What Would Jesus Do Might Surprise A Lot Of People…..
31 Sunday Jul 2016
Written by dennisghurst in Attributes, Eternal, Inspiration
Tags
Christ, Christianity, Conservatism, Constitutional Republic, Everlasting, Experience, Family, Fellowship of the Minds, Freedom, Genealogy, God, I Have A Dream, Jesus Christ, Lessons, Liberty, Life, Posterity, Sage, Self-Preservation, Teaching, United States, Wisdom
Share it
Now that We The People have finally been given the choice of whom to support as the next president of the United States, our attention is redirected to the age-old question of “What would Jesus do?” and as my chosen header for this topic reveals above, most of you reading this might well be surprised.
The function of the two-party system in our Republic – where numerous unique interests compete, yet strive to coexist in peace – is to muster consensus along the broadest possible lines. Those lines in the United States are Left and Right, simply translated as destruction or conservation, secularism or faith, death or life, dependency or responsibility, pessimism or optimism, relativism or objective truth, anarchy or the rule of law, state control or personal freedom.
Sure, you can form your own political party with the 5 other guys in the world who think precisely as you do, but your effect on the culture is bound to be nil, or close to it. To have an affect on society, you must team up with people of dissimilar interests, and a two-party system is the most efficient way of doing this.
Thousands, maybe millions even, of faithfully-avowed Christians don’t seem to realize that the Perfect is not just an enemy of the Good, but its deadliest enemy, and that petulantly withholding their votes until Perfection or Apocalypse comes, not only hurts their fellow Christians, but also hurts every other innocent person in the world who relies upon the prevalence of Christian ideals to make their lives bearable. Think, for a moment, of the tens of thousands of Yazidis, secular Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians, and Middle Eastern Christians who would still be alive today if the Left had not prevailed in our last presidential election. They prevailed because Christians like the two million or more who stayed home last time refused to participate over some self-righteous and, frankly, selfish reservation about a candidate.
Fast-forward in time, to the current presidential election cycle we find ourselves in, with the fact that Donald Trump, however absurd it may seem to us, is currently bearing the standard for American Christians. Voting for him is voting against all the injustice and misery that will be caused if the Left prevails – all the evil, all the chaos, all the innocent blood that is bound to be shed.
I would remind us all that the Jews of Christ’s time had such a fixation on the Messiah appearing in the form of a strong military commander that when he ultimately appeared in the role of a carpenter, they were unable to recognize him. All of the greatest figures in the Bible, and those listed in the genealogy of Christ himself, are deeply flawed; murderers, adulterers, liars, you name them. Yet Paul declares as an Apostle of Christ: “my strength is made perfect in weakness” and “the foolishness of God is wiser than men” (II Cor 12:9 / I Cor 1:25)
Withholding your vote is not a sign of virtue; in fact, it may be the exact opposite. Selfish pride is the worst of all sins. Voting for the side that best represents Christian interests, however imperfectly, allows the Christian point of view to stay in the game. Abandon the field, and we lose all possibility of influence on the greater society.
As a born-again evangelical Christian I get somewhat alarmed at times at the sanctimony and aberrant behavior of some who would label themselves Christians while at the same time revealing their own selfish rationalizations for not participating in the current political battles shaping our society. Simply because they insist on operating at such an ‘exalted’ ethical level, America now has atheists, statists, terrorists, criminals and globalists running the show. Do those ‘Christians’ really believe that’s something of which to be proud?
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” and we should take his words seriously. When it comes time to render our vote unto Caesar, we can only hope to discern which candidate’s positions more closely align with our Christian values (if we have any). The overtly religious antics of Glenn Beck and Rafael Cruz did no favors for Ted Cruz’s candidacy, and Trump’s ‘Christian values’ are no more convincing than Clinton’s. There are political reasons for supporting either candidate, with no religious justification involved. As Christ also declared to the gathered mob with evil intent on the woman caught in adultery “he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7)
********************
Which provides a perfect segue` into the Reverend Donald Sensing and “Jesus Does Not Endorse Your Candidate”:
The naive assumption of many religionists on both sides of the American political aisle seems to be that their only one candidate, but not the other, can sustain Christian morality in the national polity.
It beggars words to describe how foolish – indeed, how un-Christian – this belief is. I find it impossible to affirm even in the smallest way that either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump care a fig about the Christian religion at all, no matter what they claim, and at least Trump has the forthrightness not to claim any particular religion at all. Trump’s religion is Trump. There is almost nothing I have seen about his platform that bears the imprimatur of orthodox Christianity or its inheritors. I am dismayed that so many prominent Christian figures have endorsed his candidacy. It is more than merely distressing to observe what even conservative commentators are calling, “The Moral Collapse of the Republican Party.”
That said, exactly what is the actual evidence, not rhetoric, but evidence, that Hillary Clinton cares a fig about Christian religion herself? Sure, she claims Methodist affiliation, but exactly what does that mean when examining her truly dismal, spectacularly failing record as a public official? Claiming a religious affiliation does not confer competence, and even MSNBC’s in-the-tank hosts were forced to admit the other day that they could think of nothing of note that she had ever accomplished. This is a woman whom FBI Director James Comey, under oath before a Congressional committee, confirmed repeatedly had lied over and over and over about handling highly classified material but just wasn’t ‘sophisticated enough’ to know the severity of her actions. So yeah, sure, that plus Methodism qualifies her for the presidency, of course. Hillary Clinton’s religion is Clintonism…… [more]
Read the entire piece at Sense Of Events
********************
In Closing…
“If God is for me, who can be against me?” I think God shakes his mighty head, and wonders who on earth is for him. Many are called, but few actually answer.
The issue of their Christianity (ie Clinton and Trump) is moot, in my opinion. The best that can be said is that Donald Trump has raised what appear to be healthy and ethical children. Hill ‘n Bill ‘n Webb’s kid (ie Chelsea) are all criminals without blush, and not only embrace immorality but actively promote it. We are all pretty lacking and fall far short of who we should be and that’s good enough for me. By their fruits, etc.
But in the happenstance on the occasion, perhaps, when Trump builds a ‘wall’, limits Middle East immigration, strengthens ties with Israel, stops the killing of our police officers, and improves the economy, I doubt anyone will complain that he isn’t Christian enough.
Liberal progressive Leftist-DemoMarxists are the minions of Satan, and you can take that straight to the bank.
And what would Jesus do?
My sense is, just what he’s done once or twice before, when he wept (Luke 19:41 / John 11:35)
********************
H/T Donald Sensing for Jesus Does Not Endorse Your Candidate at Sense Of Events
And Gerard Vanderleun for his superb American Digest
********************
Soli Deo Gloria!
One Comment