This is not a political post, an institutional condemnation, nor a cry for sanction. It is
something else, a plea for sanity.
Like many Americans, the recent debate between presidential candidates was eye
opening. These wildly unpopular men scarcely seemed like statesmen.
But who are we to blame?
In essence, we are getting what we ask for.
When I was a child of the 1970’s, it seemed that people were acutely engaged in
politics. From the classroom to the college campus, to the kitchen table, we knew
our political representatives and their stance on the issues.
Today, I fear, we only know what we are told to know, and our obtuseness is
shocking.
Why does this matter?
Many of the questions I field as a pastor deal with the issue of the end times. For
those less versed, people want to know how humanity comes to an end, if ever,
from a biblical perspective.
One of the indicators scripturally that the birth pangs of destruction may soon be at
hand is mass delusion.
The Apostle Paul in writing to a beloved church that is asking similar questions
about the end gives this sobering account, “For this reason God sends them a
powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned
who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”
How, you may ask, are we deluded? The answer: the abandonment of altruism leads
to a pathology of error.
What is equally worse is the fact that apathy toward citizenry has given us a license
for irresponsibility. If something costs us nothing, or worse if it is given to us for free,
we welcome the bondage of slavery with indifference, believing that the chickens
that have come home to roost will not bring unpleasant tidings. At best this is
myopic and at worse pure and willful blindness. When unfettered self-interest rules
the day, self-destruction cannot be far behind.
With all our challenges as a nation, it is still not difficult to see where the train went
off the tracks. We chose to jettison religious morals and ethics. Christians chose to
sideline themselves to respect the separation between church and state. Power,
greed, self-interest, and various forms of malevolence crept in silently. And now, we
find that the best we can manage is a tiered status quo where each level protects
its own interest.
If we are to stave off the mass delusion described in the end times, then a return to
common sense and citizenry must lead the way.
And of course, before all this, we must reconcile ourselves with the eternal. How
many kingdoms have fallen believing the lie of supremacy only to wake from
delusion in destruction.
All I am suggesting is a return to sanity or the end may be sooner than we think.
Kent Simmons is the pastor of Canyon Community Church in Kingman, AZ.
A Plea for Sanity
