
FBI Raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Residence is Not “Just Politics”
I’ll confess I have a bad attitude toward Christians who think there is something like “just politics.” Or who think the “culture wars” are a waste of time because we need to get down to the important business of saving souls or focusing on “spiritual” things. Or who think that Democrats and Republicans are just two sides of the same political coin, you know flip it, and it doesn’t much matter which you choose. Or, as I’ve written about before, those who think there is some kind of moral equivalence between the left and right in our country, or that there is an “extreme” right just as there is an “extreme” left. There is not. The left, as I’ll explain, is entirely radical and extreme, and the Democrat Party along with the media, and all elite culture, has been taken over by the left. With the FBI raid on Trump’s residence last week, even many Trump haters had to reluctantly admit that the Democrats jumped the shark, bigly. This was Banana Republic, totalitarian, thug state stuff that will destroy America if allowed to stand.
I’ll get to what destroying America might look like, but the left is fundamentally communist, driven by totalitarian thugs, who when they lie speak their native language. Instead of truth, they believe in the will to power, might makes right, any ends justifies the means of their political ideology. Their self-righteousness is stunning. It’s breathtaking when you look at the history of American politics and realize one of our two political parties has been taken over by Marxists, regardless of what they chose to call themselves. I would encourage Christians to see such political and cultural battles in spiritual terms because, well, they are spiritual! There is no such thing as “just politics.” And as Christians we can’t say, well, we’re not “into politics.” In Ephesians 5 and 6, the Apostle Paul is giving Christians instructions for how to live, and the implications are civilizational, not merely personal. In the middle of chapter 6 he says this:
2 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
I hear this quoted often, but it is important not to take this out of the context of the entire letter of Ephesians. Speaking of God’s “incomparably great power for us who believe,” Paul gives us the context and implications of this power:
That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
What we are involved in every day in every moment of our lives is cosmic in every sense of the word, huge, ginormous, utterly inconceivable to us. While we do political and cultural battle against human beings, we are wrestling with things far beyond our comprehension, which is why we get on our knees daily and pray to the God who raised Christ from the dead. This spiritual war we are part of, and the daily battles we engage with ourselves and others, is not merely personal and moral. It is also societal.
This brings us to a distinction most Christians haven’t considered, or haven’t thought enough about, that between the church and the kingdom of God. I certainly haven’t, and I’m just beginning to learn the implications and why they are so important. They are not one and the same thing, and confusing the two creates all kinds of problems. The former consists of God’s people, those Jesus came to save, and the latter is Christ’s rule over all things, in heaven and on earth. It’s interesting to look at the two words in the gospels. Church is used only twice, and that just in Matthew, while Kingdom is used 120 times. This doesn’t tell us that the concept of the kingdom of God is more important than the church, but it is safe to say it is just as important. Some Christians might say that statement borders on heresy, which is an indication of a deep confusion about the issue. Let’s briefly look at the two words.
The Greek for church is ekklésia- ἐκκλησία, and it means those who are called out. It wasn’t a religious word until Christians started using it to indicate the bodies of people who believed Jesus was the Messiah. As you can see from Acts and the epistles, church became a common term for the called-out Christians. Kingdom is basileia- βασιλεία, the realm in which a king sovereignly rules. You’ll see the problem I’m trying to identify in the definition: ‘”Especially refers to the rule of Christ in believers’ hearts – which is a rule that “one day will be universal on the physical earth in the Millennium.”‘ Actually, that is exactly what the kingdom does not mean. Go back and carefully read the Ephesians 1 passage. Does it say anything about a Christian’s heart or a millennium? Nope. In Revelation 1:5 we’re told Jesus is “the ruler of kings on earth,” present tense. Christ’s rule is universal, right now, over all things, including over us. Just because we, or others, rebel against the king doesn’t make him any less a king, nor the ruler of all things.
What has this to do with politics and the culture wars? Only everything! If you read through all the passages where Kingdom is used in the gospels, it is clear it has far more to do then with mere morality. In the same passage, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed and yeast. A small thing and a little bit, it grows and encompasses all. Daniel 2:44 gives us a glimpse of the kingdom that will shatter all other kingdoms and it shall stand forever. When Jesus came, he brought the kingdom: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Teaching us to pray, Jesus said, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Now! And that includes politics, which is no less “spiritual” than those things we consider “spiritual.”
I didn’t get to what destroying American might look like, but an FBI raid on a former President’s home is certainly part of it. Different standards of justice, double standards, for the political opposition, as we see in the prisoners who were part of the so-called “insurrection,” is most definitely part of it. I will explore this in my next post, but when there is no God, no Christ, things in a society can get very nasty, as we’re seeing around us everywhere.
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