Samuel Alito, 70, was appointed to the US Supreme Court in 2007 under US President George Bush. He is considered an originalist when it comes to the US Constitution, meaning he interprets it as it was intended by the original writers, not by what a person wants it to mean.

On Thursday, he was delivering a speech online for the Federalist Society and warned that Christians are verging on becoming second class citizens:

“[There are] emerging trends in the assessment of individual rights. This is especially evident with respect to religious liberty. It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters , religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.”

He added that the COVID-1984 is simply exposing this underlying sentiment and is being used to restrict religious freedom.

As an example, Alito referred specifically to what happened in Nevada where Alito said the government “blatantly discriminated against houses of worship.” The state government placed heavy COVID restrictions on Houses of Worship while not doing the same for Casinos that in practice function very similarly as churches. But there is one major difference. Many casinos operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week, compared to churches that typically meet once a week for a couple of hours.

I should add I have noticed recently how some are starting to refer to COVID-19 as COVID-1984, a reference to the book, 1984, published in 1949 by George Orwell. It is a story about the emergence of mass surveillance, totalitarianism and an effort by those in power to not only control people’s behaviour in society but as well their thinking. It talked about how as this Big Brother society emerged, people were turning in family and friends to the government for wrong-thinking.

This pressure that Orwell envisioned in his book is becoming reality for
Christians today.

But there have been instances of this in the past. Throughout the Bible we see how God fought for religious freedom on behalf of believers. When the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar set up a massive idol and demanded everyone worship it, because of their faith Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. This resulted in the order coming down that they be executed by fire.

When it was ordered that people must pray to the King, Daniel refused and ended up in the lions’ den after being spied on by his coworkers.

But in both these instances, God stepped in to help. But for that to happen, people had to first stand up for their faith and stand against religious oppression. So, these fights don’t come without risk.

In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John wrote of how at the end of the age people will be forced to worship the beast (Revelation 13:12). Though the Greek word (proskyneō) incorporates the idea of worship, according to the Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament, it means fundamentally “I go down on my knees to; I do obeisance to.”

It is ultimately an act of submission. People will be forced to submit to a satanic authority that I suspect is now being manifested through ideologies trying to infect governments today.

We are not at the point in society that the Apostle John saw, and I personally think it is still a ways off, but it’s obvious that the spirit of the Antichrist is trying to assert itself, and we need to take a stand against it.

READ: Alito: ‘Religious Liberty Is in Danger of Becoming a Second-Class Right’ AND Justice Alito: ‘Tolerance for Opposing Views Is Now in Short Supply’