(The following post is the final installment of a three part excerpt from Stupid Elephant Tricks – The Other Progressive Party’s War on Christianity
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CHRIST’S LORDSHIP: A POLITICAL HERESY
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Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ~ Romans 13:1-5 (bold emphasis added)
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It is much more grievous to offend the Creator than the creature, who is the image of the Creator. ~ Junius Brutus, A Defence of Liberty Against Tyrants
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Politics?!
No!
Religion?!
Well, maybe. We are supposed to be Christians, after all.
But politics and religion?!
Nooooooo …and no way…and what are you thinking by even proposing such a thing?
It’s religious heresy! It’s politically incorrect! It’s just…plain…wrong! Besides, if you actually speak of such things as these together, purposefully, everyone will hate you, everyone will mock you, and you just might even spontaneously combust from the sheer amount of entirely appropriate guilt you heap upon yourself in the process. So there!
That’s the basic approach of the garden variety American “adult” these days when it comes to seeking out and considering deep truths. If the presentation of any particular subject can’t be fit into a Super Bowl commercial or onto the back of a cereal box, we’re just not interested. And if it can, it had better be funny or cute or sexyin its pitch. Without any of those three essential entertainment ingredients made available to escort a serious thought to our little brains, that thought has almost zero chance of even being allowed in the front door (as in, we just won’t watch and we just won’t listen). In other words, it had better be “relevant” to a people who just don’t do serious anymore.
With generations of progressivism having taken its toll, advancing through the explicitly anti-Christian, state-controlled (and state-promoting) “education” system and the Hollywood/Madison Avenue entertainment and advertising industries, most Americans – including most American professing Christians, have freely and happily taken the progressive bait and have consequently bought into three rather profound lies regarding religion and politics:
- Religion and politics are each important, and as such are best handled by professionals. Just as we are to trust seminary trained pros with our theology and our doctrine, and state chosen professionals with the education of our children, the protection of our borders, and the delivery of our mail.
- Religion and politics are each important, and as such should be sequestered or protected from interfering with one other. The professionals have assured us that this is true, after all, and they are professionals.
. - Religion and politics are each important, and as such are too deep for common people to properly understand, so common people shouldn’t burden themselves with such considerations or related conversations. Just leave it to the professionals. They’ll take care of everything, so just run along and enjoy the game…or the movie…or the TV show…or whatever.
The professional political class in America is overrun with progressives. Both major parties, and most of the minor ones, too. The overwhelming majority of high traffic media. The even more overwhelming majority of those in the entertainment industry. All are squarely in the progressive camp.
Add to that roll call the accurate addition of most American professing Christian churches and their members, and you begin to see just how far gone we are; how late the hour really is. 100 years of progressivism and our near complete abdication of personal responsibility to the “pros” has left us teetering on the brink of oblivion on pretty much every level.
As a central part of their brilliant plan for liberating America from its cumbersome Christian heritage, progressive pros from all across the political and vocational spectrums have gone to great – and largely successful – lengths to get you and I and everyone else in their budding Ameritopia (thank you, Mark Levin) to just enjoy the bread and circuses and leave the important stuff to them. For just over a century, they’ve charted a decidedly progressive and explicitly anti-God course for the nation, and its people have played right along. Bread and circuses do have their charms, after all. And 100 years of progressive “education” has its benefits.
So it is that we’ve arrived at a time in America where talking about religion or politics is not a part of polite or even normal conversation, and talking about both together is unthinkable. And “unthinkable” tends to describe a large percentage of what used to be quite easily thinkable thoughts throughout American history – at least, before we progressed beyond the need for our masses to think.
At the end and by design, the typical American system drone is left with “unthinkable” responses to any number of questions and concepts that were once quite thinkable to even young children who were educated by their families according to Scripture in the age of American ascendancy. Where once we taught our own children how to think, we now trust The System and its pros to “teach” them what to think. Where once we were a nation of thinking individuals, we are now a managed gathering of regurgitating drones.
The socio-theological term for this is: Scary. Really scary. And the scariest part of this really scary situation is that we, as professing Christians in America, are far and away the single most responsible group of people for the nation’s decline. We have not only allowed but encouraged and, in many cases, embraced, the lowly, shadowy, man-centered and God-mocking standards of progressivism.
As Christians, we are called to something higher; infinitely higher: The perfect standards of Jesus Christ and the true and perfect progress that they, and only they, can bring. We are called to proclaim His name and promote His glory in all things, taking “all thoughts captive”, “tearing down enemy strongholds”, and sharing His supernatural Gospel with a dying world in the process.
But a funny thing happened on the way to that Most High bar. More sad than funny, really, and more tragic than sad. Somewhere along the way, roughly a hundred years ago, Americans en masse decided that progress meant progress towards themselves – toward humanity, a path that always leads away from God. Where once even our most horrible errors and corrections were found out and fought over with Scripture as the ultimate guide, the era of progressivism was one of man-centered standards, man-centered goals, and man-centered dreams. It was, and is, all about us. In the worst deal since Manhattan went for a handful of beads, the faith of our founding was traded for a belief and system of man-centered, man-defined progress.
The progressive era stretches right into the very moment of this book’s writing and is a prime reason for it having been written along with its sister work, Satan’s Jackass – The Progressive Party’s War on Christianity.
This is not a book aimed at convincing conservative Christians to vote for or against the Republican Party, for or against any other party, or to take and hold any specific position on any particular hot button political issue. Those things, worthy though they may be and appropriate as they are for other works, are not the point of Stupid Elephant Tricks.
The simple mission of this work is to inspire Christians – actual, Spirit-filled, supernaturally reborn New Creatures in Christ – to actively seek the will of their King in each and every thing – including each and every political thing – so that they might glorify Him and bless themselves and their culture through their obedience to His command to seek and submit to His perfect will in all things.
To that end, we will aim to encourage thought – explicitly Christ-centered thought – regarding a range of issues closely affiliated with contemporary American political conservatism. These issues are near and dear to the hearts of the progressive elitists currently dominating the leadership of the Republican Party, and they’ve done a fine job of convincing the rank and file that their progressive views are good, patriotic, and even Christian, in some sense or another.
As most Christians are rightly inclined in a very conservative political direction, their having been targeted for co-option by the right wing of the progressive movement should come as no surprise. The natural and proper conservatism of the biblical Christian has been used to great effect by the progressive pros to enlist their support in the advance of explicitly anti-Christian causes and standards.
That’s what we’re here to help correct, and we aim to do so by inspiring Christians to actively, boldly, clearly, and persistently seek the mind of Christ, share what they have learned and what they know with the world around them, and, in doing so, proclaim His truth and His Gospel through the innumerable opportunities that the world of politics provides for such supernaturally wonderful things.
Should a Christian base his political support for a party or cause or candidate on what God has revealed in His perfect Word?
Absolutely!
Should a Christian seek to better understand all political issues through the perfect light provided in God’s perfect Word?
Ummm…hello? Is that a serious question?!
No, of course it’s not. It’s quite a silly one, actually, but it’s the kind of silly question that is taken seriously today. And after it is taken seriously, it tends to be answered wrongly, even by most American professing Christians.
It all comes down to this: Do we believe that Jesus really is the perfect God; the Creator and Sustainer of all things, by whom and for whom they were all made for the express purpose of His self-glorification? Do we believe that He has commanded, for His glory and our benefit, that His truth and nature be pursued, proclaimed and exalted in all things, on all subjects, in all places and at all times? Do we seek to obey Him in this universal and universally important command?
Put another way: Is He our Lord?
Really?
To this we must answer, Oh yeah…really!
And we must demonstrate the reality of His lordship over us by obediently lifting His wisdom high in all places at all times, including the realm of American politics right now.
That’s our goal in this little book and, Lord willing, it will be or become the goal of every reader who makes their way through these pages. We are not going to answer all, or even many, of the political questions posed here. What we are going to do here is ask some serious, important questions and then point toward the one and only completely reliable source for true answers to every critical question that can be asked: God’s revealed will.
When a political party or cause seeks our support, we should first and always test them in light of His sufficient Word. When a candidate seeks our vote, we should first and always test them in light of His perfect Word. And when the opportunity comes to explore political issues in a conversation – any conversation – we should seek to guide all involved ever more toward the perfect light of Scripture, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the center of it all.
The nation is circling the drain and nearing its natural, dark end morally, economically, and spiritually. What an opportunity!
What an opportunity to proclaim His truth and explore His nature as they are presented in proper understandings of law, justice, love, family, marriage, sexuality, economics, liberty, freedom, and any other subject that swirls about in the heart of any political storm! We have every essential answer to every essential question, we have it perfectly in His Word, and we have the supernatural Gospel that can, by His grace, open the eyes of the lost so that they might see and love each and every one of those beautiful revelations.
All we need do is submit – submit in adoration of and confidence in our perfect King.
That loving submission is total victory…and it is impossible to have without seeking His will and proclaiming His glory in all things…including the world of American politics.
[Tweet “All we need do is submit – submit in adoration of and confidence in our perfect King.”]
To that end and in these pages there are many very old questions to consider in a very new light. A perfect light. His perfect light.
Hope…change…revival…revolution… In seeking Him, we aim for the pure originals that have been so poorly counterfeited and successfully promoted throughout our sick and dying land for so very long. God-centered thought, God-centered hope, and God-centered change are our goals. God-centered revolution is fueled by such supernatural things as these.
We seek these things not first for love of country, or love of family, or hope for a prosperous future, but for the love of God Himself.
With Him as our one and only top and guiding priority, we are ready to roll. So let’s get to it…
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The above piece is the third and final excerpt of Chapter 2 from the book Stupid Elephant Tricks – The Other Progressive Party’s War on Christianity
You can read Part 1, Politics, Religion, and the Threat of Spontaneous Combustion, by clicking here, and you can read Part 2, So why did Christians support the American revolution, anyway?, by clicking here.
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Please see also:
Problem>Reaction>Solution: Why we will beg to have our freedoms taken away and go to war forever
Why Americans don’t do repentance.
The America Idol (Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Almighty State)
7 Empowering Truths for Politically Active Christians
The (church built) Zombie Apocalypse is upon us…
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© 2014 Scott Alan Buss – All Rights Reserved.