Christian Mandate

By: American Decency Staff

At the end of just about every event we’ve ever held, every conference we’ve ever attended, and every rally we’ve ever participated in, the same question has always haunted us. We’re always left wondering, “now that I’m all fired up, what can I really do to make a difference?”

Really, what can we do about our weak representatives in government? What can we do about the advance of the homosexual agenda? What can we do about the Muslim Brotherhood’s political influence?

There are countless petitions floating around, countless clever Facebook memes to share, and countless protests and meetings to attend, but, in the end, will those things ever really change anyone’s heart or mind?

Of course, those things are important to do. It is vital that Christian conservatives make our voices heard – kind of like those Whos down in Whoville shouting, “We are here! We are here!” – and it is vital that we rally others to shout with us, but, ultimately, we do not possess the power to change people.

Barack Obama will never become pro-life because he hears the right argument or sees the right protest sign.

Only God can change him. The good news for us is that that is not without precedence. Remember Nebuchadnezzar? Or how about the king of Nineveh? Those were even more radical turnarounds then Barack Obama’s would be.

There is also the example of the Pharaoh to whom God called Moses ten times, each time hardening the Pharaoh’s heart so that He could make His own power known, before finally moving him to let God’s people go.

Ultimately, it is God who changes hearts.

So we are still left with the question, “what can we do?”

I believe the answer goes all the way back to what is known as the “cultural mandate” in Genesis 1:28 in which God charges his stewards to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…”

Here, God is not just telling Adam and Eve to make babies, He’s telling His representatives on earth to make more representatives and for them to make more representatives until all the world is covered by people who are reflecting the glory and character of God to creation, resulting in God-glorifying art and entertainment and work and culture.

Unfortunately, we goofed that up pretty badly when we sinned in Adam, but when we were again made righteous in Christ, we got another chance to fulfill God’s purpose. God again said, in essence, to “be fruitful and multiply,” this time armed with the gospel. 

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” Matthew 28:19, 20.

That, I believe, is the only way that America will again be a godly nation. Indeed, I believe that America is, in some ways, a manifestation of the Great Commission distorted, as all things are in our broken world, by sinful men.

So, in short the answer to the question, “what can I do to make a difference,” is to share the gospel.  But, I think, not just to share the gospel, but to make sure our own lives are being changed by it as well and that we are living according to it. After all, there are two kinds of people in the world and they are not “Christians” and “sinners.” They are “Jesus” and “sinners.”

That’s what it means to be the salt and light – not just to say, “this is what God wants” – but to try to demonstrate through our own lives why God’s way is better, never forgetting that we have nothing to boast of because we don’t do it in our own strength.

Think about the arguments over “homosexual marriage” while the Supreme Court was considering its constitutionality. God’s people should have been able to point to their own marriages and say, “this is how God designed it.” But such arguments were laughed at, because all-in-all Christian marriages are no better off than non-Christian marriages.

Or, if you’d prefer, we can look at the increasing popularity of Islam in the U.S. Simply put, Islam is simply filling the void left by Christianity! Islam is unashamedly presented as a way of life while too often Christianity is presented as simply a bunch of rules to fit into your life. Or maybe a way to get rich. Much more than that, Christianity is about how we are loved in spite of the fact that we can’t live up to those rules!

It is important that I make this clarification: following Jesus is not the way to save America.

Following Jesus is the way to please the God who has not only had mercy on us, but poured out grace as well.   America just might be saved as a side effect.

If our primary purpose in following Christ is to “save” America and not to glorify the God who gave us life, that’s idolatry.

John Calvin famously called men’s hearts ‘idol factories.’ The bottom line is that everyone worships something – be it Allah, or self, or liberalism, or even (gasp) conservatism.  If it’s not God, man is not fulfilling what he was created for, and that’s why America and the rest of the world are falling apart.

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