American Christians Seem to be Missing the Point, Part 2

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

As I noted in our previous article in this series, this past Sunday, a missionary from Frontline Missionary was the guest speaker and he had some extremely important things to say as we begun to unfold in our first part in this series. We noted that a great many Christians throughout the world are currently undergoing great persecution, often to the point of death, which for them is wonderful release I’m sure as they are translated through death into the arms of Jesus in eternity. Do we all look forward to that or are there many things that keep us bound to this life?

This particular missionary was very well-traveled and had been in many foreign countries, often worshiping with Christians there. In many cases, there are no official church buildings. Christians meet wherever they can and in at least some cases, they’ve met in the woods for years with makeshift tables to hold the Lord’s Supper. They normally stand during the entire service and this is throughout all four seasons, even when there is snow on the ground and all around them.

We American Christians are so soft, it really is pitiful, isn’t it? We honestly are self-preoccupied and alert only to the dangers that we think affect us. How many of us would be able to worship in the woods in the cold of winter with snow on the trees and ground? How many of us would do that every week and stand during the entire time shivering in the cold? Why do they do that? Because it is an underground church since it is against the law to be part of a Christian church in that country.

You see while many Christians are confidently thumping their chests saying they won’t submit if the government in America makes them give up their guns, the truth is that the only time we cannot and dare not submit to the government is when they try to sanction our Christian testimony and times of worship. Even during the first century when Rome attempted to outlaw or forbid the gathering of Christians, Christians still gathered and they used the sign of the fish often quickly drawn in the sand (and just as quickly obliterated when need be!), to show other Christians were Christians were meeting. Christians in America are too proud, too confident, too strong in their own strength. When real persecution comes from government agencies, these Christians will pick up weapons and be killed for their trouble. I wonder what Jesus will say about their testimony as they stand before Him?

One of the things this missionary also told us was that “more Muslims have come to Christ since 1970 than in all previous 1,200 years!” Beyond this, he shared the wonderful news that “an estimated 10,000 Chinese people are coming to Christ daily!” What can we say to these truths except that God is at work in some of the most dark, evil nations in the world! Didn’t Jesus say He (not we, but HE), would build His Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it? (Matthew 16:18) It would seem that the darker it is, the greater His glory! If this comes to America, it will be for His glory as well as the refinement of Christians throughout this nation.

This truth, this reality is that Christians were never commissioned to build His Church at all! Yet, this is what Dominionists, Christian Reconstructionists and others are busy attempting to do by working to change society. Jesus said HE would take care of building His Church. Our job is to spread the word about His Church!

The missionary also made this statement: “Sharing the gospel is one beggar telling another beggar where the bread is.”

That, in a nutshell is the whole of our job! Someone at one point told us where the bread is and we went and ate of it. God opened our eyes just as He (and He alone), opened the eyes of the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43). Once the thief’s eyes were opened, he ate the bread. Our job then is to tell other “beggars” where the Bread of Life can be found. It is God’s job to open their eyes. We can convince no one to turn from sin, to see the Light, to understand that the Bread of Life is truly life indeed. We have no capacity to do that, yet we convince ourselves that part of the Father’s business is for His children here on earth to work to change society. All this does is try to make people conform to something from the outside. It does nothing for the person on the inside.

Did Prohibition change people’s hearts where alcohol was concerned? Has the “war on drugs” changed the way people think about drugs or freed them from their addictions? No, in both of these situations, fallen people do not change because they cannot change. There is nothing empowering them within so that they can change. Prohibition merely forced alcohol underground and actually birthed organized crime. Had Prohibition not happened, one can only wonder if names like Al Capone, Baby Face Nelson, and all the others would have become household names. It’s very doubtful.

Laws do not change people. They simply provide guidelines that law-abiding people will normally follow. Criminals don’t and won’t follow them. Laws simply tell them if they do something against the law and get caught, there’s a price to pay and most criminals are willing to take that chance, doing everything they can to avoid getting caught. This is also why more gun-control laws don’t work either. Laws act on the person from outside and have no ability to change from within. Only God in Christ can change someone from within. Our job – and our only job – is to introduce people to Jesus, to share the location of the bread from one beggar to another.

But Satan has created this highly complex, interwoven system that the Bible refers to as “Babylon,” and it is highly addictive. We first learn of a type of Babylon in Genesis 10-11 with the Tower of Babel, headed up by Nimrod, a mighty hunter of men. We later learn of the Kingdom of Babylon, headed up by Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel and even though that particular physical kingdom was eventually overthrown and replaced by the Medo-Persian Empire, the system of Babylon has remained. In fact, we read in the last book of the Bible that this system that undergirds society will be ultimately and entirely overthrown (Revelation 18).

There in Revelation 18, God describes Babylon as a wicked city. But in truth, the system of Babylon, whether secular or religious is something that permeates this world since Genesis 10-11 and surely, it is with us today. Satan has used this system to wreak havoc and spread evil throughout the world. He has also used it to sidetrack Christians.

I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues…’ (Revelation 18:4; NASB)

I know some Christians who believe this call is to come out of something physically. Certainly, it can mean that, however, there is a deeper understanding here. Even though Christians might physically leave a place, it really doesn’t necessarily mean that they have totally divorced themselves from that place. In this case, I believe God calls us to not be part of the Babylonian system whether secular or religious; the way it works and the way people dedicated to that system think and act. But because we live in America, land of the free, home of the brave, with all the rights and privileges afforded under the Constitution, it has become exceedingly easy for Christians to simply be part of a system that God has allowed to be set up by Satan to further his ends toward world domination, but does not want us to participate in. I’m talking about coveting the system of Babylon, living as though we are servants to it. Certainly, we’re in the world and we must live and work within a system that is corrupt though we ourselves must endeavor to remain free from that corruption. This can only happen when we understand that we are not of this world and that our citizenship is in heaven. We are here behind enemy lines and as such, our calling is higher than the world’s.

It is impossible for people to have divided loyalties. Jesus indicated this when He said a person cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24). Divided loyalties will always cause a schism within the person. He/she will be torn two ways. God wants us to be focused on Him and Him alone. This means we must always have the Great Commission in the forefront of our minds. Anything less than this (patriotism, Christian Reconstructionism, Dominionism, etc.), will always pull us away from the Great Commission and toward concerns regarding America, our rights, and “saving this land” (an impossibility if the Bible is correct).

But is this what Christians in other countries are concerned about? Is this why they are persecuted, often to their deaths? I am coming to the firm conviction that Satan has blinded the minds of many Christians today because they are far more militant in their belief that they must do whatever they can to save America, while the lost die into eternity all around them. They seem to have little to no concern for these people whom they view as “enemies” not of the cross of Christ, but of America.

Brothers and sisters, this ought not to be, yet it is how things are for many Christians in America.

We’ll be back to wrap this up next time and then we’ll get back to “GABA, GABA, Doo.”

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective