Following Judah's Lion

Violence is Now the Way of Jesus

A Dallas pastor, an evangelical who attended Dallas Theological Seminary, is running for a representative seat in the Texas legislature. Pastor Stephen Broden is a robust patriot who aggressively endorses the right to bear arms and all things “conservative”. He has labeled President Obama as a tyrant.

But this pastor said something in an interview that voices what many others believe, and in fact, mirrors the Revolutionary War itself. In this interview he suggested that this nation was “founded on violence", and that a violent overthrow of the United States government was “on the table”. Are you shocked? I am not. And I believe this man is much more consistent in his views than are those who castigate liberals and suggest they are ruining the country, but are afraid to include violence even though they believe that the Revolutionary War was divinely orchestrated. If the Revolutionary War was a just war, then violence is a justifiable means to a desired end. The only point of disagreement would center around which desired ends merit violence and which do not. And to be absolutely clear, the Revolutionary War was completely about money, and that precedent means violence is an option over high taxes.

And now, following in the footsteps of the founding fathers, violence has made an entrance. Who could have predicted that followers of Jesus would evolve into people who aggressively give their allegiance to a secular and carnal nation? And who could have believed there would come a day when some entertained the notion of a violent overthrow, if the government, democratically elected, does not meet certain criteria? Does anyone actually believe the New Testament? How about just believe Matthew 5 thru 7?

Just what will it take for believers to see the error of their ways? When will we awaken from the deception that holds us hostage to things other than the gospel of Jesus Christ? When you were born into a belief system, and when that system has been reinforced consistently over the length of your spiritual life, and when men and women who you respect and who do love Christ espouse a certain truth, it is most difficult to examine it impartially, to say nothing of changing your mind about it (repentance).

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? And why do God’s people join in the worship of idols? Our voice as believers should be distinct in this election year. Sinners should hear about the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord, but instead they hear Christians speaking the same words and with the same vitriol as the heathen. And the entire situation is a nation wide bushel that covers the light of Jesus Christ. The heart of God is grieved and the Spirit is quenched. Go ahead and fight for a nation and your rights. Go ahead and join with the unbeliever and complain about your wealth. Go ahead and listen to sinners castigate other sinners as if they were somehow superior. Go ahead and pledge your allegiance to a violent and hedonistic nation who murders its unborn and seeks to line its pockets with gold. Go ahead and fall in line with all of it. But whatever you do, don’t fast and pray for several days and seek the will of God in the matter. That just may cost you your ecclesiastical standing.

It just may be that nationalism is the greatest idol among evangelicals who happen to live providentially in America.