Remember the Cross--and the Empty Tomb

My problem with Christian nationalism is that the New Testament does not talk about saving countries or turning nations Christian. The Great Commission says, “Make disciples of all nations.” The post millennials misinterpret it to mean turn all nations into disciples. You can’t turn a collective Christian. The change must happen within the individual human heart. We are supposed to influence the world around us like yeast in dough or salt in food.

For some reason there have been few people turning to Christ over the past few generations. As a preacher’s kid who saw the ugly side of religion, I can speculate a little.

I almost left the church myself. It wasn’t because I wanted approval of a sinful lifestyle or wanted to get drunk and fornicate or felt shame in having pop icons sneer at me.

I was turned off by the utilitarianism and collectivism. So many churches saw us as things to be used/milked/drained and thrown away once they had gotten what they wanted out of us.

My father was a faithful servant who preached the Word of God. For no good reason he—and the rest of us—kept getting booted out of various churches. Why? The elders—and their wives pulling strings behind the scenes—kept getting their feelings hurt over trivial things Dad or one of us did to unknowingly offend Mrs. Fussbudget or Mr. Persnickety. Or they would get bored, or one of the elders would develop a hankering for “young blood” as he termed it and decide Dad had hit the wall. That a young hot shot would single handedly save the church by boosting numbers.

So many churches made me feel unloved and rejected. I just didn’t count due to my lack of income or marital status. No use or value.

Jesus thinks people are intrinsically valuable. But so many churches, even if they preach proper theology, are cold and unloving. Human beings and their souls do not matter to the members.

This utilitarianism shows and turns people off. Including the Right Kind whom church people bend over backwards to curry favor with. This unloving attitude played a big role in declining numbers despite all the gimmicks employed.

It’s hard to win the lost when it’s overwhelmingly obvious you don’t care about their souls. Or even fellow Christians. The people outside see how we treat each other. As a child I was repeatedly urged to cover for the cruelty of fellow Christians. But it was impossible to hide things like being evicted with no job or home so you needed help from outside the church to put stuff in storage so you could go live with relatives for months till Dad found a new church that we hoped wouldn’t get bored with us for a while.

If more souls had been won to the Lord, we wouldn’t have fallen as we have or have people worried about winning the culture war or the nation. We would have a Christian culture thanks to larger numbers of Christians with undeniably Christ like characters permeating our culture.

Instead, we have a mass of spiritually lukewarm political warriors who want to bring back earthly Norman Rockwell/Leave it to Beaver/Mayberry utopias. With the right sort of people. Everyone outside the demographic can (literally) go to Hell.

Picture 1950’s Americana as the slab of steak and Trump/political power as the baked potato with a little sprig of parsley as Christianity.

To all my fellow Christians I want to leave two thoughts as Resurrection Sunday ends.

1. Christ is King. I’ve always believed this and am not just saying this to “trigger” anyone.

2. Jesus said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.”

Our mission is one of mercy. Christ will conquer and judge when He sees fit. Till then, we are to imitate Messiah Ben Joseph Who was meek and lowly of heart.

At the end of time, He will approve the sheep who acted like Him and demonstrated His love with deeds of mercy.

www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-25-33/