01/27/2011
To a packed out crowd of over 500 Montanans who had assembled in minus zero weather to hear me speak, I made the statement, "Not all Christians are our friends, and not all non-Christians are our enemies." Indeed, being able to identify our friends is more than half the battle.
When I spoke of identifying friends or enemies, I was talking about one’s overall positive or negative contribution to the principles of liberty. I will say it again, not all Christians are our friends, and not all non-Christians are our enemies. This is difficult for many Christians to wrap their brains around, I know.
I will go one step further: in America today, claiming a new birth Christian experience means absolutely nothing when it comes to defending liberty principles. After traveling more than 60,000 miles over the past two years to virtually every crack and corner of this vast country, my studied observation is that the ratio of Christians to non-Christians who are true freedom fighters is probably no better than 50%. I will further say that often times Christians are actually greater enemies to freedom than are non-Christians. I never thought I would hear myself say that, but, today, I really believe it.
I am so thankful I was brought to Christ at a young age by sincere, genuine Christian parents, because if I was looking at the attitudes and actions of many professing Christians today, I would be totally repulsed by both Christians and churches. In many ways, I am anyway! And I totally understand why many unbelievers never want to darken the door of a church. I especially understand it on behalf of those freedom-minded unbelievers who properly recognize the Church as a willing accomplice of the emerging Orwellian society that the elites in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere are quickly creating.
Can one imagine virtually any prominent Christian spokesman from the so-called "Religious Right" in America today saying, "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom–go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." Yet, in the mid-1700s, there was no more outspoken Christian than the author of those words: Samuel Adams.
Imagine any modern-day Christian leader saying, "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." Who said that? Our first President, George Washington, who at his first inauguration put the Bible to his lips, kissed it and said, "So help me God."
Yet, many, if not most, of today’s Christian leaders and pastors view government, not as a "dangerous servant" and "fearful master," but as much a master as God Himself, and themselves as its humble servant. In fact, when many Christians are forced to choose between submission to government and submission to God, they will choose government every time. Believe me, I've tasted this bitter pill up close and personal!
Or, imagine a prominent Christian leader speaking these words today: "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." Of course, the famous Virginian, Patrick Henry, spoke those words. And anyone who has studied the life of Henry knows there was not a finer Christian gentleman who ever graced American soil than he. And remember, these words were not spoken against a foreign government, but against the government to which he was subject.
In fact, if one wants to incur the ire and derision of the average Christian pastor today, just start quoting anything from America’s Founding Fathers.
All over America, FEMA representatives are instructing willing pastors to assist the federal government by encouraging their congregants to surrender their firearms, should the President declare a "national emergency." All over America, pastors and churches are eagerly accepting tax-generated "faith based initiative" monies. All over America, pastors (and church boards) are scared silly to do anything that might jeopardize their church’s IRS tax-exempt status. All over America, pastors are misusing and abusing Romans 13 to justify turning free men and women into government slaves.
I am reminded of the trenchant words of Martin Luther, who said, "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. And to be steady on all the battlefields besides is merely flight and disgrace, if he flinches at that point."
Luther was right! When it comes to defending the great (not little) principles of freedom and liberty against which Satan and his minions are currently attacking, it seems that most Christians and pastors and filled with "flight" and "disgrace."
For example, why is it left to people such as Jesse Ventura to fight these Nazi-like, sexually invasive, humiliating harassments by TSA agents at America’s airports? Where is Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Joel Osteen, or Rick Warren?
See Ventura’s story here.
Furthermore, where were America’s pastors and Christians when George W. Bush was creating this gargantuan surveillance society that is now snooping and spying on virtually everything we do, say, earn, or purchase? Where were they when George H.W. Bush’s attack dogs killed Vicki Weaver and her son, Sammy, outside Ruby Ridge, Idaho? Where were they when Bill Clinton’s and Janet Reno’s Stormtroopers were murdering over 80 American citizens (most of whom were old men, women, and children) outside Waco, Texas? They "flinched!" And they continue to "flinch!"
It is going to be very interesting to watch how this freedom fight evolves. I suspect that when push comes to shove and the lines of demarcation are finally drawn, it will shock us who winds up on what side. I stand by my statement: not all Christians are our friends, and not all non-Christians are our enemies.
Dr. Chuck Baldwin recently left the Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida to move to Montana. He hosts a weekly radio show. His website is here.