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But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

- John 17: 13-16

I do not know why I still keep reading the local online forums. Perhaps it is too deeply ingrained in my habits to open up the browser window everytime I turn on my comp. However, everytime I look at the topics being discussed especially those with regards to religion, one can almost predict with 100% certainty the content of those discussions.

It is sometimes so surreal that one could easily pass it off as the rantings of a small minority in a larger society, not knowing that it is simply the natural outflow of a world that "although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." (Romans 1:21)

The online world is an interesting place, for within it a man is protected by a cover of anonymity that allows him to expose the things in his heart. Free of the constraints of civility, he is free to express his heart's desires. Reading these religious threads on online forums has further convinced me that we need to wake up and realize that in no way is the value system of the World ever going to be reconciled with Christ and that as true (an important clause) Christians, there can be no question in compromise with a World that is an enemy of God.

It is a depressing read for me as a person who, for better or for worse, desires somehow that we could all simply get along. But God's Word is clear. The World will never cross over to Christ and hates all those whom Christ has called to Himself.

Are there not nice people in the world who are non-Christians? Have I not met Muslims and Buddhists and Atheists who are really decent people? People who show kindness and hospitality that would put many of us to shame. Yet there is a fundamental gulf that separates us and I just can't find the love to tell them.

What does Christ demand from us? That all will bow their knee to Him and declare Him as Lord. For the day will come when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, whether out of love and adoration or out of the terror of the One who will rule the nations with a rod of iron. I shudder to think of those who in this life, having taken whatever grace and mercy has been given to them, and spitting back at the One who will call them to account. For if the righteous and scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly? (1 Peter 4:18) What great weeping and sorrow will there be on that day, where even mercy and grace will be taken away and nothing would be left to stand between them and fire of God's Wrath.

Oh that the Lord will guard us from the Evil One in these the last days.