Dr. Mark Thompson: The Eclipse of Freedom

And if our voices are not heard now, protesting this movement away from freedom and tolerance towards restriction and greater and greater intolerance towards Christians, we will hardly be listened to when the situation moves further in that direction.  -- Dr. Mark Thompson

Religious freedom is slowly being eroded in western countries around the world.  Stupid Christians sit back and simply let it happen without speaking out.  Of course, we in the United States or Australia are not "yet" being martyred for our faith.  But as more and more religious freedom is eroded by the despotic politicians of the socialist left the reality will sooner or later hit home.  Remember Reverend Jeremiah Wright of the United Church of Christ?

As Dr. Mark Thompson, principal of Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia, puts it, freedom of religion is under a not so subtle attack:

It is not too difficult to find evidence in recent history and current affairs to validate these concerns. Even those conscientiously opposed to scare-campaigns are beginning to acknowledge that something, somewhere has gone horribly wrong and all the consequences are yet to be played out. We might prefer to speak positively about the context in which we find ourselves; but not to speak out, when other Christian brothers and sisters are under attack even in countries such as the UK, the US and Australia, is hardly justifiable. And if our voices are not heard now, protesting this movement away from freedom and tolerance towards restriction and greater and greater intolerance towards Christians, we will hardly be listened to when the situation moves further in that direction.

The Eclipse of Freedom.

I recently had a disagreement with an old high school acquaintance who is a Pentecostal and living in China.  He stupidly thinks that the United States is a "Christian" country because we have a church on every corner.  I told him to take a long, hard look at China because that is where the good old USA is headed.  Bill Maher, of the HBO network, thinks that Christianity should be against the law.  Despite the fact that he is a comedian, he is not joking.  He is dead serious.

As for those who think theologically liberal churches are small and dying, that is unfortunately merely an assumption.  Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago is a megachurch that boasts 6,000 members, although I'm not sure how many turn up on Sunday mornings.  Liberal religion is all about social change, social justice, and anthropocentric theology.  In fact, civil rights of racial minorities and gay rights are more important than where an individual will spend eternity.  As Reverend Jeremiah Wright put it so succinctly, "God damn America!"  

Traditional Evangelicalism is on the wane and Fundamentalist Calvinists are under attack by their own "brethren" as "hyper-Calvinists."  The Federal Vision and neo-orthodoxy are the predominate theological perspectives at Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia, while neo-orthodoxy and the two kingdoms theology predominates at Westminster, California.  Mid-America Reformed Seminary is Van Tilian and neo-orthodox as well.

Call me a pessimist.  But in my opinion unless there is a return to the view that Scripture alone is the infallible, inerrant, inspired Word of God, the prospects for religious freedom will continue to implode at a rapid rate.  It seems to me that the only hope is a thoroughly intellectual presuppositionalist apologetic for the Christian faith.  As I see it, the theology and philosophy of the late Dr. Gordon H. Clark is that hope.  His defense of Scripture as propositional truth is unsurpassed by anyone else in the twentieth century and to date.

Click here to read Dr. Thompson's article:  The Eclipse of Freedom