Penetrating society

This election campaign has been unlike any seen in modern history. It's been long on nasty personal attacks while little has been said about addressing the real problems facing America and the world. The two persons chosen to represent their parties are among the least qualified to serve as President of the United States that we have seen in a long time. It was said a long time ago that a nation gets the government it deserves, and in my opinion this election demonstrates just how far this nation has fallen. Like many Americans, I will go to the polls this fall to vote, but I'll do so holding my nose.

Both candidates will seek support from Christians and will claim to be "one of us." Neither reflect the moral values and beliefs found in Scripture, but there will  be churches and church leaders who will embrace both candidates as "one of them." This shows how far some of our churches have fallen as well.

Scripture teaches that believers are to be light and salt in our world. Salt and light have penetrative qualities. Salt penetrates meat to keep it from ruining. Light penetrates darkness so we can see clearly where we need to go. The church is to penetrate the world to help keep it from ruin and to shine a light into a darkened world so people can see clearly the direction they need to go. It is obvious that we have failed to do that.

I grow weary of Christians complaining about the state of our society while they do nothing about it. We have sat on the sidelines for decades allowing secular philosophies to gain control of the minds of the people. Rather than taking the teachings of Christ into the world we gathered in our holy huddles each week waiting for the world to join us there. Doing this we have given to the enemy the political system, the educational system, the financial system, and the family system of our nation. Our only hope, many think, is for Christ to come back and unleash judgment upon the world.

That is not the only hope. We don't know when Jesus will return, but until that happens we as followers of Him are to occupy the land. We are still called to be salt and light. We are to penetrate every aspect of our society with the teachings found in Scripture.

Christians need to penetrate the educational system of our nation. In order to do that Christian men and women who sense a call to higher education need to prepare themselves theologically and philosophically for such work. The same thing needs to happen in the public school systems. We need Christian men and women on school boards, in teaching positions, in administration, and as superintendents. Many Christians now serve in such positions, but we need more.

This needs to happen in the legal system, in the business world, in the financial world, and certainly in the political system. If Christians cannot gain influence within the political parties then it is time that we create a third party that will actually have a chance to win elections. If there was ever a year when a viable third party candidate had a chance to win national office, this is it. Unfortunately, it is too late for that to happen in this election, but now is the time to begin preparing for the next election.

Such penetration will take a long time to accomplish because we have sat on the sidelines for too long. But, it will never happen if we don't begin now. Our task is not to sit safely in our "sanctuaries" while the world around us crumbles. Christ has called us to go into our world and penetrate it with the Gospel. It's time we did so.