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Continuing our discussion from part one, while it is a fact that there are certain conservative Christians who view the Internet -- and computers in general for that matter -- as something evil and of Satan which is to be avoided, I must ask such Christians: Who are we to question the methods God makes available to us in order to get the job done? It seems to me that considering how very wicked the world has become at this current time, the Lord would be rather interested in seeing as many people as possible, come to the knowledge of Salvation. Furthermore, it also seems to me that He would be willing to use whatever means are available to us, in order to accomplish such an important goal. Obviously, that would also include using computers and the Internet. As I mention in other articles such as "Is the Message of Salvation Meant for All Men?", the Apostle Peter wrote the following verse regarding God's desire to see all people being saved:

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."


The fact that God is even willing to reach down into the privacy of people's homes, via their personal computers, in order to try to deliver the Gospel message to them another time, and give them another chance -- for some people, maybe even a last chance -- is in my view, a very powerful sign of His Love and Mercy. Even when organized religion has failed to reach some people; even when popular radio and television evangelists have failed to catch their ear; even when Gospel tracts and street evangelism hasn't gotten through to them; God is still trying to reach those people on a very personal one-on-one level. He will even enter the privacy of their own homes; perhaps even in the privacy of their own bedroom or study den where their computer is located, late at night, when no one else is watching, and no other distractions are present.

You see, under such conditions, there is no need to put on the false image that some of us like to display in public. It is sinful, human nature which causes us to create this false impression of ourselves, and to build this wall of defenses around ourselves, in order to preserve our pride, and protect our inflated egos. We feel that we must meet the expectations of others, or else prove to ourselves that we are better than others; and so we pretend to be someone who we are really not.

However, in the privacy of our own homes, we can lower our defense mechanisms, and we can just be ourselves. We can be honest with ourselves. Well, it is often precisely in such a moment of human vulnerability, when we think that we're safe, that God can strike our hearts with the hot, piercing truth of His Word, when we least expect it. For example, perhaps we "accidentally" come across a particular website; or out of curiosity, we decide to log on to a certain server, and wham! . . . the Lord delivers the full Salvation message to us once again, hoping that perhaps this time, we will be wise enough, and maybe humble enough, to receive it. As the Apostle Paul informs us:

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."


God knows us, even better than we know ourselves; and He knows the appointed time He has chosen for our Salvation. He knows when we are finally ready, and willing, to receive the free Gift of Salvation which He offers us. As I have stated before, in some cases, the Lord has to allow certain people to experience many hardships during their lives, in order to break their pride, and bring them to a point where they can be honest with themselves, as well as with Him, and truly admit that they are sinners who are in need of forgiveness and Salvation. Until such a moment of spiritual tenderness arrives, all of the preaching in the world will fall upon deaf ears. Why is God being so merciful to such people when they have resisted His Spirit all of their lives? Why is He giving them so many chances -- and even one last chance -- to accept the Sacrifice of His dear Son? Perhaps the answer is best summed up in verses such as the following:

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"


"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."


"If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?"


"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."


You see, God knows the score even before it has been fully declared, because He owns the Books. As such, He knows what awaits us if we refuse to humble ourselves, and accept the Sacrifice of His Son as Atonement for our sins. As wise King Solomon once wrote:

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."


So I tend to believe that it is because of the tragic end which He knows awaits those people who continue to cling to their pride, that the Lord is making every effort possible to reach them with the Gospel before it is too late. God is willing to give them one last chance at Salvation, and that includes reaching out to people via the Internet. Look at it this way. Just like human parents, the Lord is a man of His word. If He warns us that He is going to punish us if we do not behave, then obviously,He has no choice but to fulfill His word if we continue on in our belligerence. Thus it is that we find verses like the following in the Bible:

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."


"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."


"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God . . . For our God is a consuming fire."


As the Apostle Peter candidly wrote, God truly desires to save as many people as possible; but to a certain degree, He leaves it up to us to make the right choice. He lovingly and patiently shows us the way to Salvation; but He won't force us to walk down it if we don't want to. His Holy Spirit will incessantly work on our hearts; but as Jesus clearly stated, we must choose the path we will follow, as we see here:

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."


The writer of the Book of Proverbs certainly seemed to be aware of the dangers of choosing the wrong path. Thus he wrote the following lines:

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."


"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."


"Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established."


The Epistle to the Hebrews seems to offer very similar advice when it states:

"And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."


Returning to the importance of the Internet as an effective form of Christian outreach, and the issue of whether or not it might be our final frontier insofar as being a witness of our Christian faith is concerned, if we stop to consider some of the recent developments regarding our personal liberties, specifically with regards to how some developments have been having a very direct effect on our rights as Christians, then personally, I can only conclude that the Internet may in fact be the final frontier for modern Christian evangelism. As one by one the governments of foreign countries continue to close their doors to Christian missionaries, our online witness via the Internet may prove to be all the more important, as it will allow us to continue to reach out to some people in the privacy of their own homes, until even that is restricted. It may give some people one last chance to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It may be our final frontier as Christians.

In my view, there is sufficient evidence that this is so. For example, as many of you will already know, in China, Internet access is already being tightly controlled and restricted; so that if a person desires to acquire Internet access there, he must go through a government-operated ISP, where he is certain to see hear and read only those things which the Chinese authorities deem suitable and appropriate for the Chinese masses. In fact in recent news, the giant search engine company, Google, has been engaging in battle with Chinese authorities. It appears that they have finally reached some kind of a compromise. However, if the current oppressive trends continue in China, it won't be long before the Chinese people will have been given their last chance to hear the Christian Gospel by way of the Internet, and that Christian evangelical frontier will be closed.

The same kind of oppression is occurring in Muslim countries as well which are ruled by powerful conservative governments, quite often being dynastic families, such as in the nations of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. While Internet access is available in some Muslim countries, it is only available to those people which the governments feel can be trusted with the information that they will find online, and all kinds of filters are implemented in order to prevent the citizenry from being exposed to Western ideas and practices which may question, or threaten, Islamic ideology and Muslim orthodoxy.

It may surprise you to know that while Muslims are free to practice their Islamic faith in the United States, in some Muslim nations -- such as Saudi Arabia -- the overt practice of non-Muslim faiths is strictly prohibited. Saudi Arabia is governed according to the Qur'an, which means that Sharia -- or Islamic law -- rules the land. Equally important are the sayings and traditions of Muhammad, which are referred to as the Sunnah. Due to the fact that Saudi Arabia is governed by a very strict form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabi, there are very rigid restrictions placed on non-Muslims who enter the country, such as Christians. In light of the controversy we have all been hearing about surrounding the proposed Muslim mosque and center in New York City, the following startling facts may cause your jaw to drop:

* Christian proselytizing and public preaching in Saudi Arabia is illegal.

* It is illegal to distribute Bibles in Saudi Arabia.

* No Christian churches are permitted in Saudi Arabia, even though approximately 30,000 Americans currently reside in the nation, many of whom are Christian.

* It is illegal for Christian clergy to enter Saudi Arabia for the purpose of conducting religious services, not even in private.

* Christians who are detained for practicing their religion may suffer imprisonment, be punished with lashes, and ultimately be deported. Some are even tortured.

* Even wearing Christian symbols in public may result in attracting the wrath of the Saudi religious police.

If there is one thing which the previous facts make clear, it is that if a Christian frontier for witnessing exists for the nation of Saudi Arabia -- as well as for similar closed Arab and Muslim countries -- surely it is online via the Internet. So again, we see that the Internet may possibly be the only chance, and the last chance that some Arabs and Muslims will receive, to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Communist China and Muslim countries are not the only places where restrictions have been placed on Christian evangelistic endeavors. As I explain in the series "Holy Qur'an and Islam: A Doctrine of Devils?", the Jewish state of Israel likewise prohibits public Christian evangelism, based on the so-called Anti-Missionary Law -- or Bill 5738-1977 as it is technically known -- which the Israeli Knesset passed over forty-four years ago on December 25, 1977, as if to make a point. Based on this law, if the Israeli government chooses to enforce it, a Christian can be faced with up to a five-year prison term if he or she endeavors to convert a Jewish person to the Christian faith; particularly if there is any evidence that any form of persuasion was used. Even distributing Christian tracts will attract the ire of orthodox Jewish authorities.

The irony of this situation is that year after year, the Jews convince thousands upon thousands of gullible U.S. Christians to purchase tour packages to the so-called "Holy Land", so that they can see where Christ and His Disciples walked, and vicariously feel as if they are truly experiencing a part of Biblical history. The ugly truth of the matter is that Israel is in fact a closed frontier insofar as Christian evangelism is concerned. They may continue to deceive some Christians by referring to themselves as the "Holy Land", but Israel -- and the vast majority of Jews who live there -- are antichrist. What really irks me about this is the fact that some American Christian leaders support and encourage these tours. They are helping the Israelis to milk U.S. Christians.

What may surprise some people, is the fact that even in the United States of America -- a nation which constantly boasts of its many freedoms -- there's a rising tide of persecution directed against Bible-believing evangelical Christians. As you may already know, the United States is home to a number of Jewish-controlled groups whose primary goal seems to be to stop Christian evangelism in its tracks, and to make the USA as antichrist as Israel is. These groups include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Anti-Defamation League Of B'nai B'rith, the American Jewish Congress, People For The American Way, and others. These organizations were either founded by Jews, and/or are run by or funded by Jews. Under the disguise of supposedly upholding US law -- such as the misinterpreted separation clause that is found in the U.S. Bill of Rights -- they are slowly turning America into another secular nation.

As a direct result of the endeavors by these Jewish groups, in increasing numbers, crucifixes, mangers, monuments of the Ten Commandments, and other symbols of our Christian faith, are being removed from government-owned land. Furthermore, restrictions are being placed on prayer and other Christian activities within the American public education system. In some cases, hard-working people are being reprimanded, or dismissed from their jobs, when they refuse to do certain things which are contrary to their Christian faith. Many of you will no doubt be aware of how the LGBTQ+ crowd has been raising quite a stink when certain Christian business people refuse to cater to their needs.

Yet when Christians rise up in protest against the obvious hostile discrimination against our faith, we are reminded of the so-called separation of Church and State by the very organizations that I mentioned a moment ago. Ironically, it might interest you to know that during the last time that I updated this article, Muslims were engaged in a legal battle to construct a Muslim community center and mosque -- known as the "Cordoba House" or "Park51" -- just a few blocks from the site of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. While at the time it appeared that they might get past all of the legal hurdles and stiff public opposition, in 2022, according to Wikipedia, the community center and mosque still haven't been built.

Undoubtedly, what is happening in the aforementioned places is only a foreshadow of worse things to come. I have no doubt that in coming years, frontier after frontier will continue to close to the Christian Gospel. Furthermore, as each year passes, and as Internet services become even more interwoven into the fabric of our lives, the danger of the free flow of information being curtailed further, becomes an ever-present possibility. The previous examples are clear proof of this. Assuming that this is indeed the future that we face, doesn't it make sense that we should use the Internet to give people one last chance to hear the Gospel of Christ while it still remains possible to do so? Or, like some Christians, should we just say "Computers are evil! The Internet is evil!"? I know what I will do, and what I am already doing. How about you?

A few decades ago, some people scoffed at the suggestion of an authoritarian government controlling our lives similar to George Orwell's infamous Big Brother of "1984" fame. This is no longer so. It is happening all around us this very day, if we will only open our eyes to the truth. From closed-circuit cameras constantly surveilling us on city streets all across the nation, to Internet data packet sniffing and automated email snooping -- such as "Carnivore" -- to obviously illegal wire taps, to social networks and their personal data mining, to web browser cookies which track our constant moves across the Internet, to huge government-run databases which keep profiles on literally millions of people, where will it all end? And now we have the threat of vaccine passports!

I don't doubt that many of you reading this already foresee the day when radio, television, tabloids and magazines, and perhaps even books, will become things of the past. At our current pace, in a very short time, everything having to do with information will be piped into our homes via the Internet.

In fact, if you can currently afford the luxury of broadband Internet, then for the most part, my friend, you are already living the future. Within a few short years, everything in our homes will be controlled by a powerful computer sitting on the desktop or perhaps embedded in the walls of our homes. There are a number of devices and applications such as X10, Insteon, Xtension, MyHome, PowerHome, HomeSeer and Indigo, which are already making this possible. Soon we will all be piped into one main source. But the problem is that when we reply upon only one source, whether it is for information or for any other service, it inevitably leads to the danger of being manipulated and controlled by whoever the supplier may be.

Obviously, monopolies are nothing new under the sun. We are all abused by them on a daily basis. But at the current rate, who knows. In short order, some people may be working like George Orwell's character Winston Smith in "1984". In other words, they will be historical revisionists for Big Brother, ensuring that we only know and believe what the government wants us to know and believe. Contrary opinions will simply be eliminated by the tap of a mouse. Even now, the American liberal mainstream media -- which is the propaganda organ of the liberal government -- already has a stranglehold on the flow of information. Clearly, psychological manipulation and gaslighting is the name of their game.

It is because of these perceived dangers, that some people have already begun to sound the alarm, and are declaring that the Internet must remain free of governmental control, and of Big Business control as well. In other words, there's an on-going effort to maintain what has been termed as "Net Neutrality", so that everyone continues to have full access to all online resources, without any restrictions. It is a battle against the economic interests of greedy Big Business and powerful Internet companies, and against governments who only want their citizens to see things their way.

Sadly, I think that they may be sounding the alarm a little too late. The invisible hand of Big Business -- or in this case, eCommerce -- has already understood the huge potential of the electronic Golden Goose, and they are already doing their best to try to control it. Just look at huge eCommerce websites such as Amazon which earn billions of dollars each and every year. And then there are Internet giants such as Apple, Google and Facebook to name a few of the big players. You can bet that they will continue to squeeze the Internet more and more for all that it is worth.

If you doubt that this is so, consider how much junk email you receive now, as compared to a few years ago. If you have a high profile on the Internet, such as through owning one or more registered domain names, this makes you even more a target of unsolicited, and annoying, commercial spam. If it weren't for sophisticated email programs which allow us to set up filters, and ISP-based filtering systems, we would all go crazy . . . or else end up closing our accounts in frustration.

As many of us have already personally experienced, with the proliferation of commercial spam, not to mention the fact that we can rarely visit a website without being bombarded with hordes of ads for everything under the sun, annoying pop-ups, and bogus links which may actually lead to places we would rather not go -- such as pornographic sites -- the situation is really out of control. Add to that the threat of identity theft, as well as the unintentional downloading of trojans and viruses, is it really any wonder that some new computer users might be hesitant to embrace the online world?

But my point is, the danger of the Internet being controlled is real. For example, since 9/11, in the so-called name of "fighting against global terrorism", the American government has taken drastic steps to not only curtail the rights and freedoms of ordinary American citizens through questionable executive orders and bills, which could be activated, should the need arise, but it is now common knowledge that it has also waged an intensive domestic spying campaign against its very own citizens. This spying campaign has by no means been limited to traditional methods such as physical surveillance and phone taps. As I mentioned a moment ago, modern spying has now evolved to include the intentional sniffing of online electronic communications -- such as our email -- by means of such controversial programs as "Carnivore", which has since been assigned a more generic name, so as to not draw further attention to its true purpose.

Governmental control of the Internet aside, from a business perspective, things are not much better. It may not be long before Internet email taxes, and other profit-making tactics, make the Internet inaccessible to all but the rich and the elite. Or, as some people have suggested, two version of the Internet may evolve; one for the rich -- with high speed and services -- and another for the poor -- which offers degraded speed and services.

But returning to the issue of our online Christian witness, I suspect that it may only be a matter of time before our evangelical activities will likewise be curtailed. Stop and think about it. If overseas missionary journeys are already in decline due to governmental restrictions in some nations, and due to the increasing danger that missionaries now face from radical groups in some countries, what makes you think that the same thing can't happen with our online activities?

As we have already seen, some countries -- such as China and Syria -- have already begun to restrict what their users can access online, and there are undoubtedly other nations which do it as well. If -- as many Christians believe -- sometime in the not-too-distant future, a totally godless government takes control of the world, do you honestly believe that it is going to allow us to continue to freely and openly preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ online? Do you think that it will allow us to continue to expose it for what it actually is?

Stepping back from that possibility, consider what is already happening online with regards to our evangelical activities. This is an issue which I have already written a lot about in my Bill's Bible Basics Blog entries, as well as exposed in a number of my graphics and poems. If you are a member of one of the liberal social networks, then you will already realize exactly what I am talking about. Facebook happens to be one of the biggest offenders. They engage in very blatant shadow banning, taking down posts they don't like, restricting their users' activities by throwing them in "Facebook Jail" for not just hours, but even for days, weeks or months at a time. At the same time, they allow all kinds of liberal nonsense which we Christians find absolutely ungodly and objectionable. Yet our protests are usually ignored. There are clear-cut cases of discrimination against Christians and Conservatives on Facebook and elsewhere.

So it is my view that our Christian frontier on the Internet may eventually be closed as well. Hopefully though, it will be the final frontier to close, and for now, many people will continue to get another chance -- perhaps a last chance -- to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you personally doubt my conclusion, perhaps it is due to the fact that while you may know that Christians are currently being persecuted in other countries, you fail to realize that some American Christians are also being persecuted to a much smaller degree, under the guise of supposedly upholding American law, as we discussed earlier. Even if you don't agree with my logic, as stated in this article, as I also point out in the series called "Civil Disobedience and Christian Persecution", Jesus clearly stated that we Christians would be persecuted for His name's sake, as we can determine by the following verses:

"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved."


"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake."


"But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls."


"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me."


Please go to part three for the conclusion of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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