In the oddest of places, a hymn book, quite by accident I stumbled across this little bit a few days ago:
“Our phrases right-wing and left-wing came from the seating in the revolutionary legislature of the French Revolution. The Moderate revolutionaries sat on the right, while the radicals sat on the left. They had their debates, of course, but they were all revolutionaries. What they held in common was more fundamental than what divided them. Separated by a ravine, at the bottom of the ravine they were still joined together.”
Now, that’s an interesting bit of trivia. It reminds me of a saying my old pastor TNS was quite fond of: “Right-wing, left wing; they’re both flapping off the same dirty old bird.” Now, let me finish the original quote, so I won’t be guilty of taking it out of context.
“While Scripture speaks of a bottomless pit, a place of unending and horrible judgment, there is another bottomless chasm as well, a chasm which we must come to understand fully, This bottomless ravine is the divide between faith and unbelief—and nothing joins them at the bottom.” Douglas Wilson, Cantus Christi; Introduction (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2004); p. 4.
Why do so many Christians act like the future of Christianity hangs by a thread, and who is in office makes all the difference? At their deepest level all the parties are the same: they represent the city of man. We need to be far more concerned with the souls of men than with who sits in the big seat, because we know who sits in the Big Seat. Read what one of the mightiest dictators of ancient history had to say on the subject:
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
Daniel 4:34,35; ESV
Isn’t it interesting that in the midst of the most brutal empire know up to that time, Christianity was born. And how were those first-century Christians instructed to behave? Be politically active in order to change government? I don’t think so. Look at what Peter puts forth as commendable conduct for believers:
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
1 Peter 2:11-17; ESV
It should be no differrent for us today. The mission we have has not changed. We are not to be about political activism for the kingdom of God. The Moral Majority has done that for how many decades, and what have we accomplished, besides adding to the number of unbelievers who hate Christians? As we have been changed in Christ Jesus, we are to be about reflecting the glory of God in our lives; how we work, play, raise our families, mantain our homes and cars and hair cuts. That’s how you change kingdoms.
