IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES

Before I responded to the call to the ministry I was successfully developing a career in mechanical design and engineering. One might think that would be totally inconsistent with a calling based on faith. After all, isn’t faith the opposite of engineering and science?

What I’ve learned over the years is that my background in science and engineering has actually helped to bolster my faith. The more I study Biblical principles and see how science actually supports the Biblical narrative the more assured I am that “Thy Word is Truth.”

In the same way God’s Word is verified by experience, we have learned much practical lessons from our marriage counseling practice. We have learned that there are very few issues that can be categorized as irreconcilable differences. Most of even the most difficult issues can be resolved when both parties are committed to the common goal of seeking God’s will for their lives. There has been one issue, however, that has truly been a real irreconcilable difference. That is when one is a believer and the other is not. Unless the unbeliever chooses to genuinely pursue a spiritual transformation, the two individuals see the world through different lenses and have different frames of reference.  Even the words they use mean different things. They pursue different goals. They are a house divided, and Jesus taught us plainly that a house divided cannot stand, (Mark 3:25).

Throughout our history America has overcome times of trial and difficult challenges that would have destroyed any other country. The fact that we have been under one Constitution for more than 230 years is an anomaly in the history of the world. The reason we have overcome all these challenges that would have destroyed any other nation is because despite our differences, the general population has been committed to the common proposition that we are “One Nation Under God.”

Even during the horrendous Civil War, and the years of instability following, both sides were committed to the God of the Bible and were guided by their imperfect understanding of His will for a nation. There was a common standard of honor, of good and of evil. There was a recognition of restraint and respect for one another created in the image of God that superseded political divisions.

For the first time in the history of our nation this is no longer true. For the first time an entire segment of our population does not recognize the God of the Bible as the ultimate authority. They have replaced God with their own sense of right and wrong. They have, in fact, taken the place of God and their opinions have replaced the truth of the Bible.

For the first time in American history our differences are projections of two different worldviews. The “Left” rejects the idea of a sovereign God to whom we must all be accountable. The “Right” still believes there is an authority higher than man, and a fixed law stated in the Bible.

This cleavage, unfortunately, will prove to be one of those irreconcilable differences that will prevent the restoration of national unity and may very well cause a tear in our nation never before seen, even since our very founding.  We may never again be “One Nation Under God.”

There can be only one of two ends to our American story.

If the “Left” prevails, we will see a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah where people will be driven by their carnal impulses. As the Scriptures warn us, good will be called evil and evil called good. As Lincoln warned us in his address to the Young Men’s Lyceum in 1838, we will die by national suicide.

If the “right” prevails it will only be because the remnant of Spirit-filled Christians have gotten on their   knees to fulfill the formula for revival God gave us in 2 Chronicles 7:14.

That will only happen when Christian leaders take their rightful place at the head of the columns to lead the Church in an appeal to Heaven until we see the manifest glory of God tearing down demonic strongholds, and transforming hearts and renewing minds.

This is not speculation; it is certainly no mystery. We have the historical record of Israel to illustrate what happens to a nation when it rejects the sovereign rule of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We have no excuse. Unlike Israel, we have history to be our teacher. We have no excuse. How foolish, and ignorant it would be to know history and repeat it anyway.

One of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, warned us when he said,

“It is the duty nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proved by all of history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

If we are to avoid the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah it will be up to the Church to rise up out of its complacency to lead the way back to God.

Judgment begins in the house of God, and that begins with the clergy. The clergy must rise up out of their comfort zones and begin leading their people to engage the culture to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It’s no longer acceptable to be the salt in the church and the light in the prayer closet. The Kingdom of God must forcefully advance, rather than passively submitting (Matthew 11:12).

The future of America and the stewardship of liberty is in the hands of the Church. If the Church does not rise up there will be a national divorce. What exactly that will look like, I dare not anticipate, but as has been said, “There’s no such thing as a good divorce.”

We don’t have the power to make things change; God has the power. But God doesn’t have the choice to make the change; we have the choice. It’s a cooperative effort, our choice and God’s power.

Irreconcilable differences? It would take a miracle to overcome. We believe in miracles. With God all things are possible!