Teetering on Insanity?

The present political races for Republican nominee are a colorful reminder of the contradictions upon which we evangelicals build our thinking. The candidates know they need the conservative Christian vote but have a difficult time figuring out what exactly we believe on a variety of issues. As a religious people we, logically, ought to show consistency in our perspectives on national policy and public life. After all, if we really have a God who is omnipotent and all knowing should not His will be what we agree to and promote?  If there is a unity in the mind of the trinity why is there such disunity in the mind of the church? But, as we understand, the problem is not with God it is with us. Our sin nature leads us down winding paths not connected to His truth. Our hearts do not make good guides for national direction because our hearts are confused, sinful, and uninformed by the mind of God in many cases. This leads to wild imaginations that carry us far from the mind and will of our Lord. Our troubles run much deeper than just general confusion however.

This is because, as a matter of principle, we have effectively thrown out the very word required for our national wisdom. Due to the current theological fads we have eliminated the possibility of being able to speak to ourselves or the larger world around us about matters of public policy and our decisions as a nation. Our protestant forefathers and the founders of this country regularly reasoned from God’s word and law to derive direction for our nation. However, we find ourselves rarely imitating either our Savior or our spiritual forefathers in these matters. This is due to our becoming convinced that only the New Testament any longer applies to these larger issues of national righteousness, internal politics, and foreign policy. Given that the New Testament has little to say on these subjects we, predictably, have developed no opinions from Scripture. Instead, we range about like lost chickens, pecking here and there for tidbits of thought that seem rational or moral but based on essentially nothing. One thinks we ought to invade Iran another thinks not. One believes turning Mecca to glass would have been right another thinks we should just evangelize. Some Christians believe the nation should pay for food stamps and others believe that to be the duty of the churches. If we had taken a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade our brains could hardly be more splattered. By rejecting our own source of truth we have become as confused as the people we seek to convert.

The New Testament informs us that the Old was given for our instruction. We reject that advice and believe we have concocted a superior theology based on only New Testament doctrine and example. This would be that same New Testament that so often reaches into the Old for its assertions. Rightfully, we should be embarrassed about our ignorance of that Old Testament. We believe those old passages to be obscure, meaning mostly that we neither read nor use them. They are so unfamiliar we label them obscure.

Concerning our national questions and behaviors; God has gifted us with a thousand year history of His work among His chosen people. He showed us in detail how He instructed and ruled among sinful men under the government of the judges for almost 400 years and then under the kings for about 600 more. Every important principle we need to understand is on display for us in these accounts. Do we need to know the best civil law for a nation? It is there in detail, both case law and the principles behind it. Do we need to understand the covenantal relationship of all government to the people? It is set in careful teaching and example in Moses and the Kings, see 2 Kings 11:17, as a kernel upon which to reflect. Could we use wisdom concerning the courts and justice? God gave that knowledge in refined exactions so that we could not miss it (yet we have). Do we require the wisdom of the centuries to know how to rightly handle foreign policy? Our God has blessed us with abundant teaching and examples concerning treaties with foreign nations (do not do that), right cause for warfare, the penalty for kingly and national hubris (see Josiah), the foolishness of centralizing power (1 Samuel 8), the wicked root of land taxes, right reasoning for civil war (read about the war with Benjamin in the Book of Judges) and also the time to divide the nation rather than fight. It’s all there. But we, in our ignorance or hardness of heart have rejected the application of all this wonderful truth and instead committed ourselves and our future to life under the long failed philosophies of rebellious men. God has given us truth but we have exchanged it for a lie. One of the reasons we cannot convert the lost culture is that we have no message. We have become them. What can we aver that they do not already believe?

In His final meeting with His disciples Jesus (in almost visible emotion in the text) reminds them of how He had taught about Himself from the law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. This was literally true but it was also a metaphor meaning the whole Word of God. The point was that the entire Old Testament validated and explained Him. They were never commanded to stop looking in those books. The book of Hebrews explains that the laws of ceremony and sacrifice were fulfilled in Christ. However, for reasons hard to understand we have decided that the entire Old Testament is off limits for informing our public life. I have been told that the only law that applies is that which is repeated in the New Testament (which leaves beastiality and rape up for grabs among other things). That method also leaves us to make up our own minds on court and trial procedures and for the penalties for crimes. Throwing out God’s law is the necessary step toward creating our own. And, as some would have us believe, the law written on our hearts is superior to the law of Moses (thus positing two opposing moral systems emanating from the same God). We have gone crazy.

When the enemies of the church scorn us for being full of contradictions without any logic to our faith we can hardly answer with anything but nonsense these days because they are only citing what they honestly observe among us. If God is right about everything why can we not agree among ourselves on the answers to major questions? The reason we cannot agree is that we have rejected so much of the word our God gave us. We are our own worst enemies. We need to turn back to our God and His whole word. We really do. As long as we continue to reject God’s law and the Old Testament record of national Israel as instructive for us today, we will continue to be a people who have no wisdom. The rescue of our culture and nation hangs in the balance. I am praying we will be the generation that returns to these foundations.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach  12-24-11