And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.”

Acts 5:27-30

Much like the theocratic government in first century Israel, our own government has their own “religion” based on a secular progressive utopia. These governments have more in common than history or our present representatives would like to admit. While the earlier actually did put Christ on the cross, the present would like to see the same end to Christ’s followers. Since that is not overtly possible, they like the Sanhedrin of old, attempt to silence Christians. Whether it is the deeming of Christian views as “hate speech” or the intimidation of clergy by over zealous elected activists our Liberties are under attack.

Government officials, then and now, both lack character. While they violate our God-given, Constitutionally protected First Amendment Rights, the tyrants blame the persecuted for their own self inflicted predicaments. So the actual Jewish leaders who pleaded with Pilate to crucify Jesus were worried about being blamed for Christ’s crucifixion. We see parallels with our current government’s hypocrisy labeling Christians as Bible clinging, gun toting domestic terrorists and refuse to challenge and designate Islamic extremist groups like ISIS as terrorists bringing death and chaos to the world.

As Christians, we are asked to leave our religion inside the church. Any religious conviction is scoffed and mocked by the secular progressive. Peter provided a simple answer that should be the single response from any Christian facing the tyranny our government has begun to unleash.

“We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.”