The Obama Administration recently set off a firestorm of controversy over an unprecedented expansion of government power. Under a new healthcare mandate, faith-based organizations are required to provide insurance that covers certain services—even if those services violate their deeply held religious beliefs.

This attack on religion comes on the heels of a relentless assault on the biblical definition of marriage. In February, activist judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Within days, the Washington state legislature made Washington the seventh state to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

What’s really going on here?

I believe we are facing the greatest threat to religious liberty in our lifetime. These events are just some of the most recent signs of the growing war on people of faith, especially Christians who believe that the Bible is God’s Word and that Jesus Christ alone is Lord.

My good friend Chuck Colson had this to say: “Our founding fathers—even those who weren’t Christians—believed, as I do, that without freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, all of our other freedoms aren’t worth the paper they are written on. If government can dictate what we may or may not believe, or how we may or may not live out our beliefs, then we are no longer a free people.”

The time may be fast approaching when Christians have to face the very real prospect of civil disobedience—when we will have to choose whether to obey God or government. Whatever lies ahead, we must remember that God’s Word supersedes man’s law.
When the early disciples were forbidden to preach in the Name of Jesus by the Jewish authorities, they boldly said: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).

Even after they were imprisoned, beaten and threatened, they refused to obey that edict and declared, “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29).

Pray for our country. Pray for our leaders. Pray for godly men and women in places of authority who will not be afraid to boldly stand for the truth of Scripture. The need is urgent, the hour is late, but “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, 1984.