Conflicts Of Conscience

In America, Christians are rapidly becoming like Daniel and his friends in Babylon, out of sync with their pagan environment.

How do we reconcile what we believe with what we have to do to live in such a culture? Today, the answers. Please stay with us. From Chicago, we welcome you to The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching under the ministry of Dr. Erwin Lutzer. On this broadcast, we continue a ten-part series on The Church in Babylon, unleashing the power of a Spirit-filled witness.

Later, Erwin Lutzer takes us to Daniel chapter 1 for a look at Conflicts of Conscience. The Logos Symphony Orchestra and Choir come now to open our service. Thou my King, Thou shalt come, and thy will shall be done, On earthless in heaven, and all shall be one. Our daily bread giveth those by which we may live, Forgive us, our sinners, we also forgive, Leave not to temptation, deliver us not, Come, ye from the roughness of our God, our sovereign Son. For thine is the kingdom, loyal to me, For thine is the power of labels and rain, For thine is the glory, forever the work, Thy kingdom, thy power, the glory of life. For thine is the power, the glory of life. Praise to the Lord, O Lord, as we are in a creation, O my soul, praise to the Lord, he is the heaven and salvation, For he who reigns, has to listen, hold my ear, To me in prayer of salvation. Praise to the Lord, O Lord, in true oneness we may live, Shall to thee our praise be true, true to Jesus' kingdom, As thou mightst see, thou mightst not know how to live, To live of the ordinary life. Praise to the Lord, O Lord, as we are in a creation, For he who reigns, has to listen, hold my ear, To me in prayer of salvation. Praise to the Lord, O Lord, as we are in a creation, Praise to the Lord, O Lord, as we are in a creation, For he who reigns, has to listen, hold my ear, To me in prayer of salvation. Praise to the Lord, O Lord, as we are in a creation, For he who reigns, has to listen, hold my ear, To me in prayer of salvation. I invite you to follow along with me in your Bibles and Bulletins as I read from 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 18 through 14.

Shortly before his death, while he was a prisoner in Rome, the Apostle Paul wrote this last letter to Timothy expressing his unwavering confidence in the truth of the Gospel. This is God's Holy Word. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the Gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

Amen. I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. If it is enough, let Jesus stand, let body die for me. Be enough for me, let Jesus sit, this is my fear and doubt.

A sinful soul I come to bring, will never pass me out. I be no alter than you might, I be no alter being. If it is enough, let Jesus stand, let body die for me.

I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. I be no alter being. If it is enough, let Jesus stand, let body die for me. Everything you shall be is the same, the cost he paid to save.

Glory is righteousness, glory is shame, glory is life he gave. I be no alter than you might, I be no alter being. If it is enough, let Jesus stand, let body die for me.

I be no alter being. I call us hell, why, be the king of heaven, to live the peace our own way towards me. I call us hell, to take us by his pleasure, to leave the Father's side and come to me. But this I know, our silence filled with singing, and come, our darkness, where come heaven's light. When Christ the Lord, so human yet so holy, in love was born a child for me, that holy night. I cannot tell, why he the child of heaven, should give himself to suffer for my sin.

Why though he run, should love me in my shamefulness, why he should try, to draw my soul to him. But this I know, that Christ the Lord is risen, and praise his name, his grace and love in me, because in him I'll run to the eternal, he took my guilty heart and I'll never live. I cannot tell, when he will rule the nations, how he will pray, his love once felt his own. And who will tell, the holy to the nation, when all his children gathered from his throne. But this I know, that Christ will see his glory, and skies will burst as all creation sings. The sun will rise, the one eternal glory, when Christ the Savior of all the world is one and he.

Thank you. The dawn of eternity, when the midst of time is gone, when the choir of heaven gathers to begin redemption's song. I will bow before my Savior, in a body new and new, and I'll rise to sing his praises, my eternal angels call. I stand with him, while the blood of Jesus, the price is paid, my debt is gone. But faith can love me, so long may hold me, because of Calvary I stand redeemed. As I gaze upon my Savior, and the wounds he bore for me, I will sing of his salvation, what with blood upon the tree.

While the host of angels listen to a song they cannot sing, I will voice my praise to Jesus, with the song of Calvary. I stand redeemed, by the blood of Jesus, the price is paid, my debt is gone. But faith can love me, so long may hold me, because of Calvary I stand redeemed. I stand redeemed, by the blood of Jesus, the price is paid, my debt is gone. But faith can love me, so long may hold me, because of Calvary I stand redeemed. I stand redeemed, because of Calvary I stand redeemed. Today's topic is conflicts of conscience.

We've all experienced it, I'm sure. And there are several sources where these conflicts come from. First of all, they may come from the state. They may come from laws that are enacted.

For example, here's a question. Should an organization run on Christian principles have to buy into a national health care program, whereby, if they do that, that some of the money that they will be spending will go to abortion, whether or not it is through drugs or the procedure, when the conviction of those who believe the Bible is that life begins at conception? Is that a violation of religious conscience? Or I think, for example, of Elaine Photography over there in New Mexico, and she and her studio refused to take pictures in a same-sex wedding.

And as many of you know, they ran afoul of the law and all of those things that happened, the fines that were levied, et cetera, and the laws that have been enacted. It's a conflict of conscience that sometimes comes to us because of society and because of society's laws. And then, at times, there are conflicts of conscience because of where we find ourselves in the workforce.

I wish I had time to talk to many of you who are in the professional world. I'm sure that you have conflicts of conscience on a regular basis. Sometimes, you may be asked to participate in something that you know right well is dishonest. How do you handle a conflict of conscience?

And then we can speak personally, can't we? Just in the last couple of weeks, I received an email and a letter from two mothers, separate mothers. One was asking whether or not she should go to the wedding of her son who is marrying a woman who is part of a cult, and this woman's father has a great emphasis and authority in this cult. A second was from a same-sex wedding where the family was going through the agony.

She said, my daughter is marrying her same-sex partner, and part of my family thinks that we should go because, if not, we lose our relationship with the couple, she said, but I don't feel as if I should. A conflict of conscience. Well, that's our topic today. And you know, when you think of society at large—and by the way, I hope that in this message I don't scare up more rabbits than I'm able to shoot because these things, these things can get very complicated, but I believe we're going to be helped on our journey. There are three different ways that we can respond to the culture when it becomes pagan. One way is, of course, to oppose the culture continually, to stand against everything that we see happening, and oftentimes to do so with anger, and we can become angry evangelicals, angry because our freedoms are being taken away, angry because of this, angry because of that, and so we are opposed to culture.

There's another way that we can respond, and that is to assimilate, to simply go with the stream and not have an argument about it and say that somebody has to live, we all have to live, and so the culture is pushing us in one direction, and then love would dictate we go along with the culture because, after all, we're to love everybody and to oppose anything seems to be bad business. There is a third view. The third view is to take into account culture, to go along with culture not in anger but as far as you possibly can and then draw the line and say this far but no further, and so you draw a line, but you go into the culture, you take as much of the culture with you as you can because you want to minister to the culture, but at the same time you do have convictions and you know where that line is drawn. The passage of scripture that I have before me, and I hope it's before you as well, is Daniel chapter 1. Daniel chapter 1, now let's get the context, and I hope that you were here for the message last time because last time we pointed out that God had led the exiles into Babylon, so now they no longer had security. They no longer had oneness of outlook and culture and religion. Suddenly they were without a temple, and they were in the middle of a pagan culture, and God said to them, be sure to build houses, plant vineyards, bless the city, bless the city, and you'll be blessed in turn. Seek the shalom of the city.

Be involved in the culture. And now in Daniel chapter 1, because Daniel was one of the exiles, we finally see for ourselves what it looks like for those who follow God in a pagan culture. I'm going to pick it up actually in verse 3, and the reason is because verses 1 and 2 just give the background I gave you how there were these exiles in Babylon 600 miles from Jerusalem. It says, then the king commanded Ashbenaz, that was his chief of staff, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance, skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding and learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace and, the command was, teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank.

They were to be educated for three years and at the end of that time to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, Azariah, of the tribe of Judah, just to the end of verse 6 so far. Notice what the king of Babylon, and he wasn't a nice king.

Remember, we're talking about the man who would take babies, whose soldiers took babies and threw them against the rocks, actually. He's not a very nice man, cruel, but he sees that the Jews have among them youths that are very brilliant and wise, and he wants to use them in his court. So, he has a program of forced assimilation. Before we look at how Daniel stood against the culture, let's look at all of the ways in which he participated in the culture. In fact, those ways might actually surprise us, the aspects in which he went along with the culture.

First of all, in education, I just read it a moment ago. They were to be educated for three years in the literature of Babylon. They'd have to learn the Babylonian language, Akkadian, what an experience that would be, and so they'd be inundated with all kinds of pagan ideas regarding sexuality, regarding the meaning of life, all of the wisdom, the mythology of Babylon. They would have to be educated, almost brainwashed, with this kind of education for three years. They accepted that because they believed that they could endure that kind of an education without losing their faith. And I believe that the reason that they thought that they could do that and did do it without losing their faith is because of the resolve that they had to maintain their faith. This is a parenthesis, but I am convinced that the reason that so many teenagers, and teenagers, you listen at this point, and college students, the reason that so many lose their faith in university or college is not because of the intellectual arguments.

It's because of the moral issues, the moral pressure, the peer pressure, the falling into sexuality and having guilt and not knowing how to deal with it. This past week I was in a number of places, actually. It's a good thing that I'm young because I can still get around. But one place I was, actually, was in New Brunswick, Canada, of all things, for a day at a church for a pastors' conference, and Rebecca spoke to the women. And so at lunch there was a young woman who works with InterVarsity, so I asked whether or not she agreed with my assessment, and she said, unquestionably. Young people lose their resolve. The moral pressure is so strong that pretty soon if they fall morally, then they find all kinds of intellectual reasons why they are abandoning Christianity.

That's not to say that the intellectual aspect isn't important, but they go together. These youths, four of them, God bless them, said, we can be in the educational institution of Babylon and maintain our faith. Secondly, it's not just that, but they accepted careers in the government. They were going to stand before the king, this wicked king who had done so much damage, so much damage to their culture, whose armies destroyed Jerusalem on his command, and they were now going to stand before him and give him wisdom and help him be successful. They were willing to accept that, that they would stand before the king in his presence and help him rule. Third, and this is, again, remarkable, they accepted the name change. Now, you'll notice that the Bible says there, and now I am in verse 7, he gave them names, Daniel, and the name Daniel, by the way, means that God is my judge. He changed his name to Belshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Michelle he called Meshach, Azariah he called Abednego. So they have pagan names. Every one of these names, I won't take time to tell you the meaning of each, but every one of these names that the Jewish boys had signified in some way God, God's favor. Now they're receiving Babylonian names, and they said we can endure that too because we're to bless the culture and seek the shalom of our city.

Well, there were some aspects, though, of the culture that they would not accept. You'll notice here in verse 8, but Daniel resolved. Wow, what a fantastic statement. The old King James that I memorized years ago I think is that Daniel purposed in his heart. This morning I was praying with one of our interns. He came up to the study to pray with me, and he said, are you going to emphasize verse 8? He said, that verse has kept me here in the city of Chicago living in this culture.

Young people, take your Bibles, and I don't know if you can do this on cell phones and tablets and all the other things that people bring to church nowadays and call a Bible, but underline that phrase. The Bible says that they purposed, Daniel purposed, he resolved. What was his resolve? Well, the place that he drew the line, interestingly, had to do with the food. He would not eat the king's food. Now, honestly, we don't know exactly why he had such an issue with the king's food. Almost certainly it was not kosher. It probably was offered unto idols.

Perhaps it signified the good life and the kind of life that he didn't want to be identified with for whatever reason. Daniel said, I draw the line here. And so he spoke to the chief of staff and said, I don't want to eat this food and I don't want to drink the king's wine. And he said, I'm going to give you an alternate possibility. The intention of the king is that we might be healthy, feed us vegetables for 10 days.

And if we are not as healthy as all those who are eating the king's food, then you'll have a point. And so the rest of the story is that the chief of staff agreed with the test. And he said, all right, I'll test you. I'll give you vegetables and then we'll see who's the best at the end of 10 days.

And at the end of 10 days, the four Jewish boys, their faces glowed, and they were much more healthy than those who ate the king's food. So Daniel said, that's where I draw the line. By the way, that isn't the only place that Daniel drew the line.

In chapter six, and I wish I had time to speak on this, I'll only refer to it because you know the story. In chapter six, the king issues an edict because some people came to him and said, how are we going to corner Daniel? And the people said to the king, why don't you issue an edict that says that whoever does not bow down when the music plays, whoever does not bow down has to be thrown in the lion's den. This is now a different king, by the way. And Daniel is an advisor to him as well. The king's name is Darius. And Darius goes along with it, not understanding the implications.

Daniel prays with his window open to Jerusalem three times a day. He kneels in praise and he won't bow down to the image. Now, be sure to listen to the next message in this series, because I'm going to talk about another image that they were to bow down to and the implications of statism.

Specifically, my topic next time is going to be when the state becomes God. Well, in this case, the state became God. Bow down and Daniel won't. And he was thrown in the lion's den. Now we all know that an angel came and closed the mouths of the lions. We all know that story and it's a true story. But critically, did Daniel know that that was going to happen when he was thrown into the lion's den? Absolutely not. He expected to be torn to bits.

And I don't think that that would be an ideal way to die, to be torn to bits by a hungry, angry lion. But Daniel says, I draw the line there. I draw the line there. I draw the line there.

I will not worship the pagan God and I will not stop my devotions. And he wasn't doing that on company time. This was in his home. The window was open and they said, you have to bow down. He says, I refuse to. I continue to pray because he resolved in his heart.

There are certain things in a pagan society that you cannot do. And there Daniel stood. Now the question is, what does all this mean to us and how do we resolve our own conflicts of conscience?

Well, I'm going to give you a few principles that I hope will help you stimulate your pure mind and make you think and give you some context that I hope will help all of us as we try to struggle with this issue of conscience. Your Bibles are open. Your iPad is to Daniel chapter one.

Your telephone should be turned off. Notice the little phrase in the scriptures God gave. God gave. Verse two, the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. The Lord brought them there to Babylon. It was a judgment to be sure, but God brought them there. You'll notice it says now in verse nine, verse nine, and the Lord gave Daniel favor. And then in verse 17, and as for these four youths, God gave them learning and wisdom.

And they had understanding of all visions and dreams. Notice God's sovereignty internationally. He's the God of the nations. Notice God's sovereignty personally. God showed favor to Daniel and helped him in his predicament. Notice God's sovereignty situationally when they stood before the king and they needed the wisdom that they had sought and asked God for.

When that happened, lo and behold, God gave them what they needed at the moment that they needed it. God's sovereignty. My dear Christian friend today, you are where you are because of God's sovereignty. He led you to that job. He is there with you in your predicament. He knows the longitude and the latitude of your boat as you sail along the oceans of life. He knows the strength of every board.

He knows the trajectory of the wind and its speed. God is with you. And what we must do is to somehow not divorce God from our predicament, which is a serious predicament in America. But we should not divorce God from that. But we should see that God has led us to where we are, possibly because of our own judgment. But the point is, he is with us there.

God is not absent from his people. And it's times like this we have to remind ourselves of the promises of scripture. I shall never leave thee nor forsake thee. Hebrews chapter 13, I think it is, verse 5, has actually five negatives in the verse in Greek.

If I could just roughly translate it, I will know not leave you. I will know never forsake you. Five times God says never, never, never, never, never. He is with us no matter the trial that we are going through. God is there. Thank you for those amens. God is there with us. Rejoice in his sovereignty. We are where we are by a divine will, even if we're here because of our disobedience.

That's exactly what the text teaches here. God was with them, though they were there because of their disobedience. Second, we must rely on the wisdom of God, the wisdom of God. Now think for a moment these four boys, and we're going to be talking about three of them in the next message.

Daniel was exempt from that experience. There may be reasons for that because of his prominence. That's the next message when I speak about the state becoming God. But please know that God gave them the wisdom to know how to navigate this issue of conscience. For one thing, what they did is they suggested to the chief of staff that there was an alternative. Why might they not be able to test the fact that vegetables work better than eating the king's food? I'm not so sure whether or not this is a great argument for a vegetarian diet, though some people have taken it that way. And so what Daniel did is he got the intention of this chief of staff, and after getting his intention, explained to him that he can't eat the food, but he came up with an alternative.

And the chief of staff bought it. Sometimes when we are confronted with a conflict of conscience, what we have to do is to ask ourselves, is there an alternative? Can we discuss with the person to whom we owe this allegiance or who has brought this conflict upon us? Can we discuss with him the rationale of our own convictions? And to do so with respect for his convictions or may be lack of them and for respect for our own convictions. Stuart Briscoe, who many of you know because he was a great pastor and he and his wife Jill do missionary work all over the world.

I really do admire them. Stuart Briscoe said that when he was back in England, he was working in a bank. And the chief officer of the bank wanted him to do something that was really thievery. He basically wanted to steal from the customers. And Stuart, of course, would have nothing to do with that, but he said this to his superior.

If you want me to steal for you, what makes you think that I would not steal from you if I had the opportunity? And that bank official began to think, you know, maybe. Eroding the character of those who work with me is not the best idea because it has ramifications. It has implications.

When it comes to some things, even such as whether or not you should attend this wedding or that wedding, there may not be an immediate answer. And by the way, there may be differences of opinion among Christians. You know, the apostle Paul in the book of Corinthians basically devoted a chapter to the fact that some people have a conscience whereby they can eat meat offered to idols and others can't. And what he's saying is give the people some space because some people have a different view of viewing things than others.

But listen carefully. We have to say to this generation that love and conscience are not in conflict. You see, sometimes we have people say, well, you know, if you were really loving, you would do ABCD.

Where is your love? Well, love is great, but it should never be opposed to my conscience. No matter what my personal conviction should be, love should always abound.

Understanding, insight, the ability to be able to think clearly on this issue is so critical. And there may be a difference of opinion. But just because you're under pressure does not mean that you should ever violate your conscience. Because the Bible says whatever is not a faith is sin. So for you, it may be sin to do one thing.

It may not be sin for the other because he thinks that he can do it in faith. I'm talking now about issues that may not be entirely absolute. The absolutes we must obey. But exactly how we show love, where we go, who we connect with.

God may give us some space and some freedom just knowing that whatever is not a faith is sin. And then, of course, the bottom line. And I say that to all of these good-looking young people who are here today on the platform. Not to mention all of the others that are out there.

Don't want to leave anybody out. There comes a time when you draw a line in the sand and then you simply take your lumps. Whatever happens, happens. You want me to bow down to worship? I refuse to do it. I've drawn the line in the sand. All of you should know that, don't you?

It's not Romanian. Here I stand. I can do no other. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe.

And you take your lumps. And Luther thought that he would be put to death because of the decree of Charles V, who said anyone who finds him can kill him. But there are times when you simply take your stand, whether you get thrown in the den of lions. When Rebecca and I were in Germany, we'd been both in what is known as the West and the East. And, of course, now it's unified.

But there was a time when the East was under communism. We were there talking to a pastor in, actually, the church where Luther preached his last sermon, as a matter of fact. And it so happened that I had his last sermon there and they actually allowed me to go onto the pulpit and preach a summary of it. But here's what he told us. He said, when communism came, the communists said, if you go to church, your kids can't go to university. You won't get the best job.

You'll have to just be a laborer. And so what did people do? They basically buckled. Said, if that's the price of living and giving my kids a good education, we'll surrender and we'll go along with the state. But there were some people who draw a line in the sand and said, we will not stop associating ourselves as Christians. We will not give up our faith.

We will not go with a communist line. And many of them were marginalized. Perhaps some of them were put to death and so forth.

But let me ask you something. A thousand years from now, in fact, a lot less than a thousand years from now, who made the best decision? Who made the best decision? It's not those whose children were promoted who were given a good education, though I understand that as a father and a grandfather. The best decision were those who stood and said, we refuse to surrender our rights to the state and we will live for Christ and take the consequences.

They were the wisest in Germany. So what we must do is to seek God for wisdom, draw a line in the sand and say, here we stand, even at great personal cost. Young people in universities, colleges, you must draw that line in the sand. You must resolve like Daniel and say, I refuse to be defiled.

I refuse to be defiled. That's what Daniel said. And he lived up to it. Finally, it's important for us to understand the purposes of God in all of this. What was God's purpose in taking the Israelites to Babylon? Well, his purpose, actually, he had two purposes, one for them and one for the Babylonians. The purpose for them, the Israelites, was that God says, I'm not here to destroy you. You remember Chapter 29, verse 11, if you were here last time for God says, I am not here to destroy you. I am here to bless you and to give you a future and a hope. I'm here not to destroy you, but I am here to refine you because of your idolatry and turning away from me. But my intention toward you who survived here is good.

I want to humble you, not destroy you, but humble you. Did you know that that is God's agenda for the church today? We look around and everything that has been nailed down is being torn up every day on the news.

Some new domino falls. The question is, what do we do? What is God saying? God is saying, I am humbling you.

I'm bringing you down to give you a future and a hope. That's his goal for the church. As for the culture at large, it's our responsibility to witness to them. Tim Keller said some very interesting things about the exile that we're speaking about here. What does this mean for Christians, the fact that we are losing so many battles? He says Christians should be humbled before the new pagan pluralistic situation. Just as with the exiles, the situation is due in large part to our own failings.

The church did not lose its position of privilege simply because of evil enemies of the faith. We lost our position as part of God's judgment on our pride, our hypocrisy, our love of power, our prejudice, our bigotry, and failure to hold on to the truth. And so he says that this is the way in which God gets people's attention.

And then he says, and what a rebuke this is, but we need to hear it. We must be far harder on ourselves in gracious, humble repentance than we are on the unbelieving culture around us. That was a major lesson for the exiles and for us. Our first response should be repentance. We should be very understanding toward people, catch this now, toward people who have failed to believe in Christ because of the weakness of the church's testimony.

A lot more of what is happening in our culture today may be our fault than we are willing to admit. I want to talk and end in just a moment by reminding you that Jesus was crucified in weakness. There weren't a whole lot of people on his side when he died on the cross. And yet Jesus in being crucified in weakness, imagine that seed falling into the ground and the marvelous fruit that it brought forth in the very same way we are today as a church culturally weak. Few people pay attention to us.

Oftentimes we are despised, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes not. The question is, are we willing to be weak for the sake of the gospel? And if you're here today and you're not quite sure how Jesus Christ in his weakness brought about the great victory of his redemption, remember that when he died on the cross, his death was a sacrifice for sinners.

And some of you who are listening to this have to hear that because you came with a troubled conscience. And your conscience is troubled because of your sin. Jesus has a good cure for sin in substituting himself in our place. He died that we might have eternal life. And all that we have to do is to receive that eternal life by faith. And when we do, we become his children. And suddenly we realize we are children of our Father in heaven. Father, we ask in Jesus' name that in a confused culture, help us to live wisely. May we not defile ourselves and give us wisdom as we make decisions regarding conflicts of conscience, both to be lenient when we should be, and yet at the same time to draw a line in the sand and delightfully and joyfully pay the consequences.

We love you. May there be people today who believe on Christ, that they might be children of the Most High. We pray in his name.

Amen. On today's Moody Church Hour, Dr. Erwin Lutzer spoke on Conflicts of Conscience, the eighth message in a ten-part series on The Church in Babylon, Unleashing the Power of a Spirit-Filled Witness. Government pressure on believers is not new. Next time on The Moody Church Hour, we turn to Daniel chapter 3 and see what happens when the state becomes God. The Church in Babylon series shows us how to live during times of spiritual darkness.

The series is in print as Erwin Lutzer's book, The Church in Babylon. A copy is waiting for you as our thank you for your gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001.

Ask about the Church in Babylon when you call 1-800-215-5001. Or you can write to us at The Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Dr. Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.