There are gripping stories in the Old Testament: From Creation in Genesis to the selection of Abraham; the murder of Cain; the slow but determined miraculous freeing of the Israelites from captivity in Egypt; the touching story of the loving loyalty of Ruth; God’s selection of David - his sin, his humility, his obedience, and reverence for God; the continual failure of His Chosen People to obey Him; and then the New Covenant and the rejection of God’s benevolent provision for His People.
It was a most serious era when God sent Jesus to save the Hebrews. Jewish leaders not only failed to receive His stringent rebuke but in an arrogant retribution sought His death. It was at their urging that Pontius Pilot condemned Him to be crucified. A few decades following the death of Jesus the Temple was demolished, the people were scattered, and God‘s blessing was redirected.
When the mantle was passed to Christians the power of the Gospel and the primacy of The One True God posed a threat to the tyrants of the world and Christians were tortured, crucified, thrown to the Lions, and otherwise persecuted. While all this was going on God continued to fertilize His Church and Christians grew in number and finally in influence. At times even kings acknowledged God’s Laws and vowed to uphold them.
America was a nation of Christians with a government that gave tacit support to His legal system and granted Christians freedom to worship as they pleased, in spite of failing to cite the primacy of the Christian God in its official documents. From the beginning, however, malevolent forces began to seek control and the incremental deterioration has transformed the face of our nation.
Much of this loss of righteousness must be attributed to the weakness of the Christian Church. Today, the life and death seriousness that characterized Biblical Christianity has been replaced with a light hearted charade that passes for Godly devotion.
When David spared the life of King Saul in spite of his deadly intentions, he did so in reverence for God not because of any great love for King Saul. David’s fear of God was such that he dared not lay a hand on God’s anointed. When Christians forsook the doctrine of Godly selection they lost the deference due those whom God chooses. The leaders of the ancient nation of Israel were accorded this deference but now since the Arminian heresy has defiled American Christians they no longer warrant this distinction.
American Christianity has become a great competition between different ministries and different denominations. Instead of the obedience God demands and the persecution he promises, Christians participate in the “sacrifice of praise” and are rewarded with holy goose bumps. Instead of using God’s Laws to measure progress Christian leaders fall into King David’s sin by using a numerical measuring stick disregarding the Biblical doctrine that our God plus two or three gathered together is enough.
The pragmatic approach to the preaching of Christianity has resulted in a truncated Gospel where Christians select a gathering where they get their ego massaged, get “fed”, and properly entertained. It is a seeker friendly, positive gospel that has little to do with perpetuating and expanding God’s Holiness in His creation but everything to do with teachings that are carefully selected not to intimidate anyone while at the same time displaying serendipitous insights into Scripture.
Then there are the miracles; the healings, the deliverances, the conversions, the increases in wealth, the fortuitous happenings, the healed marriages, the solved personal problems, etc, etc. God does all these things but should the receipt of these blessings be the primary thrust in the life of God’s Chosen People? Could the promise of miracles be part of the game to increase church membership? Is it a distortion designed to elevate the preacher at the expense of God’s Kingdom or is it an egregious theological error that allows the Creator to become a servant to His creation? Or is it all of these?
The squabble inside the Constitution Party provides a case in point. America’s Constitution was never designed to support The One True God. It was in essence a secular document that never mentioned The Savior.
Failure to enshrine Christ was followed by provision for a polytheistic culture in direct apposition to God’s recorded attempts to protect His people from religious pollution. Though the majority of the inhabitants of our nation were always nominally Christian, the government was never under obligation to abide by Biblical legal standards and though there was a subliminal adherence to Christian principles it was pragmatic from the beginning. When Christians lend their support to the Constitution they are forsaking Biblical doctrine in favor of a secular document.
I voted for the Constitution Party candidates, Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin, in the last election. I will not, however, make that mistake again.
Though I am a great fan of Pastor Baldwin’s informative writings I am an opponent of his Dispensational, Pre-Millennial theology which is a large part of the problem with Christianity in America. This is the heresy that has allowed the bulk of America’s Christians to welcome world government and Jewish supremacy as necessary precedents to the imminent Second Coming.
The theological vacuum of Dispensational doctrine is the source of much of the dissention that has erupted among intelligent and well-meaning Christians within the Constitution Party. Even participants who understand God’s intent for His creation are willing to sacrifice His principles for humanly attainable goals.
When Christians forsook the robust theology of Calvinism and replaced it with varieties of human opinions they divided the Body of Christ and placed it on the sacrificial alter of secularism.
Today, as our nation sinks into debauchery and world government most Christians fail to put forth enough righteous resistance to warrant persecution.
Christianity is not about building large churches or taking over the government. God seeks obedient followers willing to adhere to His Laws and support His dominion through them. He seeks them in the family, in the church, and in the government. Righteousness involves obedience and obedience requires Law.
When will Christians stop playing the game of Christianity and become serious in their support of the Living God?