In answering the question "Is God on America's Side?", Lutzer lays out seven principles from Scripture:
- God can both bless and curse a nation.
- God judges nations based on the amount of light and opportunity they are given.
- God sometimes uses exceedingly evil nations to judge those that are less evil.
- When God judges a nation, the righteous suffer with the wicked.
- God's judgments take various forms.
- In judgment, God's target is often His own people, not just the pagans among them.
- God sometimes reverses intended judgments.
The so-called Religious Right had great plans to reverse the moral trends of our nation. We are told that we have helped elect presidents and have impacted public policy and even the selection of judges. But by identifying these gains as those won by the "Religious Right," namely, Christians who are in cahoots with a particular party, we have made this nation believe that the church is a political base rather than the dispenser of the Gospel. Any gains we have made (mixed at best) came about at the price of the loss of the Gospel in the wider culture. We have cheapened Christ before a watching world.Unfortunately, Christianity, in the minds of millions of Americans, is right-wing politics. I believe we are under judgment because we have cast about for a solution to our nation's problems and thought that it lay with political muscle and even with a specific political party. By becoming publicly partisan and implying that one party is more "Christian," we have clouded the issues of what Christianity really is. Religion is being redefined as politics; the flag has replaced the cross. And we are feeling the negative repercussions.Today evangelicals are in the news not because of the Gospel but because of their political support or endorsements. The scenario of various religious leaders endorsing one political candidate or another is truly deserving of tears. Some Christian leaders have formed coalitions to "take America back." They want to "put God back" into our political, legal, and educational institutions.... In identifying ourselves with a political party and battling for civil religion, we have lost our identification with Jesus Christ.
Some pastors share Lutzer's concern and have taken practical measures to buck against this evangelical trend. Mark Dever, the Senior Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in D.C., had the American flag removed from the sanctuary - not because he is anti-American but because he knows that the kingdom of God is bigger than America. It includes people of every ethnicity.
Ligon Duncan, another prominent evangelical leader who serves as Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, takes a similar stance in a very personal way. On his facebook profile, where it says "Political Views," Ligon writes: "I have them, but prefer to keep them to myself for the sake of the Gospel."
Does this suggest that these pastors do not care about America's moral condition? No, certainly not. They as much as anybody support a biblical morality. They long for righteousness to prevail here in America (and throughout the world). But they rightly believe that the solution is not to be found in political pressure or intimidation but rather through Gospel witness.
Our goal as believers should not be to moralize America but rather to see individual people transformed by the power of the Gospel. Morality in and of itself does nothing to procure God's favor. The Pharisees of Jesus' day proved that. Morality does nothing to save a person; it does nothing to save a nation. In a sermon entitled The Deadly Dangers of Moralism, John MacArthur reminds us as Christians, "We are not a kingdom of politicians. We are a kingdom of priests. And what is a priest? He's a reconciler. We bring people to God through Christ."
The Christian influence in America is eroding. The only way to regain it in a manner that is truly effective and God-honoring is through the faithful proclamation of the Gospel. That is where our time, energy, and other resources ought to be invested. Political activism can never accomplish what the preaching of the cross alone can do, which is to bring people to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things" (2 Tim. 2:7).
Amen! I completely agree. Great blog, Pastor Matt!
ReplyDeleteSome good thoughts, Eddie, that raise legitimate concerns. Certainly we must "vote our conscience," using our rights as citizens to promote justice and equity whenever and wherever we can. The issue of abortion alone ought to break our hearts. Personally, my own family does participate in an evangelical protest against abortion. The key is our mindset in addressing these issues as well as the management of our time, effort, money and other resources. The more we can focus on the Gospel than the government, the more effective we will be as God's lights in this darkened world.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pastor Matt. I didn't quite pick up that phrase: "That is where our time, energy, and other resources ought to be invested."
ReplyDeleteI need to better understand this, though. Consider the case of John the Baptist, who was the second best preacher of his day, behind Jesus. He proclaimed the arrival of Jesus, but then he had a notion that he needed to tell the king that he committed adultery, and was executed for it. One might imagine John instead working tirelessly in the fields, continuing to talk about Jesus, saying the Herod was not worthy of his time.
Perhaps this was really a case of God in His sovereignty taking measures to ensure that the spotlight was on Jesus, and that John, his mission accomplished, did not share this spotlight with the Lord?
John preached repentance! He preached the Gospel! He pointed people to Jesus Christ, whether it be the "common" people or the king! Similarly, we are to preach the Gospel to all creation, exclaiming with John, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
ReplyDelete"And with many other words John exorted the people and preached the good news to them. But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison." Luke 18-20
ReplyDeleteAs you say, John always operated within the framework of spreading the good news about Jesus Christ. In rebuking Herod, he would have done so by pointing out the sin, but would not have simply left it there, he would have explained the pathway of repentence and saving faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
There must be some today who have taken a stand on moral issues, but have done so without adequately pointing people to the Lord. They must be viewing the moral issue as an end in itself. Perhaps some secular arguments are being mixed in as reasons to vote a certain way.
It is spiritually healthy to question whether or not we are rightly interpreting God's Word. I appreciate learning that there are Christian leaders who are reevaluating where they, as shepherds, are leading the flock. And what about the responsibility of those within the flock? "They know the voice of the Shepherd and follow where He leads." I think that the flock needs to spend more time discerning the Shepherd's voice. For example, I appreciate the insights of many Christian leaders: Dr. Dobson, John MacArthur, and Pastor Matt to name only three. But none of those shepherds knows God's specific plan for me. By necessity, they must speak to the masses and teach what generally ought to reflect the walk of a believer. But the Christian walk of the "eye" is going to be different than the walk of the "ear". I, as an individual believer, must daily be in communication with my PERSONAL Lord and Savior to carry out the only-I-can-do-this responsibilities that my Shepherd has called me to do. I am part of the forest, but I'm still a unique tree. I must bloom where God has planted me, and that will be different than others. Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, was called by God to serve in "government". Daniel was called to serve in "government". John the Baptist was called to speak out against those in "government". Each man served the same God. Let us each be in prayer to our Heavenly Shepherd AND listen to our earthly shepherds to discern what God might be telling us through them.
ReplyDelete"The Christian influence in America is eroding. The only way to regain it in a manner that is "truly effective and God-honoring is through the faithful proclamation of the Gospel. That is where our time, energy, and other resources ought to be invested. Political activism can never accomplish what the preaching of the cross alone can do, which is to bring people to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."
ReplyDeleteThis paragraph more than effectively nails this topic down and also describes in elaborate detail my personal position on this matter. I couldn't agree with you more Pastor Matt!
Honestly, we could discuss ad infinitum the metaphysics of our role in building and stabilizing morality within local and national government(s). However, without a clear and proper understanding of "what" our role actually should be in shaping our government, that conversation will miss the mark with great precision every time. Furthermore, If the answer to the "what" question is "primarily launching activism that moves government to produce and enforce morality through legislation" then we are not focusing on what our roles as Christians on this planet should really be. Immoral men cannot uphold moral standards in a lasting way. Sure, they might respond with enough pressure in certain areas but there is no real power there to change anything. In the end those efforts will be futile. Even if we sign a million petitions and stand unified as Christians against immoral legislation, we are still investing time and energy into the fruitless if that is our sole focus.
John Adams aptly stated, “Our Constitution was designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other…Free government rests upon public and private morality.”
I once read that It is not government that has failed; it’s the church that has failed to be the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13). Once we cease to win the hearts of men, it is inevitable that ungodly men will make their way into leadership and take the country with them.
The Gospel alone has the power to fight and win this battle that has raged ever so violently throughout history. The Gospel alone has the power to defeat secular governance replete with faulty and immoral legislation. The Gospel alone must be used to stop the moral fabric of our world from unraveling. The Gospel alone can foster and produce Godly men who will lead in such a way as to display and proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all things.
Christians should most certainly and primarily focus on getting the Gospel to the lost and dying so that they can rise up with a true power in Christ, through Christ and by Christ that will creating lasting change that will glorify the name of our great God and savior for evermore.
Christians are right when they have an accurate view of sin.
ReplyDeleteFor example:
Abortion is sin.
Homosexuality is sin.
Not serving God alone is sin.
Gluttony is sin.
Working on the Sabbath is sin.
The problem I see is when Christians make the fight against sin strictly a political issue. Christians are not contending for the faith by making all citizens abide by Christian principles. Having control of a country and the upper hand in the culture has never been mandated in Scripture. So why fight for it so adamantly?
That fight for superiority replaces the proper Christian influence: living the Gospel.
We should probably remember that some of our perceptions of events are controlled by the media.
ReplyDelete