July 21st, 2024
American Milestones
Oh, what a week, yeah? There are certain times and events in life that are milestones for just about everyone, and stick with us as a people, even years or decades later. As an example, if I asked anyone on the street today about 9/11, most could tell me where they were on September 11th, 2001, when the first plane hit, even 25 years later. The assassination attempt on Donald Trump this last week will go down as another milestone event in the life of Americans.
Unfortunately, the propaganda war began as soon as the President hit his knees on that platform, and here we are a week later, and I have little confidence in any of the “facts” of that event. I cannot shed any additional light on those events, nor can I provide unbiased resources. Therefore, I will say nothing about the event, for now, other than to acknowledge it happened, that I am praying for the salvation and safety of President Donald Trump, JD Vance, and both of their families as we enter this new phase of 5th generational warfare that now includes the acceptability of political assassinations on American soil, by Americans, against Americans. God help us all.
The Republican National Convention
I have a confession to make. The Republican Party platform has strongly supported life and Biblical marriage for so long that when the pro-life message was completely watered down (and it was), and Biblical marriage was essentially removed, I felt completely betrayed. Add to that the choice of speakers at the convention, and I had to spend some serious time in prayer to assess what that meant for me as a Bible believing follower of Jesus Christ. After much prayer, reflection, and feedback from friends with a similar belief system, I have some perspective I didn’t have before. It is my sincere hope that my thoughts will help give you some perspective as well.
The Republican Party is not Christian
The Republican party is not now, nor has it ever been, a Christian organization. It is one of two political parties in the United States that seeks to control government. There is no moral compass in a political party. There are many Christians within the GOP, but if you review the actions of the Republican party since its inception, especially what has been done behind closed doors, it is just as corrupt and immoral as any other political organization in history. All one has to do is review the actions of the Missouri Republican party leadership this very election cycle to see how corrupt and immoral the GOP can get.
The Republican Party is not Conservative
Conservatism is an ideology that took hold in the Republican party a long time ago, and has been enshrined in the party platform. That much is true. However, if you review the actions of GOP political candidates over the decades, few actually governed conservatively, and in the last three decades, any real conservative governance has been rare, focused on a handful of policies, and short-lived. Today, true conservatism is generally seen as a libertarian “thing”, not a republican ideology. Conservatives in the GOP are regularly accused by their more liberal competitors of being “libertarian leaning”, when in fact, they are simply conservative both fiscally and socially, and actually govern that way when elected, which is rare these days.
The Republican Party has always been divided
Many of the founding fathers hated the idea of political parties. Unfortunately, once it became clear that unifying as many smaller groups of constituents into larger ones for the purposes of controlling government was a winning strategy, the rest was history. Political parties have always been divided into smaller groups of constituents, all vying for control of the larger parties. The whole concept of a party platform is to unify many groups into one body by including requirements from the various groups as a commitment for all the candidates of that party in how they will govern, if elected. (I will not address the larger issue that candidates soon learned that making promises and delivering on those promises are totally separate things, because that is not the focus of this article.)
The Republican Party Wants To Win
The platform of the Republican party has morphed over the decades, but the one fact that has remained is that it has always been a group of smaller factions, unifying for the purpose of winning. Ronald Reagan understood that, and did his best to get the party to unify under a Republican banner in order to win. Without going too far with the comparisons between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, they did share one major priority: winning.
Donald Trump wants to win the election in November. He has spent every day since it was stolen from all of us in 2020 planning for it, and there is one reality that faithful Christians need to come to grips with, and it has less to do with the party platform, and nothing to do with Amber Rose. The Republican party under the leadership of Donald Trump, has calculated that the pro-life, pro-Biblical marriage voting block that will sit out this election rather than vote for a watered down platform is smaller than the pro-abortion “sometimes”, independent voting block that is dissatisfied with the democrat party, and Joe Biden. The sad truth is, the party is right.
US Churches Are Failing
No, I am not talking about your church… unless I am. The sad reality of our time is that the number of churches in the US that are actively teaching the whole Word of God, standing for the Truth of Scripture, and calling out the lies, blasphemy, and evil of our culture, are few. The concept of repentance and being born again has been replaced with “easy-believism” that does not require facing our sin in the light of God’s standard of perfection, but simply requires regurgitating a “sinner’s prayer” and moving on, now that you have your pious parachute into the arms of a Jesus that brings love, but not justice. The truth is that the Republican platform was “watered down” because the church has been “watered down”. People who are serious seekers are not fooled by the almond milk of the Word.
The Barna Research group published their 2023 Year in Review in December of last year, and the results were interesting. Churches have lamented the hardness of unbeliever’s hearts in the US for decades now, insisting Americans are especially resistant to the Gospel. That may have been true at one time. However, the research shows that 75% of all Gen Z teens are either “somewhat” or “very” motivated to learn more about Jesus. Research from October of 2022 showed that 74% of all adults in the US would like to grow spiritually. However, the research also shows that while most people have a favorable view of Jesus and the Bible, the same is not true about American churches, especially megachurches, “worship bands”, and celebrity pastors. People are not stupid. Fake churches create fake Christians, and weak churches create weak Christians. This results of this tragedy are churches that are just as plagued with scandal as every other organization in existence. Don’t settle for either a fake or weak church. Seek out a church that teaches the real Gospel1.
So Where Do We Belong?
Knowing all these truths, what does that mean for Bible believing Christians that know they need to engage in the political process, but feel betrayed by the Republican party? If you ask me, right where we started. If we feel betrayed, it is our perspective that needs to change. The choice of political candidates has always been “the lesser of two evils”, so to speak. Unless Jesus Himself is running for office, we are choosing between flawed people to represent us in a flawed system. That has not changed. We still need to engage in the process, just like many of us have been. We still have some very good candidates running for office both locally and at the state level. Those candidates desperately need our help to finish out the primary election season strong, and have the best chance of winning their respective races.
One thing that absolutely needs to change is that every Bible believing Christian needs to engage in a local, Bible believing, Bible teaching church, and share the Gospel to a lost and dying world (and nation). If your church falls short, work to change it. If you cannot change it, find a different church, and engage there. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which our culture must be built if we are going to have the influence we want in our Constitutional Republic. For that to happen, more people need to hear it and believe!
A great resource to help you know the full Gospel of Jesus Christ is The Gospel According to Jesus, by John MacArthur.