Keeping Perspective
“not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.” (1 Cor 2:6 ESV)
As this election approaches, we are witnessing both sides arguing that we are in an apocalyptic moment, that this election will determine the future of democracy. How do I, as someone in Christ, and a citizen of his everlasting kingdom, see this? How do I live as a Christian citizen?
Review
Previously I have said that as a Christian I must see politics realistically and theologically. Politics is by nature compromise. When we assess based only on the moral code God has given, we will find that politics, while it may use moral principles, is not primarily a moral game. As a matter of fact, it is full of moral hypocrisy. Whether something is wrong or not depends on whether the person doing it is on our side.
This is inescapable. Politics is and always will be a rough and tumble world. I believe that political engagement requires the challenge of argument and compromise while maintaining principles and personal integrity. Because of this, character matters. Policy matters.
Clarification: Morals are ultimate before God
Let me clarify. While politics requires compromise, God never compromises. God will evaluate the words and actions and policies of all people in authority based on his unchanging moral character, his perfect knowledge of motives and actions, and his utterly impartial righteousness. That clarity will come at the end of history.
What about “the end of democracy” hyperbole?
God gives me his word so that I may see the whole enterprise as God sees it. And what God sees is not what you will find in any media, stump speech, endorsement, or one of the ten million text messages I get every day telling me who to vote for.
God’s perspective on the raging of politics
After previous posts, I find a need to come back to this perspective. But how can I see as God sees? My go to passage is Psalm 2.
“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD
and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.””
(Ps 2:1-3 ESV)
What a gift this Psalm is. In these words God answers a question: why all this fuss and feathers about political power? about Trump vs Harris? Labour vs Tory? why is there all the angry noise between nations? between Putin and Ukraine? Hamas and Israel? Why do both sides amplify this election (not the first time, btw) as “the end of democracy if the other side wins?
The root of the rage
The answer is shockingly simple: the rage of the nations is simply the noise of humanity in revolt against the true God and their Creator. They don’t want God, they don’t need God, they don’t want his laws, and they definitely do not want his Savior-King (the Anointed).
Ever since the sin of our first parents the human race agrees on one thing: we are our own gods and we will set up the kingdom of God without his help or direction. As far as this goes, everyone agrees on it. As the Arab proverb goes, “Me and my cousin against our common enemy.”
Where does this partisan strife come from?
Note, while all agree that Christ will not be King and his salvation will not be accepted, there is still no one reigning as King of the Hill. At this point, we turn on each other. When the common enemy (God) is not the focus, my “cousin” is my enemy — whether Trump or Harris.
We all agree that the King of that hill will not be the true God, but each of us thinks that “we” (or “I”) should be. Thus come all wars, all politics, all conflicts foreign and domestic.
The result: we reject God’s law, make up our own morality and rights, and refuse the salvation God has provided.
“The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.” (Isa 24:5 ESV)
That is what we mean by sinfulness
That, my friends, is the biblical teaching about our sinfulness — applied to politics and war and terrorism. It is always a scrum, pushing and pulling, tackling and punching. Our current election is no exception. The only ethic is the one that helps my side win.
ALL political ideologies outside the recreating of sinners through the Gospel is an expression of the rebellion. Conservatives co-opt ideas of rights and freedoms for their own purposes. Progressives co-opt ideas of justice for theirs. Both are hostile to the redemptive kingdom of God.
As you listen and look at the current kerfuffle, you are witnessing the insanity and hypocrisy of mankind in revolt against their Creator — liars calling liars liars, power-mongers accusing other power mongers of being power-mongers. You are observing the creation of rights God finds abominable (a woman’s right to do with her own body what she will, an individuals right to determine their gender, an elected person’s right to wield the power of government for revenge).
How bad can it get?
Our Uber driver was a refugee from Sudan. He described Sudan as the breadbasket or East Africa, rich with resources. Now, he noted, rivals powers are destroying the country, creating famine, killing tens of thousands of people — all to gain wealth and power, to be “god.” This is a metaphor for our nation’s behaviors.
But what is the end? It will fail.
The certain triumph of the True God
Notice, according to this Psalm, God is not impressed. He laughs. He mocks.
“He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.””
(Ps 2:4-6 ESV)
God has promised and revealed, since the sin of Adam, to retake the helm of the world with his appointed King. All our raging noise and the conspiracy of all our powers is a gnat against his Almighty hand.
God’s laughter is not malicious mockery — it is laughter at our vain efforts to depose him. He sees us as foolish. He has determined the outcome and he will triumph.
I like the way Daniel puts it:
“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,” (Dan 2:44 ESV)
These words are an explanation of a vision. In that vision the kingdoms of this world are presented in sequence. Daniel sees Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. They are presented as man sees them — as glorious. But God says he will crush them to dust and establish his final and eternal kingdom. The rest of Daniel makes it clear he will do that through the Messiah — the Savior King.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it
Imagine the words of Daniel were placed in the jumbo-tron at both Party Conventions this last summer. Might not be appreciated, right? Although I am sure both parties think that their candidate is the one who will bring in its own version of that kingdom, they would not all be excited about bowing the knee to Jesus. Each party has their own vision of American Greatness. Both visions are an abomination to the true God.
Let me be very clear: ALL human political systems, nations, and empires will be crushed to dust when Jesus consummates his kingdom. ALL. Including the United States. I have already been very clear that any idea that we are “Christian” and have some special standing with God is a perversion of the Gospel. We may be the best of humanly conceived systems, but humanly conceived we are. Progressive agendas and the use of the state to control will also be burned to ashes.
And God says even more
The New Testament expands this idea. God says that the turning point of history is the cross of Christ. At the cross God shames the aspirations of arrogant humanity by putting down the enemies of his rule through the humiliating death of Jesus in weakness. This is God’s wisdom. And the blindness of the human race to his wisdom, their hatred of it, is seen in that they crucified (murdered) the Lord of glory.
“Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.
But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Cor 2:6-8 ESV)
Notice, Paul scans the horizon of history, surveys the series of kings and Caesars and empires of mankind, and says, they are “doomed to pass away.” Can you imagine how offensive this would be to his contemporaries, the leaders of the greatest Empire of history? They, says Paul, speaking for Jesus, are doomed to pass away. Jesus will crush them to dust.
And what does Paul offer instead? A bleeding, tortured, crucified common criminal dying on a hill side outside a backwater city in the Empire. That man, says Paul, is the Anointed King and Savior. How offensive! How foolish!
Nothing has changed
The one thing both Republicans and Democrats are in full agreement on is that Jesus crucified and risen will NOT be the King or Savior. Their vision of the kingdom they will pursue is not the kingdom of the crucified Jesus.
If there was a vote by the delegates about crowning Jesus as King and bowing the knee to him as Lord, he would not be approved — not by Trump, not by Harris. Though Republicans pay lip service to Christianity (without the cross) and though Democrats espouse more perverse moralities than Republicans — they are all the same — they will have anyone rule them but the crucified King Jesus because they will never confess their sinfulness, never admit to being spiritually bankrupt, never come with guilty and empty hands to receive forgiveness through Christ crucified alone.
Woke — liberal — centrist — conservative — libertarian are all the same at heart.
If you do not understand this, you do not understand the Gospel. Go back and read the Book of Romans.
When you read the election news, denunciations, warnings, and the endorsements
Remember this is nothing more than residents of the insane asylum accusing each other of being crazy. After all, what is more insane than denying the moral order of the Creator or the necessity of a blood paid redemption through Jesus. Liars calling liars “liars.” Satan is the father of lies and they have all bought his lies in one form or the other. Power mongers are competing with other power mongers for the right to coerce. Lawless candidates accusing other lawless candidates of being lawless.
So what do I do? Live as those who know this world is passing away
God’s word repeatedly reminds and calls his redeemed people to live as aliens and sojourners in this world — to hold loosely to our social standing, our marital status, our wealth, and our politics. Why? What sort of a fool spends their emotional energies on shadows? on things which will fade and pass away?
“For the present form of this world is passing away.” (1 Cor 7:31 ESV)
“And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:17 ESV)
Focus on where God says he is focused
What God is doing in the world today is call people out of death to life, out of guilt to forgiveness through the proclamation of Christ’s death for sinners. What God is doing today is building up his people in local churches where faithful elders call people to live more and more into Christ. The real action is God’s people living godly lives as employees and employers, husbands and wives, parents and children, neighbors and friends. God is at work with a view to the day when Christ shall return, judge the human race, and usher in his kingdom which has no end.
Let’s stop making this election so ultimate and our candidates so Messianic and Demonic
My greatest sorrow is that many of my Christian brothers and sisters speak and act as though this election is ultimate, as though Donald Trump or Kamala Harris is the essence of evil or the gift of God. Just this morning I saw an abominable sign: The world needs Jesus, America needs Trump. This is blasphemy. No one’s name is worthy to be associated with the glorious Christ as God’s righthand, the Lamb slain for sinners.
All of those actions are wicked.
They are clinging to shadows, things that are doomed to pass away. If Donald Trump or Kamala Harris are our hope, then we are to be pitied for such ridiculous hopes. If the woke left or the MAGA right are our greatest enemies, we have missed the true story completely. If Making America Great Again is our ambition, we are abominable idolaters. If “preserving our rights” (including the right to murder infants or chemically castrate children) is the goal, then we are truly perverse.
How does this affect how I decide
As I have already noted, I will apply moral evaluation and character evaluation realistically. It is not that they cannot be used as criteria, it is that they are relative to the context of a world in revolt against the cross of Jesus, and to a political system committed to form the kingdom of God without God.
I will ignore the apocalyptic language of “the end to democracy” because it is entirely hypocritical and based on double standards. I will ignore the media spin. I will pray.
This perspective helps me de-escalate my vote.
It is a vote, a choice to be made about which person may be more likely to do relative good to the nation in which I live, to uphold policies that do relative good to as many citizens as possible. My vote is not a test of orthodoxy or morality. If someone chooses to vote third party, they are not wasting their vote. They are honoring God in their conscience, and that is never a waste.
Let me put this another way: my obligation as a Christian citizen in a representative republic is to figure out, as best I can, which persons are most likely to hold the ship of state together until Jesus crushes it to dust. There is no one on the side of light or darkness.
Holding it together means doing what can be done to protect its citizens from exploitation and injustice and enemies — keeping order as best as can be done in the midst of a ship of fools. Serving those around me for their good is all I can do.
This perspective helps me assess what issues are central to my considerations of candidates. It also keeps me from thinking of people who vote otherwise as evil.
Live with the grace of God in control
Psalm 2 is my go to. But if all I do is cite its description of human rebellion and divine mockery of our efforts to overthrow his rule, I misrepresent the Psalm. Unlike some who think the “Gospel” is the news that Jesus will assert his rights as King and conquer his enemies though political takeovers, this psalm says he will rule by offering forgiveness to the rebels.
The cross is always front and center. If it is not front and center or it is not mentioned at all, we are pagans not Christians.
Listen to these words of invitation from the Lord and his Anointed:
“Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
(Ps 2:10-12 ESV)
The true God takes no pleasure in judging rebels. He warns because his heart is large with mercy. With open arms he invites rebels to lay down their arms, to run to him as their refuge and salvation, and find that his ways are freedom not bondage.
That is the message we bring at any and all political partisans. Lift up your voice to offer salvation through Jesus to Trump and Harris, to Republicans and Democrats, woke and libertarian. Invite them to abandon their idols of politics and candidates and find refuge in the Savior who died for sinners.