Dear Editor,
Well, we’re heading into another election cycle.
I struggle greatly with all that is going on in our electoral process. Many of the religious people I know think we need to get this country back to the way it used to be. We can’t go back there because that world no longer exists.
What we have before us today are Liberals who want to legitimize sin. We have Social Conservatives that want to moralize America. There are the Socialists that want to severely tax the rich and equalize everyone’s income base. There are the Capitalists that want to earn their money from you and reinvest it to make even more. The Democrats are doing everything they can to gather enough small groups, no matter what they stand for, to gain a majority of voters. And the Republicans are blind to the reality that their policies are not what the accumulated majority want and desire.
So, with all this being said I want to change the focus of the Christian who thinks we’re going to change America at the ballot box.
First and foremost, this is not the mission of the church. Since we have lost the mission of the church we are seeing the results being played out in our country and especially in our churches. It seems that most churches are far more interested in the politics of the day than the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. This has led to the moral collapse of our nation because most church going people have no idea how an individual’s moral character is changed.
See, the work of the church is to save souls out of the fallen state and sinfulness of the world. We are not here to clean up the world and make it a nice place to live. That is not the Biblical message. This world is collapsing around us. The world is not going to be saved. Our mission is to save souls from the reality of what is going on in our midst.
What I’m saying is we are no longer leading people to the Kingdom of God. We seem to want to make America into a more moral place for us to live while we wait to die. Scripture tells us that only a few are going to find the narrow way and that this world is coming to nothing.
So, it is time to get back, not to the ways of old, but to the lifesaving, character changing, sin destroying, Christian making message of the Cross.
This is a very difficult and slow process. Maybe that’s why we would rather protest and get involved in the politics of the day. This seems like it would work if all the Christians would just get out and vote. There is a way that seems right to man but in the end it leads to death.
What if God’s work is not to get Christians to vote but to get Christians to share the Good News of what Jesus the Christ has done for you? Could it be that God’s way works, whereas our way does not?
Please remember that Jesus gathered a handful of disciples that became 120 in three years. These 120 quickly became thousands by preaching Christ crucified. In 2000 years it has become a world-wide movement. Scripture tells us that the message is a stumbling block to the religious and foolishness to the non-religious but it is the way and power of God.
Maybe it’s time we get back to God’s mission and maybe then we might see some eternal changes that will transform people and when people are changed, the nation will change also.
Pastor Thomas R. Swain
First Church of God
Great Bend