God’s gifts of sex, marriage, masculinity, femininity, gender, and all the good that comes from male and female distinctions.

Normally when I awaken from dreams I am left with only a few hazy, short-lived images of what I saw. Not after this dream. This dream was long, detailed, vivid, coherent, persistent—and disturbing.

Upon awakening from it I immediately began writing it down. As I wrote, God provided interpretations for each visual I had experienced.

First I will describe the dream. Then I will proceed to give its interpretation as revealed to me by God.

A Great Wave

It started with a huge, dirty and terrifying wave coming across an open land. People were running for their lives in terrible confusion about where the roaring mountain of water had come from, since there was no ocean or river nearby.

After the wave came a great lake of swirling, cresting and muddy water that was producing more tremendous and horrifying waves. Some people were in awe of it, sitting on the verge of a cliff looking down as the wild water kept crashing below them.  Though the sight was terrifying to those sitting on the bluff, fleeing did not seem to enter their minds. Given their perceived degree of safety, they were more focused on watching the wondrous and cataclysmic waves churning up muck than with seeking cover. Seeming unconcerned and even callous toward those below who were being swallowed up by the waters, some even perched on lawn chairs as they surveyed the cruel spectacle below.

Then I was running into a friend’s house and asking him, “Do you see these horrible waves coming at us?” The friend said he did not. He looked out the window, though, and was immediately struck with bewilderment and horror at the tsunami-like torrent.

Outside again, with my eyes refocused on the lofty cliff spectators, I saw a huge and most dreadful wave rise out of the lake to roll straight toward them. It looked dark and ghastly and rose high as a mountain in the sky. This wave was also different in that it had two fiery red eyes in the center of its crest. The cliff spectators quickly realized these were the eyes of an angry God. They waved wildly at it, as if trying to appease their Maker before being overwhelmed. It did not help. The wave crashed against the cliff like an exploding bomb and shattered it, and the rocks and rubble all crumbled down into the dirty torrent intermingled with the heads and tangled limbs and chairs of the formerly lofty—and now drowning—spectators.

Bonnie (my wife) and I got into a car to flee the deadly waves. Bonnie took the wheel and we were almost immediately enveloped in a huge cloud of smoke that was impossible to see through. She was driving as if blind. She could not even see the lines on the road much less any cars that might have been in front of us. But this smoke cloud did not last long; we emerged from it in a matter of seconds. Now we encountered police officers stopping people before directing them to safety.

When we arrived at an area away from the chaos that appeared to be a safe haven, I felt we were somewhat free of the danger of what appeared to be some sort of judgment from God.  For some reason, however, I felt compelled to try and raise funds for our film Stolen Rainbow. In the manner of dreams it all seemed a bit foolish and incoherent—a weird conglomeration of wild fantasy with my own real-life concerns. And anyway, I remember thinking, God’s judgment was already upon the Earth! Right now! What good would it do? The fury of God was already upon us. Wouldn’t this be a colossal waste of time?

Though it seemed pointless, I was consumed by the compulsion to start the film anyway. Perhaps there was still time. Who was I to decide? The last vivid emotion of my dream involved my effort to round up people to help produce the film.

The Interpretation:

As I mentioned earlier, after waking I decided to write down the dream. While I did so, God revealed the different meanings behind the events and images.

The muddy, foul and raging waters represented the current corruption of a sin-filled Earth. This explains the lack of an ocean or even river nearby, which drives home the fact that this terrifying torrent of pollution was created by man’s own ruinous decisions—it his sin becoming fully grown.

The people unsuccessfully fleeing these waves were everyday people suffering, dying or being maimed by these tidal waves of corruption. The people on the cliff represented world leaders, activists and avowed promoters of the corruption filling the water. The fiery red eyes represented God’s anger at the putrid water that man, himself, had created.

The people on the cliff were amazed at the destruction occurring before their eyes. At first they appeared unwilling to accept that it came from God or even that they had had any role in creating it. As the destruction ebbed and flowed, receded and resurged, they felt safe from its destructive power and showed contempt for the people below who were dying and suffering in the waves of corruption. When they finally saw the awesome and colossal wave with its fiery red eyes approaching their own position, they recognized God’s anger. Realizing their impending doom, they desperately tried to appease God with friendly gestures. But, not knowing the way to salvation, they plunged into the deadly filth of their own creation. They were the enemies of God.

The friend whose house I entered, who did not even see the waves approaching outside, represented Christians who are oblivious to the corruption filling the world; that is, Christians who go about their daily lives not aware—perhaps on purpose—of the crushing waves of decay and destruction right outside their doors.

The detail of Bonnie being the one to drive the car as we fled (rather than myself) served the purpose of keeping the dream in the third person narrative. Bonnie represented all Christians who will seek safety from the corruption and death that is overwhelming the Earth. 

The thick, visually impenetrable cloud of smoke on the road symbolized how Christians will feel blinded as they try to escape annihilation along with the rest of humankind. They will not see a clear path to safety, nor will they know what is immediately in front of them. They will fear the unknown that lies ahead.

The police officers just beyond the thick but short-lived cloud screen represented God’s checkpoint for Christians who seek out and receive His guidance.

My search for funds to continue our Stolen Rainbow film was God’s instruction that Christians should not simply give up on the world, halt their ministries, become fatalistic, surrender to the notion that all is lost. It was nothing less than an instruction against the sin of despair. We are to continue our mission of being “the salt of the Earth” and “a light” to the world even while facing the terrifying specter of self-inflicted doom.

Waves of Corruption

Whether my dream foretells the coming wrath of God or the natural consequences of compounding sin does not matter. It depicts calamitous events that await humankind for having abandoned God’s truths in favor of lies, distortions, deceit and ungodliness.

Throughout most of the world God’s truths have been polluted, poisoned, strangled and bastardized. The rejection of God’s Holy Word has become so rampant that the world is becoming a truly terrifying place. In an article titled “Godlessness is Reaching Epic Proportions”, published March 20, 2019 by the Christian Post, author Howard Green stated:

Babies are aborted, children are discarded, and women are abused. Marriages are crumbling in record numbers and families are disintegrating because of sin and selfishness … People don’t just kill for cars, now they kill for parking spaces. People will walk up to complete strangers and knock them out for the ‘fun of it.’

Many more examples could be added to Green’s short inventory of humankind’s self-destructive behavior. In skyrocketing numbers people are committing suicide, overdosing on drugs, contracting virulent and deadly STDs, being sexually exploited and abused and becoming the victims of patricide (killing of parents), fratricide (killing of a brother or sister) and filicide (killing of one’s own offspring).

Lunatic gunmen are picking off young people (often their own peers) in the halls of their schools, or shooting people at concerts, clubs and sporting events. Even people strolling along city sidewalks with their families could suddenly be struck and run down by a deranged terrorist in a rented truck, who then gets out and sets upon his victims with a knife.

The mounting deaths do not come merely at the hands of bloodthirsty sociopaths. Every day people are dying internally from mental disorders, depression, hopelessness and anxiety.

Let’s call it what it is: despair.

The number of young people going to emergency rooms in the United States with psychiatric problems jumped 54 percent from 2011 to 2015, according to a 2019 study by the Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Suicide rates have more than doubled during that same time, the same study found. Deaths from the powerful opiate fentanyl rose more than 1,000 percent between 2011 and 2016. Syphilis rates for women in the United States nearly doubled between 2013 and 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Since the outbreak of AIDS nearly a million Americans have died from the disease. Some 36 million worldwide are now living with the HIV virus.

Statistics can be dull and not too easy to digest, but a couple more need to be mentioned. According to the FBI, an American is now being arrested every twenty seconds for a drug law violation. Some 10 million people are currently living in U.S. prisons with another four million on probation. In 1920, the number of U.S. prisoners was a meager 250,000. Now nearly half of adults have seen a family member go to jail.

Cliff Dwellers

Like undersea earthquakes and landslides, sin can bring about waves of death, sickness, personality disorders, incarceration, isolation, poverty, disfigurement, disease and homelessness. The more sin pollutes our society, the filthier and larger those waves of loss, tragedy and disability become.

By permitting and even promoting sin, we are killing ourselves and destroying all we have. Hence the toxic and crushing waves I witnessed in my dream.

Mankind is born in sin and we are perfectly capable of being blinded to the muddy and dangerous waters threatening our lives and happiness. There are others, however—people we call rulers, advocates, influencers and experts—who use their power, charisma, humor, beauty and quick wits to lead others squarely into the muddy waters. Not content to darken only their own lives, they feel a desperate need to spread and promote their self-destructive lifestyles to others. They legalize it, normalize it, make it fashionable and “cool” and even heroic, and ironically they use their God-given talents to do so.

They sit far above the rest of society with the power to wield and interpret law, pass legislation and peddle falsehoods in books, magazines, music, on the Internet, in television shows and movies. They spread lies on social media and attempt to weaken (if not completely break down) church doctrine. They brainwash little children during their earliest school years and continue the indoctrination right on through the years of higher education.

They can pressure businesses, government agencies and social organizations to standardize their twisted lifestyles into formal policies, edicts and programs. They will use the national news media not only to spread their hatred of God’s laws and promote their self-destructive behavior and ideas, but also to crush opponents who disagree and stand in their way.

They will solicit law enforcement, courts and bureaucrats to compel people to conform to their godforsaken social mores, standards and even language. They will pressure family members, friends, relatives and even young children to shame those who are found out of compliance with sin until they finally break down and comply.

These are the cliff dwellers, the beasts who could care less that society is being swallowed up in death and drowning in waves of their toxic filth. They know their lies are killing and harming people, but in their lofty position they count it as part and parcel of being their influential and elevated selves. They see the statistics, but they do not make any connection or simply do not care. They live only to see their own godless behavior validated through the complicity of others, rather than caring one atom about the welfare of victims being lead into shame. The fact that others envy and imitate their lifestyles disguises their own wickedness as something that is admired, normal, respectable, liberating and full of merit. 

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption. (2 Pet. 2:19  NASB)

God tells them they are doing wrong.  His laws are written onto their hearts:

That which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.  (Ro. 1:19 NASB)

But they ignore God and sin’s guilt and find comfort that others have been converted to “their reckless, wild living”, and they “heap abuse” on those who disagree. (1 Pet. 4:4)  They aspire to be called brave, daring and pioneering. The overwhelming societal acceptance—even celebration—of their sins masks for them any pangs that might arise from God-induced remorse. It obscures any need to wash away their sins, even if they are watching others being washed away by those very sins. It gives rise to the conviction that previous generations have gotten it all wrong:

They became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. (Ro. 1:21 NASB)

If the followers of these beastly guides are destroyed or killed by having bought into this sin, their lives will not have been sacrificed without good cause, the cliff-dwellers believe. Their deaths and illnesses will give rise to breakthroughs in medical science—an assortment of new pills, shots and treatments—that can save others, much in the way Naloxone was invented (and is now carried by most emergency workers and paramedics) to save people from their own reckless, despair-induced opioid overdoses.

These “leaders” exemplify the scripture: “They are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matt. 15:14 NASB)

“Professing to be wise,” the Apostle Paul says, “they became fools.”  (Ro. 1:22 NASB)

It is Left in Our Hands

The big questions with which we are left are, “What can I do? How am I supposed to respond? What is my role in all this?”

It might be difficult for us to understand or comprehend, but God does not intervene in these people’s foolishness. He expects Christians, the guardians of Truth, to provide that intervention. He wants those of us who bear the Truth to be the light and salt for their salvation. What God does, the Bible tells us, is nothing. He gives these fools over to their base desires.

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. (Ro. 1:24 NASB)

They have exchanged the truth for a lie. (Ro.1:25) They looked at God’s creation (rather than the Creator Himself) in their futile attempt to discover moral truth. (Ro. 1:26) They dismiss the written word of God in exchange for what science, nature, raw desire and human intellect can teach them. They have abandoned God—and if the church is not there to provide light to see that truth, as well as salt to preserve that truth—God will give them over to their base desires.

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper … (Ro: 1:28 NASB, emphasis added)

Those “not proper” things weaken the fabric of society and we see their crippling effects everywhere we look—death, hardship, illness, grief and fear.

… being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Ro. 1:28-32, NASB emphasis added)

That is quite a list.  The Apostle Paul makes special mention at the end to draw attention to those who “give hearty approval to those who practice them.” They are the cliff dwellers in my dream. They are the poison in the waters; the vile promoters of unrighteousness; the sleazy defenders of wickedness, the miserable inventors of evil. Their goal is to suppress the truth and exchange it for a lie: The unborn child is not human, it is a fetus; the biological boy is not necessarily a male, he can be female by choice; man was not created by God but evolved from apes or fish; God does not exist, or if He did He is now dead; man is not born in sin, he is born with a clean heart; plants are not simply vegetation, they have a “right to life.” The list of truths that have been exchanged for lies is endless among the “haters of God.”

God has a special fury reserved for those who work against the truth:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.  (Ro. 1:18, NASB emphasis added)

Wrath awaits those who “crush the truth.” (CEV)

It will be futile for them to try and appease God with conciliatory hand gestures, as I witnessed in my dream. “They are without excuse,” the Apostle Paul says. (Ro. 1:20 NASB)  “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks.” (Ro. 1:21 NASB) God’s eyes will be focused on these purveyors of evil. He knows who they are and will not be bought off.

As the Prophet Zephaniah warned, “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’S wrath.” (Zep. 1:18)

But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and there will be no escape for them;

And their hope is to breathe their last. (Job 11:20 NASB, emphasis added)

The doom of these people is foretold, but what about Christians living in this sinful world? Can they avoid this carnage? As much as Christians may like to believe they will be spared from these evil waves—the product of depraved minds—they are wholly mistaken. In fact, many Christians will not even see the destroying waves coming, as was the case in my dream when I questioned a Christian friend who was oblivious to the calamity approaching his doorstep.

Christians in the Path of Destruction

This type of destruction is not for evildoers alone. Christians will be, and have been, caught up in the perilous power of these crashing, indiscriminate waves. This should inspire all Christians never to abandon being the light and salt of the Earth—our true calling.

When the righteous triumph, there is great glory, but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves. (Proverbs 28:12 NASB, emphasis added)

When evil prevails people want to run from its death, illness, harm and misery. Already there are countless ways Christians have been caught up in the tidal wave of evil, mostly through no fault of their own. 

Christians have been victims of church shootings. Christian families have been torn apart over the loss of a loved one from an overdose, or a family member getting an abortion, or a predator molesting their son or daughter. You can be a Christian and still get tripped, kicked or punched in the face by a complete stranger “just for fun.” Syphilis, gonorrhea and even HIV can be contracted without having illicit sex. Just because you are a Christian does not mean you can’t be robbed or murdered for your car, your money, even your shoes. Christians, like anyone else, can be scammed, gunned down by a terrorist or caught in the middle of gang violence.

Christians have been the victims of kidnapping, rape, drive-by shootings and other random violence and malice. Consumer products these days have tamper-proof seals, since evil lunatics have proven they will indiscriminately kill people by poisoning their food or medicines.

When mass murderer Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers from a hotel window during the Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas in 2017, he did not distinguish between Christian and non-Christian. Fifty-nine people died and 363 were wounded.

The same could be said about the evil terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001, which targeted Americans yet killed people of many different nationalities. It is true of many other terrorist attacks before and since (although it must be pointed out that in many cases, Christians have in fact been singled out for attack or death.)

Since 2015, 178 children have been either shot or knifed to death in American schools, with assailants not caring less whether the victims were Christians. And who can forget the millions of innocent unborn babies that have been murdered since 1973? How many of those individuals could have gone on to happy, fulfilling Christian lives?

Virtually everywhere we go we are reminded that evil people have the potential to kill us. We pass through annoying, embarrassing security checks at airports, sporting events, concerts, theaters and amusement parks. We see guards stationed at train stations, stores, businesses, housing developments, schools and parks. 

Whether criminal or not, Christian or not, in today’s world everyone is now treated as a suspect with possible harmful intentions. You can be invasively frisked, have your belongings searched, be forced to show identification, be electronically scanned, questioned or asked to strip just to gain entry into commonplace public services, events or transportation.

There is so much evil in the world, and precautions are so strict, that authorities felt compelled to arrest a ten-year-old boy for bringing a toy gun into a Northern Virginia school while a 16-year-old was arrested for having a small pocketknife inside a Harrison County, Miss. school.

So the tidal wave of evil does not distinguish between Christians and evildoers. Though it is crashing all around us—we see it, feel it, live in it—many Christians willfully turn a blind eye and refuse to confront it with the only solution that can redeem society: being the salt and the light to the world.

The “world” recognizes the consequences of evil, but is not willing to change. It relies on a host of Band-Aid treatments to stem, slow down and temporarily dam the flood—the potential carnage arising from these frightful waves of destruction.

Which Band-Aid treatments? They are all around us: Security and surveillance are being amped up throughout the world. Medical research is being increased. More rehab centers are being funded and psychiatric treatment centers are becoming more ubiquitous and affordable. Firearms availability and free speech, both such important parts of a free and law-abiding existence, are being curtailed. Clean, free needles are being offered to make illegal drug use “safer.” Condoms are being handed out to schoolchildren at no cost to make indiscriminate, illicit sex “safer.” Why? Because the consequences of full-blown sin bring unavoidable illness and death and crime, and billions of dollars must be spent—as well as freedoms taken away—to mitigate these effects.

Yet as every Christian should know, if sin is not honestly confronted at its root level—that is, the human denial of God—these finger-in-the-dam solutions are doomed to failure. The dam will soften, crack, and break. As described above, Christians will be caught up along with everyone else in the waves of destruction and death.

Is Being Deemed ‘Worthy’ Enough to Escape?

So again … what do we do and where do we go? How do we find safety? Where do we hide? Should we hide?

The Psalmist David wanted to hide when the “pressure of the wicked” surrounded him. (Ps. 55:3) He spoke of the “terrors of death” and its “horror” when “iniquity and mischief” cause “destruction in the land.” Not unlike today, he was surrounded by “oppression and deceit” and “bloodshed” in the streets.  

His only desire was to “wander off” and hasten his “escape from the windy storm and tempest.” (Ps. 55:8) He pleaded with God to “cause me to escape.”

Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. (Psalm 71:4)

Escaping the torrential flood of sin that will grant no mercy to the lives in its path may seem impossible, with each route of escape wrapped in smoke so thick it is impossible to see, let alone know what is on the other side. When Noah was told to escape the “widespread wickedness of the earth,” he had but one option: Build an ark. That is hardly an option for us today, though some people still try.

Yet we have no choice but to escape if we do not want to be swallowed up by these deadly waves. But will God consider us “worthy” of escaping?

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:36, emphasis added)

There is that word again: worthy. In this case it means to be “judged worthy.” That is, to possess worth and value. The way to have “worth,” as we have discussed, is to take up the cross. The words of Christ bear repeating here: “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”  (Matt. 10:38, emphasis added)

Remember it. Write it down. Repeat it to yourself.

The team of police officers I saw in the dream, just after emerging from that dense cloud of smoke, should be considered a checkpoint of worthiness in our lives.

Are we “accounted worthy to escape?” It means more than calling on the name of the Lord, or doing good works, or forsaking sin, or being a prayer warrior, or even performing miracles.

To be worthy means to “take up the cross” while doing these things. It means the willingness to forsake everything—including mother, father, sons and daughters—for Jesus Christ.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  (Matt. 10:37, emphasis added)

Being counted worthy is not complicated, except to those who would rather hold onto their riches and worldly connections than take up the cross and defend the Word of God.

So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:  Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer. (2 Th. 1:4-5, emphasis added)

No one should think that “suffering,” “persecution,” or “tribulation” come only at the point of a gun, in chains or while facing cumbersome lawsuits. Taking up the cross rarely results in death, jail or court—at least in the United States. It does mean having the willingness to lose what you have (whether precious or small) to stand for Christ. Many former Muslims have lost fathers, mothers, sons and daughters after converting to Christianity. Some Christians have lost jobs, such as actors in Hollywood who refused certain roles or shooting certain scenes on moral grounds. Others have lost businesses, such as the owners of a bridal shop in Bloomsburg, Pa. that was forced to shut its doors after refusing to provide services for same-sex weddings.

Sometimes taking up the cross is no more than standing firm when being shunned by peers or co-workers, or being made the butt of jokes, or being attacked in the media.

One thing is certain, however. No one will ever have to take up the cross if he cannot handle being the salt and the light to the world. If people are not willing to be a light to the world so others can find their way to the Truth, if they are not willing to be the salt in the world to preserve that truth, then there could hardly be any occasion to “take up the cross,” could there?

In 2019, the Public Religion Research Institute published the results of a shocking survey that found 57 percent of Christians agreeing that it should be illegal for other Christians to deny services to homosexual weddings. It is doubtful these squishy and “lukewarm” Christians will ever face the opportunity to take up the cross. But they are worthy of Christ spitting them out of His mouth. (Rev. 3:16)

The Salt and the Light

This combination of salt and light is what constitutes our refuge and safety. It is where Christ lives. We will never know how to escape to it without taking up the cross in our Christian journey. It encompasses the Kingdom of God. We are its defenders, its protectors. There are those who want to destroy it, with violence and force if necessary, which they have been doing since the time of John the Baptist.

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. (Matt. 11:12 NASB)

A tidal wave of evil threatens all of us. Christians are in its path just like everyone else. It can’t be escaped via medicine, science, psychiatrists, humanist philosophy, drugs or concocted religions.

And it certainly cannot be prevented through Christian passivity, fatalism, seclusion or silence.

“The Lord is a warrior,” Moses and Miriam wrote in a song. (Ex. 15:3 NASB) And He “will go forth like a warrior,” Isaiah tells us. “He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. (Is. 42:13 NASB) In the end, He will be a “victorious warrior,” says Zephaniah. (Zep. 3:17 NASB)

Christ has chosen you and me to be soldiers in His army, led by the ultimate warrior, Christ Himself. It will involve hardship, which we must endure patiently as we carry that cross of passion. Our ultimate goal in being soldiers—being a light, being the salt, being a Christian on Earth—is for Christ’s kingdom, which is in our midst.

But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.  (Matt. 12:28, emphasis added)

The kingdom is here. It is upon us. Christ gave the keys to that kingdom to Peter. (Matt. 16:19) It is the Rock of Christ. But Christ also cautioned Peter:

Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  (Matt. 16:19)

Are we binding sin on Earth? Or are we allowing sin to run rampant on Earth? If we refuse to be the light and salt, we are not binding anything. The cataclysm of sin, lawlessness, corruption and violence will be without boundaries—and Christians will be in its path.

This is why Christ also warned:

Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 14: 34-35 NASB)

And elsewhere:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” (Matt: 5:13 NASB)

Everywhere we look we see God’s word being “thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” We know why, because the Bible tells us why. The Kingdom of God has lost its saltiness. It has become tasteless, bland and weak. When that happens, it is good neither for the “soil” (meaning Christians) nor for the “manure pile” (non-believers).

In his book Walk On, Ben Malcolmson relates a personal story. Malcolmson, director of external relations for the Seattle Seahawks, tells of an incident when he decided to hand out Bibles to his football teammates while at the University of Southern California.

“I got an idea after reading Isaiah 55. It says in there that ‘If His word goes out, it does not return empty,’” Malcolmson told the Christian Post. “It hit me that we need to put His word out there.”

He placed Bibles on the locker room seats of each teammate. He did it on Christmas Eve.  When he returned, however, every Bible lay torn apart on the floor.

“Everywhere I looked, shredded tissue-thin pages of the Bibles were strewn upon the floor, so much that I could hardly see even a sliver of the cardinal carpet,” he wrote. “I stood frozen in place as my heart sank and I felt the blood drain from my face. Never in any of my daydreams had I envisioned a scene like this,” Malcolmson said.

There was God’s word: Discarded, torn apart, thrown on the floor. Literally trampled underfoot by men—men with cleats on.

We know the “gates of hell shall not prevail against” the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s church.  (Matt. 16:18) Jesus has promised us that. That does not mean men will not trample His Word under foot, however.

Not Broken, Only Brought Low

As an example, for decades the United States modeled American exceptionalism to the rest of the world. We proudly displayed our freedom, constitution, liberties, generosity, non-expansionist power, egalitarianism and individualism. We encouraged others to accept our ways of government, economics, morality, citizenry and liberty.

But during the 1970s, in the dark shadow of the Vietnam War, American exceptionalism came under attack from within and without. Whereas America was once touted as a “City on a Hill” for other nations to admire and imitate, it began to be painted as evil and Satanic by a growing number of countries … and influential Americans. American exceptionalism began to be trampled underfoot.

Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hillary, has said, “Every day at some point I encounter some sort of anti-America feeling.”

We continue to see that anti-American sentiment promoted at sporting events, in the streets, in movies, in the news and in song.

It will take more than trying to trample American exceptionalism to bring down the United States of America, however. America’s bones remain strong.

Nor will Satan not prevail against the Kingdom of God. That does not mean the Lord’s truths won’t be trampled upon—muting our message, impugning our beliefs, damaging our credibility, frustrating our mission and miring the glory of Christ’s resurrection and salvation in falsehoods and noise.

Christ has chosen us. As soldiers of Christ, who bear the cross daily, we must be prepared to engage. Rather than letting our message be trampled on and thrown aside, we need to be trampling the ideas of the wicked and reducing them to ashes. Our goal is to crush Satan under OUR feet.

‘You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,’ says the LORD of hosts. (Mal. 4:3 NASB)

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. (Ro. 16:20 NASB)

Read more in “You Are Chosen!” Click here if you prefer to order through Amazon.

Martin Mawyer is president and founder of the pro-family Christian Action Network, based in Lynchburg, Va. He has written and produced numerous documentary films and books, including the best-selling book Twilight in America. Mawyer began his career as a journalist in Washington D.C. before becoming editor of Dr. Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority Report in 1983.