Godzilla and King Kong

A clashing of Titans is upon us and we Christians are struggling with what to do with all the potential outcomes? It is not even November yet, but the shadow is already darkening the doors of American. Should it be Godzilla to destroy us or would it be better to allow King Kong to have his way? Christians are pulling out their hair over this. Who should we support since our system invites us a voice to give support?

Well, I do not entirely know. I have read Wayne Grudem’s moral charge and while I like some of his points, I don’t think the whole guilting people into giving is a very helpful approach for any kind of fund-raising. To equate one candidate as the moral choice is to say that God is actually on one side or the other, and therefore, what’s your problem? But what did the Angel of the Lord say to Joshua when he asked a similar question?

13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No, but I am the commander of the Army of the Lord, Now I have come.” (Josh 5)

For Joshua, this was obviously about political involvement but the Angel reminded him that he was supposed to be fighting on God’s side. Now I believe God always says and is still saying to us “I do have a side, are you on it?”

Ask yourself in thinking about a candidate, would Jesus have said that Herod was the moral choice for Jerusalem just because he had Jewish politics in mind over Roman ones?

Still, I am not sure of the solution. Some are trying to weigh the potential outcomes and vote accordingly which makes more sense. But then as some others have pointed out we do not know what only God knows at this point. Still, others seem more interested in securing their own integrity than casting a vote as if refusing to help somehow buys them virtue?  Douglas Wilson has helpfully reminded us that perhaps what we have here is simply America sitting under the hand of judgment from God.

Yeah.

I am reminded about the choice David had to make. He was given a similar decision concerning his own judgment after his sin when creating a census, or rather weighing how he trusted in his own military strength than the Lord’s.

“Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” 2 Sam 24

The three options were 3 years of famine, 3 years of running from his enemies, or 3 years of pestilence. He said he would rather fall into the hands of God than of men. So God sent 3 years of pestilence. Sickness ran wild for three years. He trusted that God might have mercy because he knew how godless men could be. God is the one who is merciful after-all. I believe that repentance is the solution but we are to the choosing-point here.

It is like that game we play where we come up with two different disgusting choices to see what someone will pick even though both are terrible. So the question becomes which judgment do you choose? Godzilla or King Kong. Not choosing is simply not playing, and as others have pointed out, not choosing is simply giving way to the opposition. In this case remember the opposition is who it always was, those views that are repugnant to you despite who holds them, those policies that you believe violate God’s given truth despite who touts them. Those ideas that seem to fly in the face of God despite what new face is standing behind them. But…both…seem…bad.

Like David, I want to fall into the unknown category that provides for the mercy of God. But how do we fall into God’s arms when choosing a calamity? Do we continue down the immoral vortex with a bedrock in relativism where left is right and right is wrong? Or do we take a blind leap off a cliff hoping for the best? The truth is that usually, we do not really know that much about any candidate that is placed before us. Not usually a whole lot apart from their platform is known, the character is usually hidden, they are PC after-all. But enough bandages have already been ripped away that I think we can see clearly what we are looking at. This time we know a bit more. We know that one is corrupt and seems to have already paid for her turn to reign and one is pretty much unpredictable and unfit. The way I see it is we can willfully choose to have a government of complete corruption, the kind that will have a movie made about it when the respective parties have passed on, or one that we simply cannot wrap our brains around and that causes us more than an unsettling feeling in our stomachs every-time we move. A known corruption or an unknown on-going anxiety?

But who to choose? Proverbs 25:19 reminds us:

Trusting in a treacherous man/woman in time of trouble
    is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.

I wish this was easier but this is judgment, so it is going to sting either way.

Either way, this seems to me to represent an indictment on the whole institution that America has created. These people represent who America has become. The cronyism of government, the self-absorption, the blatant immorality, the oligarchy that was at one time a democracy. I see this as at least a condemnation that things have to be done differently from now on. I view Trump as more of a vote of no confidence in the system, and Hillary as a decision to lay in the bed we have made. Perhaps you don’t see it that way, but a fire has a way of the burning the hands of everyone who touches it. We’ll need to come to terms with the years that follow whatever we choose. I don’t think my job is to call us to a more moral choice as I believe both are judgments. So like David, we need to choose how it will fall, in thinking about that read what Peter writes:

1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And

“If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.   (1 Peter 4)

So while we consider the kind of judgment we fancy, let us not forget the purpose of judgment is always a call to repentance. Either God is still on the throne and his kingdom will not be shaken or this is the end. Perhaps this will simply cause all those false walls and distasteful window dressings that we have applied to God’s kingdom to fall off and be burnt in the process.

But whatever we do, if we are to suffer, let us suffer as Christians, let us not be ashamed, but let us glorify God’s name. Whatever happens, great is the Lord!

thanks