Christian Rights

Sometime back I delivered a message to a church in Newton County. I was filling in for a pastor who was out of town, and I suspect I was the only person available. It was July 3^rd which obviously comes just prior to July 4^th and what we call Independence Day. It was a typical Southern Baptist service filled with patriotism and the honoring of our heroes who have or were wearing the uniform of all branches in our military. Our veterans are worthy of honor and respect, and they should be prayed for, cared for, and loved…make no mistake about this. A group had been brought in to sing patriotic songs, and the excitement level was high among those in attendance as I stepped into the pulpit. The sermon started in this manner:

            This weekend we celebrate the holiday called Independence Day, and it is to         celebrate the United States formally declaring its independence from Great Britain. As a former member of the Armed Forces, I thank each of you that have served in any capacity within our nation’s military, and I thank your families for serving with you as well… It is both an honor and a travesty to fall on the field of battle for this country. It matters not whether you agree with the particular war, the fact remains that if there were not those who died for our ability to be free and stay free, we would not be here today gathering together to worship the One, true God. But…this nation, our rights, and anything in this country or in this world and   closer to home – anything in your house, your family, or even a patriotic thought process is temporal.

A man may have to die for our country: but no man must, in any exclusive     sense, live for his country. He who surrenders himself without reservation to   the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself. ~ C.S. Lewis

            The things of this earth will not last, and while we will give our lives to defend     those things, and particularly our country, it pales in comparison with the eternal. Who will give their life for the eternal? We have been called to follow in his footsteps. That means we are called to lay our lives down. What a foreign concept to us who have been raised here in the United States of America. We are proud people, always ready to stand up for our rights and if need be, create more rights to have. Here in the southeastern region of the United States it is even more dominate that we stand up and rebel, as it were. "We ain’t submitting to anything!"…are we? Laying our lives down and the idea of submission is something we struggle with.

I will never be asked back (for several reasons) but here is and was the point. We should celebrate the country we live in because God has placed us here. We should live in reality, and reality says that our freedoms here are disappearing. We should speak out when rights are being taken away. We should mourn the loss of those rights as we have the God-granted right to do so by virtue of the fact that He is the One who places governmental authority in its place(s) according to His word, and it has been those governments that grant rights within the country. But…

Those rights granted here in this country are not our rights to give and take away…that right is reserved for God. If He chooses to place a governmental authority over us that limits our rights, then it is to His word we must go to understand how to live a Christian life within that context. If He chooses to allow guns to be taken, freedoms of speech to be limited, the right to life to be snuffed out, then it is to His word we must go to understand how to live as a Christian within that context. We must speak out as the Holy Spirit leads, and we must live as the word commands which is illuminated by that same Holy Spirit.

The right to live in a free America is not the right of the believer. That is ultimately in God’s hands, it is not our right. To believe that Jesus is coming back because of the turmoil within the United States is to elevate the United States to a status far above reality. Living in reality with a Biblical worldview dictates that the imminence of Jesus’ return is not predicated upon what the United States does or does not do…the U.S. is not mentioned in scripture. The imminence of His return is dictated by Him and Him alone. He has stated He is coming back. Until then - there is many a civilization that has risen and fallen since the ascension, and the United States is no different. The Christian has laid down his or her rights for the sake of the cross. Our job is to live for Him, because of Him, and through Him no matter the circumstances we believe we are in. Whether slave or free, armed or unarmed, with national consequence or not - we are compelled by the Word to live for His honor and glory and that alone.