American patriotism and the righteousness of God cannot dwell in the same temple as equal partners. And God does not dwell in temples created by human hands. 

The message of the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. Who gave us the gospel? JESUS!

Confessing Christ before men is fundamentally distinct from quoting Scripture. Satan can quote Scripture better than most Christians.

Demons believe in God and shudder.

Knowing the things of God does not define a right relationship with the living God.

“Jesus Christ I know, and Paul I know.” God knows me by name, just as He knows all His children.

Sometimes, I just want to tell today’s evangelicals and Christians that I do not recognize them. How can they be children of God?

Their fruit is unfamiliar. The Scriptures teach us that we will know each other by our fruit—the fruit produced by the Spirit of God who indwells His children. Well, I do not recognize their fruit. They claim to be people of God while trampling on the words of His Son. They cast stones at others without first confronting the log in their own eyes. Their words defile them because they flow from hearts that do not know God. That’s the only explanation. In trampling on the things of God, they mock Him, deny Him glory, and lead others astray with lying tongues.

Those who profess faith in Christ Jesus should know better than to repay injury with injury. That’s a Sunday school lesson for grade schoolers. Politics is ruthless, a dog-eat-dog endeavor, but believers are not exempt from their calling simply because public life rewards those who play by its rules. That applies to all worldly positions and titles. And the rewards are not always good. Scripture commands believers to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). Micah 6:8 tells us what is good, to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.” Such commands are simple to state but costly to obey, especially when loyalty to a leader, institution, or community competes with loyalty to God.

I can recall hearing, during COVID, that we Christians should obey God rather than man. Well, to me, the Scriptures were clear: obey your leaders. Nowhere have I read in the Bible that I should follow pastors who lead rebellions against government leaders. We will only wind up in a battle with God, with no chance of winning (Acts 5:39). Still, so many Christians were quick to believe conspiracy theorists and follow pastors who rebelled against public safety protocols.

Today, choosing to remain faithful to Christ and His teaching is met with criticism and mockery. Our faith is labeled heretical—or worse—by fellow believers. I do not post much, but I follow certain people. On more than one occasion, I have encountered the wrath of the Pharisees for pointing out a basic truth. The question, then, for these Christians is, “In whose house are they serving?”

The way of Jesus does not promote, much less sanctify, aggression. Instead, He calls His followers to turn the other cheek. He told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. He also warned that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. He said that love covers a multitude of sins and that the measure by which we judge others is the measure by which we, too, will be judged. Search the Scriptures these commands are there.

Moral conviction loses credibility when wrongdoing is condemned in opponents but excused among friends and like-minded people. No title, platform, congregation, or cause, places anyone beyond correction or above the law. Accountability is not reserved for outsiders. It is not righteousness to dictate accountability based on certain attributes; it is favoritism dressed in religious language.

The honest question is not whose failures may be excused, because no one is without sin. We all fall short of the glory of God. Our hope is in Christ. That’s it. We are all called to confess our sins and sin no more. The second part is often ignored. As a Christian nation there is one question ever before us.

Holding Christians accountable is not always an easy task either. I know this from personal experience. The Lord calls us to forgive others so that we, too, may be forgiven. Forgiveness is for everyone. But we all know that is easier said than done. We also know that we are more likely to offer forgiveness to one person than to another for the same offense.

It’s election time, and the wolves are howling.

Many evangelicals believe that Christian civic duty extends beyond voting. That, in itself, is a matter of debate. I know people on both sides of the issue. Still, political engagement is not a platform for God’s people to condemn, retaliate, cast stones at others, launch personal attacks simply because of political or religious differences. And I am referring to the voter base, not the candidates. Yet, that is the nature of the beast.

The reality is simple: if Christians make adversaries, they will have adversaries. And that is not what the Lord commanded us to do. Jesus said to go and make disciples, not to go and make enemies.

The Scriptures teach us this:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”

“No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.”

Every person enters the political arena at their own risk. The rule of thumb should always be to NOT go the way of Balaam. The Scriptures tell us that God’s angel is prepared to carry out God’s will.

More often than not, communities led or influenced by political and religious dogma become spiritually enslaved to an inherited pride that idealizes the past and places ancestors beyond criticism. Some are more extreme than others. Honoring those who came before us should never require denying their failures or turning history into a monument to human greatness. Nor should honoring the past replace the things the Lord has commanded His followers to do.

Faithfulness requires the courage to examine every legacy honestly: to preserve what was just, reject what caused harm, and refuse to pass old prejudices and mindsets on to the next generation. Shedding ingrained religious prejudices can happen in only one of two ways. That’s it.

Faithfulness requires God’s people to examine their heart, continually.

After 250 years, I would have thought that Americans had learned and accepted that the past should instruct us, not rule us. We have not learned a blasted thing. After all the blessings God has bestowed on this nation, we have failed to learn plain old humility.

Humility begins when we stop defending an image and destructive ideologies and become willing to face the truth. Do you know what happens to victims of destructive ideologies after centuries of living under them?

Will those who continue to preserve the worst of the things that built this nation ever recognize the resulting harm, turn their hearts to God, and confess to the Almighty their part in passing on those destructive mindsets?

A mindset that sets itself above the living God does not come from Him.

It’s interesting how these mindsets spread. First, the people came and stole this land from the Natives who called it home. Then they begin to slaughter them. They called it Manifest Destiny. Then they stole Black men from another continent and brought them here as slaves to do their labor. The enslaved people worked the land and did much more, yet others took credit for their labor.

As this nation expanded west, years of wars and negotiations, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was ratified. Still unsatisfied with their gains, the people went on to take land rightfully owned by Mexican landowners who chose to remain on this side of the Rio Grande River, which became the new border between the two countries. They hanged them, shot them, burned their villages and exploited the Mexican people – who had become Americans by choice.

Today, these same mindsets still lust after what they do not and cannot have. Today, those same people trample on the things of God to steal His glory. And do you know what the living God has to say about that?

Isaiah 42:8 (KJV) “I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”

Patriotism, political or religious identity should never take precedence over what the Lord has commanded of us. Our identity is revealed not merely through the labels we carry, or the words we speak or the Scriptures we quote, but through the fruit we bear, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23, NKJV). We cannot condemn the sins of others while excusing our own, nor can we remember the past and erase its injustices. Psalm 139 tells us that God searches the heart. He knows us. We need to pray and ask Him to examine our hearts, to reveal destructive mindsets we have inherited. We should refuse to perpetuate them, but traditions of men forbid it. Our hope is not in a political party, a leader, or even in church. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, whose glory belongs to Him alone. As Isaiah 42:8 reminds us, God will not give His glory to another.

Search the Scriptures.