Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
There are few things that last in this world. Everything seems to go with the using. Every nation tumbles. Every society collapses. Every institution eventually fails. All but the Church. I want to encourage you, Christian, who is now distraught over the current state of this country and American politics. Be warned however, I will not comiserate with you about the current state of affairs. I do not understand such a dismal outlook upon Christ’s Church. I came across this article, Trump and the Apostate Church, by Brittany Pounders where the writer said this,
“The Church as a whole is destroying their testimony, their integrity, by their silence or outright acceptance. I know we don’t look to man. Man will fail us. But man makes up the fellowship and part of it is becoming rotten.”
This point of view upon the Church has problems. The writer says that she knows we don’t look to man and that man will fail us, yet the entire article is about how down she is because man has failed her. This is indicative of a fault on her part, not everybody else. She says that part of the church is becoming rotten. That is also wrong. It’s been rotten. The difference now is that she’s just now coming to the realization of it. And the whole truth is that all is rotten. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That doesn’t change for the Christian. What does change is that our sins are covered in the blood of Jesus Christ. What changes is we are now endued with the imputed righteousness of another, not ours. What changes is now in us God has placed His Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth. Also, the writer goes on to describe two different groups of people. This is very short-sighted, and dishonest:
The first being the vocal Trump supporter who sacrilegiously declares that Trump is God’s appointed leader for this time. Those may be admired in their tiny echo chambers of mindless idiots. Outside of their tiny core, they’ve already lost all credibility.
I’ve seen a few of these, and they’re about as scarce (or abundant) as the the accuser and her sympathizers. Then there are some out there that rightly declare that God will bring to power whom he chooses, that he is sovereign in these matters. Then there’s some that take that too far into a fatalistic view where man’s will has no bearing.
The second group is the formerly vocal political Christians who have suddenly gone dark and silent. You have no comments. You state piously on social media that “this has just become too ugly.” These are the cowards. You disappear when it actually matters—when the world is watching to see how we react to this as Christians.
Someone needs to edit this because she said the same person that has no comments state piously on social media. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. When it actually matters? Now? When the media beats it’s drums? When the media is now on the march to ensure their candidate is sworn in? Now is the time to get on the Trash Trump bandwagon? These are cowards? I would call them circumspect. Maybe they’re silent because they don’t want to hear anymore sanctimonious dribble.
What this all boils down to is the writer is saying of herself “I am not sacreligious. I am not a mindless idiot. I am the one with credibility. I am not a coward.” These people are lamenting under their little juniper tree. They think that they are the last man (or woman) standing. They are the Gideons. They are the remnant. They are the only ones with principles. It makes me sicker and sicker the more I see it in their writings. She errs in believing that everybody that doesn’t see things from her perspective fall into those two other categories. She cannot bear the possibility that things are just not that simple as her understanding. All I can do is shake my head.
No, the church will not be prevailed upon. I will not hang my head down like some in disappointment and look my nose down at everybody else just because they don’t come into my little self-centered religious bubble. No, the church is much bigger and greater than my perspective of it. The church lived before the United States of America came into existence; and the church will live and thrive after the United States of America falls. The church lived before any of these sanctimonious windbags uttered a word and the church will live on when their voices cease. No, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, and neither will Trump or Hillary. The church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And this earth will burn with fervent heat and the Church will still endure.
No Surprises Here
People like Steve Deace, Eric Erickson, and now this writer, Brittany Pounders, have currently entered a heightened state of lamentations regarding the Church. This comes on the heals of the latest and worst supposed revelation of Trump’s character. Mind you all these have warned the American people, the Church specifically, that nominating such a character would result in a landslide loss. They made clear to everybody that the media will tear Trump apart. They had the soft gloves on during the primaries, and once all that was over, the knives would come out. The media was only going easy on him so he could get nominated, and once in they would proceed to slice and dice in order to boost Hillary’s candidacy. Their lamentations are exacerbating this phenomena and that brings their view into question; not their motive. I do not question that.
I do question their view point, however. Why would you play along with such a wicked institution as the media? After they knew full well that the the piper would play, they choose now to dance with their lamentations and woes. Something is wrong when at this late hour they choose to lock hands with this vile manipulating left-wing liberal powerhouse, and again denounce and double down on the loathsome character of Donald Trump. There is no new revelation as to the morality of this man. He is not more immoral now that this recording has come out. Donald Trump has lived among this Hollywood culture all his life. There is no surprise as to what goes on and what is said behind closed doors there. So why now the extra shock and outrage? They think this is their vindication. The fruition of their foresight somehow justifies their view point. They are basking in the glory of their foreknowledge.
Principle Over Party?
During the primaries, there is no doubt many Christian leaders jumped on the Trump Train for the wrong reasons. They did bastardize the Bible to justify their support of this man. That is not to be denied. There are some even now that try to defend Trump’s actions and words. That is not to be denied. Just for the record, I am not one of them. There are Bible principles, morals, and values to apply, defend, fight for, etc. But we cannot let our pride in our understanding leave us blind to a bigger picture. Some just cannot see the forest for the orange tree.
Their “principle over party” standard does not hold water in the general election. Though the two party system that currently dominates the political world is deeply corrupted and not serving properly the American people, there is a foolishness to the abandonment of such. Conservatives, Constitutionalists, and Christians have never (I repeat) never dominated any one of the two parties. Nor have they dominated the government as a whole. We have merely, by the grace of God, been able to wield influence in this system. The two party system allows for a polarization of policy, platform, principles, etc. This is designed to offer the voter a clear choice regarding these things. The NeverTrump crowd insists there is no difference. They deny any difference between the parties. It is dishonest to hold that view. Is the Republican party plagued with RINOs? Sure. That is not to be denied. But there is a distinction in it’s constituents. There are millions of Republicans that are principled. You can’t ignore them. There is a distinction in it’s platform. It was crafted by delegates from all around this country and many are conservatives. There is a distinction in accomplishments both now and in the past. It hasn’t done all that we’ve wanted, I understand that. But ignoring or removing the good from the Republican Party will not fix what is bad about it; and it certainly will not contain it.
The party system works. It is a good system. It is not the conservative that should abandon it. It’s the RINO politicians that have abandoned the party on the battlefield that need to go. Do yo not see the blatant hypocrisy in thinking that now doing what we’ve loathed and hated from others is somehow going to fix the problem. We must fight for principles in the nomination process. We must fight to choose a candidate that best represents those principles. But once the nomination process is over, we are not just fighting for our principles, but fighting against the opponent’s principles. To deny this is stupidity. To deny this is arrogant, head-in-the-sand, selfish idiocy! There is no way on this earth that you can be a part of a party and not compromise your principles. The whole concept of a party system is conducive to a representative republic. In such we don’t always get our way. The only way you can stay true to your principles is to vote for yourself. You have to compromise at some point in this game. And you lie and bastardize reality when you claim to hold principles over party. The system works if it’s worked.
I guess that for people to see the phrase compromise your principles, they immediately equate this with selling out, or condoning immorality, or embracing corrupt politics. That is such a wrong view of this. Reality is that in a party system, you have literally thousands of different principles. Some overlap. Some are the same. Some are different. Some are Biblical. Some are economic. Some are civic. Some are foreign policy. Some are on defense. Some are archaic. Some are new. Do you get the picture? In the millions of constituents, there are no two people that share the identical principles. Me and my son just argued for an hour on our principles tonight. The object here is to coalesce our votes in order to advance a platform. This platform is what we find to be common ground and common priority in our plethora of principles. For people to claim principle over platform after entering into the pact of a party is to deny how a party works. People who start out in a party process and ultimately claim principle over party is a sore-loser, a wanna-be dictator, and truly don’t want a representative republic. They don’t want you to vote your conscience. They want you to vote their conscience.
And then, when they add some scriptures to all that, and claim the Bible as their authority, you have the very epitome of a Pharisee, condemning everybody, throwing stones at sinners, and boasting of their understanding. This is the same reason churches split, cults are formed, and Christians quit. They’re trying to put a yoke on you that nobody can bear, not even themselves.