The following.....Conservatism Itself Saves No One....was first posted on November 30, 2008....and was only my fifth post. Our beloved dog had died unexpectedly....and I remember digging a grave in the pouring rain. I needed something to occupy my mind so I thought that I would experiment with trying to write on the Internet. His name was Special....thus Special Dog! The first post was on how cable companies bundle all the stations offered to us....basically forcing many of us to bring everything into our home. I thought that if we had the opportunity to purchase cable networks a la carte that within a year America's mental health would improve. Today I practice extreme and fanatical social distancing....from daytime television. We have basic cable at home....with only a handful of channels. I'm typing this while visiting my wife's elderly parents....and the daytime television is almost always on....and I have to sit in the kitchen....for if I hear what America feeds on....from The Price Is Right....to the network morning shows....I will surely have to fight back tears....as our minds either atrophy in the nonsense....or are indoctrinated in where other people want us to go. As for this post below....Christians need to remember how God taught us repeatedly in the Old Testament that we do not win battles or defend ourselves on our own....and if we try to then God will let us learn the hard way. Politics....armies....even legislation....will accomplish nothing if God's purpose is not involved....and unfortunately that is exactly where we are today. God's faithful servants had warned us for decades that judgment was coming because of who we had become as a people....but those servants are mostly gone....and we have fallen far more down into the abyss since then. On our own....we fashioned a golden-haired calf....and claimed to have God on our side....as we went into battle drunk on power and greed. We became as Hophni and Phinehas....thinking that the Ark of the Covenant would surely bring victory....but instead....the word Ichabod....the glory has departed....became our banner. Our pulpits need to wake us up....but they need to wake up first....and that should be the prayer from those who know that we cannot do anything on our own….”As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Jn 15:4
Conservatism Itself Saves No One
I agonized for a long time over how the Christian is to deal with politics. I read books on the subject and certainly went to Scripture. I've been on both sides of the issue. Edmund Burke wrote "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Burke was not a Christian, and I am not "good," but the concept and the logic still hold weight.
Our nation is crumbling fast and most of us are the proverbial frog in the kettle. The local news from the metropolitan city that I live near started their telecast last night with three different killings among young black people. Yesterday's paper had a picture of two beautiful young children joined at the head while the surgeons were dismayed that nothing could be done for them. Every day the sufferings of people are there to remind us of the fallen condition of this world. We say that we yearn for Jesus to come back but do we?
Martin Luther once said when asked what he would do if he knew that the Lord was coming back the next day, "I would plant a tree." In the final analysis, we cannot quit on this nation. If people's sufferings are to be alleviated, if we are to return to at least being a "God-fearing" nation we have to seek God's mercy and try our best to be good and responsible citizens.
This blog title has the word "conservative" in it to get the attention of who it is meant for but conservatism itself will save no one! Our hope is not in princes or their military power. Christians, who have been relegated to being part of the "religious right," must remind themselves of this every day. This does not mean that we do not support a political party or ardently work for its success but it does mean that we never alter our ethical beliefs or compromise that which is our only hope, the gospel of grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We lost our moorings in this long before we lost this last election. Our churches are social gatherings with political causes meant to assuage our guilt of not knowing who we really are in Christ. Our pulpits mention Jesus every week but rarely preach His cross for they have lost faith in the power of preaching Christ and prefer to give biblical advice on how to live. I stumble into church every week to hear the atoning power of the blood of Christ and of what He has done for me and how He will keep this poor wretched sinner despite my gravitation to dally with the world.
More than anything, we need to pray that ministers enter their pulpits, look over the congregation and set forth to lay out the glories and majesties of Jesus Christ present in every book of the Bible. Only having done that can they begin to exegete the passages on how we are to live.
