Politics

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For some time now, I have been trying to figure out what the Christian's approach to involvment in today's political environment should be. I am pulled in two different directions. I very much desire for our country to operate in a manner that is consistent with biblical values and honoring to the Lord. I have also seen the miraculous spreading of the gospel that has taken place under the most terrible state persecution.
This republic was founded on principles of freedom and responsibility. I see these things eroding and it makes me furious. We have leaders that seem to wish to remake these United States in their own image. They preach social justice, which is the polar opposite of the equal justice taught in the scriptures. I see people who have been turned into monsters by the lust for power. They say that we need them to protect us from evils like large companies and toys in happy meals. I desperately want a smaller, less intrusive government. I want lower taxes and less entitlement. I believe in personal responsibility, but also in a safety net. I think these things are what our founders had in mind. I also think that these things mirror biblical principles. We are to render only what is required unto Caesar. Proverbs speaks at length about hard work. Jesus commands us to love and care for the hurting. These are personal requirements placed on man by God. I am accountable to God, not Washington if I am not generous. If a rich man hoards his money I have a moral issue with him, not a legal one. These things I believe, and these things I feel obligated to fight for.
There is another side to the story. I have a great desire to see the good news of the forgiveness offered by Christ spread among all people. I want American Christians to have the chance to put their faith in a more serious context. I want God to be glorified. If you look across the globe today and back through time, most of the truly great revivals started under persecution. Their is something about suffering that is very near to the heart of God. The Bible talks about it being a blessing to partake in the pain of being attacked for Christ. Government and social oppression has historically been a fire that purifies and strengthens the church. Believers worldwide enter the underground church as lumps of iron ore and emerge as cold-rolled steel. In his book Tortured for Christ, Richard Wurmbrand writes about what he lived through in Romanian prisons. I read it a decade ago, but one story has stuck with me.
"A pastor by the name of Florescu was tortured with red-hot iron pokers and with knives. He was beaten very badly...The Communists wished to compel him to betray his brethren, but he resisted steadfastly. Eventually, they brought his fourteen-year-old son to the prison and began to whip the boy in front of his father, saying that they would continue to beat him until the pastor said what they wished him to say. The poor man was half mad. He bore it as long as he could, then he cried to his son, "Alexander, I must say what they want! I can't bear your beating anymore!" The son answered, "Father, don't do me the injustice of having a traitor as a parent..."
The communists beat the boy to death. None of us knows what we would do. Would I give up other church members? Would I recant my own words? I have never been there so I cannot be sure. I can tell you this for sure, Jesus Christ's name was made great on that prison floor.
So what do I do? Try to patch the holes of this great sinking ship? Do I sit and wait for hard times knowing that they have historically been good for the church? We are all called to be stewards of what God has given us. God has given us the greatest country in the history of the world. We must fight down to our last drop of blood for the things that honor God. But as we fight for what we know is right, we cannot forget what is, I think, the key. "Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself." Matthew 6:34.
When it is all said and done, you and I are responsible for right now. Right now we need to love Christ and his people. We need to pray that our land would turn back toward him. If it is God's will that it does, to him be the glory. If we are drug down a road of pain and persecution, to him by the glory.

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