I have said once or twice that the Woke and LGBT ideology is a present manifestation of the spirit of the antichrist. And I double down on that belief, for time has only continued to unveil its beastliness.

Yet while the culture war continues to rage, I would like to very briefly ask my brothers and sisters in Christ to poke our heads above the fray of headlines and to consider the years ahead and how they might impact our actions today.

First, although society at large has apparently decided to treat 2 Timothy 3:1-7 as a list of aspirations, we should take comfort that every little horn is eventually cast down. Every Ashurbanipal is eventually slain. Every Nebuchadnezzar is eventually humbled. Every Antiochus is eventually disemboweled. Every Herod is eventually eaten with worms. The King of kings will not allow His glory and truth to be thrown to the ground and trampled forever. Therefore, every ruler or ideology that places itself directly against the Most High will be defeated. And that certainly goes for the Woke ideology that promotes as virtuous the slaughter of babies, the butchering and neutering of the children, and the mockery of marriage. Such a blatant rebellion against God’s will and design cannot stand forever.

We must believe that truth, difficult as it may be while in the midst of the beast’s reign. While drug traffickers being allowed to confess openly on social media without repercussions because they now belong to the sacred class and the exponential yearly increases of those who identify as being LGBT may make it seem like the contest of worldviews has already been decided, we should meditate on God’s Word and remember that this Babel shall also be brought down. Indeed, Wokeism must eventually be seen for the vanity that it truly is and for the societal regression that its “progress” is creating. And as the enchantment of the devil is broken, the body of Christ must be ready to do what our Lord Himself modeled: lead weary sinners to the Living Water.

For my fellow pastors, we must particularly be prepared to give counsel and hope from the Scriptures to those left broken after going Woke. Sadly, counseling those who come to Christ through abortion guilt or with their summons to singleness because of same-sex attraction is no longer new.  But we should also be prepared to walk with those who come to Christ and begin the process of “detransitioning.” Are you ready weep with the man or woman who now looks like the opposite sex and is barren yet longs to go back to how they once were and have the possibility of children again? The gospel of Jesus Christ is sufficient to heal the broken hearts of those who will carry on their bodies the wreckage caused by the Enemy, and it is our call to help them set their gaze upon our blessed hope.

In the meantime, let this inevitable end of the culture war remind us of who our real enemies are. Behind the beast is always the dragon. Indeed, our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against the demonic powers ever at work on the other side of the spiritual curtain.

And we also war against the ideologies that they promote. As Paul said, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Yet note that we destroy arguments and opinions, not the makers of those arguments nor the holders of those opinions. Our posture toward those who are ensnared by those arguments and opinions should be as we find in 2 Timothy 2:24-26:

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Do Paul’s words describe you?

Notice that the apostle rebukes two opposite errors. If you wish to remain entirely unengaged with the lost, saying simply that God will save whoever He wants and that it is not our place to judge, then see that Paul assumed that Timothy would be actively engaged in “correcting his opponents.”

On the other hand, if you see yourself as a cultural warrior for Christ, take care that you are doing so in the manner that Paul describes: not quarrelsome but kind, patiently enduring evil (for God certainly did the same with us!), correcting with gentleness, and longing for all to be saved.

In other words, even as we rightly aim to destroy demonic ideologies, we should labor to make it known that Christ calls those ensnared within them to come in repentance of their sin and find life and joy in Him.