By Dene McGriff
Surely a great deception is spreading across the land and it will get much worse. Christians looked at what is happening – abortion, gay marriage, secularism in schools and crime in neighborhoods, and overwhelming voted for values. Can you blame them? What are they supposed to do? Vote FOR abortion, gay marriage and secularism?
There are a sophisticated few who understand the nuances of the election and what is really behind the current administration. They can understand the hypocrisy, the secret favoritism for business and the elites against the average America, the fact that globalism permanently hurts jobs at home, the debts one day have to be paid and so forth. Many average Americans even understood they were voting against their own economic interests in supporting the administration, but the issue of moral values trumped all of the other issues.
So are we going to condemn Christians for what they did? Should they have voted for the liberal secularist who is for abortion, gay rights, etc.? Should they side with evil because somewhere in there is a greater hidden good? (such as social justice, “the rich juxtaposed over and against the poor”?) Is the average “born again” Christian deceived because they want to be deceived as some charge? Is he a willing and knowing participant in the corporate plunder of the world or of the terrorism of Negroponte in Central America and Iraq? Are Christians really guilty by association?
In 1997 I attended the huge Promise Keepers rally in Washington DC. Speakers were urging us to repent for the generational sins of our forefathers (slavery, mistreatment of the blacks, etc.). I remember thinking, I don’t condone what they did, but I certainly don’t have to repent for their sin! I have plenty of my own sins to repent of.
Now I have to ask, should I repent for the sins of Cargill, ADM, Bectel, Halliburton, Enron or Martha Stewart? Should I repent for Watergate, Iran Contra, death squads, Iraq and American global economic policy? Are these my sins? Am I guilty by association? Were all German Christians guilty of the sins of Nazi Germany just because they were there? We know that amongst the clergy, about one third went along with the Nazi’s, one third were “neutral” and another third (the confessing church) remained against Hitler to the end. Deitrich Bonhoeffer could have stayed safely in England but chose to return to Germany and his death. Should Paul and the apostles have left the Roman Empire because of their terrible crimes or stand and be a testimony in the midst? (I’m not sure if there was anywhere to go)
God does not ask His people to flee but to stand and be counted wherever they are. We are not guilty by association or geographic location as some may suggest. We are each responsible for “working out our own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippeans 2:12) There is certainly a great danger of being deceived as in the case of Hitler’s Germany and even America’s Democracy. But God holds Christians responsible for the light they have and for being open to His Spirit and His working in them.
I would dare say that many or even most Christians are not aware of the nuances of the deals that may have been made by the leadership of the Republican administration and their Christian leadership or of all of the issues. Unfortunately, most Americans today are not that sophisticated to see through it all. Most saw the election as a moral dilemma – voting against their values or for them. What do you expect them to do? How could you justify otherwise based on the information they had and understood?
So are they being deceived? Possibly and that is one of the big dangers in this day and age. We don’t disagree that America is likely the last days prophetic Babylon. We write about it everywhere in our website. Nor do I necessarily support the Christian establishment. I am probably as critical or more so in a specific way than most. (please see my book on Recognizing Apostasy and Deception, especially Chapters 13-17) But no matter how critical I may be I cannot say that there are no real Christians in these churches – people who love the Lord as much as I do and are walking as best as they can in the light they have. I get a reality check every now and then when I visit my family and we go to Wiley Heights Covenant Church, a little farming community outside of Yakima, as I have over the past 20 years or so.
Are these dear saints all guilty because they voted Republican or because they live in America? Is our God so small that He can’t save? … That He can’t raise up people in churches across the land who will be true to Him even unto the death? Is our God so small they he can’t reach into their homes and hearts any longer because the are guilty by their association with Babylon? Is our God done with them all – to hell with them all – let them suffer a “Revelation 18:3” judgment because their geography is off? Should we just write off all of our brothers and sisters in Christ because they don’t have the “light” we do? Did we forget that one day we were where they are now and God had mercy on us? Is his hand so short it can save us but not them? Are we so quick to forget the mercy He showed us?
And does anyone think that a Kerry administration would be any better? When will we learn that the whole world lies in the evil one? It doesn’t matter whether they are on the left or right. If you want to be free of deception and the power of this world, you need to discover where your true citizenship lies – not on the right, not on the left, not against the rich or for the poor, but with our heavenly, eternal King Jesus!
How arrogant and elitist it is to declare that God is through with these saints! How presumptuous to assume that their hearts have been so tainted by the world and Babylon’s wiles that they are all condemned unless they repent of the sins of D. James Kennedy, Benny Hinn, Robert Schuller, etc., etc. – not to mention those of the neocons, big business, etc.! I am not responsible for their sins, and the idea that every last Christian who happens to be a member of one of their churches is compromised and going to hell is just plain wrong. I have attended Word/Faith, “latter rain”, Vineyard and other churches and met many real Christians. They may not have seen the problem clearly at the time (I certainly didn’t), but they were not guilty of the leader’s sins. God had mercy on me and led me out. Can’t He do the same for others?
We are responsible for two things. First, we have to have such a relationship with the Lord that He opens our eyes to the deception around us because it is surely there – big time in our government and churches. And yes, there is a very real danger of being deceived if they are not open to the Lord. But is God done with them? Do we write them off completely? Of course not! Second, we can warn and inform our brothers and sisters. There is a great deception coming upon us but people need to be enlightened rather than condemned!
High achieving intellectuals are often impatient with people below them who don’t have the same understanding they do. The fact is half the people in the world just happen to be below average. Ever think about that? But even though they may not understand our high sounding arguments, many have an ear that can hear the Spirit of God speaking to them. And it is learning to hear that “still small voice” that will get every one of us through. All the shouting, arguing and insulting in the world won’t do it, but hallelujah, God is not through with us yet!
His glory in the last days is that he has “Two Witnesses” who stand in the midst of Babylon, Sodom, Egypt, the streets of Jerusalem – wherever they are found who “overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony and love not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12:11) Doug and I are going to harp on this theme again and again because there will be saints all across the earth and even in Babylon/America who will stand wherever they are – martyrs even unto the death.
Brothers and sisters, I am tired of fear mongering – of officials warning us that there are terrorists lurking around every corner seeking to kill us or of ministries developing false teachings telling saints they have to do this or that or suffer the consequences. Our God is an awesome God and our confidence is that He will warn others just as He has us and will give them the strength and life to stand in that day because He will have a glorious church and a beautiful bride! Maranatha!