Righteousness Exalts A Nation

“RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTS A NATION”

Dr. Walter Thomas

A SERMON ON A CHRISTIAN’S POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY

Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people”.

Summary: A Christian citizen is obligated to speak, vote and live-out the Kingdom God in the society in which we reside. That includes political action in the name of truth and righteousness. Our nation’s evil is becoming a reproach to its own people and to their God.

Fortunately, the Bible as well as history, offers sound counsel to people of faith to guide their political will and voting decisions. Because the Scripture unequivocally declares that “Righteousness exalts a nation,” then the issues that the Bible identifies as directly impacting national righteousness should be foremost in the Biblical voter’s minds as they vote on policies and candidates in a political election. This message encourages political action by the righteous.

Many Scriptural passages (such as Deuteronomy 28, I Chronicles 21, and I Kings 18) affirm that a nation’s righteousness is determined by its public policies and how well they conform to God’s standards. Only God-honoring policies and God-fearing leaders, which lead to God-honoring actions can exalt a nation in righteousness!

A person wrote me last week, stating they were very offended at my recent email in which I listed the platform positions for our two major political parties, indicating which platform planks agreed or disagreed with a Biblical worldview in a voting guide. This person writing me clearly demanded that I keep religion and politics completely separated and that that person had previously left a church they had attended for eight years because the pastor had sent out a voting guide based on Biblical criteria. I think I was reprimanded.

It is not my goal to offend anyone, but I suppose this sermon is a response to that email last week, and it reflects this pastor’s theological and Biblical reflections when I see the perplexing, baffling and unsettled political race that is coming to a voting day next week. What is a responsible Christian citizen to say and do in troubled times like these? How do we find righteous discernment when most candidates and proposals are problematic to the follower of Jesus?

Tragically, we are witnessing the rapid decline, and demise of the last Christian nation on earth! America is gasping its last Christian breath, as it intentionally rejects its Christian roots and recklessly chases secularism, humanism, pluralism and materialism. This is a nation established by citizen patriots who fully intended this to be a nation based on Judeo-Christian values and laws. Enormous prices were paid in blood and treasure to insure this nation be a Christian nation. However our own president recently went abroad among Muslim nations declaring that “America is not a Christian nation, but a pluralistic nation that embraces no one faith or religion.”

There have been dozens, if not more, nations in the last two-thousand years that were clearly Christian nations, who saw the law and commands of God to be the basis of good civil and social government. Western Civilization (as well as the Eastern Church) has been the historical evidence of that, and it has influenced the lives of people all around the world.

Let me say at the outset: the primary purpose of the church and of the individual follower of Christ Jesus is to bring the lost to repentance and to bring the Kingdom of God to bear on the affairs of men. Jesus said we should pray, “Thy Kingdom (Ruler-ship) come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Does this exclude politics and government?

Should religion and politics be separate? I do not desire to be a politician and I desire less to be religious. Neither, politics or religion is my personal passion or purpose in life. I really don’t like either one very much at all. In fact, Jesus’ most harsh comments were aimed at those who were very, very religious and who were very, very political.

I want to be a passionate follower of Jesus and an effective advocate for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

There is a secular belief that politics and religion should remain separate, and some church members and leaders embrace that misguided notion as well. That is an artificial standard and a myth,-- for the faithful follower of Christ Jesus. That is a standard which the Enemy of our souls supports (Satan and his demons) and he wants it mandated into law and a restriction upon the righteous. Unfortunately, even in a Christian nation like our own, there are actually some recent laws and regulations enforcing such an artificial distinction. They are intended to spiritual gag the mouth of the righteous from speaking truth into the degradation and corruption in government and politics. This degradation is exactly what happens when the church believes that artificial distinction!