The Right Ideology

God desires that we be found faithful as conditions on planet earth deteriorate in the final days on the world clock, leading up to the time of Christ's second coming. Prior to that time, there will be a period of tribulation, during which an evil world leader, the Antichrist will come into power. 1st John chapter 2 says:
18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.

There will be challenges for the Church in the end times, yet, because we know Christ and empowered in Him, we can continue to have hope. In the midst of trial, we can show people hope; when we are challenged, we reflect our satisfaction in the Lord.  He is with us, and desires for us to walk closely with Him, to hold on tightly, and to continue to seek His face for wisdom and power to navigate what the Bible promises will be some difficult times.

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Jesus, in His final days on earth, spoke of a seemingly dark time when He would return to His Father in Heaven; He also talked about what would be occurring in the times prior to His return to earth. He offered His disciples a challenge, as we find in John 16:
31 Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?
32 Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

The Freedom Convoy in Canada may be coming to an end, as the Canadian government has cracked down on protesters physically in the capital city of Ottawa.  But, the new police chief there has promised that participants in the protest against government overreach, including COVID vaccine mandates, will continue to face retaliation.  So will those who supported them.  

The Post Millennial reports:

According to CTV reporter Mackenzie Gray, senior police sources told CTV chief news anchor Graham Richardson that they were looking to "break the back" of the protest Saturday, and that family members of some convoy participants have reported difficulties in banking due to familial ties to the protest.

In his announcement invoking the Emergencies Act, Prime Minister Trudeau said:

"Financial institutions will also be authorized or directed to render essential services to help address the situation, including by regulating and prohibiting the use or property to fund or support illegal blockades."

The article also noted:

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said that Canadian financial institutions will review their relationships with "Anyone involved in the illegal blockades," and to report to the RCMP or CSIS. This will allow banks to freeze or suspend accounts without a court order.

So, it appears that even someone who was not directly involved in the convoy, perhaps providing financial support, could find his or her financial assets frozen.  This is an example of action taken against someone based on ideology. 

PayPal co-founder David Sacks wrote, regarding Trudeau's activation of the the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act, that:

Banks, according to this new order, have a “duty to determine” if one of their customers is a “designated person.” A “designated person” can refer to anyone who “directly or indirectly” participates in the protest, including donors who “provide property to facilitate” the protests through crowdfunding sites. In other words, a designated person can just as easily be a grandmother who donated $25 to support the truckers as one of the organizers of the convoy.

Because the donor data to the crowdfunding site GiveSendGo was hacked—and the leaked data shows that Canadians donated most of the $8 million raised—many thousands of law-abiding Canadians now face the prospect of financial retaliation and ruin merely for supporting an anti-government protest.

Already, a low-level government official in Ontario was fired after her $100 donation came to light. A gelato shop was forced to close when it received threats after its owner was revealed to have donated to the protest.

As the Family Research Council website stated:

At the end of the day, the most important part of this protest isn't who's funding it or where it's happening -- it's the motivation behind it: personal freedom. No one in a civilized society -- least of all Canada or America -- should want to violate the rights of conscience, FRC's Owen Strachan argued. "I wouldn't want to do that as an American citizen, even if I'm not a Christian -- because the rights of conscience are not like 37th on the list of important factors in a free society, the rights of conscience are basically first. If you take those away, you no longer have a free society."

In the future, holding to the right ideology could determine whether or not a person engages in commerce, similar to what we find in the book of Revelation, which predicts a day in which people cannot buy or sell without swearing allegiance to the worldwide leader, the Antichrist.

The globalist scheme known as the "Great Reset" encompasses a component known as an ESG score. You could, I imagine, call it a social credit score.  Justin Haskins of the Heartland Institute, writing for The Federalist, states:

Although there are several large components to the Great Reset, the three primary ways its supporters plan to change the global economy is through (1) large government programs like the Green New Deal; (2) requirements from national governments that companies adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards; and (3) by coercing corporations and other institutions to willingly adopt ESG metrics using massive amounts of “printed” cash from governments, banks, and investors.

Well, there's another acronym for you: E-S-G, standing for "environmental, social, and governance." So, can a company's ESG score be used to accept or reject a company from participation in the marketplace?  It certainly appears so - and if our investment portfolio or financial transactions don't measure up to the ideology that is consistent with the government authorities, could an individual be penalized financially?  That's certainly a possibility, it seems.

Consider what Haskins wrote regarding the new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra.  Chopra apparently wants to create a new government credit bureau which could manipulate credit scores based on ideological criteria. Haskins writes, "The new credit scoring agency would be housed within Chopra’s CFPB and put government in charge of formulating and altering credit scores. It’s not hard to imagine how such a system could be abused and eventually transformed into a government-controlled personal ESG scoring system, one that would provide some groups with financial advantages over others, all in the name of battling climate change or fixing racial disparities." 

It's not hard to draw a straight line from officials who desire power and control who see Christianity as a threat to use the financial system to essentially exclude believers from commerce.  This is reminiscent of the scenario we find in the book of Revelation in which people cannot buy or sell without having a certain mark.  While we certainly regard this as an inevitable outcome because we believe in the authenticity of God's Word, we also recognize that we are called to faithfulness.  There will be opposition; all will not embrace our worldview perspective, but we can continue to see Christ as our source of strength.

We have seen personal freedom trampled upon in so many ways in the face of this pandemic, and the "trial run" is continuing as the ways of the future global governmental system is being ramped up. But God does not call us to be fearful; as Jesus said, we can be of "good cheer," knowing that our ultimate victory is in Him - we can continue to trust the Lord in the important, eternal matters and base our hope in Him.