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All religions have acknowledged leaders: Islam has Mohammed; Buddhism has Buddha, Hinduism has Vishnu and many others; Confucianism has Confucius; Judaism has Moses; and Christianity, of course, has Jesus Christ.

But have you ever noticed of all those names, only one is used by some as profanity? When was the last time, for instance, you heard someone say, “Expletive Confucius”? Or “Blankety-blank Buddha”? Muslims so revere Mohammed, people that write or speak derogatorily about the prophet are threatened with death.

But Jesus Christ? That’s different. Often in films, sometimes on TV, frequently in books, we hear or read people using His name as an angry epithet or sometimes just part of their everyday vocabulary. I once worked for a man that included “Jesus Christ” in his sentences as casually and unashamedly as most people would say “um” or “you know.”

Why is this? Why is the name adored by countless millions throughout the world, the person declared by the Bible as the Son of God, the only one among religious icons deemed fair game for dragging through the mud?

The greatest war being waged on earth is not political, nor ideological or economic. It’s a spiritual war – a battle of eternal truth versus falsehood and deception. If Jesus actually is “the way, the truth and the life,” as He declared (John 14:6), there is bound to be resistance from those who regard that as too rigid or “intolerant.”

But this is more than a clash of viewpoints and opinions. It’s a fight that’s being directed from what the Scriptures term “the gates of hell.” And if it’s true one day “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11), we can expect intense spiritual opposition until then.