Answers in Genesis founder Ken Ham finds it unbelievable how prison chaplain Reverend Barry Trayhorn, a Pentecostal minister from the U.K., was forced to resign from his job as a gardener and prevented from volunteering in prison after he used 1 Corinthians 6 to teach about God's love and forgiveness to inmates.
"This is an alarming example of how quickly Christians are losing religious freedom across the West," Ham writes on his blog.
Ham suspects that it won't be long before this kind of unfair treatment to Christians will happen in other countries, including America. "And really, the authorities are saying the Bible itself is not suitable for people! How long before it will be outlawed?" he says.
Unfortunately, Ham says that court victories for religious freedom are becoming the exception rather than the norm. Instead of being lauded for upholding their faith, Christians are now being punished for expressing their beliefs and standing firm on God's Word.
Whenever Christians make a case against sin, particularly against the homosexual lifestyle and same-sex marriage, Ham says they are automatically "boycotted or dragged off to court and punished." Ham warns this will only continue as the culture drifts farther away from God's Word and becomes more secular.
So what should Christians do during these troubled times? "Well, we can continue to pray for God's will for this nation," says Ham. "And we can continue to stand boldly — yet lovingly — on the truth of God's Word."
Ham reiterates that marriage is for one man and one woman only because that is how God designed it, and anything other than God's design is sin. "But there is forgiveness and grace through the blood of the Cross of Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:20). That's the message we need to share because it's the gospel that changes hearts for eternity. We must always remember that," he says.
