[Faith-talk] The Divine Call To Political engagement by Adrian Rogers

[Paul Smith]

The following is taken from Pastor Rogers' book "Christian 
Citizenship." He pastored for some 30 years the Bellevue Baptist Church 
in Memphis, TN and is heard via recording on his radio show "Love Worth 
Finding" on many Christian stations both domestically and 
internationally.  He sounds a lot like my former pastor, the late R.T. 
Woodworth who advocated what you are about to read since the early 
1960's.  This message is so timely for this nation of ours and, 
although it might not apply to readers in other countries, I pray that 
you will get a blessing from reading it.

Our government is a government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people.  We are some of "the people," and we are to participate in 
our government.  Jesus said to give to Caesar the things that belong to 
Caesar and give to God the things that belong to God (Mark 12:17).  If 
you do not participate in your government, you have not rendered to 
your Caesar the things that belong to your Caesar.

If, for example, you do not vote--if you do not inform yourself--in my 
estimation, you have disobeyed the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is 
inconceivable that God would have ordained human government and then 
tell His people to stay out of it.  If that is true, who does that 
leave to run it? We as Christians are to participate, not on the basis 
of parties or persons or politics, but on principles.  Our highest 
allegiance is to God, but we have a duty to our contry as well.

We're not to force our views on anyone else, but we should be 
persuasive in what we do.  Our government is a democracy, and America 
is based on public opinion.  May I tell you, the only hope for America 
is to change public opinion.  Do you know the only thing that can 
change public opinion? The Word of God.  We have to get the message of 
the Bible out there.  We are not going to out-argue anyone.  They are 
blind and don't see it.  They need to know Jesus Christ, and they will 
find Him in the pages of God's Word.  We are supposed to persuade our 
people.  We are to be taking them back one at a time and winning souls 
to Jesus Christ.

I've been to Rome.  The Colosseum would seat 50,000 people.  They would 
put the Christians in the Colosseum and make them fight with gladiators 
and redden the mouths of lions with their blood, and it was for 
entertainment.  Caesar would be looking down upon those people in the 
Colosseum, but underneath it were the catacombs.  In those subterranean 
tunnels, Christians would huddle together to worship.  It seemed there 
was not a chance on this earth that those Christians hiding under the 
Colosseum could have done anything at all about what was going on up on 
the surface, but those folks started a spiritual revolution that turned 
that whole thing upside down.  It caused a mighty revival that brought 
the empire crashing down and exalted the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
I want to be like those in the catacombs who said, "Lord, You alone are 
God.  We have no king but Jesus." That's where the power is.  It's not 
political influence that we need.  It is the power of God that we need. 
Our hope is not in government; Our hope is in Almighty God!

Well, what more can I add to what the late Pastor Rogers wrote than to 
say a hearty "Amen!" Hope you all enjoyed it.

If I might add a little bit of history to what he wrote, we had one 
U.S. president who was also an ordained minister of the Gospel, namely, 
James Abram Garfield of the great state of Ohio.  He was a pastor of a 
Disciples of Christ church, and, although a somewhat controversial 
figure in our own day and time, Adam Clayton Powell, who represented 
Harlem in the U.S. House of Representatives, was the pastor of the 
Abassinia Baptist Church in New York City.  If I knew more names, I'd 
mention them, but hopefully my fellow countrymen reading these lines 
got the idea.  Maybe the book mentioned at the beginning of this post 
is available in accessible form from
http://www.lwf.org,
at least I hope so.

And that will do it for now.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing another 
timely contribution will be put in your respective inboxes, may the God 
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and 
collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian 
friend and brother, Paul