“Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground. Politics are a part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians (and citizens) must do their duty to the country as part of their duty to God. It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation are becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they think God does not see what they do in politics.” Charles Finney
Contrary to popular belief, when it comes to influencing the culture and politics of the nation, the majority of the modern Church is not comatose – it is dead – Pastors are dead – Denominations are dead – Christian schools and universities are dead.
Think about it: 159 million professing Christians, 90 million churchgoers, and 300,000 churches cannot effectively influence even the smallest change of direction in America’s society, culture, and political philosophy. America is in a societal, economic, and political tailspin – and the Church sits irrelevant, impotent and insignificant.
In America, unlike many nations around the world, citizens (including Christians) are able to lobby, redress government, protest, rally, organize opposition, speak, vote, form PACs, march, petition, etc. Christians are free to influence their societies and governments as are any other group in the U.S.
Name another group in this country that can boast 75% of the population who identify with Christianity in name or 43% of the population who regularly attend Church. What would our country look like if the ACLU, the homosexual lobby, or labor unions could boast these kind of numbers? By comparison these groups comprise a miniscule percentage of the population yet their influence is exponentially greater. What happened?
It is no hyperbole to say that, on the whole, the American Church has been mostly ineffective since immediately after World War II. The church sat mute when God was expelled from America’s public life in the 1960s. The church sat mute when the government gave license to the premeditated murder of unborn babies in the 1970s. Today, the church sits mute in the face of a burgeoning police state.
There seems to be virtually no abridgment of liberty, no national scandal, or threat against our constitutional form of government egregious enough to warrant an outcry from America’s pulpit.
Our churches are not longer the “pillar and ground of the truth,” (1 Tim 3:15) they are centers of social interaction, recreation, and feel-good indoctrination. Preachers are no longer reprovers, rebukers and exhorters, (11 Tim. 4:2) they are ear-ticklers, entertainers, and expositors of irrelevance.
The time is soon coming in this country when it is going to “rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matt. 5:45) When persecution and tribulation comes to America Christians will not be exempt.
When a jetliner falls out of the sky, everyone in it (Christian or not) goes down with the plane. And when this nation falls, everyone in it (Christian or not) goes down with the country. Christ said “Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matt. 5:13)
“If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundation of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.” Charles Finney, the “father of modern revivalism”
Chuck Baldwin, a radio broadcaster, syndicated columnist, and pastor dedicated to preserving the historic principles upon which America was founded. You can read the balances of his article at this link.
