We live in a day when using the wrong pronoun or failing to celebrate the correct gender identification can get you thrown off of social media or fired from your job; and in some locations suffer jail time. In this he/him, she/her, they/them, trans, bi, I was then but I have chosen not to be now generation many feel as if they are constantly walking in a minefield of cancellation potential.
I have a feeling that its going to get worse before it gets better. To put things in a Biblical perspective, allow me to remind you of a few glimpses of cancellation in history.
Isaiah confronted Israel with her unfaithfulness to the God of her fathers. He predicted the captivity of the Jews and the destruction of the temple. For that, he was sawn in half.
The prophet Jeremiah mourned the apostasy of the Jewish people and prophesied their decline and ultimate dispersion. For that, he was stoned.
Amos accused Israel of oppressing the poor and failing to practice justice. He was struck in the head and killed.
Habakuk was stoned, Ezekiel was slain by the chief of the Jews in exile because he rebuked him for the worship of idols, and Zechariah was killed between the steps and the altar in the temple.
I mention these to make a point –– humans do not respond well to correction, criticism, or failure to celebrate their odd, bizarre, or what are more often than not –– self-destructive life choices.
It is not a popular task to confront a person, a group, or a nation with their sin or delusion. It is not easy. It can be heartbreaking, and the pushback is predictable. Faithful Old Testament prophets diligently delivered God’s warnings to Israel of impending judgment. They were the embodiment of the mercy of God walking among the people; weeping and crying aloud God’s urgent appeals, “Return to Me that I might return to you.”
The prophets were walking pleas from a Holy God, calling for the people to repent, to turn back to Him that He might not destroy them. Israel defied God by killing His messengers. Let’s face it . . . God’s perfect Son walked in the midst of humanity promising “life, and that more abundantly.” For that, He was crucified.
We are rapidly approaching the day of the criminalization of Christianity. Christians are becoming exiles in their own country. We have become aliens and strangers in a hostile land. Like Daniel, we may soon be commanded to eat at the table of the ungodly and suffer imprisonment with lions because of our faith in God. We may soon stand before the fiery furnaces of forced compliance, ordered to bow before the gods of murder, perversion, and greed or face the consequences. Like Peter and John, we may find ourselves cast into prison, bloody and beaten for preaching in the Name of Jesus.
My concern is not whether these things may happen. It is how we might respond when they happen.
Will we pray for deliverance, or will we plead for boldness?
MK Gantt Ministries 
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