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What is Wrong with America? What Can We Do? How do We Respond? A Discussion with Ravi Zacharias and the Church. Part 1
[Part 2 of 2] Right now, there are those all across America that are looking across the horizon of our culture and asking themselves ‘what is going on?’ This is not a wrong question to be asking nor is someone wrong for asking it. Take a look at just a handful of statements that our current President has said. First off, he states, “…we are no longer a Christian Nation…” When speaking at the United Nations in 2012, he stated, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam”.And now, most recently he shared these words when speaking at the Democratic National Convention, “Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared Savior promising that He alone can restore order as long as we do things His way. We don’t look to be ruled”. This is our present leader. While presently, one that does want to be our next leader, Hillary Clinton expressed, “Deep seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed”. We, as the Church must ask this question, “what do we do about it?” There are so many words of lies being said. Where is the truth?
When Ravi Zacharias recently spoke on Life Today, he shared how he has encountered many youth asking this very same question. He asks his own question, and as we enter yet another Presidential election, his answer is that which we need the most. “What is the most valuable thing in the world?” Quoting Winston Churchill, he states, “The most valuable thing in the world is the truth. In fact, it is so valuable, it is often hidden by a bodyguard of lies.” Considering the many topics and subjects that the two Presidential nominees’ platforms are based upon, how much truth do they contain? He continues, “And now, as Christians, the time has come to ask of the political leadership, truth. Because without truth, we lose the most powerful weapon. Without truth, we lose the most valuable thing, and we live that by example in our own lives.”
Zacharias highlights the importance of identity. “You must be able to identify what it is you’re talking about or you cannot speak anything about that thing.”With this in mind, he applies this principle to the present realities within America; “If we, as a nation, cannot even identify those who are seeking to destroy us, then we’ve not only violated the fundamental law of ethics: truth, we’ve now violated the fundamental law of reason: the law of identity, is that which demands of us what it is we’re really talking about.”
As George Wood, Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, sharesabout how to navigate these days leading up to the Presidential elections, he expresses these words; “If you are a practicing Evangelical…someone who holds to the authority of Scripture, if you are a practicing Catholic…you cannot be appointed, currently, to the Supreme Court; you cannot be appointed to an Appellate bench.” Wood continues to describe why this is true. “Because, your views on sexuality, on the beginning of life, on the end of life, are absolutely unacceptable…” What is most important, as Wood shares, is how we arrived at this reality. “I think, as Evangelicals, we’ve been sound asleep, and not sufficiently aware, and our people are not sufficiently aware that there is a discrimination that is taking place…”
In all that was discussed in this important conversation, the most important is love. We need to return to our first love, Jesus Christ. There are many pastors and leaders in the Church that are trying to be faithful to the call that God has placed on their lives, while also trying to address the many events happening around our nation. Simply put, they are burned out. What we must all be doing, above all other things, is taking time each day with the Lord, abiding with Him. Be stirred in your awareness of what is taking place throughout America, but also how to respond, and so much more. Also shared in this segment: James Robinson, morality, logic, truth, righteousness, and reality. Greg and Steve shared in this segment.
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