Election Week Musings (6)

 John Piper writes in his article, Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin:

 

“In fact, I think it is a drastic mistake to think that the deadly influences of a leader come only through his policies and not also through his person.

 

“Flagrant boastfulness, vulgarity, and factiousness are not only self-incriminating; they are nation-corrupting…

 

“This is true not only because flagrant boastfulness, vulgarity, immorality, and factiousness are self-incriminating, but also because they are nation-corrupting. They move out from centers of influence to infect whole cultures. The last five years bear vivid witness to this infection at almost every level of society.

 

“This truth is not uniquely Christian: “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). “Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Whether you embrace that company in your house or on social media, it corrupts. There are sins that “lead people into more and more ungodliness” as “their talk [spreads] like gangrene” (2 Timothy 2:16–17).

 

“There is a character connection between rulers and subjects. When the Bible describes a king by saying, “He sinned and made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 14:16), it does not mean he twisted their arm. It means his influence shaped the people. That’s the calling of a leader. Take the lead in giving shape to the character of your people. So it happens. For good or for ill.”  John Piper

 

I am incredulous at the dismissal of Piper by many on this point. We saw this in the 2016 election, and we continue to see it. Can we not read and “see” the Scriptures? Just as truth and light and wisdom are personified, so are deceit and darkness and the counsels of wickedness (see Proverbs Chapter 9).

 

Consider these personifications:

 

“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods…He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers…he will magnify himself above them all..” Daniel 11:36 – 37.

 

“There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies…and he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God” Revelation 13:5 – 6.

 

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself about every so-called god or object or worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3 – 4.

 

To those who discount John Piper’s concern, please explain to me the apparent error in the Bible in the above verses, for if a ruler does not affect his people, and peoples beyond, then the above passages are foolish. (Of course Piper supplied other passages, but I want to take this to another level because of the blindness and deception prevalent in the professing church.)

 

Note what follows in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 – 12, “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in wickedness.” As Piper outlined in the beginning of his article (see previous post), what we are dealing with is sin, evil, and death-dealing wickedness.

 

We have Jezebel, Balaam, and the Nicolaitans in our midst and we arrogantly proclaim that we are “alive” and rich and have need of nothing (Revelation chapters 2 – 3). If Christ did not tolerate apostasy in the church 2,000 years ago, what makes us think that He will tolerate it today?

 

What happens when there are those who will not bow down to the images of the world (Daniel 3, Revelation 13)? What happens when those who are faithful to the True and Living God worship Him and not the images of the world and Satan?

 

Much of the American church is like Colonel Nicholson, played by Alec Guinness, in the Bridge over the River Kwai, who is transformed into an agent of the enemy, fanatically intent on building a bridge to defeat his very own people. Colonel Nicholson came to himself before it was too late…I’m not sure about the church in my own nation.