How long, O Lord?
Seems every presidential or national-level election for the last 20 years has been touted as "The most important election in our history." How can this be?
Now, don't get me wrong, national-level elections are important, and recent ones have seemed to have enormous ramifications for our nation. And, one suspects that if voters 50-75 years ago had treated presidential and congressional elections with the seriousness that many conservative evangelicals now do, maybe we would not be so anxious about every single election today. [You do know that the slow churning of socialism and statism began several generations ago, don't you? Some historians have traced it easily back to President Woodrow Wilson, while others take it all the way back to President Lincoln.] We are suffering the consequences of multiple past elections, and both sides of the aisle have done their fair share to take America away from her Constitution and Representative Democracy and Capitalistic Economy.
Recently, I received a letter from the "Reverend" (using it loosely) Barry Lynn. The letter was basically a threat and warning that if pastors do thus and so during an election year his organization will take you to court in an attempt to ensure your church loses its tax exempt status. I was not and am not scared of Mr. Lynn. "We ought to obey God rather than man."
This does not mean, however, that I feel any need to make specific candidate endorsements. Week after week my passion is to preach the Bible with clarity and conviction, staying true to its original meaning and intent. I want to be Christ-exalting and gospel-centered in my exposition of the Scriptures. And, I trust if I and other Elders in our church are doing this well, along with the time we spend personally discipling members, believers in our church will indeed "vote their convictions." And those convictions will derive from the absolutely authoritative Word of God.
Personally, I have been a "one issue voter" for my entire adult voting life. I cannot and will not vote for any pro-abortion candidate. Period. But recently, I have added a second issue to my voting "plank." I cannot and will not vote for any candidate who supports or promotes the agenda of sexual sin and perversion, be it adultery, homosexuality, redefining marriage, applauding promiscuity or fornication, etc. These two issues are really the determining factors in how I cast my vote (and I do vote and you should to, even if you disagree with my views. Our freedoms we take for granted may not be here tomorrow, so vote today while you can).
But what about the economy? I happen to believe it's going to continue to tank so long as our leaders and people endorse and promote sin. But what about foreign policy? Yes, it too is important, but we are going to keep getting weaker in the world so long as we publicly and proudly endorse and export sin.
This election season has reminded me so much of God's commissioning of the Prophet Isaiah. In the Book bearing his name, chapter 6, we read of God coming to him and anointing him as His spokesperson to Israel. After being purged by God, Isaiah eagerly accepts God's call and says, "Here am I, send me." That exciting response is immediately followed by sobering comments by God. The Lord in essence tells Isaiah that the people simply will not listen to him. They will continue in their spiritual blindness and deafness. They will harden their hearts and reject God's Word.
This prompts the Prophet to cry out, "How long, O Lord?" God's response is eerie when I contemplate the state of our own nation:
Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and house without people, and the land is desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
I am not an alarmist, dear friends. But God judges sin.
At the end of this apocalyptic passage, however, we find these words from God, "The holy seed is its stump." In other words, a stump who is holy will remain and be the very start of new life for the people.
America must return to the holy seed, her stump. Do you know Him?
by Keith McWhorter