The Gallows of Nationalism

THE GALLOWS OF NATIONALISM

Nationalism is not just another perspective of how Christianity should live within a fallen culture.

It is the hangman’s noose that has asphyxiated the church until she is a dead man walking.

Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini all loved and used nationalism.

But nowhere does Jesus teach anything of the sort.

It can no longer be denied, and we can no longer mince words. We can no longer make room for the spectacle of politics being a part of a believer’s life. It just cannot be. Anyone who professes to follow Jesus must see how damaging it is to the cause of Christ and to the very heart of a person. No one can claim to be guided by God’s Spirit and still remain active in American politics. For years now we have made room for sincere believers as they have played the fool and engaged in the destructive venue of politics, but there is no more room. If you are still engaged, you must repent.

There is no time left for niceties and shallow discussions about the founding fathers and having a voice. All that is gone and all that remains is Christ. You must evaluate everything through the prism of His Word and life. Please do not use some moral issue as your standard. There is a vast difference between being pro-life and pro-traditional marriage and following Jesus. If you do not see that then you must return to the gospels and understand His life and heart. This is no time for earthly machinations and rallying people to “take back America”.

This is a time for serious believers to get serious and realize we have been given a fool’s errand. Our time and energy and even God’s money is being wasted on temporal pursuits while the eternal is relegated to written doctrines. Politics is a veritable cesspool that engages in character assassination, verbal abuse, self promotion, and obscene amounts of money. It is absolutely opposed to the Kingdom of God regardless of which politician uses God’s name. It is an open practice of earthly idolatry which harms the soul and disarms the believer. We as believers cannot wait any longer to gently convince our brothers and sisters concerning the depth of this compromise. We must speak the truth and pray that the same Spirit which brought us out will begin to lead great masses of believers out from among that which sorely displeases our Master.

There is no time to elongate the discussion. The carnal aspects of the system are so blatant and so systemic that they are undeniable. A choice has to be made. But I fear that many believers do more rationalizing then they do fasting and praying. And if you rationalize, you will not change. And ten years from now if Jesus tarries you will still be chasing ghosts. But if there ever was a time when God needed to use all of us it is now. But unless millions step off the political treadmill and seek the Lord with passion, the church will remain little more than a religious and somewhat moral curiosity.

So I exhort you to take a few weeks or months and diligently seek the Lord. I am confident the Spirit will speak to your heart, not because I believe I am right, but because God’s grace opened my hardened and blinded heart. I reject any notion of superiority and I embrace the truth that I stand upon His grace alone. This is not some doctrinal back and forth which in the end means nothing. This issue of nationalism and politics has sucked the life out of the church and now the western evangelical church is on life support. But just like the bloodletting of old, the path we are on is what is killing us. The path upon which Jesus walked is all but lost.

The time for arguing is over. It leads nowhere. The time for us to fall upon our faces and seek Christ in all His will and ways is now. The time to read the gospels as if they are our template is now. The time for us to rise from the dead and become New Testament believers who passionately desire to think and speak and act like Jesus is now. The world is imprisoned in darkness, and their only recourse is to argue and fight over temporal issues that fade and change with each passing year. But we are called to be sentries of the eternal and ambassadors of the Lord Jesus and His gospel.

It is time, my brethren, to shake off the grave clothes and come forth.

II Tim.2: Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

² And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
³ Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
⁴ No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

The church is not only entangled with the affairs of this life and this world, but it now has entered into an intimate relationship with the fallen culture. And this relationship keeps growing in scope and depth. And like an addiction, the church cannot seem to even see what is happening, to say nothing of turning away. And local churches are like crack houses which supply people with enough drugs to keep them coming back. Do you think that analogy is too severe? Do you think that goes too far? Well people have become addicted to the local church, and the local church has undergone a metamorphosis in order to supply people with what their flesh desires.

No longer do men of God stand and call people to follow Jesus. Now the church has its Sunday morning fix of some praise music, some announcements, some greetings, a little message, and back home until next week. And people go through the motions with little if any observable changes, to say nothing of a complete transformation. The numbers are there; the buildings are there; the organization is there; the staff is there; the music is there; but where oh where is the power of a life that follows Jesus? No, the church has become an American religious institution, and that my friends, is death.

We think we can steer the fallen ship safely into port by the sheer power of political weight and voter registration. The ship is not leaking…it has sunk. The sooner we come to that conclusion the sooner we can seek Christ and His power once again. Until then we will continue to address the carnal with the carnal and in so doing we diminish Christ. What if it were true? What if this modern church was anything but what the early church and His followers were like? What if God was speaking and no one was really listening? But what if you and I entertained that idea and sought the ministry and guidance of the Spirit?

Well, that would be a start. But there is much fallow ground to be unearthed, much repentance to be embraced, and much more of Jesus to discover and follow. If we truly, down deep in our very beings, desire to have Christ and nothing but Christ, then we must surrender fully to whatever the Spirit says and leads. This is no smorgasbord. This presents the truth that Jesus is Lord. And if you and I believe that much more than a quaint religious phrase, then let the funeral begin. We must die. Only then can we see the stone rolled away and ourselves resurrected in His image.

But this will be no ordinary funeral.

In fact, your funeral will be the only funeral at which you will dance.

You see, once you die the gallows no longer can hold you.

You are free…free in Him.