I am among the 70+ percent of Americans who don’t like the direction our country is going and I am praying for a correction. However, we Christians were not promised the culture in which we live, we were promised the Kingdom to come. Many of us stake our hopes and apply our faith as if we were just one election away from turning around what we believe is a nation and culture adrift.
Jesus gave us the Church, not Christianity. The Church that Jesus gave us is simply called to faithfulness, in good times and in bad. In fact, the church has been historically strongest where it was oppressed by culture and government.
Yes, all people are to strive for social order which provides a healthy environment for human development, opportunity and even the protection of constitutional and human rights, but let us not operate in the false hope that we are one election cycle away from the national revival that will restore us to a god centered civil society.
Jesus was not a revolutionary in the ordinary sense. He did not come to overthrow the Roman rule of his time. He came to fulfill the Old Testament law and the words of the prophets and in doing so he established a counter culture. He walked alongside the culture of his day and offered the choice of a better way. His vision for culture was transformation, not reformation.
Today, some denominations are kowtowing to political correctness and making doctrinal concessions to what is called social equality and progressive change. This is a cultural adaptation which separates the organizational church from the counter-culture church which Jesus intended us to be. Christians are not called to follow voices of trend or government edicts in the name of equality. In fact, Jesus told us there would never be equality. We are a people called out of the ways of the world.
If we are to follow Jesus and be the counter culture he intended, let us not be led astray by the multitude of arguments which occupy political, social and cultural interests. Let us remain focused on faithfulness and follow the simplicity of the Gospel message of redemption through the forgiveness that Christ provided. Our hope is not the next politician who talks the good game to restore civil and social order. Our greatest hope is obtaining the Kingdom to come.
Tom Wright is a director of Barry Wood Ministries and executive director of Global Outreach.
