In Daniel 6, the enemies of Daniel set out to destroy him, but quickly realized their only hope of finding fault was to use his religious faithfulness against him (Daniel 6:3-5). They watched him carefully and came to the conclusion that he was man of prayer and making prayer illegal was the way to go. (I assume you know the rest of the story.)
In studying this passage to preach this Sunday, I wondered how these characters would go about effectively setting a trap for Christians today? Would the opposite approach net more arrests? By opposite approach, I mean instead of making religious exercise (Biblical Christianity) illegal....make the exercise of one's faith mandatory for those who call themselves believers. In other words, instead of making prayer illegal, make it mandatory. Instead of passing laws against witnessing to the lost, giving one's tithes, and reading the Bible, pass laws that say Christians will practice their faith.
How hard would the church of our culture have to work at getting into the habit of practicing what we preach? How long would it be before we fell back into our old ways only to find ourselves under arrest and in the lion's den because we do not regularly pray, read, witness, give, and minister in the name of the Lord?
Which kind of laws would reveal our unfaithfulness the most.....illegal religion or mandatory religion? Just thinking out loud. What say you?
What a fascinating concept! I will have to mull this over awhile. You definitely have gotten my thinking cap on. Thanks.
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