For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings- Malachi 4:2 ESV
Behaviors and beliefs that would have been unimaginable just a few short decades ago have become so ordinary most of us are not even appropriately shocked anymore.
Seriously.
One-third of all babies are now born into homes with no Father. Boys and girls are being surgically and chemically altered because adults have decided science dictates that humans are the gender they think they are rather than the gender their DNA says they are. Grown men dressed as women have taken control of story hour at public libraries . The American Medical Association has recommended doctors no longer put the gender of infants on birth certificates. Drug overdoses have become so commonplace the overdose drug Narcan will soon be available over the counter. Nonetheless, for some reason no one can fully explain the push to legalize all drugs continues in most states. Material once considered hardcore pornography and completely unacceptable is now mainstream and available to any third-grader with a smartphone. There is an active and ongoing push to normalize and legalize pedophilia.
All of this is taking place with the full blessing of our government.
This moral sea change has had a hardening influence on society in general. Individuals routinely say things about and to others that would have been considered unthinkable just a few years ago. People are becoming more violent as individuals become less self-controlled and less concerned with the well-being of others. This trend has resulted in a sharp uptick of violent crime. Riots, school shootings, hate crimes and road rage have all become disturbingly ordinary events in many parts of Western civilization (2nd Timothy 3:1-5).
Normal people find all this quite troubling and for good reason. We understand a civilization will not continue to function in a legit way for long if the majority of people continue to choose the path of moral and social anarchy.
Most of us are searching frantically for a clear path out of the encroaching madness. Our go-to tends to be politics. Most Christians are hoping and praying for a political figure or party to step into the fray and sort our mess out. We want a wise man or woman to make some laws that will save us from our sorry selves before we go the way of the Romans or the Babylonians and sin ourselves into extinction. While I fully understand the inclination, there are all sorts of unintended consequences with this mindset, following are four of the most troubling:
It ignores the real reason we have bad leaders –
Americans, including many Christians have voted for a lot of losers from both parties over the course of the last century. That being said, our culture did not become the dumpster fire it is today because Americans elected the wrong people. Americans, including a lot of Christians elected the wrong people because they believed the wrong things about God, life and what will make them happy and successful. Wrong views have become widespread and created the moral vacuum that got us the political leaders we have today. We must never forget: in a democracy politics always follow the moral beliefs of the people doing the voting. Bad leaders mean we have bad beliefs that need to be sorted out. The sorting out needs to start with Christians thinking and voting biblically.
It denies the warnings of Scripture-
Scripture teaches that as a general principal, humans tend to reap what they sow (Job 4:8, Proverbs 22:8, Hosea 8:7, Hosea 10:12, 2nd Corinthians 9:6, Galatians 6:7). It is very rare that bad leadership erupts from out of nowhere. This is even more true in a society where people get to elect their leaders. It is simply a pattern throughout Scripture that societies tend to get the leaders they deserve due to the choices of their citizens.
It is a form of idolatry-
Anytime humans look to another flawed human to do things that only God can do it becomes a dangerous form of idolatry. Idolatry always leads to weak, ineffective or tyrannical leadership (1st Samuel 8:10-18).
It keeps us from seeking the only things that can make a difference-
Christians are commanded by Jesus to be a preserving, protecting and illuminating presence in whatever society they live in (Matthew 5;13-16). This means modeling for the culture what healthy living looks like in every sphere of life. Anytime Christians seek human leadership as their primary source of help and hope they stop seeking the things that have the power to bring about transformation in a culture. The cultural moment we find ourselves in demands Christians model repentance and dependence on God in hopes of ushering revival into the culture. Without heart-felt repentance on a massive scale culture as we know it is done for at least for a season.
Cultural transformation can happen.
We are still here and God is still on His throne. However, our hope for change cannot rest in human leaders. Our hope has to be in Jesus and Jesus only. Transformation will occur when God’s people seek God in prayer and ask God for forgiveness for all the not praying, not seeking God and not living according to God’s principles that’s been going on in Christian circles for the last fifty or sixty years. Christians must ask God daily for the strength and wisdom to live life in faithful, counterculture kind of a way. Then we must commit to living biblically in all situations no matter how weird that makes us to our friends, neighbors and coworkers.
When we start living according to God’s principles we will get leaders who embrace God’s principles and we will see the cultural sea-change we know we need.
