For those of you hoping to find validation for leftist progressive causes or worldviews here after reading (and perhaps smiling at) the title of this post, lemme save you some time and say plainly from the get go: Not. Gonna. Happen.
Not at all.
The manner in which leftist progressives passionately wage their futile, pouty “war” on the King of creation and His people is so tragically-comical in its over-the-top presentation that there’s not much need to remind Christians that progressives hate God and are doing everything they can to show it before they bow their knees and proclaim His majesty after their pathetic little rebellion is finally and forever put to rest (see: Romans 14:11).
The point here is to focus on a particular flavor of worldview that has proven wildly popular with professing Christians in America for many decades now:
Conservatism.
Conservatism in America has become all the rage and then some in the evangelical community since the rise of Ronald Reagan in the ’80s, for many understandable and often quite rational reasons.
Biblical Christianity overtly and explicitly promotes the sanctity of marriage, the abominable nature of homosexuality, the necessity of a good work ethic, the importance of private property rights, and the need for sound economics.
These are biblical truths, to be sure, and the success of the Republican Party and conservative movement in appealing to these perspectives has allowed them to capture the attention and loyalty of the vast majority of professing Christians in America.
The fatal flaw in this is that this brand of conservatism is demonstrably and destructively disconnected from two components essential to achieving true, lasting prosperity and peace in any area of life. These two things are:
1. The Person of Jesus Christ, and
2. The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In its separation from the Person of Jesus Christ, conservatism in America has actively destroyed the very things it claims to cherish.
In its separation from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, conservatism in America has sealed the only window by which we might repent and escape the smoldering inferno in which its policies have trapped present and future generations.
It claims to stand for property rights, yet in practice it has grown the state regularly a staggering pace for generations. It claims to stand for liberty, yet in practice, from Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush, its icons have routinely eviscerated individual liberty in favor of an all-powerful State and centralized government. It claims to be a champion of personal responsibility, a good work ethic, free market capitalism, and sound economics, yet in practice it consistently champions a fiat currency/fiat slavery system fully inaugurated by Richard Nixon (and propped up by every major “conservative” Republican since). This system, despite all of the loud, persistent propaganda to the contrary, actively and purposefully undermines the concepts of personal responsibility, a good work ethic, free markets, and sound economics at every turn. It is built by design on what God calls “an abomination” (Proverbs 11:1) , all for the purpose of enslaving the masses for the benefit of the “too big to fail” and “too powerful to jail” corporate-political elite.
In the place of Christ, His Gospel and repentance, American conservatism offers idolatry, legalism and pride. Idolatry and legalism simultaneously shine in the ceaseless American conservative appeal to “values” and “principles” (and even “Christian values” and “Christian principles”) while refusing to repent and bow the knee to Christ as King as He has commanded.
If leftists who worship the earth and “mommy nature” are in doing so quite obviously acting out in rank idolatry (worshiping the creation rather than the creator), then are American conservatives no less idolatrous when they blather on and on about their values and principles while refusing to repent and explicitly embrace the Creator of all true values and sound principles?
If man-centered religions tend to peg the danger meter when they proclaim a works-based salvation, which is utterly incompatible with (and blasphemous to) the revealed nature of King Jesus, then why is American conservatism, in its appeal to works (through the embrace of “values” and “principles” without embracing Christ) not entitled to membership in the man-centered religion club?
These are important questions and our basically ignoring them to this point has produced incredible consequences.
In the name of “conservative values”, American conservatism has destroyed conservative values, and the present working and younger generations are going to pay a price that is significantly beyond anything endured by any other generation in the history of the republic.
Now, with those happy thoughts in place, let’s remember that true Christians who are enduring these things and facing these challenges are enduring and facing them purposefully (Romans 8:28). God has us excactly where and when He wants us.
With that in mind, I want to share, equip, and hopefully encourage brothers and sisters in the Church Militant as we wage the good warfare to expand the Kingdom of King Jesus. Specifically, I respectfully submit for your prayerful consideration what I believe are four marks of the counterfeit gospel of conservatism that has ravaged America and is currently doing much to hold her down and keep her from finding the only path to true restoration and revival.
These four marks are evidenced and on display in many places, policies, and pursuits of the conservative movement, but I would like to take a moment here to focus on the most prominent means of conservative evangelism – talk radio and television – and some of the best known and most influential personalities within that medium.
Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity each seem like my kind of guy in so many ways. I agree with much of what they say. I mean I really agree. I love the stands they take on certain particular issues and I enjoy listening to each of their shows from time to time.
But I do so with a filter, as I must, because these guys are dangerous.
And I don’t mean “dangerous” in the cool or good way. I mean dangerous in the “threat to undermine a Christian worldview” kind of way.
Therefore, the filter I actively, consistently strive to apply when pondering anything these guys say is the Word of God.
So why do I feel the need to tackle this subject this way? Why do I call these guys and this movement destructive to the pursuit and application of a Christian worldview?
The answer is easy: Because, in practice, in their daily multi-hour worldview broadcasts, these guys make plain that they don’t believe the Gospel in any meaningful, measurable way.
For the Christian, everything centers on Christ and His glorious Gospel. For the unbeliever…not so much.
That said, there are many good and fairly obvious reasons why you never hear guys like Limbaugh, Levin, Savage and Hannity clearly proclaim the Gospel, much less make it the essential core of their worldview. Here are four examples, each of which serve well as an important mark or warning as to exactly what we are dealing with here.
1. The gospel of Conservatism dismisses the Gospel of Christ.
You never hear the Gospel embraced as essential by these men because it isn’t really very important to them at all, much less essential.
This one should fall easily into the “fairly obvious” category mentioned above, but, after decades of conditioning promoting the unfettered idolatry of conservatism and its trinkets, this “fairly obvious” truth will come as a stunner to many (and an offensive stunner, at that). Through our culture’s multi-generational neglect of Scripture, this hidden-in-plain-view reality has managed to find itself so far “off the radar” of most professing Christian conservative listeners that it has, practically speaking, disappeared entirely. Most professing Christians on the American political right actually believe that they are witnessing a Christian worldview on display when they sit through hours and hours and hours of conservative talk, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and, now, decade after decade.
After decades of soaking in and soaking up the “conservative first” worldview, most professing Christian fans of the conservative talk genre would be startled (and likely offended) to hear it even suggested, much less stated plainly, that they have been swilling, swimming, and soaking in a worldview that is competing with biblical Christianity, rather than embracing or exemplifying it.
As Christians, the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t significantly impact, much less define, the worldviews of Rush, Mark, Michael, and Sean, must figure prominently in our consideration and assessment of everything these men have to say about anything.
2. The gospel of Conservatism displaces the Gospel of Christ.
You never hear the Gospel actively promoted by these men because they have another gospel to promote in its place.
Where a Christian worldview by definition filters and tests everything by the personal nature of Christ as revealed in His Word, the gospel of conservatism, as all other counterfeit gospels, encourages its adherents to test all Scripture in light of conservatism.
You see, they have a gospel of their own. It’s a gospel of “values” and “conservative principles”. They will preach and preach and preach about these things, in detail and with the passion that can be rightly described as adoring worship. The believe that these “conservative values” and “conservative principles” can actually save people and culture. This is their gospel.
3. The gospel of Conservatism despises the Gospel of Christ.
You never hear the Gospel from these men because “conservative-first” folks simply don’t do repentance. Repentance is for liberals. Repentance is for homosexuals. Repentance is for Clintons, Kennedys, Obamas and Lady Gaga.
Repent of supporting a Republican who ran against a Kennedy, Clinton, or Obama? Never!
Repent of supporting a “conservative” who cut the dollar loose from its last remaining vestige of gold-supplied restraint, thus creating an entire global economy based on something God despises and will destroy? Never!
Besides, who needs American repentance when you can have good ol’ American pride instead?
And who needs personal repentance when you focus all of your attention on how much those other guys (Democrats, homosexuals, leftists, etc.) need to repent?
In its constant appeals to the “goodness” of America, the promotion of American pride, and the exaltation of religious pluralism as a blue chip American virtue, conservatism has done as much as any movement to place this nation squarely (and proudly!) in the “begging for God’s wrath” camp.
In all of these things it demonstrates a disdain for the Gospel.
4. The gospel of Conservatism distracts from the Gospel of Christ.
You never hear the Gospel from these men because a primary goal of gospel of conservatism, as with all counterfeit gospels, is to waste the time and energy of people who might otherwise be actively seeking to advance the Kingdom of God with precision and power as commanded in His Word.
God has given us to the one and only perfect tool capable of healing a culture one supernatural salvation at a time. There is no alternative route to restoration.
The more time we waste trying to use everything but the Gospel and Word to save our neighbor and everything else, the more we earn our place as a culture under the wrath of God.
May He grace His people with the power to stand and apply His truth in all realms here and now while there is yet time.
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Scott,
You forgot DISARMS the Gospel of Jesus Christ, turning into a squishy lovefest, centered around a white, Metra – sexual with hair like a shampoo model, who walks around with a lamb on his shoulder, loves the little children, and wouldn’t hurt a flea.