When (Biblical) History Repeats Itself: KevinH
Recently, in a writing of Marvin Olasky, the longtime Christian editor and writer, my attention was brought to Psalm 73, particularly to verses 7-10 which state as follows:
“Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.”
This Psalm of Asaph begins as a lament of the prosperity of the wicked and ends by declaring that God will bring judgment upon them and rejoicing that God is His faithful refuge and strength. But in between are these curious verses declaring that despite their clear wickedness, God’s people turn to and find no fault in these people whose, “hearts overflow with follies, scoff and speak with malice, loftily threaten oppression, set their mouths against the heavens, and tongue struts through the earth.”
Boy, does this seem like one of those times when we can bring out the adages of history repeating itself.
Currently, we are living in an environment most especially here in America, but also in some other reaches of Western culture and civilization, where the political rhetoric, atmosphere, and even action has become acutely wicked in many ways. Both sides of our political divide are guilty of this depravity and sinfulness, but in recent times one side in particular which had previously tried to position itself as the side concerned with virtue and good character, has dived exponentially deep into these corrupt and perverse ways. Disturbingly, but maybe not surprisingly if we know our history, a good portion of God’s people have increasingly turned to and displayed allegiance and adoration to this wicked movement, finding no fault in them.
They cheer on and support the telling of perpetual lies and falsehoods.
They cheer on and support constant mockery and denigration of others.
They cheer on and support the quashing and demonization of the poor, disadvantaged, and oppressed.
They cheer on and support misrepresentation, slander, and dubious, unfounded conspiracy theories.
They cheer on and support automatic suspicion, disregard, and contempt of anything that comes from the “other side”.
They cheer on and support racist, sexist, and bigoted tropes.
They cheer on and support every measure taken to tear down and defeat their perceived enemies, rather than looking to love their enemies.
They cheer on and support the taking of an “eye for an eye” anytime there is offense, rather than turning the other cheek.
They cheer on and support the incessant stream of fear, anger, grievance, and revenge.
They cheer on and support people of demonstrably self-indulgent and immoral character.
In all of us, they find no fault beyond some “rough edges” and those things that can be glossed over with a “mulligan”.
All the more, so much of this behavior is enacted in the name of God and righteousness.
Partisan politics truly are poison to the soul. They poison people’s hearts and consciences and for those who are Christians, they poison their (and the church’s) witness of Jesus Christ. The partisan politics of today have overflowed with folly, scoffing and speaking with malice, threatening oppression, strutting across the earth and setting their tongues against heaven… and many in the Church have turned to them, finding no fault in them.
Surely, only Jesus is the cure.
I had coffee with a friend from church this week. She tried to pin me down on my political opinions. She was pretty insistent although I explained I wasn’t keen on either candidate (although I didn’t say I would never vote for Mr T. I ‘ve already heard our lead pastor gushing over how wonderful Vance is. ) I shall remain anonymously uncommitted until after the election and I will vote my conscience. I’m not that excited about Ms K, but the choices are pretty limited. Maybe I’ll put my cat in as a write-in…
Linn,
The last time I voted for either a D or R for POTUS was in 2004. Ever since then, it has been 3rd party or write-in.
Linn,
I’ll vote for your cat!
Seriously though, I believe voting your conscience is a good thing. That is why I abstained from voting in 2016.
Update:
My apologies that the beginning of this article was originally accidentally cut off. I have updated it so that it is now more lucid.
R’as al Ghul,
I find the most prominent third party candidate more distressing than Mr T. I’ve been voting in presidential elections since 1976, and most third party or other-part candidates have been fixated on 2 or 3 side gig ideas, while not addressing larger issues. Just my thoughts!
Kevin, you say partisan politics is poison to the soul, then insert Trump and conservative Christian, MAGA folk bashing into your piece addressing them as a homogeneous group when there is a wide array of opinion on many subjects. Do you think they, everyone of them, sit in church and nod along to the culture bashing of their pastors? You also play the politics of pronouns. I am confused by your posts. If Jesus is the cure, tell us what he or his apostles did/ said back then that addresses how we might want to think about things now. For instance, your latest piece on Imane Khelif… I am thinking of Romans Chapter 1.
Jerod,
You either misread me and misunderstand me or else you purposefully misrepresent me. In my writings, I consistently call out those who commit the behaviors I speak to. Yes, I speak more to ways that are more common to the conservative Christian side, which I have explained a million times before the biblical reasoning for this, but do often specify that both sides can and do commit such behaviors and even sometimes call out behaviors specifically on the Left. However, I am also careful to never implicate all Christians or all evangelicals or all Trump voters. Even in this piece, I specify that a “good portion of Christians” commit these behaviors. What I do is NOT partisan, rather I call out sinful partisan behaviors.
You want to know what Jesus said that addresses how we should think things now? Start with the Sermon on the Mount. There is plenty to chew on there, especially when you compare it to how people behave within partisan politics.
Thanks for your reply, Kevin. Maybe you could write a piece on the Sermon on the Mount and how it applies to what we are experiencing as a church. Maybe then we could blunt the teeth in our exchange, realizing I bit first. Not convinced yet though. I will definitely give it a re read.
Jerod,
Here is a posting I put on Facebook a couple months ago about the Sermon on the Mount, quoting some excerpts from my pastor’s sermon that week.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/kWYhhXyyT9d7hXGB/?mibextid=oFDknk
Don’t have Facebook (everyone sighs relief), but I like to listen to David Suchet read the Bible. “… last you be judged on the same way” … hastily, with minimal information and lack of concern for the effects of that judgement. I sincerely apologize.
Jerod, thank you for your apology. Below is the text from that Facebook posting:
————
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ longest and most well-known sermon. I also submit that within our current day Culture and Political Wars which fixate on power, control, denigration, and defeat of the “enemy”, it is the least practiced of Jesus’ sermons among so called Christianity.
Here are some judicious and badly-needed-to-be heard excerpts from my pastor’s sermon this past Sunday:
“God’s Kingdom, which is His rule on earth as it is in heaven, has broken through in Jesus, and in many ways it looks the opposite of what people may think….. And the Sermon on the Mount is part of Jesus’ announcement that God has turned the world upside down. It might be what we call a counter-cultural vision….. And he begins the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes…..”
“….. As Christ followers we need to be distinct from the world and that is all true and we need to be distinct from non-Christians. But we also should be distinct from what might be called Cultural Religion or Cultural Christianity. Cultural Christianity is the kind of Christianity that claims the name of Christ but doesn’t follow Him, goes to church but doesn’t worship Him, quotes the Bible but doesn’t submit to it…..”
“….. And the devil in Matthew 4, he takes Scripture out of context, twists it to fit his own agenda, and cultural Christianity does the same exact thing. It takes what Jesus teaches and twists it and takes it out of context to match its own agenda. And with Cultural Christianity, what we receive with that are partial gospels. So for instance we might get the prosperity gospel that makes the claim that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy….. Or the progressive gospel where Jesus looks more like a social worker than a Savior. Or the political gospel where God inaugurates His Kingdom through our preferred candidate…..”
“….. If you value power, Jesus’ way is going to seem backwards and upside down. But if you receive the gift of Jesus and you put your faith in Him, His vision will feel right side up and the world will feel upside down. Christ invites you to live now in the tension of the inbetween. The inbetween is the time between Christ’s First Coming and His Second Coming…..”
“….. And in the inbetween, no, the Beatitudes won’t win you any elections….. But if you’re skeptical, I just want to ask you, who do you think the world needs more of? Do we need more power hungry politicians or more peacemakers? Do we need more tolerators of sin or mourners of sin? Do we need hypocrites, more hypocrites, like that’s going to solve the world, we’ll just keep giving the hypocrites power all the time, or do we need more people who are pure in heart? Do we need more of the merciless or the merciful?…..”
“….. But be distinct, receive God’s wonderful news and receive the natural outcomes of being connected to Christ and His counter-cultural vision for His followers.”
Pastor Evan Curry III, Liberti Church Northeast
Nicely done, Kevin H.
Reminds me of 2 great books on this topic: “Christian Counterculture” by the late John Stott; and “The Upside Down Kingdom” by Donald Kraybill; one by a well-known Anglican evangelical and the other by a Mennonite. Both very worthwhile when it comes to God’s upside down Kingdom.
Thanks, bob1.
I do like Stott and I’m also familiar with Kraybill as he was provost at my college for a time when I attended there (Messiah College, now Messiah University). He seemed like a good man.
Kevin H,
If more evangelicals were like Stott and Packer, today’s evangelicalism would be much less of a dumpster fire IMHO.
R’as al Ghul, most definitely.