Isaiah 45:14-17. All the nations and all of their wealth shall one day come to Israel in supplication, acknowledging that Israel's God is God and there is no other. The rich and powerful shall come in chains to follow Israel and to bow down to her. They will say "God is with you only, and there is no other, no God besides him." They will be put to shame and confounded. Their idol makers will be confused. But Israel will never be put to shame or confounded. Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation.

First, for this to happen (and it will, because God has told us it will), Israel has to be different. Confused people will not turn to a similarly confused nation for truth. They will look for the place where there is security and truth and freedom. Those things only come from God and that is why God had to have a chosen people and they had to be different from everyone else, they could not conform themselves to the ways of the world. Only then will there be a people who are living in truth and freedom when the time of shame and confusion comes on all other nations.

And what is Israel now? In Biblical terms, Israel is now the Church - God's established home for all of his chosen people (not just the Jews anymore). So the faithful are the ones now who are called to be different - to be the beacon of truth and freedom to the whole world when it realizes the confusion it is in; the many ways it has been lied to and abused by its idols. We will not be that if we conform ourselves to the world, we will be just like them if we do that.

Second, I truly believe this is happening now. The people of every nation on earth are waking up to the fact that they have been lied to and abused. They are looking for truth and they don't know where to find it. If the Church does not rise to this occasion, all will be lost, that is why the devil is attacking the Church so much right now.

But we know that we, the faithful, the Church, are up to this task. We know that Jesus told us that the Church is the one institution that will survive and that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So we are in this fight, we are living in the time of confusion and shame, but we know who wins, and we are called to bring as many of our confused and lied to brethren into God's home with us. We are to welcome them with open arms, not to shame them or hold them to task for believing the lies of the world.