Category Archives: Politics

The Cultural Implications of the Great Commission

November 15, 2012 By in Culture, Existentialism, Great Commission, Kingdom of God, Politics, Prophetic, Redemption, Society, Sovereignty 14 Comments
The Cultural Implications of the Great Commission

Rob Moley, in his blog Restore the Word, wrote yesterday on “The Great Commission: Discipling Individuals or Nations?”.

In it, he says this about the Great Commission:

Rather than being a command to influence nations with the principles and truths of God’s kingdom, the logic of the command in Matt. 28:19-20 is to make disciples from every nation. Then, as ambassadors of God’s kingdom, these disciples are able to influence all aspects of society, and God willing, even disciple whole nations.

His point is that the Great Commission is about transforming individuals into disciples who obey all that Christ commands, who in turn transform the world around them.

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Does Jesus Want You to Vote?

March 5, 2012 By in Courage, Culture, Politics, Post-Modernity, Society, State, Virtue 17 Comments
Does Jesus Want You to Vote?

I may be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, but the precinct where God has me live and vote is here in Virginia.

Because of my citizenship in Christ’s Kingdom…

Because the Lord rose triumphantly from the grave and declared that “all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me”…

And because of His concurrent command in Matt. 28 to therefore go transform all “nations” (the Greek word is “ethne”, which actually means cultures)…

I take the time to understand the issues and the candidates – and then vote.

Christian Isolationists

Unfortunately, there are those within the Christian community who discourage us from extending the blessing of Christ’s Kingdom into in the civic life of our nation.

Vote Your Values, Vote Your Faith

They have embraced post-modern isolationism, and think the Kingdom of God is some insular enclave of believers who should just focus on “spiritual” matters and each other.

Some have even gone so far as to rebuke us if we don’t join in their retreat from Christ’s command that we become transformationally engaged in our nation and culture.

I don’t know about them, but the Jesus I know and love – and whose passion courses through my veins – is big enough to embrace all of life. He calls me to bring illuminating light to my culture and flavoring salt to my nation.

In essence, the Christian isolationists of our day deny Christ’s comprehensive Lordship over all creation and all spheres of human endeavor.

Lord of All

In contrast, Scripture makes it clear that the institution of civil government – as imperfect as it may be today and as imperfect as it was when the Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean world of the New Testament – is ordained by God.

That doesn’t mean God ordains the evil of abusive government power, but it does mean that civil government nonetheless is an essential component of God’s intended order – and, when it operates properly as He intended, it is a good thing and becomes blessing.

Likewise, the Lord says that governing officials – even those who were part of Roman’s domination – are to be “ministers of God“. (See, e.g., Rom. 13:1-7)

In that same passage, He tells us that government and government officials have a proper role to play in His providence: To uphold justice, protect the innocent, and restrain evil.

I want to see justice upheld, the innocent protected, and evil restrained – and therefore refuse to surrender my delegated authority as a citizen of God’s Kingdom those who want to use government for other agendas.

And so I vote.

The Lord also admonishes us that: “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.” (Prov. 29:2)

I want to see people rejoice by supporting righteous (even if not perfect) governance, and I care enough to want to stop the burden of wicked rule.

And so I vote.

Radical Love

Regardless of who you support, and regardless of the fact that there are never perfect choices, it is time to stop groaning and to start bringing the blessings of God into the civic life of our nation by caring enough to vote.

If your Jesus is fractured and thus not Lord of all…

If He is indifferent to government and its proper function, despite saying otherwise in scripture…

If He has called you to retreat into post-modern isolationism…

If your faith is too small to believe that God can impact civil government as He people affirm His providence even there…

Then by all means, don’t vote. That just means my vote will count all the more.

But for me, I affirm the radical proclamation of His Lordship over all things – including civil government.

And I love Him and those around me enough to want His intended blessings of righteousness even in the civil arena.

As an act of love, I therefore will do my part by voting even when our choices are imperfect (as they always will be short of His return) – and trust God for the rest.

My Jesus is yet sovereign over history and the course of nations!

If that’s the Jesus you know, love and serve, then please join me – as a citizen of God’s Kingdom in the precinct where He’s placed you – by voting your values and voting your faith.

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For a related blog, see The Growing Idolatry of Civil Government.

Herman Cain

November 9, 2011 By in America, Culture, Politics, Sex Abuse, Society 6 Comments
Herman Cain

I’m a generally conservative Republican, so it pains me to see presidential candidate Herman Cain stumble. But even more so, I am appalled at the blogs and comments supporting Mr. Cain from folks who, I suspect, were on President Clinton like white on rice when allegations first surfaced about him.

Herman Cain

As Christians, we must speak truth to power, but with integrity and without applying double standards!

I’ve seen this same phenomena in pastoral sex abuse cases that I’ve handled. Folks will defend a pastor who – under the Biblical standard of two or three witnesses like we now have with Mr. Cain – is a confirmed sexual predator, simply because they like him or he helped them in the past. The fact is, sexual predators of all stripes are the most charming, charismatic, and capable people I’ve ever met!

Let me repeat that: Sexual predators are the MOST CHARMING, CHARISMATIC AND CAPABLE PEOPLE you, too, will ever meet.

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Government Run Amuck

August 6, 2011 By in America, Bondage, Courage, Politics, State, Tyranny 1 Comment
Government Run Amuck

S&P downgraded the United States last night.

I hope and pray that this will serve as a wake-up call for the Church to realize that Biblical precepts can’t be mocked if any nation wants to survive. If God’s people don’t begin to understand, articulate and follow those precepts, then there is no hope.

One of those precepts is that God has ordained certain roles and responsibilities for civil government, and Scripture has lots to say about how individuals, families, the Church, the State and voluntary associations are to function.

However, there is not a single verse or example in all of Scripture which lends any credence to the view that God has given civil government the right or responsibility to re-distribute wealth or provide for our individual health or income. See The Growing Idolatry of Civil Government.

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The Growing Idolatry of Civil Government

July 17, 2009 By in America, Church, Faith, Family, Liberalism, Obama, Politics, Self Government, State, Truth 14 Comments
The Growing Idolatry of Civil Government

“The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” — Margaret Thatcher.

Some may think we’ve not yet sunk into the clutches of socialism — Unexpected Slipwhich happens when we have a state-run economy. But consider this: In 2009, federal and state governments will consume 40 percent of the United States’ TOTAL gross domestic product. This means that nearly half of all the wealth generated in America this year will be taken by civil government to fund its ever expanding control over more and more of our lives and our economy. As a result, we have run out of money while undercutting the means for producing future wealth.

Yet the federal government seeks to expand its reach even more.

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When I Fell In Love

July 3, 2009 By in America, Epiphany, Faith, Liberalism, Politics, State 4 Comments
When I Fell In Love

It’s the 4th of July weekend here in the United States, and I was thinking about the first time I truly fell in love with America.

Constitution

It was during my first trip overseas on my own, at the ripe old age of 21, after a year of grad school at Westminster Theological Seminary. I was sitting in Trafalgar Square in London on Independence Day, after more than a month of backpacking through the British Isles. It had been a grand trip of personal discovery as I hitchhiked from town to town, ate my meals in open air markets, slept on church steps, and occasionally visited youth hostels to take a shower. During my stay in Scotland, someone had given me the book “When Free Men Shall Stand,” and I had been reading it off and on during my travels.

As my trip was coming to a close and I was hanging out in London waiting for a stand-by airline seat home, I finished the book while sitting in that park. For the first time, I started looking back at America through the filter of another culture and began thinking about what made America unique. Many, like me that day, never really discover America until they’ve had the opportunity to leave her.

At that time in the United Kingdom, Thatcher had not yet been elected Prime Minister and the Liberal Party was wrecking that nation with policies that destroyed personal responsibility and initiative. Even as a twenty-one year old, the culture and the people, by and large, struck me as bland, crass and dominated by attitudes of entitlement. As money was being sucked out of the economy to feed that sense of personal entitlement at the hand of big brother, hope and opportunity were dying.

As a result, the Brits had lost their spark and zest for life. It finally was dawning on me that those qualities are vital for any people. I also was beginning to realize that those qualities had persevered in America because of the ideals that sparked the revolution of 1776 and then the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Those ideals, in turn, were gleaned by our Founding Fathers from Biblical principles that gave birth to the first Constitutional Republic to grace the earth in nearly 3000 years (since dying out when Israel foolishly chose a King rather than continuing as a constitutional republic under the Decalogue through locally chosen representative leaders).

I very much had been a liberal activist until then, but started weeping that day as I suddenly realized how I had taken for granted – and been ignorant about – the principles in our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. I also began to appreciate how truly revolutionary the core value of our Founding Fathers had been:  Mainly, that the liberty to pursue virtue requires limited civil government, and that the greatest danger to virtue and liberty is a government which assumes the prerogatives of individual responsibility under the guise of benevolence.

I came back a changed man.

Are there any other 4th of July stories out there, or tales about your own political and cultural epiphanies, as we celebrate Independence Day?

(c) Copyright 2009, Fulcrum Ministries. All Rights Reserved.

Fashionable Scorn

January 30, 2009 By in America, Culture, Faith, Politics, Self Government, Society, State, Tyranny, Worldview 2 Comments
Fashionable Scorn

The following is an op-ed I wrote and the Baltimore Sun published on December 3, 1986. I was in my late twenties at that time and leading the main pro-life, pro-family organization in Maryland, which I started six years earlier and had over 15,000 active members with offices next to the General Assembly in Annapolis. I like to say I’m now a refugee from Maryland living the good life in Virginia. I no longer describe myself as “fundamentalist”, at least regarding my attitudes, even though I strongly adhere to the essentials of the faith.

I’m re-publishing the op-ed because it’s interesting to see how much has changed, yet how much remains the same!

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