by Aaron Hecht EDITOR'S NOTE: Aaron Hecht is a freelance writer living in Israel and a contributor to the Jerusalem Post Christian Edition. CSWI welcomes the addition of Mr. Hecht to its literary panel, and fully endorses the content of the article found below.
November 9, 2008 - The election of Barack Hussein Obama to the Presidency of the United States has been met with joy and celebration by many people, including many professing Christians, all over the world.
I don't share in this joy.
I feel like I'm about the see the woman I've loved my whole life raped by my worst enemy who I know is infected with AIDS, and there's nothing I can do about it.
Maybe you feel the same way.
My thoughts are this.
Although I love America I do not consider myself a citizen of that country, or any other earthly kingdom. I consider myself a citizen of the Kingdom of Christ, and I'm privileged to live in Israel, which is the Embassy of that Kingdom here on this earth (the Rabbis' vehement denials of this notwithstanding.)
For many American Christians, the USA was a bit of an idol, which we worshipped six days a week and only forgot about for a short time on Sunday. We were so confused that we thought that part of being a good Christian was being a patriotic American. I myself was the most
guilty of this, along with other idols I worshiped, like guns and American military power. I worshiped them by loving them, putting my hope in them, and by trusting in them for my protection. It is time to get rid of those idols, and concentrate all our worship on the One
True God.
There will be no American Flags flying when Christ returns to this earth.
Another Idol we need to get rid of is the Republican Party. Many American Christians vote Republican, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when we start to think of it as the institution that can "save" us and when we devote an inordinate amount of time, money,
effort and energy to it, when we start to worry more about the health of the Republican Party then the health of the Body of Christ, then it becomes an idol.
The American people overwhelmingly rejected the Republican Party in this election, and the reasons are many. But one of the most often heard complaints about the Republican Party among the rank and file people who used to support it but no longer feel like they can is that
it is "too right wing and Christian." Among the largely secular leadership of the Party apparatus, there have long been murmurings about the "infernal nuisance" of all these "God people" who the Party needed for financial support and votes but whose Biblical Ideology the
"pragmatic, realistic" Moderates wished they didn't have to cater to.
For many years there has been a tug of war for the soul of the Republican Party, between the Christians who wanted the Party to focus on Biblical issues and the Moderates who wanted the Party to focus more on social and economic issues.
My prediction is that with this election, the secular Moderates will win this tug of war by pointing out (correctly I'm sorry to say) that the vast majority of voters will be more likely to support the
Republican Party if their agenda instead of the Christian agenda is focused on.
Therefore, my advice, which I know will shock and dismay many, is to stop wasting precious time, talent and resources on the Republican Party. Leave gracefully, before the Moderates throw you out. Wish them well, and turn your attention to the more pressing work of
re-building your own churches and communities from the ground up, because that's what is needed.
The sad fact is that the Church in America is a mile wide and an inch deep. You can see that in the fact that almost half of American Christians (and 78% of American Jews BTW) just voted for the most unapologetically "anti-God" candidate ever.
For far too long, it has been possible to be a lukewarm Christian in America. The one good thing about this election is that this will no longer be an option. There is coming a time of
tremendous persecution on the church in America, and as much as it pains me to say this, that might be exactly what the church needs. It will be a time when the wheat will be separated from the chaff and people will have to make a choice to either get serious or get out.
This persecution will come in the form, at first, of a revolution in popular culture that will embrace the idea that Mankind is destined to unite in peace and brotherhood, under the aegis of Secular Humanism, Science, Socialism and Progress.
The governments of the world will take advantage of the chaos and confusion caused by this financial crisis to push through further integration of the world’s economic and political systems.
There will be only two really big roadblocks in the way of this plan: The Bible Believing Church, and the Nation of Israel.
Read America must decrease so the Kingdom of God can increase in its entirety
