Posted on 03/09/2008 5:55:36 AM PDT by rhema
One thoughtful article on the internet observed that Bible-believing Christians have not achieved much in politics because they have not devoted themselves to the larger arena of cultural conflict. Politics mostly follows culture rather than leading it. The cultural idea that women have an alleged right to sexual "freedom" preceded the striking down of restrictions on abortion. A temporary victory in the voting booth does not reverse a downward moral trend driven by cultural gatekeepers in news media, entertainment, art, and education. Politics is not a cure-all.
So shall we train Christian people to take positions of power in education and the media? Such training is a good thing, and we should stretch our imaginations as to what God may do through us: "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). Faithful Christians already hold positions here and there in universities and in journalism. A number of Christians are doing good work in movies, and are to be commended for it.
But I fear that we may still fall into the trap of idolizing power. The power of the Christian faith is the power of the cross, power in human weakness, the power of God's love. Christian faith spread in the Roman Empire not by strategically placing Christians in the Roman Senate and in the aristocracy, but by people hearing God's good news—the "foolishness" of the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). Christianity spread by orphanages, by caring for the sick, and by returning good for evil.
Bible-believing faith is despised by The New York Times. And most university professors think that Bible-believing Christians are a danger to the future of America. So be it. Let us be content to strive to be faithful husbands and wives and parents and employees and students and neighbors and citizens where we are. If later God sees fit to exalt us to a position of power and responsibility, we may effectively use the godly skills that we have developed.
But for many of us, I suspect that this is a "day of small things." Our environment is in spiritual decline. Unless God brings widespread repentance and turning to the Lord, we may see more suffering, more cultural ugliness, more hostility to Christian principles rather than less. That should not keep us from joy in serving the Lord now, where He has put us, and from having a firm confidence in the blessing and mercy that God will give us even in the midst of cultural disaster. "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).
If cultural disasters come, suffering will come in their wake. We should be ready to bring God's good news to those who suffer emotional trauma as they see their former idols disintegrating in the disasters. "And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go" (Jeremiah 45:5).
Good word. Not the whole story, but a good word.
My belief in Christ and the Bible leads me to be skeptic of government.
Within twenty years Christians will face imprisonment for their beliefs. “Hate” laws will be applied as a means of indroctination. This era has been predicted in the Bible and will come to pass.
Get ready.
Hence my observation that the "political pendulum" does not average out to "zero position." It is a left biased pendulum.
It ALWAYS swings a little more to the left than it has on the previous cycle, and NEVER returns to it's former right most extreme before reversing again.
The result is a constant leftward (downward moral) trend.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
My son lost his job because he is a Christian.
He worked in a bank, and of course little of his job has to do with religion. One day, the office decided to buy a group ticket on the state lottery that had grown quite large. My son does not gamble and that is when the office workers learned he was Christian.
He lives and works in a heavily”blue” office, in “blue” city in a “blue” state. Soon after the lottery ticket incident, the other workers began sabotaging his work, and a few months later he was fired.
I agree with you. The Marxists and their Useful Idiots **hate** Christians. It is visceral! They would kill us if they could get away with it. I fear that in a few years we all be living in catacombs.
You are so right. We ought to please God rather than men.
And it was persecution that scattered Christians all over the Roman Empire and well beyond it.
“Within twenty years Christians will face imprisonment for their beliefs.”
Yep. Or for not accepting a national identity card. Or implanted chip.
” I fear that in a few years we all be living in catacombs.”
- - and exchanging goods because we won’t be allowed to buy or sell.
It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
3: Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
4: The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
5: It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. Ecclesisates 7:2 -
Don’t forget Romans 13.
But I'm not suggesting we refuse to pay taxes or disrespect laws. What I am advocating is that we use our God-given (as per Rom. 13) rights to advocate policies that keep the capacity for government to do evil to the bare minimum, and vote for candidates that agree with those policies.
And there comes a time when it is appropriate to violate the law as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did, as Martin Luther King Jr. did, as Martin Luther did, as our Founders did.
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