Following Judah's Lion

An Explanation

As you view the western evangelical landscape, and with all the many voices and teachings, and in the context of our hedonistic lifestyles, many of us conclude that New Testament Christianity has died years ago as a bone fide Biblical kingdom in the west, and specifically America. There are always 7000 who have not bowed the knee, however the majority of what passes for “church” in the west has been consumed and assimilated by the culture wherein it lives. We cannot serve two masters. The average western believer does not attempt to do so anymore; he only serves one, and he has convinced himself it is Christ.
How do you describe the color “red” to a person born blind? You cannot. And how do you reach a believer who is blind in one area and this blindness has been nurtured all his life by those he loves and respects? You cannot. Only God’s Spirit can open a closed heart that assumes what he has always believed is true and spiritually productive. The day has come when many individual believers, not many pastors or entire churches, are seeing something so disturbing and so overtly unbiblical and idolatrous that they have become awakened to at least the prospect of examining and reassessing something they have always believed and actually never questioned. Nationalism, and its Siamese twin patriotism, is at odds with the New Testament and spiritually poisonous.

And what are the stumbling blocks to seeing nationalism for what it really is? Let us carefully, and humbly, examine these issues.

First: One of the greatest hurdles to overcome as it pertains to the idol of nationalism is the length and depth in which this teaching has been accepted and promoted. When we are taught from birth something, and when this teaching is accepted by almost everyone we know and love, it is most difficult to get anyone to independently juxtapose it against pure New Testament teaching with no preconceived ideas about it. It has been entrenched in our thought process, and it has been given a solid place in our religious and cultural understanding. In short, it is viewed as settled law in and out of the church and anyone who questions it is considered a rebel or an extremist.

Second: The way in which the church has woven America into its theology has made it quite problematic to address. Even when a church does not espouse a replacement theology per se (America is the new Israel), it still often treats America as a divine entity that God birthed directly for His glory. And given the amount of professing believers and missionaries that were American citizens, it has become very easy to make a case based upon statistics and not based upon truth.

Third: Another hurdle is the fanciful way in which the founding fathers are usually portrayed. To insist that the founding fathers were all evangelical believers whose lives reflected the Lord Jesus is not just a stretch, it is a bold faced lie. They may have been brave in the nationalistic and military sense, but they were not examples of spiritual and moral purity. Some, of course, were not believers at all, and even men like George Washington were of questionable morals and used slaves to line their personal pockets. But the church has succumbed to these implausible caricatures and that has made it all the more formidable to suggest any genuine reevaluation.

Fourth: If we actually embark upon an evaluation of our lifestyles and assess them in light of Scripture, we quickly arrive at many uncomfortable and incongruous issues. If we take a vulnerable look at what the New Testament teaches about how we should live and what it means to follow Jesus in the spiritual and practical, we will experience a tension between a capitalist structure and a Jesus kingdom structure. And if we see a disconnect between the teachings of Christ and the economic culture in which we live, then we must either ignore it, manipulate the Scriptures, or we are faced with a great challenge.

Fifth: Many believers have family members and friends who have served and even died in military service. And although their service and courage cannot be denied within a nationalistic context, it remains a stumbling block in the same way as a lost person resists the gospel because he has loved ones who have died without it. A person may feel he or she dishonors the memory or service of their loved one who was in the military by rejecting nationalism, and specifically taking a completely spiritual view of the country in which they live. They cannot bring themselves to release any affection or support for a country and humbly place all allegiance upon the Lord Jesus.

Sixth: The church has acquiesced to the idol of democracy and now believes that is God’s plan. God favors no earthly governmental system and in fact uses them all for His glory. The case can be made that the church has prospered spiritually under oppressive regimes much more than when she enjoys the ambiance of so called political freedom. When being a believer costs you nothing then over time it loses its value however involuntarily. And within this democratic structure, the church has learned to be a practicing participant while still retaining a semblance of the gospel. The church has compartmentalized the gospel and in so doing she has eviscerated its meaning and power.

The western church is asleep. We have invited America into our beds and kicked out prayer, fasting, humility, and a lifestyle that is remarkably different and more modest than that lived by unbelievers. And in an effort to be comfortable with such adultery, the church has constructed a false theology that affords us the luxuries of the culture and the self gratification of nationalistic self righteousness. And with the current nationalistic fervor, I expect the church will not be moved anytime soon without a sovereign and unexpected move of the Spirit. We must not hate or despise any nation, but we must despise our own idolatry and compromise. To whom much is given, much is required. We as believers have been given the greatest gift of all: eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. We must worship Him without any competition.

You cannot do anything about others, but you can allow the Spirit to change you.