The Crimson Wave

By: American Decency Staff

One of my favorite time periods to read about is the Scottish Covenanters and their heroic struggle for civil freedom and religious liberty. Although theirs was a different day, the struggles remain the same, as they always have throughout time. An English poetess by the name of Mary Howitt captured well and succinctly the times, their trouble, and their faithfulness to the Lord Jesus, the King of kings:

“Land of the Bruce and Wallace,
    Where patriot hearts have stood.
And for their country and their cause
    Like water poured their blood:
Where wives and little children
    Were faithful to the death,
And graves of martyred warriors
    Are in the desert heath.”

No, I don’t have a romanticized view of those days. The terror, bloodshed, and stories that sound like they are taken from the end of Hebrews chapter eleven are heart-rending. These same stories, the “sermons” preached on a hangman’s scaffold, last words spoken with final gasps of breath from faithful women and children as the tide takes them to a watery grave, and accounts of virtue and bravery, all for the sake of Jesus, are heart-warming and encouraging. In them we read of Christian valor, virtue, and strength of character that only comes from devotion to our Sovereign, Jesus.

The land and laws that surrounded these covenanters were merciless for the sake of the king; but, they lived in the everlasting mercy of their King. Plunged beneath the crimson wave of Christ’s saving blood, they were able to stand faithfully against the crimson wave of persecution. The latter would stain their clothes crimson with their own blood while the crimson wave of Christ would clothe them in garments of pure white.

Why do I share all this with you?

For two reasons: 1) The land and laws in which many Christians around the world now live are also merciless in regards to Christianity. The crimson wave of persecution assaults these contemporary brothers and sisters in Christ; we need to be lifting them up in prayer and encouraging them by any means available to us.Having shared often about the things we can do, I’ll only share these two websites where one can find ways to pray, inform others, and write letters of encouragement to these modern day “covenanters.” www.opendoorsusa.org and www.persecution.com (Voice of the Martyrs)

2) Unless God does a mighty work of revival within our own country, we are likely to find ourselves in the midst of a crimson tsunami. We must not consider it a strange thing (1 Peter 4:12); rather, we must prepare for such attacks as the covenanters of old did. How’s that? By following the Bible’s instruction for true Christian living, being rooted and built up in Christ, with devotion to Him; this prepares us to stand with utter abandon for His sake. Are you ready to stand?

In order to answer that question let’s ask ourselves another; am I standing now? Am I currently taking stands on Biblical truth when it runs contrary to the cultural norm? Have I purposed in my heart not to defile myself with the portion of the king’s meat (Daniel 1:8)? In other words, do I stand for truth regardless of how it may affect me financially, in popularity with my friends or family, at work, at church, or in my community? Have I unflinchingly committed myself and my family to seeking holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and have I given myself to faithful service? In all these things do I stand with the compassion and love of Jesus?

The Crimson Sunrise Is Dawning

How can some blindly fool themselves into thinking that they can live for Jesus and escape such a fiery trial? How can we expect to stand in the days to come if we aren’t standing now.  Reading Donald Cargill’s description of the 1680 Scottish government should make us take heed rather than apathetically let our guard down when we recognize both the similarities between then and now, and the way Cargill’s government ruthlessly hunted him and other covenanters down. His call for rebellion was more a call to stand for Christ than it was an incitement to civil disobedience. “…now it cannot be called a government, but a lustful rage, exercised with as little right reason, and more cruelty than beasts; and they themselves can no more be called governors, but public grassators (bully, hoodlum, criminal), and public judgements, which all ought to set themselves against, as they would do against pestilence, sword and famine raging among them.” Listening to the Left for the last decade, and even the recent Democrat Presidential debates, should leave no room for doubt that the crimson sunrise has more than peeked over the horizon.

We must count the cost.

Scottish historian A. B. Todd describes that era of persecution with these words. “It is not, however, as great military geniuses that the Covenanters stand out so conspicuously and so honourably in history; but for lofty courage, unselfish zeal, unmurmuring endurance, fervent piety, and unwavering faith in the Most High, and in the ultimate triumph of the principles for which they labored, suffered, and died, they have rarely been equaled, and have never been surpassed by men of any nation or time. When their little armies had been broken and dispersed by the larger hosts and the unsparing sword of the oppressor, rather than violate their consciences by yielding, they betook themselves for shelter and security to the dreary deserts, and to ‘the dens and caves of the earth;’ and there, for long years, amid tempest and gloom, smitten by hunger, hacked by the sword, hunted like wild beasts of prey, and shot at like the ptarmigan of the hills, they, without a grudge—‘Laid down their lives in the moorlands away, And bled for their God and Forgiver.’” The writer of Hebrews describes them and many others from foreign lands in our day this way, “Of whom the world was not worthy.” (Hebrews 11:38). Will/are you and I worthy of the world or are our lives in Christ worthy of heaven? How then must we stand?

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