The War Between the States — Redux

(Truth vs. Lies in the Age of Woke)

INTRODUCTION

I was born in Selma, Alabama, in 1952 — a city that’s seen more than its share of marches, headlines, and history books. I grew up in Camden, where Sunday mornings were often marked by the smell of biscuits and the sound of church bells in many homes. Back then, the Bible sat on the family coffee table, the preacher’s word carried weight, and even folks who didn’t live right still respected the fact that God’s Word was final.

But let me tell you the truth: not every “Biblical principle” I learned in those days was straight from the Word of God. Some were filtered through men’s prejudice, politics, and comfort zones. I heard “Honor thy father and mother” loud and clear (Exodus 20:12), but you could sit in a pew for twenty years and never hear Acts 17:26 — that He made from one blood every nation of men.

From 1952 to 1971, my America still had its sins, but it shared one thing this generation has all but lost — the belief that truth was absolute.

THE SPLIT WIDENS

Today, we’re watching our country divide again — not into North and South, but into two Americas under one flag. One side builds laws around God’s Word; the other rewrites laws to erase Him from the public square. We’ve got red states and blue states that may as well be on different continents when it comes to morality.

When I was a boy, the Bible was read in school. In 1962 and 1963, the Supreme Court took that out. That was the moment when the moral compass of our classrooms began to shift.

And today? The teaching has moved to TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram — where the “curriculum” is whatever the algorithm decides will keep them scrolling.

PARENTAL RIGHTS — THE NEW FRONT LINE

Just this summer — June 27, 2025 — the Supreme Court ruled in Mahmoud v. Taylor that parents must be told and given the right to opt out if their young kids are being read LGBTQ+ storybooks, when parents have religious objections. Think about that — we now have to fight in court just to be told what our children are being taught. That’s the new battlefield.

WHO’S REFEREEING?

The trust is gone. Media trust is scraping the bottom. Colleges — the very institutions that once trained our leaders — are now scoring low on free speech protections. And while we’re busy arguing over “fake news,” the enemy is busy planting fake truth.

THE CONTROL GRID

While all this is happening, a quiet financial war is playing out. The President has banned federal agencies from creating a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency — and Congress is moving to lock that into law. But at the same time, global powers are building a “unified ledger” for digital money. Whether you like it or not, the plumbing for a buy/sell control system is being laid, just like Revelation 13 warned us about.

THE SPIRITUAL REALITY

The Apostle Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4:

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.

• Falling Away (Greek: apostasia) — not just drifting, but willful rebellion against God.

• Son of Perdition (Greek: huios apōleias) — the very embodiment of destruction, the Antichrist spirit at work.

Isaiah 5:20 says:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness.

That’s not just ancient prophecy — that’s this morning’s news feed.

HISTORY REPEATING

The Civil War, or as we were taught, The War Between the States, of the 1860s, was about the moral and political soul of a nation. This war is about the eternal soul of its people. The weapons have changed — not muskets and bayonets, but narratives and laws, algorithms and bank ledgers.

OUR MARCHING ORDERS

1. Test everything against Scripture — Acts 17:11 says the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

2. Teach truth to your children — Deuteronomy 6:6–7 says you shall teach them diligently to your children.

3. Stay awake and endure — Matthew 24:12–13 warns that lawlessness will make love grow cold, but he who endures to the end shall be saved.

   
   

CLOSING CHARGE

The War Between the States is being replayed right now — but this time, it’s Light versus Darkness. It’s truth versus deception. And the question is not “Whose side are you on politically?” but “Whose truth do you live by eternally?”

I can tell you this much: the Son of Perdition is working in real time, but so is the Spirit of the Living God. And when the dust settles, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10–11).

Until that day — we hold the line.

Pastor Terry

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