Persecution often starts small, as a whisper in the ears of the public who are unsure about what they are hearing.

This is because Satan is an excellent deceiver. Having honed his skill at manipulation throughout the course of human history, riling up crowds through unrestricted emotions and chaos has become a successful tactic of making regular citizens complicit in the persecution of those they do not know or understand.

It is not only Satan who has excelled in sowing seeds of hatred toward Christians and Jews throughout history, but his minions, some great, some small, have become master manipulators as well.

According to Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, the same gods and principalities that arranged for Christians to be thrown to wild animals in the grand Roman arenas are now at work in the Western world, and persecution has come with them.

"In the beginning of the age believers, Christians, were in a war, a spiritual war of principalities of powers, gods or spirits," explains Cahn.

"The spirits of paganism came against them as the spirits were threatened by them, and so they threatened believers. The first believers were persecuted; marginalized; vilified; scapegoated; persecuted; prosecuted; arrested; [and] thrown to the wild animals of the Roman games. Behind it were spirits," Cahn says.

The treatment of the saints in Roman times is being mirrored in today's society as well.

Look no further than the mainstream media's indifference to the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, once it was found out the victims were Christians and the shooter was transgender.

Persecution of Christians is also running rampant within the halls of America's own Department of Justice, which is not living up to its name.

Pro-life Christians are having their homes raided at gunpoint and are being arrested for peacefully protesting the slaughter of unborn children, yet pro-abortion groups such as Jane's Revenge operate with impunity and have yet to face justice for their crimes.

The American government and corporate media are working from the same outline as well with their identifying of anyone who is not for their anti-God agenda as an "Ultra MAGA white supremacist," even if they bare no allegiance to Donald Trump and his policies. It has become a dog whistle used by the radical left.

This is because the same spirit of Roman times is the same spirit stirring up this anger toward Christians today.

"[The] spirits depicted Christians, believers, as intolerant haters, extremists, dangerous," reveals Cahn. These same accusations are in fact seen across media platforms and already were echoed over a thousand years ago, and led to violence against the accused.

These ancient, pagan spirits were defeated by the spreading of the gospel and the rise of Christianity. Their practices were abandoned and left in the pages of history.

The place they held in society was instead filled with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, in whose presence these ancient spirits were unable to be.

"Now, we are witnessing America and the West turn away from God and the gospel and the Word," warns Cahn.

Cahn's statements are backed up by the fact that a school district in Utah recently went as far as banning the Bible from the district's elementary and middle schools due to it's "graphic nature."

"The spirits and the gods have returned, but they haven't just returned: they've returned to take up where they left off. This is round two, the war of the gods," continues Cahn.

"They seek again in our culture more and more to depict believers as intolerant; as haters; as extremists; as dangerous. It is the same exact strategy that was used at the beginning of the age, and you can sense this spirit in our culture.

"We are seeing...now, for the first time in the Western world, pastors and evangelists have actually been put in Western jails. The jails of Europe, even Canada, and it's threatening in America. There is a spirit seeking to silence Christians, [to] punish them, [to] close down Christian schools [and] excommunicate Christian students," warns Cahn.

Just as in ancient Israel, the Lord has sent those to sound the alarm when a nation has turned its heart away from Himself. Israel did not heed the calls to repentance, and even as God's chosen people, suffered the consequences of their sin.

Will America listen to the words of the prophets, calling for repentance of sins and making God once again the first love in her heart?

Time will tell, but in the meantime, Christians have their assignments just as did the disciples of old: to proclaim the name of Jesus to the ends of the earth, even in the face of persecution and certain death. {eao}

James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.

To contact us or to submit an article, click here.

Get Charisma's best content delivered right to your inbox! Never miss a big news story again. Click here to subscribe to the Charisma News newsletter.