Prayer Targets: Election Post Mortem; Religious Left Government Agenda; More Prayer Needed!
November 08, 2012
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge... seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God; I will also forget thy children. Ho 4:6
Dear Praying Friends,
Many who profess faith in Christ were understandably disappointed by the election results. The election reflected the hearts and minds of the American people - our moral convictions, motivations, aspirations, faith, knowledge, etc. It was a photograph of our condition - what we really believe. Over the past year, I have heard many professing believers express their intention to vote for candidates whose records or views on many issues defy Scripture and the God of Scripture.
In the first half of the 20th Century, Protestant churches fought over the interpretation of Scripture and the role of the church in society and politics. Liberal Christians believed they should advance their socialistic view of the Kingdom through government policy. Fundamentalists, who interpreted Scripture literally, broke from their founding era forbears - whose political sermons shaped government policy - to embrace a posture of near absolute withdrawal from politics and policy. Conservative churches withdrew from public life, limiting their mission to personal salvation (except for a few outspoken conservative radio preachers). For many years, liberal Christians dominated nearly all Christian influence on public policy. Some of their ideas were good, others very bad.
Study the agenda (below) of the liberal Federal Council of Churches in 1908 (now the National Council of Churches). This agenda still impacts us today!
1. Practical application of the Christian principle of social well-being to the acquisition and use of wealth, subordination of speculation and the profit motive to the creative and cooperative spirit.
2. Social planning and control of the credit and monetary systems and the economic processes for the common good.
3. The right of all to the opportunity for self-maintenance; a wider and fairer distribution of wealth; a living wage, as a minimum, and above this a just share for the worker in the product of industry and agriculture.
4. Safeguarding of all workers, urban and rural, against harmful conditions of labor and occupational injury and disease.
5. Social insurance against sickness, accident, want in old age and unemployment.
6. Reduction of hours of labor as the general productivity of industry increases; release from employment at least one day in seven, with a shorter working week in prospect.
7. Such special regulation of the conditions of work of women as shall safeguard their welfare and that of the family and the community.
8. The right of employees and employers alike to organize for collective bargaining and social action; protection of both in the exercise of this right; the obligation of both to work for the public good; encouragement of cooperatives and other organizations among farmers and other groups.
9. Abolition of child labor; adequate provision for the protection, education, spiritual nurture and wholesome recreation of every child.
10. Protection of the family by the single standard of purity; educational preparation for marriage, home-making and parenthood.
11. Economic justice for the farmer in legislation, financing, transportation and the price of farm products as compared with the cost of machinery and other commodities which he must buy.
12. Extension of the primary cultural opportunities and social services now enjoyed by urban populations to the farm family.
13. Protection of the individual and society from the social, economic and moral waste of any traffic in intoxicants and habit-forming drugs.
14. Application of the Christian principle of redemption to the treatment of offenders; reform of penal and correctional methods and institutions, and of criminal court procedure.
15. Justice, opportunity and equal rights for all; mutual good will and cooperation among racial, economic and religious groups.
16. Repudiation of war, drastic reduction of armaments, participation in international agencies for the peaceable settlement of all controversies; the building of a cooperative world order.
17. Recognition and maintenance of the rights and responsibilities of free speech, free assembly, and a free press; the encouragement of free communication of mind with mind as essential to the discovery of truth (The Annals of America, Vol. 15, 1929-1939) Britannica).
In the face of liberal Christian activism, conservative saints mostly withdrew in the early 20th Century. It was not until the late 1970's that Dr. Jerry Falwell introduced the "Moral Majority," the beginning of a deliberate, nationwide movement of conservative, Bible believing Americans, who began acting and organizing to impact government for righteousness, and to actively defend religious liberty and the Constitution. Yet some conservatives were turned off by this new activism and remained on the sidelines - unconvinced that we should be engaged. Today, many liberal Christian groups have gone so far as to advocate abortion and the redefinition of marriage.
Now, in the beginning or the 21st Century, active conservative Christians must not withdraw again and become other-worldly. Neither can we afford to despair despite the bad electoral defeat. There remains much work to be done. God has given us tools to advance His Kingdom. But we must press in to Him for new power in prayer - like those in Psalm 149, Ephesians 6:10 ff and Rev 12:10-11. We must take hold of the horns of the altar AND the gifts of the Spirit, and accessing all the promises of God, tear down all the spiritual strongholds and vile spiritual things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of Christ (2 Cor 10:3-6). Whatever happens, we have been called to fight the good fight! (1 Tim 6:12).
- Heavenly Father, yet grant us victory beyond these defeats! Reverse four states' embrace of same-sex "marriage," our national embrace of unprecedented economic irresponsibility; our affirming of those who advocate for abortion, homosexuality, lack of support for Israel, passive or active support for Islamist regimes and groups and other policies and practices that defy you and will bring harm to our nation (Dt 28: all; Ps 33:12; 90:1; Jer 23:19 ff; 1 Cor 15:56; 2 Cor 2:14; 1 Jn 5:16-18).
- Please forgive us. Forgive our countrymen. Stir us to continue and to expand our prayer devotion; increase the power and effectiveness of our prayers; and radically expand the prayer revival among our churches. Bring revival and reformation to all of our churches! Bring America back to the Bible and guide us by Your Holy Spirit (1 Chr 28:9; 2 Chr 7:14; 15:2; 1 Kg 8:12; Is 55:6; Lk 18:1-8; Acts 3:19-21)!