The Church in America stands at a point of crossing into a new future. That crossing will be seen historically as a point of no return where many of us had to make hard choices to keep our faith and sanity intact.

There is a phrase born out of an event in history that signifies a major crossing. The phrase is “crossing the Rubicon.” The Rubicon is not a model of a Jeep or the name of a challenging four-wheeler trail in the Sierra Nevada. It marks those moments in history where something significant takes place because individuals or groups remained true to their convictions and risked life and limb to make a crossing into a future where the heart of God and His will takes center stage in all spheres of society. It’s not about nation-building. It is the expansion of Kingdom influence that aligns the hearts of people with something greater.

While the Roman Empire was teetering on the brink of civil war, Julius Caesar led his army to great victories during the Gallic Wars in what is modern-day France. Those in power in Rome became jealous and suspicious of his influence which threatened their continued control of the Roman Empire.

The Senate ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to Rome. Caesar assumed when he returned to Rome he would be arrested. When Caesar and his troops reached the Rubicon, a river that separated Italy from Gaul, he paused and conferred with his officers.

Under Roman law, any military commander who entered the Italian peninsula leading troops would be deemed an enemy of the state. The commander and his troops would then be subject to execution for such a decision. Caesar knew that if he led his men across the Rubicon, civil war would follow. 

The historian Plutarch wrote that Caesar conferred with his officers, weighing the “great evils to all mankind which would follow their passage of the river.” Plutarch wrote that Caesar suddenly exclaimed, “Let the die be cast!” and in January of 49 B.C. he led his men across the river. Over the next several years Caesar battled and defeated the forces that opposed him after crossing the Rubicon.  

Some in the Church have been asleep and continue to slip deeper into the slumber of deception and disorder. They cannot see the spiritual Rubicon before them. Those who make this crossing are not armed with earthly swords and spears like Caesar and his army or motivated by a spirit of natural conquest. They will make this crossing armed with the spiritual weapons of love, truth, and honor and the resulting exposure those principles will bring to light.

Sadly, many within our ranks have joined forces with an intellectual worldview that represents an acceptance of the worst of deceptions calling it love and acceptance. This crossing offers so much more than the current attempts at social engineering or the promises of partisan politics and the resulting stalemate it creates. It is a Rubicon crossing motivated by the leading of the Spirit that is directed by the truth of Scripture and the heart of God. Those who make this crossing have made the choice to no longer live in fear of the consequence of their obedience.

Our government is debating whether to allow a baby who survived an abortion to live or be put to death. We are mutilating children’s bodies as those children stand confused at an intersection of demonic influence and social dysfunction. The Lord has become just another spiritual choice among many who promise salvation to a biblically illiterate world. Believers who choose to cross this social and spiritual Rubicon to advance God’s Kingdom of love and truth might be socially ostracized, disfellowshipped, or worse. 

Just as Julius Caesar paused before he crossed the Rubicon River to consider the cost of that crossing, so it will be with those who make the choice to risk it all to speak the truth in love.