PUNCHING BELOW OUR WEIGHT

Christian apologist and author, Dr. Guinness had this to say on the rights and duties of citizenship:

“I meet Christians all the way across this country who say ‘Things are in bad shape, I’m just keeping my head down and I’m trying to be faithful like the early Christians were under Rome.’ This is dead wrong, the early church was faithful, yes, but they were under an imperial dictatorship. They had zero room to move, but they were faithful to the limits they had.

“Here in the American republic - which remember is partly coming from the Hebrew republic - [the] covenant in Exodus became Constitution in 1787, and so on... You’re in a Republic where every citizen’s responsibility is for the health and vitality of the republic. So for Christians just to keep their heads down, is not only a failure of discipleship, [and Christian] calling, they’re not being ‘salt’ and ‘light’, it’s a failure of citizenship and absolutely disastrous.

“So take our friends, the Jews. They are 2% of America, but if you think about it, they punch well above their weight: intellectually, financially ... and we [Christians] are a huge majority - and our Lord calls us to be ‘salty’ and ‘light bearing’ - [yet] we are non-influential. Is there any question? It is time to stand up.”

I agree with Dr. Guinness. Is there any question that American Christianity is punching well below its weight, and that many Christians are confused about their responsibility relative to the health and vitality of our country? Maybe. Probably. But there shouldn’t be any question. That there is, is the fault of those here who are most responsible for Christian discipleship, which includes knowing what responsible Christian citizenship involves and includes.

There’s a failure of Christian discipleship concerning citizenship when people, leaders especially, do not understand that the government we are to be subject to (Rom. 13:1-7) is not that of an earthly king, a Caesar or imperial Rome. The government we are biblically obligated to be subject to and to uphold is embodied, not in a person or persons, but in the Constitution of the United States. Understanding this will get Christians’ heads up and get them standing up against the enemies of our Constitutional republic before it is too late.

There is a “failure of discipleship” that encourages Christians in this country to “Butt out of politics” as it were, and “just keep their heads down” — a failure of discipleship that encourages people to keep their minds and mouths closed as our republic is rapidly being destroyed by our spiritual enemy, the principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world working through wicked and witless human dupes.