Theological Back Flips

Many years ago a friend came to visit.
She was not a friend from my childhood.
She was a friend that came into my life many years later.
Motherhood bound us together and many of our talks centered around our children.

Politics never crept into our discussions; however one day a controversial topic did arise.
The issue of abortion came up and I found myself listening to her views.
I do not believe in abortion personally but I could ever legislate it for another woman, she said.
I remember praying for wisdom and gentleness when I responded.

I simply told her that I am pro-life.
I explained that I was adopted and my natural mother made a very brave choice.
She chose life for me and then had the courage to give me up.
If my mother had aborted me, things would be so vastly different, I began.

My husband would not have me as his wife.
All of our children would never have been born, I said looking right into her eyes.
She was very quiet.
Our children came in to show us something and the conversation ended there.

About a month later, my friend called me on the phone.
I was thinking a lot about what you said, her voice was so serious.
I never thought about the personal affects of abortion, she said quietly.
I never thought about what would not have been, she concluded.

I never personalized abortion, she said.
I never put a face to it, she continued.
Abortion stayed sanitized when it was just a topic for discussion and debate.
It became real to me; you would not be here if your mother chose to abort you.

I just want you to know that my position has changed; I am against abortion, period!
There was nothing to say except to remind her that her friendship meant so much to me.
The words I spoke to her that day were from my heart.
The words were my testimony as to why I am pro-life.

I see the divisiveness in our culture.
There are many issues on which people take sides.
Battle lines are drawn.
There is no crossing over as each side stands its ground.

Especially now, I have seen something I have not seen in quite a while.
I have seen theological back flips being done in order to stand for a person or a position.
Twisting and contorting is taking place in order to fit a square peg into a round hole.
The problem is that most of us are not gymnasts; we land flat on our back most of the time.

In this election season, there is much division.
The country is divided.
Worldviews are divided.
Loyalties are divided.

That is nothing new.
That is bound to happen in a fallen world.
That is expected when competing agendas vie for attention.
God is forgotten; it was not always that way.

The spiritual emphasis manifested so often by the Americans during the Revolution caused one Crown-appointed British governor to write to Great Britain complaining that: “If you ask an American who is his master, he’ll tell you he has none. And he has no governor but Jesus Christ.”

Letters like this, and sermons like those preached by the Reverend Peter Powers titled “Jesus Christ the King,” gave rise to a sentiment that has been described as a motto of the American Revolution. Most Americans are unaware that the Revolution might have had mottoes, but many wars do (e.g., in the Texas’ war for independence, it was “Remember the Alamo”; in the Union side in the Civil War, it was “In God We Trust”; in World War I, it was “Remember the Lusitania”; in World War II, it was “Remember Pearl Harbor”; etc.). A motto of the American Revolution directed against the tyrant King George III and the theologically discredited doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings (which asserted that when the king spoke, it was the voice of God speaking directly to the people) was simple and direct: “No King but King Jesus!” Another motto (first suggested by Benjamin Franklin and often repeated during the Revolution) was similar in tone: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”

Preserving American liberty depends first upon our understanding the foundations on which this great country was built and then preserving the principles on which it was founded. Let’s not let the purpose for which we were established be forgotten. The Founding Fathers have passed us a torch; let’s not let it go out. (4th of July article by David Barton)

No King but King Jesus.
Imagine.
A battle cry.
A line in the sand.

We are placing candidates in the position of savior.
There is only one Savior and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
We cry for social justice and forget that apart from God, all human promises fail.
We seek to mend racial relations and think that legislation will accomplish that feat.

No King but King Jesus.
Only our Lord and Savior can rescue us from this perilous time.
Only the Lord Jesus can show us the way because the Way is a Person.
Only our Savior can mend all that is broken.

Only Jesus.
But we have forgotten.
That has happened before.
God will not be taken lightly.

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel says: Reform your ways and your actions and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless, or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe” – safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house that bears my Name become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD…but I gave them this command: Obey me and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. But they do not listen or pay attention, instead they follow their stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backwards and not forward. (Jeremiah 7:3-11, 23,24)

Our theological back flips will never change what God has said in His Word.
We can try to twist and contort it, but God’s Word remains the same forever.
The plumb line of truth does not shift because of our feeble arguments.
Our arguments must stay in line with God’s truth.

We are very inept gymnasts.
We are horrible contortionists.
Theological back flips do not work.
Do we have the courage to remain loyal to our King and stand on the Word of God?

God always has a remnant that stands for Him.
That remnant is being called upon now to be set apart and hold out a better way.
No change will happen apart from the Lord Jesus.
We need the Holy Spirit desperately to turn the hearts of the people back to God.

Are we ready to stand?
Are we ready to be set apart?
Are we ready to lift high the name of Jesus alone?
No King but King Jesus.