Saturday, March 27, 2010
Politics and the Judgment of God
In Jeremiah 21, God tells the prophet Jeremiah this-
America is being judged by God. Is it any wonder? We've glorified fornication and sodomy for decades now. We've murdered innocents by the millions. Our sins are long. Worst of all is the enervation and distortion of the gospel of Christ from our pulpits since before our grandfathers were born. While I wouldn't claim to know the perfect will of God, it seems clear to me that He has been fattening us for the judgment for some time now. We will see what happens. But this we know- God will not ignore sin and wickedness, and America, being home to a faithful Christian witness for centuries and receiving the rich blessings of God, has a particular responsibility which it has utterly neglected and abandoned.
Many conservatives are now promoting a focus on fiscal responsibility in order to save our nation. But I believe our fiscal woes are only the symptom of a deeper rot, a people who have rebelled against God and teach lies as the word of God. If that is true, then focusing on our fiscal problems while ignoring the more fundamental problem is akin to fighting the Babylonians even after God has declared the judgment.
It's like the mainline denominations who are ordaining homosexuals or flirting with it. The "conservatives" in those denominations decry this move as an abandonment of the Christian faith. But where were those conservatives when their denomination ordained women against the word of God? Where were they when their denominations denied Biblical inerrancy, denied the necessity of the virgin birth, denied the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ? Where were they when real conservatives like Machen were being run out of their denominations?
We have complacently sat back while our churches gave up the faithful witness of the truth. And now we are bearing the brunt of it, and we don't like the results. But if God is judging our nation, and I believe He is, then we will have to accept it as being from His hand. We must repent of our sins, repent of the lie that we can gain God's good blessings at the same time as we flout and ignore His word. Fiscal responsibility, material prosperity, good and honest leadership, safety from our enemies, the rule of law- these things are God's blessings to us and not things we achieve for ourselves.
If we as a nation turn back to God, repent of our sins and seek to promote and please Him in every aspect of our lives, public and private, then our blessings will return. But if we continue to glorify and promote everything He hates, we can expect nothing but curses from Him.
So despite so-called conservatives like David Frum, Kathleen Parker and David Brooks, and many others, who claim that the social conservatives are destroying the Republican party, I would respond with a higher truth. Following God is all that matters. God tells King Zedekiah, through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 37:10 that even if they defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans and there were only wounded men left, yet would they take the city and burn it down. When God is against you, it doesn't matter how strong your army is. God told the Israelites that if they rebelled against Him then one enemy would chase a hundred of them and three would chase a thousand.
So until we repent, we will lose. We will lose our freedoms. We will lose our prosperity. We will lose our right to worship, our right to speak freely, our right to assemble or to bear arms. Our military will not save us, our wealth will not save us, our science will not save us. Nothing will. If God is against us, everything is against us.
And though this might sound very depressing, it actually is very encouraging. Because the contrary is likewise true. When we as individuals, as families, as churches and neighborhoods and towns and states and perhaps even as a nation, turn back to God and confess the truth of His word, then nothing can stop us. It doesn't matter what forces are arrayed against us. It doesn't matter what criminals are running our country, or selling us out to foreign interests. It doesn't matter what special interests are united to despoil the nation and corrupt its morality. It doesn't matter how many of our fellow citizens just want to satisfy their wicked lusts and have everyone else pick up the bill. Just follow God. Just trust Him. And then one of us will chase a thousand and three will put ten thousand to flight.
Christians might have a pretty hard time coming in this country. Perhaps we thought the fires of persecution would never come to these shores. To that I'd answer, they've been here for a long time. Christians have been ridiculed and pressured into compromising the integrity of their witness for a long time. Far too many have given in and that's the big reason why we're in the fix we're in. But what has been subtle and under the radar is becoming more and more overt. There are those at the very highest levels of our government, even now, who would prohibit the preaching of God's word if they could.
But we are the light of the world. And all things will work together for the good of His kingdom. We might have to go into exile into Babylon for a while. That's up to God. But if we submit to His will, repent of our sins and seek His glory in our lives, in all we do, we can be confident that He will never let us down. Though the nation fall, God's kingdom goes on as it always have, and His people will be preserved. His salvation will come not by political parties, elections or courts. It will come by the glorious triumph of Jesus Christ.
8 " Now you shall say to this people, 'Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.God had judged Judah and Jerusalem, and given them over to the destruction of the Babylonians. He did so because they had rejected Him. Though they still called themselves Jehovah worshipers, they had worshiped other gods as well, filling His temple with foreign idols, engaged in immorality and flouted God's law in a thousand different ways. And so God brought the Babylonians to punish them. Those who accepted the judgment of God would surrender to the Babylonians and would, as a result, survive. Those who refused to accept that God was judging them would continue their fight against the Babylonians and be destroyed as a result.
9 "He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him.
10 "For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good," says the LORD. "It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire." '
America is being judged by God. Is it any wonder? We've glorified fornication and sodomy for decades now. We've murdered innocents by the millions. Our sins are long. Worst of all is the enervation and distortion of the gospel of Christ from our pulpits since before our grandfathers were born. While I wouldn't claim to know the perfect will of God, it seems clear to me that He has been fattening us for the judgment for some time now. We will see what happens. But this we know- God will not ignore sin and wickedness, and America, being home to a faithful Christian witness for centuries and receiving the rich blessings of God, has a particular responsibility which it has utterly neglected and abandoned.
Many conservatives are now promoting a focus on fiscal responsibility in order to save our nation. But I believe our fiscal woes are only the symptom of a deeper rot, a people who have rebelled against God and teach lies as the word of God. If that is true, then focusing on our fiscal problems while ignoring the more fundamental problem is akin to fighting the Babylonians even after God has declared the judgment.
It's like the mainline denominations who are ordaining homosexuals or flirting with it. The "conservatives" in those denominations decry this move as an abandonment of the Christian faith. But where were those conservatives when their denomination ordained women against the word of God? Where were they when their denominations denied Biblical inerrancy, denied the necessity of the virgin birth, denied the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ? Where were they when real conservatives like Machen were being run out of their denominations?
We have complacently sat back while our churches gave up the faithful witness of the truth. And now we are bearing the brunt of it, and we don't like the results. But if God is judging our nation, and I believe He is, then we will have to accept it as being from His hand. We must repent of our sins, repent of the lie that we can gain God's good blessings at the same time as we flout and ignore His word. Fiscal responsibility, material prosperity, good and honest leadership, safety from our enemies, the rule of law- these things are God's blessings to us and not things we achieve for ourselves.
If we as a nation turn back to God, repent of our sins and seek to promote and please Him in every aspect of our lives, public and private, then our blessings will return. But if we continue to glorify and promote everything He hates, we can expect nothing but curses from Him.
So despite so-called conservatives like David Frum, Kathleen Parker and David Brooks, and many others, who claim that the social conservatives are destroying the Republican party, I would respond with a higher truth. Following God is all that matters. God tells King Zedekiah, through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 37:10 that even if they defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans and there were only wounded men left, yet would they take the city and burn it down. When God is against you, it doesn't matter how strong your army is. God told the Israelites that if they rebelled against Him then one enemy would chase a hundred of them and three would chase a thousand.
So until we repent, we will lose. We will lose our freedoms. We will lose our prosperity. We will lose our right to worship, our right to speak freely, our right to assemble or to bear arms. Our military will not save us, our wealth will not save us, our science will not save us. Nothing will. If God is against us, everything is against us.
And though this might sound very depressing, it actually is very encouraging. Because the contrary is likewise true. When we as individuals, as families, as churches and neighborhoods and towns and states and perhaps even as a nation, turn back to God and confess the truth of His word, then nothing can stop us. It doesn't matter what forces are arrayed against us. It doesn't matter what criminals are running our country, or selling us out to foreign interests. It doesn't matter what special interests are united to despoil the nation and corrupt its morality. It doesn't matter how many of our fellow citizens just want to satisfy their wicked lusts and have everyone else pick up the bill. Just follow God. Just trust Him. And then one of us will chase a thousand and three will put ten thousand to flight.
Christians might have a pretty hard time coming in this country. Perhaps we thought the fires of persecution would never come to these shores. To that I'd answer, they've been here for a long time. Christians have been ridiculed and pressured into compromising the integrity of their witness for a long time. Far too many have given in and that's the big reason why we're in the fix we're in. But what has been subtle and under the radar is becoming more and more overt. There are those at the very highest levels of our government, even now, who would prohibit the preaching of God's word if they could.
But we are the light of the world. And all things will work together for the good of His kingdom. We might have to go into exile into Babylon for a while. That's up to God. But if we submit to His will, repent of our sins and seek His glory in our lives, in all we do, we can be confident that He will never let us down. Though the nation fall, God's kingdom goes on as it always have, and His people will be preserved. His salvation will come not by political parties, elections or courts. It will come by the glorious triumph of Jesus Christ.
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