Election Week Musings (5)

 

I’ve been putting off writing more on Election Week Musings, the burden and sorrow are great, and the subject matter is distasteful to me, but this is about more than an election, it is about the church’s fidelity to Jesus Christ, about our not loving the world (1 John 2:15ff), and about not being seduced by the things of the world, including worldly power. It is also about the purity of the church (2 Cor. 6:14 – 18), and about us knowing the difference between the Lamb of God and the beast that comes up out of the sea of Revelation 13:1. Let’s consider what John Piper wrote a few weeks ago:

 

“Actually, this is a long-overdue article attempting to explain why I remain baffled that so many Christians consider the sins of unrepentant sexual immorality (porneia), unrepentant boastfulness (alazoneia), unrepentant vulgarity (aischrologia), unrepentant factiousness (dichostasiai), and the like, to be only toxic for our nation, while policies that endorse baby-killing, sex-switching, freedom-limiting, and socialistic overreach are viewed as deadly.

 

“The reason I put those Greek words in parentheses is to give a graphic reminder that these are sins mentioned in the New Testament. To be more specific, they are sins that destroy people. They are not just deadly. They are deadly forever. They lead to eternal destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

 

They destroy persons (Acts 12:20–23). And through persons, they destroy nations (Jeremiah 48:29–31, 42).” John Piper

 

Like Piper, I have also been baffled. It is as if “Christians” have never read the Bible. Perhaps we have come to the place where the term “Evangelical” no longer means “Christian,” where it no longer means a commitment to the Bible and to proclaiming the Gospel? Of course I recognize that there are Evangelicals who are appalled by the sin they see, but when they do speak out, as John Piper did, they face swift retribution. While Piper is of such a standing that many of those who disagree with him have been careful in their responses, not everyone enjoys John Piper’s relative position of protection. The average pastor is risking his job if he questions the assumptions under which many Evangelicals live their lives and think about their nation and political and economic policies.

 

“Forgiveness through Christ is always possible where there is repentance and childlike trust in Jesus. But where humble repentance is absent, the sins condemn.

 

“The New Testament teaches that “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21) and that “those who practice such things deserve to die” (Romans 1:32).

 

“To which you may say, “So what? Rejecting Jesus as Lord also leads to death, but you are willing to vote for a non-Christian, aren’t you?” I am, assuming there is enough overlap between biblical uprightness and the visible outworking of his character and convictions.

 

“My point so far is simply to raise the stakes of what is outwardly modeled in leadership, so that Christians are given pause. It is not a small thing to treat lightly a pattern of public behaviors that lead to death.” John Piper

 

I don’t know where the idea originated that if a Christian and non-Christian are running for the same political office that we ought to vote for the Christian, but I consider that ill-advised thinking. Why would I not vote for the best qualified person? I have had more than one bad business experience with “Christian” business owners and “Christian” employees – usually because they thought they got a free pass because they were Christians. In fact, I often had to guard against “Christians” presuming that because I was also a Christian that I would hold them to a lesser standard than other employees or other business owners. I know that I am not the only one with this experience – I have heard it from other Christians and non-Christians.

 

Frankly, in government and politics I have seen more concern and compassion for others from those outside the white Evangelical community than from those within it – why would I vote for a “Christian” who cares more about “things” than people? Why would I vote for a “Christian” who doesn’t know the functional difference between the Bible and the U.S. Constitution, or between the Cross and the American flag?

 

If you are reacting against what you’re reading, then may I ask “Why?” If you call Jesus Christ Lord then you should be no more offended at what I’m writing than I should be offended should someone say to me, “Vickie is your wife, you need to be faithful to her. Your actions, your attention to other women, do not demonstrate faithfulness to Vickie.”

 

The Church of Jesus Christ is to be wedded to Jesus Christ and only to Jesus Christ; not to a nation, not to an economic system, not to a political party, and not to any other individual…including a president of the United States of America. When a segment of the professing church becomes so closely identified with a person or agenda outside the Bible, the Cross, and the Person of Jesus Christ that that element of the church is virtually indistinguishable with the outside person or agenda – that, my dear friends, is idolatry and spiritual adultery…that is a picture of the beast, the false prophet, and the great whore of Revelation. We need look no further for the “abomination of desolation” than our own hearts.

 

We who accuse others of insisting on “political correctness” have become masters of it ourselves! What irony! We who have taken the sword of political correctness will die by that very sword. We who are engaging in mutual assured destruction are blind to our own sin. We who functionally believe that “might makes right” have abandoned the holiness and virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In a broken world that needs peacemakers and reconcilers, we have become destroyers.

 

Yes, like John Piper, I am also baffled.

 

I’ll return to Piper’s article in the next post.