Tomorrow, November 9, 2022, is election day all across the United States.
It is projected that the Republicans will sweep many Leftist Democrats out of office and rightly so.
That said, America is still in serious decline because more and more self-proclaimed Evangelical Christians see politics as the way to save America.
They are “Conservatives,” whatever that means.
That said, they could not be more wrong.
Extend the political enthusiasm to church leaders, namely pastors, running for political office, and the Evangelical pastor is doubly wrong.
It is not that I disagree with Christians getting involved in politics or running for office. They should.
In fact, it is incumbent for Christians to do their civic duty by being influential in political decision-making (Rom 13:1-ff.; Titus 3:1; 1 Pet 2:13-ff.).
Where I disagree is when pastors or associate pastors decide that filling a political office is equally, if not more, important than their biblical office and calling to tend to the flock of God by “prayer and to ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).
The main reason why the United States is in the dire condition that it is, whether we are talking morally, ethically, and spiritually is because of a dearth of solid, biblical, pastoral leadership in so-called or self-professed Evangelical or Christian churches.
In fact, in a recent survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research reports that “evangelicals increasingly believe that the Bible is not literally true.”
It was only a few months ago (May 2022) that another survey reported that only 37% of Christian pastors in the U.S. have a biblical worldview!
Nothing will kill a church faster than for a person who claims to be called by God to lead God’s people to question the authority and authenticity of God’s book, the Bible.
To add insult to injury, the pastor who thinks that by abandoning his post or dividing his attention by running for political office to push a quasi-Evangelical agenda, rather than tending to “prayer and ministry of the word,” is only playing into the hand’s of the devil and further destroying the pastor’s congregation.
And for the Christian congregations out there that allow the pastor to get involved in running for political office as an equivalent solution to preaching and teaching “sound doctrine” from God’s word, shame on them. For they have lost their way too.
Let the congregants run for political office, but not until they have taken care of the pastor’s material needs, as he takes care of their spiritual needs.
Then, and only then, will the Christian church begin to repent of its biblical negligence and deficient worldview.
Then, and only then, will Christians and Christian pastors return to relevancy in the very world they seek to influence, but currently cannot because they has a left the light of God’s word (Ps 119:105), as it sits on a dusty shelf, abandoned bookcase, or rear back window in their cars.
Tomorrow may be a grandiose day for Republicans at the polls.
The same cannot and will not be said of Evangelical Christianity that has turned in its Bible for a ballot, and then believes running for political office is consistent with the calling to the pastoral office.
