Take It Back

When people get serious about taking America back from the Liberals, they will need to go back in history to see when and how our constitutional republic was lost. It will be discovered that Barack Obama is not responsible for turning America in to a socialist nation. That project began centuries earlier with a vision of what America was created to be that has a long established historical lineage.

That vision has always been disputed. The division has always been between those who understand that the argument that civil government is “of the people, by the people and for the people” is a biblical position,¹ and those who reject it as so and substitute a socialist (godless) definition, not far different from the Marxist vision of a classless society or democracy of the people.

The methodology that passed the recent Healthcare Reform bill was worked out 30-50 years earlier in America’s Mainline churches. If you are not familiar with it, you might read Gary North’s, Crossed Fingers: How the Liberals Captured the Presbyterian Church, Institute for Christian Economics, 1996. The process that was perfected in the American Churches is now being applied to the American government.

Reversing the process will be difficult because Liberals have been in charge of public education curriculum for at least a hundred years. Most Americans have already been indoctrinated into believing that the values of Liberalism are America’s values. Today, most Americans simply accept those values to be “normal.” People don’t know any better anymore. Ordinary people do not have access to curriculum selection in the public schools, so whatever paltry influence conservative reformers may garner there will simply be too little and too late.

The most accessible and effective area for conservative reform is exactly the same area that the Liberals used—the Christian churches. But, where the Liberals used duplicity and deceit to weasel their way into positions of church authority, conservatives must use honesty and integrity to recapture the churches. For the most part America’s Mainline churches have been abandoned by conservatives, or perhaps I should say that the churches have been purged of conservative Christians.

The effort to reclaim American Christianity must be done in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That means that conservatives must themselves first be captured by Jesus Christ. Conservatives must first be mastered by Christ in order to master God’s Word, and as they do that the very power of God Himself will be unleashed as the true light of the world. Jesus Christ will train His people to be who He has called them to be, and to reengage the mission He has given His church. This is the revival Christians seek!

Revival begins by reclaiming Christianity, and Christianity is conservative, not libertarian. The fact that the conservative movement has been captured by secular libertarian ideology is part of the problem. Interestingly, the real source for “classical liberalism” is biblical Christianity. We must come to better understand Scripture so that we can see that in some areas Christ is conservative and in others He is liberal. But in every area He is faithful, and we must liberally conserve the faith once delivered (Jude 3).

There is no better training ground for Washington reform than the effort to put local churches back on track. Most of the problems that plague our government today stem from the civil takeover of various church and family responsibilities. The churches abdicated power and authority to the civil government in disobedience to Scripture and in spite of the biblical mandate for the separation of church and state jurisdictions. So, the most natural way to get things back on keel is to return those responsibilities to churches and families.

The civil government has no business in health care or retirement, period. Care and healing have always been responsibilities of church and family. Civil government gladly took them on because 1) churches and families abandoned them, and 2) a lot of money can be made in these areas. Churches and families can be funded for these purposes with the same money that the government intends to use, with uncollected taxes. Churches call it tithing. Families call it saving.

Actually, churches and families will have to take back these responsibilities for at least two reasons. First, because government has spent the money collected for retirement. And second, because the 50 million² abortions since Roe v. Wade in 1973 have reduced the number of workers contributing to the Social Security system. There’s not enough money in Social Security, nor enough workers to sustain it. By mandating it, Washington hopes that new inductees will keep the Ponzi scheme afloat.

But they won’t because the recently passed healthcare bill has no serious provisions for reducing the runaway costs of healthcare. The new money will mostly pay for the new inductees. Waste may be reduced, but not the spiraling costs. The problem never was the lack of healthcare, it has always been the cost of healthcare. And the government’s solution leaves the central problem unsolved. The letter (government regulation) kills, but the Spirit (Christ’s churches) give life (2 Corinthians 3:6).

(For more on this idea see the podcast titled “Subordinate,” and the other sermons on First Peter.)