Will the worst happen? All the horror stories that we hear about Obamacare, internment camps, and other such atrocities, will they have their intended ( and unintended ) effect? Not much doubt there; they most likely will, especially if this nation and its leaders remain on the same wide and destructive path that they are on now!
Scripture shows us that God has, in the past, used even foreign powers to bring His people to their knees. All things serve His Purpose, and when we understand that, even though we may chafe at the methods that He uses, it becomes evident that, as the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Church at Rome, 'all things work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are the called according to His purpose' ( Romans 8:28 )! If we act according to His Law, the Law of Love, we can be sure that, no matter what the Obamas or even Bushes of this world do, they can do no harm to us!
Eschatological arguments and implications aside, we can find the greatest comfort & assurance in these and other such passages, for we are God's people, as was Israel of old, and the words, though given specifically to those Christians in the first century, carry as much weight for Christians today!
You might be wondering how in God's Name we are supposed to just ignore all the evil that is going on around us, to trust God's purpose, and to live our lives as if nothing is wrong. I never said that we should ignore all that is going wrong around us! Yes, God is using even what seems very wrong to us to chastise His people, and to bring His wayward children back into family relationship, but wrong is wrong, no matter if God is using it for His purposes. You've heard it said, that 'two wrongs don't make a right'! Just because God uses evil people or occurrences to accomplish His purposes doesn't make the culprit guiltless. The wrongdoer bears the responsibility for his own wrongdoing!
Since God is using Obamacare and these other necessary evils for His own Purpose, and for our good, does that mean that we should just lay down and die, without a fight? Should we just cave in, bow the knee and do what this evil government says? Hell no! If all God's people did this, they would be just as complicit & guilty as those who instigated the evil in the first place!
Part of the problem, and really, a very large part of the problem in this country, is that, largely due to a false eschatology, God's people have been doing this for years!
It's not too late: if Christians can forget their fear, and begin to live their lives in a way that honors God, and not some national idol, then and only then will we be non-complicit and guiltless of the many atrocities ( evils ) that are rampant in this nation! It is true that it is largely through politics we will accomplish this, but it will never be politics as we know it! Politics as we know it is largely where this nation has gone off-track!
The blame for much, if not all of what has gone wrong in this country can be settled squarely on the shoulders and laid at the feet of the Church, but more to the point, it is the citizens of this great nation that must cry mea culpa, for it is the Body Politic ( where we get the term 'politics' ) that determines the course of government, humanly speaking!
Largely, the blame for the politics of the American people can be attributed to fear; fear, for example that if we don't vote for the lesser of two evils, the greater of two evils may get into office. Fear that if we don't vote for the candidate who has a better chance of winning, even though he may not quite measure up to God's Law, our choices down the road may become increasingly more evil! Fear that if we don't obey the government in every respect, we could loose our livelihood, our families, or worse yet, our very lives!
Why all this fear? Well, to begin with, Americans, even American Christians, seem to have abandoned the Scriptural truth of 'heaven on earth', and the Presence of God! Because these Christians do not acknowledge the Rule & Presence of our Heavenly Father in all of Life, the evils that surround us and beset us on every side have become more of a reality than these Spiritual Truths!
How can we deal with all the evils in this world without either ignoring them or fearing the outcome of the atrocities being perpetrated on a daily and even hourly basis? How are we to live our lives to the Glory of God in the midst of all this turmoil? For starters, we can acknowledge the current Rule & Presence of our Heavenly Father, and live our lives accordingly, knowing that it is His Purpose, not theirs, that will stand the test of time; it is His will that is being done! Remember, Yahweh told the Pharaoh ( king ) of Egypt, 'for this Purpose, I have raised you up.....' ( Exodus 9:16 )!
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as [ it is ] in heaven.
Jesus-Matthew 6:10
Has this prayer been realized? Is it, as promised, a current reality?
Then let us live without fear!
Charles Haddon Shank
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