How to Restore our Nation

‘Respect’, as we use it now, hardly comes close to the real meaning of the scriptures. Ancient "respect", as if entering into an audience with the king, is a closer understanding of "respect" as the king has absolute authority and could destroy a subject even if the only offense is minor displeasure. The fear of God is an overwhelming fear of His righteousness and ability to destroy us as we deserve. Of course, love takes away all fear, but the lack of fear leads one to cheap grace and incomplete love of God.

In fact, the Great Awakening preachers (Whitefield, Edwards, etc.) were teaching the fear of God to a great degree. The people cared not to offend God by conducting employment on the Sabbath, etc. Our fledgling nation, above all, wanted not to offend God.

The answer is found by studying the Bible and history. We have Biblical answers that are exceedingly simple. Yet

Do we see a problem here? In fact, you virtually never hear such preaching today. You hear almost anything except the biblical fear of God. We have outsmarted ourselves. Fear is a base emotion that should never be elicited, according to current mantra. Our pride and arrogance has led us away from the direct, unpopular message of teaching the true fear of God to choosing man’s reasoning above God's direction in a spiritual matter! In fact, we are not following the biblical mandate when we neglect such preaching.

We have largely lost being the ‘salt and light’ because we have incorrect preaching of the fear of God and the fear that God will judge our nation for our innumerable offenses to Him. If He really loves us, He will chastise us. This chastisement (such as pain, suffering and death) will be necessary because since He loves us, He will (as He has in the past) turn up the heat so that some will finally repent and be saved, obviating an eternity condemned to a worse condition.

Early on, when our nation was preached the fear of God, the people were flavored with such reasoning, and they formed a government based on Christian principles that has lasted and been blessed over time. Lives were simpler, blessed and with greater joy even though their material goods were much less.

Instead of concentrating on winning an election, we should, in principle, like Daniel and others, bow down to no other gods and firmly witness to all around us that we will not vote for anyone who steps outside the bounds of God’s direction. Our vote is our grass roots currency in the political economy.

The real question is: Who’s side are we on? As a corollary, How shall Christians deal with politics (as with other realms) to avoid offending Almighty God and His wrath? What line is drawn in the sand by us and we authoritatively tell a politician not to cross over this line and stick to it?

The Republican candidate has already violated the Great Commandment of putting no other gods ahead of Jehovah in violation of the greatest commandment.

For a moment, consider how you would feel if you were Almighty God watching from Heaven? In this day of great peril at war with our young soldiers dying, losing lives through terrorism, economic uncertainty, the horrific slaughter of our pre-born children, taking an in-your-face attitude with the homosexual agenda, greed at the highest corporate levels and above all, the Republicans dare open their Convention praying to another god! How can we possibly ask for His blessings? (see http://dutyisours.com/whosside.htm)

God's values, blessings and pleasure are most associated with a faithful choice not to compromise, despite the possible desperate temporal consequences.

God is engaged in the political realm throughout the examples of individuals as kings, as those who are dealing with other kings, as those who point out the king’s errors and those dealing with the Roman empire. Yet, those who did well, in God’s eyes as seen in scripture, were like John the Baptist and Daniel, etc. Their approach was not to try to get a seat at the table but to avoid things that would offend God. They were clearly outsiders but feared God more than man, including rulers.

George Washington (above) and many other founders were reflecting this ideology in their writings and political choices. They recognized it then, and it has never been truer than today, our greatest concern for our nation should be what should we do to avoid God’s wrath and chastisement?

Abraham Lincoln wrote (calling for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting in 1863):
...We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as not other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the view of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30^th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer...

It is much more expedient for him to pander to the homosexual activists (such as having recently approving of homosexual civil unions (http://dutyisours.com/whosside.htm)) if the Christians say they will support him anyhow. Why should we want to ‘win’ after giving up those things that God teaches us never to compromise and we claim to be most important?

As we have limited President Bush in his own walk with Christ, this will affect his place in the afterlife (assuming eternal rewards), the most important thing (aside from salvation) we must deal with in our lives. We have become a stumbling block in his personal life and in the lives of those we were to “go and tell”.

Having said that, what should we do in this election? There is a ‘third’ party, the Constitution Party, that is exceedingly correct on the major Christian values standpoint. Although they are truly conservative (generally a 'plus'), this is overridden by their lack of unwavering compromise on the Christian values. The candidate, Michael Anthony Peroutka, will be on 39-41 states ballots and theoretically could win the presidential election. This reflects an enormous amount of grass roots work in order to gain that much ballot access when the cards are stacked against anyone outside the Republican and Democratic parties. It is not like voting for your pastor. The vote will be counted as what you stand for. The 'major' parties will see why votes are going elsewhere and will care to entice them back next election, seasoning all other parties.

Yet, we choose to compromise in the name of ‘winning’ to keep the other, theoretically worse fellow out of the White House when we know that God appoints our leaders and deposes them. Our mandate is to warn others of impending danger due to our many sins and perhaps, once again, Christianity will mean something of value to those we were called to witness to. As it is, our willing compromise has blocked our efforts to reach the perishing and has been a great contributor to the continued downslide of the church and our nation.

If, in addition to teaching the fear of God, we indicate that we will not compromise on God’s values with our vote, consider the consequences? Things may well ‘get worse’ for the short term as someone less likely to care for God’s values would have an opportunity to appoint bad judges, etc. At the same time, they may not. (This may not happen as well).

Arguably, the people of the US were better off with President Clinton in the White House who was opposed by the Republican House and Senate so he could not perpetrate as much evil as he would like. On the other hand, President Bush has never vetoed a bill, many of which have horrible implications to our lives. Gridlock is the friend of the people, as our Christian founders knew.

With the approach of unwavering compromise, teaching and displaying the fear of God in our own lives, our neighbors begin to hear and/or feel the fear of God (judgment will instill a true fear of God if the pulpits continue to fail to teach it). That we should fear.

If we refuse to give the Republicans our votes because of the moral failures, they will feel the pain of losing power. At the same time, they will be nudged harder to entreat our votes next time and we then have become the ‘salt and light’ to the political process. If they choose not to, then we are giving a worthy candidate some more publicity, adding to our witness to the world, without hypocrisy and then we will see some promise for our children. If nothing else, like all of the great men of the Bible, we have been faithful to God. We should only expect His blessing, if not now, then in the rest of eternity. As it is, we have no reason to expect to hear ‘well done good and faithful servant’.

Let us develop the fear of God on our own and not ask God to instill it in us through judgment.