This is not a post about a talent contest. It’s about the contest for the soul of the American Christian church and it is a contest that the Church is losing.
Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, recently received a certified letter from a family member accusing him of being possessed by demons and being in league with Satan. The evidence for this? Representative KInzinger voted to hold Donald Trump accountable for his actions inciting the Capitol riot. He didn’t deny Jesus, he denied Donald.
Prominent Christian author Eric Metaxas says we should fight to the last drop of blood to overturn the election and put Donald Trump back in the White House.
On January 6’th of this year, people in the US Capitol were singing Christian songs and putting up Christian symbols while building a gallows for hanging the Vice President for not breaking the law at the request of the President.
The not very reverend any more Franklin Graham recently compared the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump for incitement of the assault on Congress to Judas betraying Christ for money. Donald Trump as a surrogate for Jesus.
Say What?
The Christian church in this country is being eaten alive from the inside by political idolatry and it’s not by accident. Pastors and so called Christian leaders are encouraging it. Trump is not the cause. It’s been going on for decades. He is the most obvious personification of it. Christians who have been idolizing Republican politics for years focused that unholy fixation on a single person instead, thereby making it even more obvious that their professed master was not number one in their lives.
How did this happen? I think it has two main causes; a defective theology coupled with a lust for power. The defective theology says that we Christians are going to be held responsible for how other people behave. We are supposed to do everything in our power to enact God’s laws as our nation’s laws and send police to force people to act like Christians think they should. On the right this says that God will punish us if we vote for a politician that favors legal abortion or gay marriage and on the left this says that God will punish us if our government doesn’t take enough of other peoples’ money to help the poor. This false doctrine is shouted out from pulpits all over the country.
This is false doctrine. At no time in Jesus’ ministry did he ask his followers to petition the Roman government to enforce God’s laws. He did not call people to political action. His charge was to preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations. Make disciples, not make people act like disciples. The only time we are responsible for the sins of others is if we cause them to sin. This is not the same as failing to prevent their sin. Causing their sin is putting them in situations or telling them lies such that sin seems the only recourse, like what President Trump and his enablers in the media did after the 2020 election. We also commit sin when we approve of the sins of others, something many Christians did every day during the previous four years, telling themselves that this sin was justified because of the larger calling of preventing other peoples’ sin. More wrong action based on false doctrine.
Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors, love our enemies, and spread the Gospel. Spreading the Gospel isn’t just talking about it, it’s living it too. You can’t convince others of a truth you aren’t living. We act according to what we believe, regardless of what we say we believe. When we condone sin in service of political aims, we are showing that we believe those political aims are more important than what Jesus told us to do. When we treat the neighbors that disagree with us as enemies that we need to be protected from rather than lost people we need to love and testify to, we are denying our call. Our sin nature finds the idea of using political power to force conformity on our neighbors much more attractive than the hard work of living out the Gospel in front of them and drawing them to Christ with love. Thus the lust for power over our fellows trumps the demands made on us by what we purport to believe.
Being a Christian doesn’t just mean believing in Jesus. All the people that opposed him during his ministry could see that he existed. As the apostle James said, even demons believe in God. A Christian is a disciple of Christ, someone who believes that Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be; the human incarnation of the living God. He said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) There is nothing in that chapter that says “unless you’re busy owning the lib’s”. If I think anything in this life justifies ignoring the commands of Jesus, I am not a disciple and therefore not a Christian. I am associating with Christianity as a cultural identification. Christianity isn’t something you join, like a club. It’s a life that you choose, or that chooses you depending on what side of the free will disagreement you stand. If I am a Republican or Democrat or even an American first and a Christian second, I am not a Christian at all. The Bible is clear on this. The first commandment is first for a reason. If you don’t obey it, the rest doesn’t matter.
Perhaps the worst effect of this public idolatry is that it makes evangelism nearly impossible. The churches are so busy trying to make Republicans and Democrats that no one takes them seriously should they even attempt to make disciples. I asked a pastor friend if he thought that his political rhetoric might be inhibiting his ability to attract people to the Church. He told me conservative Republican politics was fully Bible based and if people didn’t get that then it was on them. I am sure that would come as quite a surprise to the 2.1 billion Christians that don’t live in the U.S. Church congregations are encouraged to detest the people that are supposed to be their mission field. The only way to reverse the cultural changes that Christians disapprove of is by winning over people’s hearts and minds and instead we insult them, demean them and try to gain power over their lives by political means. Spit in someone’s face and then tell them about Jesus. That will work.
None of this is to say that Christians shouldn’t get involved in politics. We are to engage with the world. What I am saying is the organized church should stay out of politics. It doesn’t advance God’s kingdom for God’s people to be seen as primarily politicians. When a person’s heart belongs to God, their political engagement will follow that lead. We don’t need to demand that they follow a particular party or particular politician. We lead them to Jesus and let the Holy Spirit be their guide. I’ve been having an email conversation on this topic with a former pastor and good friend. He said, “At the end of the day, Biblical Christians should feel ill at ease in any political party because no party will ever line up fully with Scripture”. This is true. If you are feeling completely satisfied with your political party and are willing to sacrifice anything to ensure your party’s victory, you might want to take a look at your priorities. If your first priority is loving Jesus and keeping His commands, you might want to focus your attention on addressing the sin and corruption in the group you have chosen to associate with instead of making excuses for it and pointing at the other side.
