By Mark W. Swarbrick

Politics is not the answer to the world’s problems. Jesus is. I have heard that maxim preached from the pulpit nearly all my life. And it is true. However, it is not the whole truth. There is more to it than that. The reason I say that is because many people have misinterpreted that statement to mean that politics doesn’t matter, or shouldn’t matter much to the Christian. I want to explain why politics should matter a great deal to Christians.

 

Jesus is the answer. But we must realize that until He returns, the works of Christ are performed on this earth by the hands and feet of Christians. So for right now, the answer is not just waiting for Jesus’ return and hoping God’s will happens. The answer lies in the hands of Christians who will pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and then get out there in the world and work to bring it to pass. Leading people to Christ is the foundation, but working for God’s will to happen on earth should extend beyond that into every area of human endeavor.

SATAN’S PLAYGROUND

As we examine history, we see that politics has always been a battleground between good and evil. Consider the rise of Adolf Hitler as an example. His effort to take over the entire world was a reign of terror unequaled in all of earth’s history, causing the death of 85 million people. Millions more were wounded and crippled. Cities were reduced to rubble by years of bombing. It took a world-wide effort to stop the satanic evil that was Adolf Hitler.

But how did all that evil start? With a small political party. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, to be exact, otherwise known as the NAZIS. If only Germans had been more concerned about the political happenings in their own country. If only more German Christians had been more politically active instead of staying in their little Christian bubble and ignoring what was happening around them.

The danger was easily apparent to any German who cared enough to read Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, which was written in 1925 before Hitler came to power. In it he taught that it was the right of the strong to exterminate the weak. Hitler was truly a beast, believing a nation should behave like a wild animal and devour those that could be conquered and he said so loud and clear. Survival of the fittest through war was the way of evolution, he said.

It was no secret what Hitler was. But there were not enough Christians in Germany who cared. And it wasn’t that there were not plenty of Christians. Germany was the birthplace of Protestantism, the home of Martin Luther. There were enough Christians, just not enough Christians who cared about what was happening to their government. It was politics, you see, and cultured people shouldn’t mix religion and politics, or so they had been led to believe.

Satan has a plan that he has been trying to implement throughout history. From the Tower of Babel to Hitler’s Germany to the United Nations, to the World Health Organization, and to the European Union, we detect an unseen force working to bring about a one-world government. Scripture reveals a devil who plans to put one evil man at the head of such a government. That is Satan’s plan and we dare not be ignorant of his schemes.

As part of this plan, Satan has fostered and influenced evil men to establish totalitarian governments that ban the Bible and forbid Christianity. Today there are 52 countries that have already made the Bible illegal. Obviously, Satan has been relentlessly and purposely pursuing his plans for governmental control over the world and that is why politics is the devil’s playground. He uses it to stamp out Christianity, ban the Bible and persecute Jews.

SATAN’S WORK IN AMERICA

As I have illustrated, Satan attempts to use political processes to gain control over a country. Satan’s diabolical efforts are plainly seen in America in the Democratic Party. That party favored slavery during the Civil War. They cruelly forced the Indians onto reservations. They opposed civil rights in the 1960s. They voted against any mention of God in campaign literature. They viciously promote the murder of innocent babies. They encourage homosexuality and transgenderism. They want men in ladies rest rooms. They favor large totalitarian socialist government. Their open border stance is in line with Satan’s one-world plan. They oppose any mention of Jesus within the public political arena. They accuse Christians of being “anti-science” because we believe in prayer and a creator.

Under Obama’s Democrat regime we saw no mention of Jesus, but only rainbow lights over the White House, celebrating same sex marriage. Obama gloried in sodomy. He proclaimed we were no longer a Christian nation. Republican President Trump is a big contrast, for he openly talks about the value of personally knowing Jesus Christ and frequently attends prayer meetings. It is abundantly clear from what is happening right here in America: Good and evil are at war with each within the political arena. Because Satan is involved in politics, he tries to keep Christians out of it so he can work unopposed. Those who scream “separation of Church and State” are actually doing the devil’s bidding.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Ephesians 6:12 says: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

We will consider what that passage means, but first let us consider what it does not mean. It does not mean that good men do not ever struggle against flesh and blood. That should be obvious, otherwise a Christian police officer could never apprehend a bank robber. It would mean America was wrong to go to war against Hitler’s Germany. Indeed, sometimes we do wrestle against flesh and blood, just as Jesus did when he chased the money changers out of the temple with a whip.

In the Old Testament we see where Israel’s spiritual battles often involved going to war against evil nations. In the New Testament we see the Apostle Paul saying such things as:

 “Some…concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme…Among them are Armenaeus and Phileitus, men who have gone astray from the truth…their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth…whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not…” (1 Tim 1:19-20, II Timothy 2:16-18 & Titus 1:11)

In the Book of Revelation Jesus had a message for the church in Pergamum. There were some false teachers there that had to be dealt with. Jesus warned: “Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.” (Rev 2:16) Jesus was not saying these false teachers would make his return happen sooner. He was saying He would visit that church through the Holy Spirit operating in the elders of the Church and Jesus says that he would make war by “the sword of my mouth.” In other words, elders and prophets would rise up under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit and publicly and powerfully oppose their false teaching.

In all these cases we see Jesus and the apostles wrestling against flesh and blood. What then does Ephesians 6:12 mean? It means that our primary fight is not against people, but against demonic hosts. It doesn’t mean we never have to oppose people. It simple means that we rely on the spiritual power of prayer and the gifts of the Holy Spirit and that we recognize the true enemy is not deceived people but the devil who has deceived them.

Nevertheless, there are times that spiritual evil manifests physically through people and at such times, a physical response is often appropriate. Let us not forget there was a time when Jesus had to say to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matthew 16:23) We must not sit on our laurels and be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. A famous preacher of the eighteenth century said it concisely: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”

AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS

In 1967 President Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”

America is at a crossroads. Opposition to the laws of God has reached a crescendo. Never in my lifetime have I seen such debauchery and vile wickedness paraded in the streets and across the airwaves such as it is today. From high government leaders down to the most common of people, godless men and women are reveling in their sexual perversions and blood lust for the genocide of innocent babies. They are clamoring for a godless socialist country. They would turn the USA into the USSR.

They are proud of their wickedness. They are working relentlessly to abolish our Constitution and bring in an evil government that deprives us of our God-given rights. Who can say what horrors would follow? If we refuse to take a stand concerning great moral issues then we have acquiesced to evil. Let us not be like the Christians of Germany in the 1930s. They ignored the wickedness in a political party and let it go on. As a result, they saw their nation destroyed and the world wrecked.

Jesus is the answer but that answer will only come to the world as we surrender our hearts and lives to the point where we become doers of the word and not hearers only. We must care enough to work hard to change the world according to biblical principles and standards. We must not put our light under a bushel, but put it up on a stand for the world to see.

We must be so empowered by the Holy Spirit that we have the courage to speak up and promote righteousness while opposing evil in every form. Abraham Lincoln said: “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” In other words, fail to let our Christian morals influence our nation and it shall be ourselves and our children’s children who will suffer. We ignore our civic duty at our own peril. As President Ronald Reagan so aptly put it, “If we ever forget we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

Jesus and his love, his forgiveness, his righteousness, his teaching about judgment to come – all these truths and more must be proclaimed in every venue, in the backyards, the streets, the alleys, in the marketplace, in homes, and in the halls of Congress. The message of Christ must go forth from the Christian pulpit and permeate the podiums of political discourse where it can change the course of a wayward nation before it is too late.

We have a political party in America that wants to continue slaughtering babies at the rate of nearly a million a year. Hear the word of God:

“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?” (Proverbs 24:10-12)

Apathy can be more deadly than a virus. Every Christian must oppose the Democratic party just as every German should have opposed Hitler’s NAZI party. You cannot serve both God and Satan and you cannot be a Christian and support a party that murders the innocent and flaunts vile wickedness. “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” (2 Co 6:17) A Christian who is not an activist for righteousness in some manner has retreated from the battlefield. I will conclude with these words of wisdom from a world traveler who came to America in the 17^th century. He made this profound observation:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her public-school system and her institutions of learning, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

 

 

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