In the book of Daniel we read that God gave King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon a dream. As a way of testing the capabilities of his wise men, Nebuchadnezzar asked them not only to interpret the dream but to also to tell him what his dream was. The Babylonian wise men were unable to do this, but Daniel the Jewish prophet was able to give both the dream itself and the interpretation. Here is the account from Daniel 2: “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. “The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. “You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.[i] Daniel interpreted the dream by explaining that the statue represents the empires of the earth. One by one the empires rise and fall, each replaced by a successive empire. Finally, God’s kingdom comes crashing to earth, crushing the human empires and everything they have built to the glory of humanity. As the remains of all of the earthly empires are blown away as chaff, God’s kingdom fills the earth. Human empires are viewed negatively in Scripture. They represent humanity’s best efforts to live independently of God and to push God out of the way so that we humans can run our own planet in our own way. Human empires represent humanity‘s continual and persistent effort to glorify itself, which involves ignoring God, at best (passive rebellion), or actively rebelling against God, at worst. It is impossible to build a kingdom to God’s glory and to humanity’s glory at the same time. Whatever is build to the glory of humanity will give token recognition to God, at best. God opposes human empires because they represent the human attempt to live independently of God that began in the Garden of Eden. God will reduce to nothing all human empires when He returns, through his Messiah, to establish his Kingdom. If this is how God sees human empires, then one wonders why any Christian would want to participate in building one up, yet this is exactly what we see in political battles in general, specifically in the political conflict that is brewing in the U.S. today. Whether it is the politics of the right or the politics of the left, the U.S. is being built to glorify itself, not to glorify God, and many Christians, who should know better, are being swept up into the battle. Christians who want to make America strong need to do some serious wrestling with the God of Daniel 2. Building up an empire that God intends to topple does not sync with trying to bring our lives into alignment with the plans and purposes of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nebuchadnezzar receives the interpretation, but then seems to turn it all around. In chapter 3 we read: Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces were assembled for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the herald loudly proclaimed: “To you the command is given, O peoples, nations and men of every language, that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.[ii] Here Nebuchadnezzar sets up his own statue, and demands that all people worship it. This is the pursuit of the glory of humanity taken to its logical conclusion. Anything built by humanity and for humanity, independently of God’s purposes, ends up promoting the worship of humanity itself. Humanity becomes the center of the universe. Humanity receives the worship that rightfully belongs to God. This is the logical end of the pursuit of human glory via human empire-building. Humanity seeks to usurp the glory that rightfully belongs only to God. Where will this all end? We find the answer in Rev. 11: And the seventh angel sounded; and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” [iii] The human empires are toppled. God’s kingdom rules forever. All of the strong and powerful empires of the world, including the U.S., are reduced to nothing. God’s kingdom reigns. All competing empires, including the U.S., are destroyed and forgotten. I ask again, why would any Christian want to be involved in human empire-building? Why build up what God wants to knock down? Why would we want to compete with God? Why would we want to make ourselves into the enemies of God? Here are a few considerations regarding this matter: 1) Some Christians operate under the assumption that making the U.S. powerful is a way of glorifying God. The assumption is that that we glorify God precisely by making America powerful. According to this line of reasoning, a powerful U.S. can do more to resolve the conflicts of the world and to help the needy people of the world than a weak U.S. I’d like to suggest that this is an incorrect and misguided assumption. Placing American energy, American ingenuity and American dollars at the service of those who are oppressed is a worthwhile cause, but is this really the agenda of those who want to make the U.S. strong? Or do we really want to be stronger than our enemies so we can beat them up? We’re not in a position to truly help others if we are preoccupied with our own strength. Those who are most capable of helping others are least preoccupied with their own strength. They have a quiet, dignified strength that they do not boast about it; they give their strength away for the sake of others. What I am proposing is that what is true of individuals is also true of nations. The U.S. can’t be of much help to people who are suffering around the world if our own ego gets in the way. We make too much of our own strength. We can’t glorify God if we are preoccupied with our own self-glorification as a nation. It can’t be about God if it’s about us. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t have the glorification of God as our ultimate goal if we are bent on continually singing the praises of the Star-Spangled Banner. There is a time and a place for limited patriotism, but our allegiance to our country should be far less important that our allegiance to God and to his purposes if we are to call ourselves followers of Christ. 2) There is a time and a place for Christian involvement at a governmental level. Some Christians are called to this task, and they should follow their calling. For example, God raised up William Wilberforce to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. Christians got involved in the fight to abolish slavery here in the U.S. Today there are Christians who are admirably working against human trafficking. These are issues where Christians definitely need to have a voice in the political sphere. God raises up his people and places them in positions of authority and influence so that they can be tools in his hand to accomplish His good purposes. We all have a calling from God, and sometimes that calling may involve an assignment to serve in a high position in government. This is admirable and necessary, but the purpose of such service is to be a tool in the hands of God to accomplish his work. That’s not the same as empire-building. From a financial point of view, doing God’s work may make an empire weaker. God’s definition of strength is not the same as ours. What may be strength in God’s eyes may look like weakness from the human perspective. Before we become involved in the quest for political positioning and power we need to ask ourselves first and foremost: Am I willing to do what’s best for God’s glory, even if it makes our country weaker (from a human perspective)? If we can’t answer that question in the affirmative, then we as Christians have no reason to aspire to that position. Christians who are called into political involvement are called to speak up against injustice, not to participate in the building up of an empire. 3) God did raise up human government, so we should honor our leaders, be subject to them, and pray for them. Scripture instructs: Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.[iv] Scripture also instructs us to submit to human government: Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all men; love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.[v] Scripture also tells us how and why we should pray for our leaders: First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. [vi] We Christians are not called to oppose human government, but neither are we called to participate in the building up of empires. We are to submit to our leaders and to pray for them, not to be complicit in their power-hungry assertions. 4) Humanity is indeed glorious. Indeed, there is probably nothing in the universe more glorious than humanity other than God himself. After all, God created the rest of his universe, but then he created men and women in his image. As humanity, we are God’s image bearers. We reflect his glory to the watching universe. My point is that God put us on the earth to be reflectors of his glory, not to glorify ourselves. We reach our highest capacities to reflect God’s glory to the extent that we place ourselves and all of our resources at the service of God and align ourselves with his purposes. 5) Let’s not give human government a higher place than God gives it. The purpose of human government is not to set the moral tone of the country. We make a great mistake when we look to human government for moral leadership. This is not its God-appointed role. When Christians act as though a nation will rise or fall depending on which candidate becomes president, we forget that the role of human government is limited. A president is only a president. A president cannot be our savior. Throughout the past 2,000 years of history, we Christians have erred in these matters in three egregious ways: 1) We have sought military power. Tragically misguided pseudo-Christians have attempted to enforce the spread of Christianity through military means. For example, the Crusades provide a tragic and horrific example of what can happen when people confuse the proclamation of the Gospel with military conquest. The name of our Lord Jesus has surely been dragged through the mud by misguided people who somehow thought they were doing God’s bidding, and the damage done by such actions has been incalculable. 2) We have sought political power. Some Christians have tried to align Christian values with one political party or another, and then have become engaged in a tug-of-war with opposing political parties as a means of coercing the culture into adopting Christian values. This approach continues to wreak much havoc here in the U.S. today. There is no political party that accurately represents Jesus Christ, unless its platform is the Sermon on the Mount. The way of Jesus must be chosen; it cannot be coerced. 3) We have sought ideological power. We get into ideological wars, “us” vs. “them”, where we seem to feel that the victory goes to those who can scream the loudest. We waste energy trying to convince the rest of the world that they are wrong, that we are right, and that they had better switch sides and join us in bashing everyone else if they know what’s good for them. We do this under the misguided notion that we are somehow promoting the work of God, but such tactics do not accomplish the work of God. They are what Paul referred to as “weapons of flesh”. This is not how Christ instructs his people to proclaim the Gospel. We are called to proclaim the truth, not to demonize those who have not embraced it. There are no “good guys” or “bad guys”. We are all sinners. Some of us have had our eyes opened and have cried out to God for mercy, others have not yet received the light of the Gospel, but we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy. There is no “us” against “them”. How, then, can we as Christians engage the world? We need to take the teachings of the New Testament far more seriously than we have been taking them. Here are some examples of scriptural instruction that we need to take far more seriously: 1) Make every effort to live lives of peaceful, quiet dignity. Look again at the passage cited above for the reason for which we should be praying for our leaders: First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. [vii] 2) Surrender any impulse to take revenge, and do good instead. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus instructed us: You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. [viii] 3) Make every effort to show love and compassion to those who oppose us. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus instructed us: You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. [ix] 4) Develop a servant posture toward others. Jesus instructed us: And so when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you”. [x] 5) Make every effort to love each other, thereby showing the world that our Gospel is true and our Jesus is real. Jesus instructed us: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” [xi] 6) Stop complaining about how evil the world is. Instead, be the ones who do good. In Romans we are instructed: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. [xii] 7) Become people who know how to pray, and who pray consistently and effectively. We must learn to battle on our knees. We turn not to military power, political power or ideological power but to the power of God, unleashed through the prayers of God’s people. Political activism cannot change the hearts of people or the destiny of nations. Only God can do that, and we partner with God to accomplish this through our prayers. The Church needs to put far more emphasis on prayer than we have been doing. Its importance has been tragically downplayed by the majority of the Church in the U.S., and we are now reaping the consequences of our prayerlessness. In 2 Corinthians we are instructed: …for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. [xiii] 8) Start taking the Great Commission much more seriously, both locally and globally. As Jesus instructed us: “Go therefore and make disciples of call the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [xiv] 9) Start taking discipleship much more seriously. We have separated salvation from discipleship in an unscriptural way that Jesus and his early followers would have never recognized. A call to salvation cannot be separated from a call to follow Jesus as his disciples, living the lifestyle that he called us to live. The world will take us seriously when we who claim to be Christians actually begin to live as Jesus lived. And He summoned the multitude with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it”.[xv] 10) Return to the proclamation of a cross-centered Gospel. We are separated from God because of our sin, and this separation is so great that only the death of Christ on the cross could save us from our sin. Our own sinfulness is so dire that only the death of the Son of God could save us. The price that was paid by Jesus on the cross for our sin was so great that we will spend all of eternity praising the Lamb who was slain. We need to learn to abhor our own sinfulness and to cherish the work of Jesus on the cross on our behalf. Without a sense of abhorrence of our own sin and a deep cherishing of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we proclaim a cheap Gospel that Jesus and his early followers would never have recognized. This cheap quality of faith will never save anyone. Dismissing the horror of the cross and the beauty of what was accomplished by Jesus by reducing it to a “transaction”, a “sinner’s prayer”, is a horrible reduction of the Gospel. It reduces the Gospel to a triviality that the world would never want to embrace because it is not worth believing in. Those who have experienced this depth of salvation on a heart level will, as a consequence, spend the rest of our lives serving God by serving others. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. [xvi] It takes much effort to live lives of peaceful, quite dignity, to surrender the impulse to take revenge, to show love and compassion to those who oppose us, to become a servant to others, to love each other despite the sacrifice involved, to live a lifestyle that overcomes evil with good, to be people of persistent and effective prayer, to seek to fulfill the Great Commission both locally and globally, to be true disciples who seek to live as Jesus lived, and to proclaim a cross-centered Gospel, living out its implications on a daily basis. This involves a lifestyle of meekness, not a power-hungry lifestyle. It is indeed strength, but it is a quiet, confident strength that surrenders in love, not a pseudo-strength that becomes power hungry and seeks to control others for the sake of promoting a military, political or ideological agenda. In short, we engage the world by jumping off of the ideological tug-of-war and by living lives that are Christlike as part of a Christlike community (the Church). At this point we need to make three important notes: 1) It is impossible to live this lifestyle unless we know that we are unconditionally loved by God and forgiven because of the death of Jesus Christ for us on the cross. Jesus taught: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.[xvii] Scripture teaches: We love, because He first loved us. [xviii] 2) It is impossible to live this lifestyle without the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught: But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.[xix] Scripture teaches: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.[xx] 3) It is impossible to live this lifestyle as individuals. That’s why God calls us into a community, the Church. We model the Jesus lifestyle as the Church. The Church is the community that has been designed by God both to enable this lifestyle and to display it before the watching world. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. [xxi] It’s easy to engage in a military, political, or ideological tug-of-war. It’s difficult to live in a Christlike way as the Church, quietly loving each other, serving the needy, showing compassion to all, proclaiming the Gospel through our actions and through our words, and utilizing prayer as a means to “move the arm that moves the world.”[xxii] Is it any wonder that Christians have tended to take the easy road of ideological rhetoric and avoided the hard road of genuine discipleship? When the Church leans on military, political or ideological tactics instead of doing the hard work of becoming Christlike people who are together becoming a Christlike community, the Church has declared itself to be incredibly weak. I am calling the Church to be strong enough to abandon the military, political, and ideological tools upon which it has been leaning for all too long, and to embrace the lifestyle of Jesus and the outworking of this lifestyle in the community of Jesus. This is God’s appointed way of showing Christ to the world, and it is the only way of engaging the world effectively. The low road of using the “weapons of the flesh” is a self-destructive spinning of wheels and a tragic shortcut that will lead to our own destruction. The high road of Christlike living in Christlike community is the only way that we will be able to display the glory of God before a world that desperately needs to see Him and know Him. As a model I would like to set forth the various Amish and Mennonite communities around the world. They simply live as Christ would have them to live, as individuals and as communities, they do whatever good they can do in the world, and they do not call attention to themselves. They do not send armies into battle in the name of Jesus. They do not insist on coercing the culture to go their way through political means. They do not engage in a screamfest with competing ideologies. They simply do what God has called them to do in a quiet and dignified manner, without fanfare, without the need to advertise themselves, and without calling attention to what they are doing. They are not out to coerce or to conquer, but simply to be the people of God. They are a quiet testimony to the fact that God is real, that the way of love works, that the Gospel is true, that the way of the cross is valid, that Jesus is who He says He is, and that He is worth the surrender of our lives to him as Savior and Lord. Their light cannot be hidden. It shines much brighter than anything that we could ever stir up through our attempts at gaining military power, political power, or ideological power. This genuine lifestyle of simply following Jesus and simply being the people of God, coupled with persistent, effective prayer and with verbal proclamation of the Gospel, is our God-appointed means of fulfill the calling of Jesus to his people: You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. [xxiii] Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. [i] Daniel 2:31-35 [ii] Daniel 3:1-6 [iii] Rev. 11:15 [iv] Romans 13:1-2 [v] 1 Peter 2:13-17 [vi] 1 Timothy 2:1-4 [vii] 1 Timothy 2:1-4 [viii] Matthew 5:38-42 [ix] Matthew 5:43-48 [x] John 3:12-15 [xi] John 13:34-35 [xii] Romans 12.21 [xiii] 2 Corinthians 10:4 [xiv] Matthew 28:19-20 [xv] Mark 8:34-35 [xvi] Corinthians 5:14-15 [xvii] John 13:34 [xviii] 1 John 4:19 [xix] John 16:7 [xx] Galatians 5:22-23 [xxi] Ephesians 3:20-21 [xxii] Quote has been attributed to Charles Spurgeon. [xxiii] Matthew 5:13-16
0 Comments
|
About Joe Scordato
Archives
March 2024
Categories |