WHAT IS REALLY BEHIND THE POLARIZATION IN AMERICA TODAY.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”-– 2 Corinthians 4:18

When I read of clergy joining the cacophony of voices calling for the impeachment of President Trump my heart is grieved, and genuinely concerned about the level of spiritual blindness I see in the American Church. Christians, and especially Christian leaders, must see what is really going on in the political world from a 30,000 foot level in order to understand the big picture, and the unseen forces that move what is seen. This is essential in order to pray with specificity to win the spiritual battles to preserve the freedoms we enjoy to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

At the risk of sounding hyper-spiritual or overly simplistic let me posit that the polarization we see in this nation between the so called “right” and “left” is nothing other than the timeless warfare between God and Satan.

America was founded by men and women who put their faith in God, and who recognized as Abraham Lincoln later said that there was a

“sublime truth announced by the Holy Scriptures and proven through all of history that those nations only are blessed whose god is The Lord”i

Today, we see on the one hand, President Trump leading the way to restore national public acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty over our land evidenced by his public proclamations and the advancement of policies consistent with a Biblical world view. On the other hand we see his adversaries, mostly progressive Democrats advancing policies rooted in a Secular Humanist ideology looking to displace our founding principles with godless humanism authored by Satan, himself.

Those on the right seek to advance an agenda consistent with the view of our founders, while those on the left seek to advance a “progressive” agenda that would discard founding principles, reject a Biblical standard of morality, and impose their own standard of right and wrong. This rebellion against our Judeo-Christian tradition is driven by God’s own adversary, Satan.

These two forces—God and Satan, or good and evil—are the two poles driving the social and political polarization we see in the nation today.

During the Civil War when our nation was almost destroyed by polarization our saving grace was the fact that both sides were restrained by their allegiance to God’s will according to their imperfect understanding. In the polarization we see today there is no such saving grace. Though the right is still restrained by what they believe is God’s will and His standard of justice and mercy, the left has no such restraining concept; they publicly reject God. This is where, I believe, lies the most serious peril and threat to civil peace. With the left the ends justifies the means, as illustrated by the name of one of their groups, “BANM” which stands for “By Any Means Necessary.” This is also why violence and vulgarity is so commonplace in that movement. Whether the participants realize it or not (most do not since Satan is a deceiver who works in the dark) it is Satan, himself who is pulling their strings.

The only solution to our present day national polarization and civil unrest is national repentance and a return to our national creed of being “One Nation Under God.” It would be perfectly reasonable to debate what that might mean, but that must nevertheless be the one unifying standard that we must all seek to pursue.

Until then, Christians, and in particular those who see themselves as leaders, must understand the unseen spiritual forces that are driving what we see in the news every day, and rather than reacting to the manifested effects we must attack upstream at the root cause in our prayer life and civic engagement until we see unity restored.
Remember, it was Abraham Lincoln who reminded us of the Biblical truth that a house divided cannot stand. In the same way unity was eventually restored after the Civil War, unity can once again be restored in this new civil war if believers will see the unseen forces animating the left and engage in spiritual warfare praying like it all depends on God, and working like it all depends on us until we see a genuine revival and reformation that will make us, once again, “One Nation Under God.”

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”— 2 Corinthians 4:18

i Abraham Lincoln -Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, March