by: Gary DeMar
The after effects of the Robert’s decision on Obamacare got my blood boiling as I read blog posts and comments about the decision. I fully agree that “God is sovereign” and “God is in control,” but that does not absolve us of the responsibility to act. God designed us to reason, make choices, and act.
Too many Christians say a prayer, repeat that God’s in charge, and then go home and wait for God to act. This is not the biblical way:
“What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no
works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without
clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in
peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is
necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no
works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have
faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will
show you my faith by my works.’” (James 2:14–18)
The court’s decision is going to affect all of us in ways we’ve never dreamed of. Considering that the healthcare bill is 2700 pages of government doublespeak, only God knows how lawyers, judges, and bureaucrats will interpret and apply the law.
When Joshua and the Israelites suffered their first defeat after their exodus from Egypt, “the hearts of the people melted and became as water” (Joshua 7:5). Bible believing Christians are disheartened with the way things are going in Washington and what may be coming down the political pike.
Joshua voiced his concerns to God. “Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell on the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, both he and the elders of Israel” (7:7). In a word, he prayed . . . hard. What did God tell him to do? “So the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them’” (7:11). In effect, God told Joshua to stop praying and act on the evil that brought them the defeat!
So what will we do? The Robert’s decision is a wake-up call. Now we need to act. A majority of the Supreme Court and Congress are making a mockery of the oath they took before God to uphold the Constitution.
Some Christians are saying with this ruling that we must submit to the government authorities. True enough. We’re not revolutionaries. But we’re not quietists either. We’re not living in first-century Israel where Jews had no political rights or freedoms. Paul used his Roman citizenship on at least two occasions that we know of (Acts 22 and 25). We have in the First Amendment the right and responsibility to “petition the government for a redress of grievances,” and even if the Constitution didn’t give us this right, we would still have it.
Theodore Roszak describes much of modern-day Christianity: “Socially irrelevant, even if privately engaging.”[1]
Notes:
The after effects of the Robert’s decision on Obamacare got my blood boiling as I read blog posts and comments about the decision. I fully agree that “God is sovereign” and “God is in control,” but that does not absolve us of the responsibility to act. God designed us to reason, make choices, and act.
Too many Christians say a prayer, repeat that God’s in charge, and then go home and wait for God to act. This is not the biblical way:
“What use is it, my brethren, if someone
says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a
brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one
of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet
you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But
someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your
faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’”
(James 2:14–18)
The court’s decision is going to affect all of us in ways we’ve never dreamed of. Considering that the healthcare bill is 2700 pages of government doublespeak, only God knows how lawyers, judges, and bureaucrats will interpret and apply the law.
When Joshua and the Israelites suffered their first defeat after their exodus from Egypt, “the hearts of the people melted and became as water” (Joshua 7:5). Bible believing Christians are disheartened with the way things are going in Washington and what may be coming down the political pike.
Joshua voiced his concerns to God. “Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell on the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, both he and the elders of Israel” (7:7). In a word, he prayed . . . hard. What did God tell him to do? “So the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them’” (7:11). In effect, God told Joshua to stop praying and act on the evil that brought them the defeat!
So what will we do? The Robert’s decision is a wake-up call. Now we need to act. A majority of the Supreme Court and Congress are making a mockery of the oath they took before God to uphold the Constitution.
Some Christians are saying with this ruling that we must submit to the government authorities. True enough. We’re not revolutionaries. But we’re not quietists either. We’re not living in first-century Israel where Jews had no political rights or freedoms. Paul used his Roman citizenship on at least two occasions that we know of (Acts 22 and 25). We have in the First Amendment the right and responsibility to “petition the government for a redress of grievances,” and even if the Constitution didn’t give us this right, we would still have it.
Theodore Roszak describes much of modern-day Christianity: “Socially irrelevant, even if privately engaging.”[1]
Notes:
- Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends (New York: Doubleday, 1973), 449. [↩]
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