Repent!

For the past several days, I have felt a burden to share a message.  When that happens, I normally go to the Scriptures expecting the Lord to instruct me further.  I did that this morning and got the strong impression that, while the Scriptures I was reading were instructive and maybe even applicable, it was time for a new word fitting to this moment.

Don't get me wrong, I do not claim to be writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the same manner as the human authors of scripture.  Far from it.  My fear of the eternal penalties for corrupting scripture  prevent that.  Nor do I particularly wish to be a prophet.  If nothing else, my studies of the scripture have taught me that taking up the mantle of a prophet almost always brings unpleasant rewards. So what am I?  I am a man who fears God and is in mourning for his country, a sad old warrior of das kulturkampf , walking away battered and bruised after a crushing defeat.

I had a very intense little conversation with a highly placed man in Christian legal circles this week.  I asked him if he had any idea why American voters who had so much to lose would choose socialism over freedom.  He responded that without Godly principles guiding them, men will choose error and make that error their religion.  That is what has happened in the United States.

Who are the people who voted for Obama?  A lot of them are deeply invested in the welfare state.  Others are deeply invested in racial/tribal loyalty above all else.  The wealthy are deeply invested with their treasure because they know that they will get wealthier under a corrupt socialist system.  Fascism/National Socialism was the best thing that ever happened to the uber rich in Germany and Italy until the bombs started falling.

That brought me to the next question.  Who is the average American these days?  They are nothing like me, my parents or even my friends for that matter.  They may call themselves Christians but they have never made a true commitment to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so they don't understand the cost of discipleship.They have never served in the military so they don't understand the price of their  freedom.  They have never owned their own business so they don't understand the gut wrenching effort it takes to make a dollar from scratch.  They have never been politically active so they don't understand the quiet but desperate internal battles necessary to keep the system honest and responsive.   In short, they are free riders, taking all that they can and giving nothing back.

Increasingly, I find it difficult to be around these people.  Conversation with them is almost impossible because there is nothing behind their words and their smiles. They are empty shells, high functioning human sheep.  They don't understand honor because they have none.  They don't appreciate truth because the truth is not in them.  They talk about their money and the things it can buy.  They talk about their pleasures.  But, when you try to reach past the  temporary things that will pass away the instant they pass from this life to the next, there is nothing there, just an empty human shell filled with worldly garbage.  Is it any wonder that this new "average American" chose Barack Hussein Obama?  Over fifty years ago, C.S. Lewis predicted it in his groundbreaking work, The Abolition of Man:  "We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

Sunday morning, some pastors will preach Veterans Day sermons.  There is nothing wrong with that I suppose.  But frankly, as a veteran, I get sick and tired of the smiling liberal face thanking me for my service while they vote for people who waste the lives of young warriors and do everything in their power to destroy the military institutions that protect us from our enemies.  Keep your thanks liberal. Your empty gesture makes me want to puke.  I didn't do it for you.  I did it for my mom and dad, for my wife and baby, for my little piece of land in Oklahoma, for my fellow servicemen and for the generations of Kumpe's before me who all served honorably when duty called.  You, Mr. or Ms. Liberal, are just darned lucky that some Americans still look beyond themselves and their own interests to obey the sense of duty and honor that you lack.

Other pastors will preach a Second Amendment Day sermon.  And, there is nothing wrong with that. I completely agree with George Orwell who said, "That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.”

If I were to take the pulpit this morning, my sermon would be short.  I would say:

We have sinned against the most Holy God who gave us this great nation with all of its liberties and abundance.  We have chosen a president who is an abomination before man and God.   His sins are our sins no matter how we voted because, even though we had forty years to fix the political system, we did not.  We refused to make the tough choices necessary to face down the people who called us friends until they lost all respect for us and continually gave us unacceptable choices and un-winnable situations.  We sold Your Church's influence and reputation at bargain basement prices and gained absolutely nothing permanent in return.  Forty years ago, the late Francis Schaeffer warned us this day was coming and we did not heed his warning.  We are now going to pay the price for our sins and it is not going to be pretty.  I ask the congregation to get on their knees right now and we will spend the rest of the service weeping before God in repentance, beseeching Him to be merciful to us in the tribulation that is to come.