Faith and Politics

By R.L. Malcolm

A pastor recently asked his congregation why we as Christians should concern ourselves with politics. His remark was specific as to why we as Christians know who is running for Governor in Virginia? He indicated that the knowledge of who was running for Governor in Virginia shouldn't have any bearing on our lives. In the literal sense he is correct as we are in Colorado and not in Virginia and if that's all he is saying then yes I can see his point to some degree. However this reminds me of a conversation I had with my little brother several years ago. This was while I was still in the military and Bush was president at the time if I recall. Elections were coming up and he didn't see any necessity in really looking into or caring about politics since we as Christians don't consider this world as our home anyway. While I agree with him that this world is not our home, I also have differing views as to our responsibilities while we are here, and I discussed those views with him. Specifically that our savior commissioned us to go into all the world and make disciples of all creatures. In keeping with that mandate we as citizens of this great nation that God gave us, and that was founded on Judaeo-Christian values have a moral and spiritual duty to preserve the nation that has allowed us to spread God's word, and to preserve the

When it comes to politics, it is very true that no politics in and of themselves will save us or our country. But to disregard politics and consider them of no value or beneath us, is to ignore the primary vehicle by which our rights to practice our faith freely will be curtailed and eventually eliminated. Yes we need to pray for the salvation of our politicians and for God's guiding hand on our Nations leaders, but just as importantly we must be willing to step out of our comfort zones and stand up politically for those rights that are being destroyed while we arrogantly ignore them as somehow beneath our notice. Else one day we look down to realize that those freedoms that were so desperately fought for, whose existence was paid for with the blood of thousands of patriots lay broken and shattered at our feet, and looking up from those broken remains we look straight into the barrel of the pistol of repression and dictatorship that our freedoms had so recently protected us from. I have no doubt that in that day God can still protect us and bring many to his name, however to squander the freedom to share our faith now and to defend our ability to do so is irresponsible at best and shortsighted and arrogant at worst. How would we have even known the freedoms we hold dear had our forefathers not made the difficult decision to leave all they had known, trusting in God to bring them to a new world. Or had they not laid out our constitution that set onto paper those God given rights contained therein.

We have no certainty of when Christ will return nor of when or how long the end times will be. We in our arrogance have placed restrictions on God detailing what will and must happen and when, however God himself said that it would be as a thief in the night. We can speculate ad-nauseum on the signs and portents that indicate Christ's return but there is no absolute certainty nor will there be. One thousand years after Christ the fall of Byzantium seemed to herald the end, and in 1943 the world went to war a second time and Hitler was a shoe-in for an antichrist figure, but it wasn't the end.

It would be a travesty to give up on our country now and consign the future generations of our nation to bondage and slavery to overblown government control. All this just because we couldn't be bothered to look beyond the walls of our churches, our homes, or our workplaces into the gathering cesspools that our schools have become, and the building storm clouds of a government gone drunk on its own power. It is as heinous if not more so than the blind eye the German people turned towards the plight of the Jewish people. And just as in the days of Noah we are asleep and content to remain so, not only politically but spiritually. In all reality I agree with the pastor's sermon since it is a call to reach out and bring in the harvest while we still can, I only contend that let us not throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak. Let us continue to fight for our freedoms so that future generations can continue to spread God's word for however long God deems necessary, as that time frame is not ours to decide, but his.

R.L. Malcolm

1776Conservatist.com