It doesn't take great powers of observation to see how the West is going through great convulsions that have it teetering on the brink of an almost inevitable collapse.
New powers are at work determined to advance their goals - goals that are on a high-impact collision course in an intense power struggle.
On one hand there is aggressive secularism, and on the other a militant new Islam, both intent on squeezing out the last vestiges of Christianity.
We need a clear understanding of this situation, but be careful which lens you use.
Here, I am using my biblical Christian worldview.

• CONTROL

Aggressive atheistic and secular humanism have been gaining increasing control of attitudes and civil legislation.
The once well regarded Judaeo-Christian values of the sanctity of human life have all but been abandoned and in their place come sustained appeals to extend legislation permitting abortion, euthanasia, and to increasingly normalise homosexuality and same-sex marriage, for examples - activities which are now presented as basic human rights.
What people want is theirs by right to possess and are merely marks of maturity, healthy freedom and normal to our evolving human behaviour.

• HIGH COST

But there is a high cost to pay for what is actually a slide into moral chaos, as we inevitably reap what we sow.
Look at what has grown up in our towns and cities; the street violence, racism, sex trafficking, vicious gang-land crime, long-running feuds, substance abuse, the widespread abuse of power, addictive gambling, unethical business practices - the sheer corrupt institutionalised cunning that has left whole economies devastated, the decline in mental health, emotional disorders, fear, anxiety, a callous insensitivity to grief and pain and a terrible dread of the future - all this imploding, tottering decadence shackles our "liberated" West, which has virtually lost all semblance of moral integrity.

• SEEDS OF SELF-DESTRUCTION

The secularised West that thought the human mind unfettered by Christian values and accountability to God would be free to reign supreme is beginning to discover that it is destroying itself.
This was the age-old dream of autonomous humanity - the New Age of Reason - free to pursue its own goals of self-fulfilment.
The humanity that would dispose of God once and for all and by phenomenal advances in science would boldly reach for the stars and rule the universe! But other forces were also at work.
With the slow death of empires came the resurgence and ascent of Islam, the religion of sheer fiat and aggressive domination.
Islam looks for one thing - your surrender to its total claim on your life and the Islamicisation of our Western democracies merged into a Shariah-governed Islamic world.
And whatever moderate middle ground there may be, it is yielding to sheer fanaticism.
Yes, there are definitely factions within Islam and a more moderate, Western-influenced flank, but it has little capacity to reason with the storm of fervour driven by the despotic radicals.
Islam subjugated whole swathes of the old Roman Empire in the 8th century and following, and now have their sights set on their biggest prize - the whole of Europe and North America.
These are the two pincer movements.
But secularism is no match for a resurgent Islam, and cannot understand the dark principalities and powers behind it.

• CHRISTIANITY CRUSHED TO DEATH OR TO LIFE?

In this crushing pincer movement how will Western biblical Christians - now a minority, face the increasing agitation of wealthy Islamic organisations to build huge towering mosques in their home cities? Will we continue to show respect for civil freedom of religion (exercise this with balanced caution) and will there be concerted prayer and relevant evangelistic outreach to the growing followers of Islam? Will we learn quickly how to engage in peaceful witness even with radicals to gently face them with a Sovereign Christ who once shed his blood to save people from every tribe and nation and tongue from their sins? And that only the gospel of Christ shared in the power of the Spirit will break the angry dark powers driving Islam on its this-worldly conquest? When will our Western governments begin to understand that military might and sophisticated weaponry only reinforce the Muslim mind that "Christians" only have the weapons of this world system?

• OUR ONLY HOPE

A revived and vibrant biblical Christianity is our only hope.
Yes, Christians in the West may well be subjected to a persecution at present known only to the Christian minorities in Islamic States - perhaps the Refiner's fire will produce a new intensity and purity that will touch many a proud follower of Islam.
It may be the only way they will ever see the gospel of Christ lived out in a fallen world - the powerful message of the Cross displayed in purity and humble joy before their very eyes! The Commission is still pressing: Jesus' words stand today, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem" (Luke 24:46-47).
But how will they hear unless someone tells them?