11-9-26<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have received inquiries about the recent midterm campaign. (If you are reading this in our Archives, I refer to the startling \u201cwave\u201d elections of 2026, when Democrats and Democratic Socialists virtually cleared the table of Republicans and conservatives.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unless you are merely curious about the political opinions of this Christian Curmudgeon, I advise you rather to look unto yourselves. Do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal<\/em> (II Corinthians 4:18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Politics in a Christian blog? Not because I am a raging partisan, but in contemporary times, politics have become inextricably intertwined in the daily lives of us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am reminded of something the cartoonist Al Capp told me when asked whether he intentionally infused commentary into his comic strip Li\u2019l Abner<\/em>: \u201cIf I draw a cat, I am automatically commenting on cats.\u201d Taking it further, these days politics is injected into education, entertainment, law, sports, religion, and even to absurd degrees, politics itself\u2026 so it is impossible to ignore. Like Li\u2019l Abner\u2019s cat, nothing is sacred, or neutral, any more. As mentioned in last week\u2019s message here, even the Dean of Students at a prominent \u201cChristian\u201d university recently declared the Biblical dictum \u201cIn Christ alone\u201d to be a dog-whistle of \u201cWhite supremacy.\u201d Absurd spiritual paranoia!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truer dog-whistle is the recent election. 2026, politically, has been a major inflection-point in American history, akin to only a few watershed years. There is an Italian saying, Il passato \u00e8 il futuro<\/em>, literally \u201cThe past is the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So as a professional historian but also as a busy commentator over decades, and as a published Bible scholar, I offer my thoughts on the current political situation in America. It is incumbent on all of us, especially in this year and this moment in our social evolution, to study less the \u201cburning issues\u201d of the day, and more closely examine long-term trends. Cable-TV\u2019s Breaking News stories usually are broken anyway, or only are click-bait for commercials; meanwhile the overarching trends that really indicate and affect our lives are neglected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are these major factors in our lives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get ready. We are in the midst of an upside-down culture devoted to its own destruction. As Jesus described the ability of people to dismiss the signs around them \u2013 In the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark<\/em> \u2013 it is easy for people to ignore the doom we face. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are a species who practice, and these are times that invite, cultural conflict-avoidance. Chances are that many people will only recognize the crisis when it is too late. At the drain of the slippery slope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n God has never issued \u201cGet Out of Jail Free\u201d cards throughout His recorded Word \u2013 except by acts of mercy\u2026 after repentance. He has never violated His own warnings and commands\u2026 except in cases where He responds to pleas for forgiveness. And He never sends revival. Really?<\/p>\n\n\n\n A number of Christians plead for God to send Revival. We hear it quoted endlessly, \u201cIf My people, who are called by My name\u2026\u201d but it is our<\/em> duty to seek revival, to be revived, and to practice spiritual revival. It is to be a lazy Chrsitian, or no Christian at all, to snap our fingers and ask God to do what we have not done for ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Are these points of mine prophecies? Predications? Warnings? A spiritual crisis \u2013 which is, after all, the basis of all our problems \u2013 can only be met and solved by spiritual standards\u2026 and by spiritual means, methods, strategies, tactics, action, and practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving our nation, rescuing our families, and redeeming our culture cannot be part-time hobbies. Do not look back<\/em>. We have God\u2019s marching orders, His battle plan. Lot\u2019s wife turned to a pillar of salt because she looked back. Peter walked on water by the Savior\u2019s instruction until he looked down in unbelief. Don\u2019t look back or down; look ahead into the Face of Jesus, and the \u201cvictory that lies ahead.\u201d God rewards repentance: even the unbelieving Ninevites sought forgiveness and were spared destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course politicians will disappoint and fail you. Of course. Jesus never will. How can we keep making unwise choices?<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + + <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Click: Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand – Lindell Cooley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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