The Choice Before American Christians
Copyright 2013 by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved
Biblically-orthodox Christians in 21st Century America are beginning to feel the cold winds of public rejection in a society that has seemingly reached a real tipping-point in rejecting its Judeo-Christian foundation. While the erosion of freedom of religious conscience is still in its opening stages in this country (and is nowhere near the level of the sometimes murderous prejudice against believers elsewhere in the world) it is becoming clearer by the day that a true persecution of the American church has become a very real possibility in the not too distant future.
It is now when two ugly temptations begin to rear their ugly head. On one hand it is difficult to resist the pull to endanger our loving witness by digging in our collective heels, “circling the wagons” and angrily fighting against the winds of change with all the remaining tools at our disposal as citizens of a constitutional republic. On the other is the even worse choice of accommodating ourselves to the world’s current idea of what is “Progressive” and losing not only our witness but our souls as well.
There is, however, a third option. Bible-believing Christians in the United States can decide to humbly trust in the ultimate victory of Christ and choose to suffer in hope as our oppressed brothers and sisters in other times and places have always done. In this spirit we can also choose to love even our enemies as we continue to hold to the eternal truths of the faith. This might be the most difficult of the three choices, but it is also the truly godly one.
While it is accurate to affirm that the Apostle Paul was not above using the rights of his Roman citizenship when he felt his part in spreading the Gospel would be facilitated by it he also had no illusions about converting the culture of his time through political action. He knew that it was the Holy Spirit that changed individual’s minds and hearts, not an effective lobbying campaign. Many times he chose not to stand on his civil rights and instead endured the persecution his public beliefs brought upon him. I think Paul would tell us to do the same. He might not call us to be completely apolitical, but he would say that our first citizenship is always in the Kingdom of God and commend our willingness to suffer for the sake of making Christ known to the world. In other words he might advise us to be, as someone once said, “a patriot only to Heaven.”
While modifying our theology to fit the deceiving spirits of this age should not be an option for any committed Christ-follower the truth is that this choice strongly appeals to our fallen desire for acceptance and ease at any cost. It has always been relatively easy to be a theologically orthodox believer in this nation. The fact that that this state of affairs appears to be coming to an end is a difficult pill for many of us to swallow, but that does not mean we are not called to swallow it. Anyone who permanently chooses comfort (even a comfort that once almost seemed like a sort of American Christian birthright) over the harder road of authentically self-denying discipleship is not worthy of the name Christian.
The key to not going down either of these wrong roads is found in learning to truly believe that, no matter how bad things look at this point in the history of our earthly nation, God wins in the end. Someday, and it may not be too far away, He will lower the curtain on human history. When He does all the evil that this world which we are in, but not of, now tells us is morally acceptable will be utterly destroyed…as will those who have been willingly taken in by that evil. But we are not to revel in this fact in the sense of looking forward to the judgment of the human race. The word tells us that our Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. No, our job is to obey Him and love people in such a way as to be vessels of true salvation in their lives, even if it costs us everything. This is not only the best choice for the authentic believer, it is the only choice.
May God help us.