THINKING FOR CHANGE…BEING COUNTERCULTURAL…The Upcoming Election

The Bible Always Trumps Culture – by Dan O’Deens, October 3, 2024

We are to exegete the Word of God but we are also to exegete Culture.   The Bereans took any idea and scrutinized that word through the lens of the Word of God.   But, props are also given to the ‘Men of Issachar’ for they understood the times in which they lived.

Jesus gives a new commandment, not one written on tablets of stone, but one written on our hearts.  The command is to love one another.  When we show kindness and the selfless sacrifice that Jesus demonstrated ‘while we were yet sinners’ we stand out, we are in fact being countercultural.  We are not of this world.  This world is not our home.  These are truths, but how do we live in the present darkness and shine forth the light of the Gospel in a perverse and anti-Christ generation?

“It’s not the task of the church to “Make America Great Again.” The contemporary task of the church is to make Christianity countercultural again. And once we untether Jesus from the interests of empire, we begin to see just how countercultural and radical Jesus’ ideas actually are. Enemies? Love them. Violence? Renounce it. Money? Share it. Foreigners? Welcome them. Sinners? Forgive them. These are the kind of radical ideas that will always be opposed by the principalities and powers, but which the followers of Jesus are called to embrace, announce, and enact. And the degree to which the church is faithful to Jesus and his radical ideas is the degree to which the church embodies a faith that is truly countercultural.”  – Brian Zahnd

When Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s,” He was establishing a principle never uttered before. He taught that we owe loyalty to two spheres. Obviously our loyalty to God is a higher loyalty, but we dare not shirk our responsibility to Caesar.

First, we must keep in mind that no one party is entirely good or entirely bad. The fact is that we live in a fallen world, and thus will always be led by sinners at all levels of government. I am concerned when people say, “Well, I won’t vote because I can’t support either person.” Of course you should vote, even if your choices are limited!

Second, we must remember that the problem may not exist in ‘the white house’ but instead in God’s house.  Jesus is the light of the world, but He then charged his followers and said, YOU are the light of the world…a city on a hill that cannot be hidden, let your lights so shine before men.  Don’t hide your light under a basket.   The very nature of darkness is that it is dark.  When light is introduced into darkness the darkness is dispelled.  We can deduce that when ‘darkness’ prevails the light is being hidden.

The fix is not fighting or throwing harsh words of hatred on those who violate the principles of Jesus.   Do you expect anything different to come out of a heart and mindset that is post-Christian?   Darkness will be dark.   We, the Church must ACT countercultural to the present darkness.  We must LOVE.  Love God and Love People…in that order.  He who loves first wins!   When you give love away, it always comes back to you.

Third, government will not nor ever will take the place of God’s program for today which He has called the Church.  This is not a call to rebellion but one of radical countercultural living.  We must engage.  We must enter into the dialogue.  We must seek to understand rather than seek to be understood.   We must love.  We must share the Good News when all the news that we hear is negative.  We must pray.  We must pay taxes and we must obey government in so far as it does not infringe on our commitment to God or compromise the integrity of the Word of God.

Here is the good news.  Jesus is LORD…whether we make him Lord or not!   He raises up leaders and brings them down.  It is true that we do not have the freedoms we once had, and Christianity seems to be losing the ‘culture battle’ but we know the victory is ours, we will win the war.  One day EVERY knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

God’s program for His people is NOT tied to this coming election; Christianity has survived in countries where there is no freedom of religion and where persecution is real for those who claim their allegiance to Jesus and His Kingdom.  Christian, we are to be faithful to the living and written Word of God no matter who is elected.

Will we trust in our God, like Daniel, who chose God and was thrown into the den of lions?   Will we trust God like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who chose to bow to God rather than to earthly idols and were thrown into a fiery furnace?   God was with them.  They served and obeyed their leaders until they could not, even when it could have cost them their lives.