What times, What events, What are Christians called to do?

In an era when their right to evangelize, to worship, to pray to their creator, and to free express their beliefs or to insist that their children are taught what they know to be true, What course of action are Christians to take?

A society which owes its very existence to the beliefs taught by Christians and where the nations beliefs, and greatness, and goodness have sprung from those very beliefs... What does a faith, a people do when the precepts and safeguards for liberty and freedom of worship is turned, twisted, and corrupted in such a manner as to prevent the continued teaching, practice, and discussions of those very beliefs?

Throughout the milinium we have examples of where the faithful have been driven from the nations, the cultures, the peoples, which owe their existence to the hard work, the disciplines, and the charity of Believers of the Christian Creeds. Where others have exerted force and violence, Christians reluctantly, have responded with violence. Where they have witnessed violence, genocide, and vicious cruelty, Christians have inserted themselves to halt it.. Sometime crossing over to Non-Christian actions which our Lord would certainly not approve of and of which we are certain to be required to pay penance for. Yet, there is no other faith which teaches Love, Hope, Faith in God and Gods Authority and Forgiveness, as well as encouraging good works, tolerance, and the idea that all humans are family and have a responsibility to nurture, to share, to do to and for others as we wish them to do to and for us, has come to exist on the face of the planet.

History is replete with examples of where Christians have failed to live up to their faith and its teachings, but that is part of the very faith which teaches that we all fail, that everyone falls short of the goals, teachings, and even the very model which our loving God has given to us... and miraculously, for all our failing and rebellion, that very God forgives us and has given to us a simple means to get right with "the program" to again be joined with what we know and since to be God’s plan for us and mankind.

What is the foundation, the definition of the Christian Faith? Clearly , love , forgiveness, charity, and evangilization by example of as good a live as we may live from the time we accept the teachings, the filling of our being with the fellowship and union of the Holy spirit of God, the Lordship of God through Jesus, the Christ and the teachings set down in the Holy Gospels... But we are not merely limited to determining this by reflection, through meditation and thought, or through seclusion and inner contemplation... all of that is good, but we also have the Gospels, the Old and New Testaments, the Pseudopigrypha, and Apocryphal books and a set of basic beliefs which the Early Christian set down on paper around 300-500 AD called the Apostles Creed, which as a document harkens back to the second or third centuries; These express beliefs and their recitals preceded this time and Christian Mythology even suggests goes back to the very Apostles of Jesus, though that cannot be proven and many say is simply wishful thinking.

There appear to be several preserved early versions but Those basic beliefs as set forth in the Apostles Creed , which reads as follows:

An early version call the Old Roman Creed, as set down by Rufinus:

I BELIEVE in God almighty (or the Father almighty)
And in Christ Jesus, his only Son, our LordWho was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried
And the third day rose from the dead
Who ascended into heaven
And sitteth on the right hand of the Father
Whence he cometh to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Spirit
The holy church
The remission of sins
The resurrection of the flesh
The life everlasting.

And its more common and widely accepted version:

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen

If we proceed with the acceptance or knowledge that this provides what a Christian accepts at the core of his beliefs, then other dogma or doctrine comes through revelation, prayer, study, and contemplation or meditation and is the differences which allow various orders, denominations, and sects of Christians and where it speaks to the heart and faith of different peoples in different times and circumstances. So long as we cling to the confidence and belief of the basic Apostles Creed, we may claim to be Christian and if a teaching arises contrary to it or without acknowledging its truthfulness, then, while we may appreciate that belief for the good it encourages and does or the attention it directs toward God, we may safely state it is not a Christian belief or faith.

Proceeding with this belief, we read and contemplate what is written in the Old and New Testiments of the Bible And realize that fundamental gifts from God beside Hope, faith, and Love and Charity are Life, the Promise of life, Perception, Choice, Salvation and forgiveness. These are basic values and guarantees which any society or culture which seeks the support and loyalty of Christians must enshrine, encourage, facilitate, and pursue.

In The United States, A national election was recently completed where a man who will not or cannot with certainty say what he stands for or believes in was elected to the high post of President of the Unites States of America... He states simply that he stands for change. His first acts were to renew Funding for the international practice of abortions and to renew the means to allow stem-cell research, another avenue for abortion clinics to make moneys by selling aborted fetuses to clinics and research facilities... A confessed former drug user who pledges to expand the definition of family and to allow homosexual marriage and alternative sex choices to publically exist as normal choices both in civil and in military life... While Christian recognize that God gives a basic an fundamental right or choice and action and all my choose sinfulness or Godliness, we have a duty to resist sin and the public exercise of it, both by example and action and in a democracy through political and civil actions... Where a nation, a law , or a man or political group teaches, stands for, and permits and facilitates the practice and means to inflict death or slavery on those unable to protect or preserve themselves, we, all Christians, have a duty to stop it...

One cannot be faulted in the recent election for Voting for the candidate who won as one of his promises was to stop a war while the other candidate said we would continue fighting until evil was defeated and the Choice between ending a war with its chaos and killing may well be a good and just choice, which a Christian is has in an election, when the alternative is to stop the murder or the system which permits the murder of infants, criminals, and the infirm or aged... A choice must be made, and it is a hard choice, but either is a choice to stop death and killing... It was not a choice or vote which must divide Christian against Christian- the results are in the hand of God now and we should all pray for him to see and do the right things. Unlike many, Christians must believe in a right and a wrong, in a good and an evil and we are called to pray for the good..

The choice has been made and is behind us, but now we must unite again to turn our hand, our wealth, our efforts, and our faith against the continued extermination of the unborn, the infirm, and the helpless.

If one is to believe the press and news pundits, The world is headed to period of socialism and dictatorial governance... and if as Christians we realize that the less Christianity is active in the affairs of men and when our actions are on the wane, then choice must be superceded by law and force to maintain order. In short when both good and evil become acceptable, and fewer men recognize what should and must be done then fewer good choices are made and evil assumes a greater role in world affairs and laws must be enacted to curtail it. Unfortunately with more laws and greater governance, as men of pride or greed or subject to physical aggrandizement, lusts, and dependencies pursue their natural weaknesses and pleasures they gravitate to power and those very laws placed to protect peoples and properties become a means to oppress and seize their wealth and dignity.

We are no at a time when Christians mus engage on several fronts with those whom evil and good are merely relative terms. For too long have we been comfortable in our churches, jobs , and nuclear families letting the community, the nation , and the world role on without hearing our voice, seeing our faith an Christ in our lives. As those Christians who have gone before us we must become active in communities as a group; We must take action in the national governments and insist that our voice is heard on the world stage; We must take urgent and serious steps to establish Christian and Christian friendly governments and nations around the world to provide future safe havens for our children and Christians, in a world which is unwilling to acknowledge that there is good and evil and that there are things which we should not and cannot be allowed to do.

People must exercise self discipline and control over their own selves and be good examples to others- An unpopular idea to non-Christians; an idea which even when accepted by non-Christians is one where strength, power, wealth, and order, control of others is often the ideal rather that patience, nurturing, encouragement, dialogue, and mutual understanding and effort.

Christianity calls to greater understanding, and self-discipline which typically, leads to smaller and lesser governance -one where the burden or privilege of choice falls on the individual while other faiths, typically, call for stronger and more centralized governments to make, record, and tell people the law and then, to enforce it.

The time is now ,,, Again... For Christians to begin speaking to one another for the purpose of mobilizing their resources and communities to establish a firm grip on their nations governments. The time is now when strong and vocal church communities must be erected and spread throughout the world-especially in regions traditionally hostile toward Christianity. It is also a time when Christian denominations and peoples must come together to establish Christian nations or centers where their children may be raised and taught the truth and a truly Christian culture... not a culture totally closed or insulated, but where fundamental ideas of right and wrong are evident and where the basics of the Apostles Creed are instilled and missionary activities promoted and provided for and orders established to protect Christians around the world and given the means, tools, and training to do so.

Christians must realize that they and the concepts of Good -the idea of God, are under attack at all levels from countless groups, many well planned and financed and many intentionally waging war on the Christian faith. They must awaken, as Christians in a world which will not have them, remain not of the world which does all it can t destroy them and their faith, to establish strong-holds, and prepare to counter-attack as an army of the faithful.

J. "P." S. McCoy