It's Too Late for a Political Fix

It seems every four years we hear “This is a big election.  I would normally not vote for a candidate like [enter name] but at this time, I don’t feel I have another choice.”  My thoughts on the two major party candidates have stirred up enough feelings already.  This article is about something else altogether different.  This article is a call for Christians to wake up and understand what the Bible has to say about any society in our shape.  We are far past a political fix at this point. 
 
First of all, I don’t mean to imply that politics is ever truly a fix for a society.  It is not.  Psalms 33:12 plainly says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his heritage”.  Obviously, the primary application is to Israel as the nation “he has chosen for his heritage”.  Yet, as a nation, we can, by application, certainly affirm that any nation “whose God is the Lord” is blessed.  Our nation, though not a Christian nation per se, was founded on Christian principles.  We followed those principles for the better part of two centuries and were blessed as a result.  Understand, many of our nations forefathers were deists at best.  Yet, even they saw the need for Christian principles to guide a country.  Separation of church and state speaks of neither controlling the other.  It was never meant to completely separate God from the political arena.  Yet sadly, even many believers today do not understand this.  But I digress…
 
If you aren’t sitting down, this is the time.  If you are looking for “hope and change” in a politician or if you are looking for America to be “great again” through the political process, you are about to receive a blow.  If you are of the idea that Colin Kaepernick should be made to stand for the anthem or sent packing to another country, your patriotism is about to be challenged – but not in the way you may think.  If you are “proud” to be an American in the America of 2016, this message is going to hit you hard.  And lest you think this is my opinion, think again.  I’m preaching through the book of Romans currently.  This blog comes straight from a verse-by-verse exposition of Romans 1:16-32.  If you struggle with the thoughts here, I’d refer you to that passage.
 
Here it goes…America is currently experiencing the judgment of God.  I’m not suggesting that we are going to be bombed tomorrow.  I’m not suggesting fire and brimstone is about to rain out of Heaven.  I’m not suggesting America holds no place in the future.  I’m simply saying we are under the judgment of God.  In fact, we have been for quite some time…that is, if Romans 1 is true (and it is that, without a doubt). 
 
The latter half of this chapter contains three steps of God’s judgment.  America has experienced all three.  First of all, after a society denies acknowledging God as the great Law Giver and Judge, God gives “them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Romans 1:24-25).  That is, because a society desires their own happiness (sin) over God’s righteous Law, He gives them up to sexual promiscuity – of a normal nature.  God doesn’t make them do these things.  This is what they want!  He just allows them to go their own way (Proverbs 1:24-31).  Decades ago in the “free love” generation, we began to see this.  As a result, our society began to see more children born out of wedlock resulting in fatherless homes or couples living together without being married.  The children of this generation are not appalled at such.  It’s normal to them.  Even children that have been brought up in church don’t see this as a major sin.  Yet, Paul here pronounces that such a movement in a society is step one of God’s judgment on a people group.  The gavel has fallen – we have experienced this step, without a doubt. 
 
When such judgment does not produce repentance, a society enters step 2 of God’s judgment.  This step is outlined in the next two verses – “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:26-27).  The meaning of this passage couldn’t be clearer.  Where you see an LGBT movement, God’s judgment has fallen on a society.  He has once again given them over to the sin they lust after.  During the “free love” movement of the 60’s, homosexuality was certainly in our society.  However, even homosexuals were ashamed of their sin.  Our society as a whole looked down on homosexuality as a mental disorder that was against God’s design.  This sin wasn’t allowed out of the closet.  We often didn’t know a person was a homosexual until after they died – often of a sexually transmitted disease.  Without question, we have experienced step 2 of God’s judgment in our society. 
 
As was the case with step 1, if a society refuses to heed the judgment of step 2, step 3 of this “giving over” in judgment follows.  The next few verses explain this judgment in great detail – “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:28-32).  Initially, this may seem like a step backwards in regard the “seriousness” of the sin.  But a careful observer will note the attitude of this “debased mind” in the last few words of the passage.  That is, “Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them”.  When a society puts a stamp of approval on the sins of steps 1 and 2, the sins of step 3 become apparent.  Chaos is sure to erupt.  It’s impossible to watch our evening newscast without seeing the chaos that has become the norm.  We have rejected God and His standard…we have broken the family unit apart…we have approved what God calls an abomination…and chaos has begun to take hold in our society. 
 
One of the most shocking things today is that even some “churches” (as loosely as this term can possibly be used) are accepting these sins as normal and even commendable.  Those that exhibit such a lifestyle are not only allowed to be baptized and join (without any repentance of such a lifestyle), but some groups are actually encouraging such people (who are the fruits of God’s wrath on our society) to lead their “church” in positions of authority.  Shocking!  But perhaps it shouldn’t be since Paul elsewhere wrote, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).  These “churches” are as much proofs of God’s judgment as the people in society that have chosen “their own passions” over God’s clear teaching.  America is experiencing step 3 of God’s judgment as outlined in Romans 1. 
 
Christian, you need to get this – a politician is not the answer to this problem.  That is especially true of a wicked, immoral politician.  But honestly, there is no politician on either side of the aisle anywhere that I have heard of who is clearly stating the truths outlined in Romans 1 – that is, America is under the judgment of God.  As was the case for Nineveh in the days of Jonah, America needs a call to repentance (Jonah 3:1-10).  The tool that Paul saw as critical to call people to repentance is the Gospel.  He said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…” (Romans 1:16-18a).  Despite Paul’s physical eyes seeing a society much like ours in the Gentile nations he had visited, he knew there was but one answer to the problem.  Remember, Paul was a Roman citizen (Acts 22:27-28).  And he exercised his rights at times.  However, his desire for change in those around him was completely wrapped up in the Gospel.  The wrath of God he saw merely motivated him to preach the Gospel with more zeal.  It should do the same for us.  The communities Paul visited in the Roman Empire were beyond the “help” of political change.  Ours is as well. 
 
Christian (pastors especially), take note of the clear teaching of Romans 1.  We, as believers, have a great opportunity to preach the Gospel in a society that is experiencing God’s wrath of being “given over” to our lusts.  No politician can fix this.  Political measures will not correct our ills.  In God’s eyes, our problem is not political liberalness or political conservatism.  Our problem is sin…and our approval of it.  As a nation, we have approved what God has said is wrong.  We murder babies and call it a choice.  We corrupt God’s design of marriage and call it progress.  Our judges have rejected God’s Law and called it freedom – freedom from God and His statutes – disguised as separation of church and state.  The Bible calls it judgment. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).  This is our society and Bible believing Christians should clearly see this.  We must respond to such a society differently than the community around us.  Rather than walking arm in arm with political allies who have no Biblical Worldview, let us take our marching orders from the Bible.  May the state of our society drive us to see that the answer is not the next political ruler.  We are too far gone for that.  We cannot hold off God’s judgment.  We are under it already and have been for decades.  May our pulpits (much like Paul in his day) proclaim that we have but one answer for the sin of mankind…one answer to appease God’s wrath – the Gospel of Jesus Christ.