What Should The Church Do In These Cases?

Bibles Yanked from Navy Hotel Rooms American Family Association has received word that the U.S. Navy has instructed housekeepers to remove Gideon-placed Bibles from every hotel room on its military bases after it received a letter from the atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).     “We were told June 23, 2014, that due to a new policy by the CEO of NEXOM, Rear Admiral Robert J. Bianchi, we were to remove the Bibles from the rooms,” a housekeeper told AFA in an email. “They told us to put them in boxes, where they would be taken to a donation center somewhere.”     Earlier this summer, NEXCOM (the Navy Exchange Service Command) issued the directive to bases offering hotel accommodations, ordering them to impound Bibles from 34 Navy Lodge locations and 24,000 Navy Gateway Inns & Suites guest rooms on Navy bases worldwide.     The directive orders lodge managers to contact base commanders and Chaplains and facilitate removing the Bibles and other “religious material currently in the guest rooms.” The Air Force tried unsuccessfully to remove Bibles from its lodgings in 2012, but after public outcry, the Air Force reversed its decision. -afa.net, 12 August 2014 The answer from Arno Froese at www.midnightcall.com (the enewsletter): There seems to be a great controversy within Churchianity regarding the action to be taken against such decisions.     What are Christians to do? “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God…Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme” (Romans 13:1; 1 Peter 2:13).     Example: During the rulership of the Soviet Union, religion was greatly discouraged, looked down upon, and often severely restricted. That was and is also applicable to communist China. What was the result? The Church is growing by leaps and bounds in the former Soviet Union countries, and particularly in China where church activity is virtually exploding.     One must differentiate between Churchianity and the true Church of Christ. Regardless of any oppression or persecution, the Church will be completed because Jesus guarantees, “I will build My Church.” That Church is untouchable for the enemy. We have ample reason to believe that we are in the end stages of the end times—that means the completion of the Church. (For more on signs of the end, read How Close Are We? Item 2279.) 4982