So what happens in November of this year? Assuming McCain wins, will Democratic
Christians fall into line and recognize the finger of God in the win. Republican believers are quick to denounce
Bill Clinton as somewhere near the anti-christ and the logic that applies to
Bush or McCain is somehow lost on Bill.
Will Republicans fall into line behind an O’bama Presidency? It makes for an interesting
conversation. But the real question
quickly becomes – how “in charge” is God of this world?
When looking around it is easy to spot the evil, and rare to
spot the good. Evil seems to outweigh
good by hefty margins; most non-believers take this as evidence that no God
exists at all. Christians are willing to
accept that God allows the choice of man to largely affect his own world, but
not with absolute consequences lest we all kill ourselves. But it does beg the question … is there a
King, Dictator, or President in charge of a country without the tacit
permission of God? What do you do with
Hitler, Saddam, or G.W. at that point?
Maybe we only apply this rule to Christian nations? But Italy is devoutly Catholic Christian and
has suffered fascist dictators like Mussolini.
It is hard to accept any evil leader is tolerated by God. How could God tolerate Hitler, or Saddam?
Bring it down a notch or two into a situation that affects
you even more directly. Have you ever
worked for what appears to be an ‘evil’ boss?
Ever had someone who had control over your career or future who did not
appreciate your contributions and actively worked to make your life more
miserable? I think we all have. So was that person also ‘blessed’ to be in
charge by God? Careful kiddies, that
mean-old-boss may well be you, from the perspective of those who have worked
for you.
A long while ago there was a young man, handsome, good
looking, charismatic. He had good ideas,
liberal philosophies, and was quite interested in gaining knowledge. But like most of us, he was not perfect. He was ambitious, ruthless, and the best
military commander to have ever lived.
How do I make that claim? Scripture
calls him out. He was the first King to
ever rule the entire ‘known’ world. His
name was Nebuchadnezzar. He was NOT a
Jew. He was NOT a believer in the one
true God. He was NOT a Muslim. He was a Chaldean, a Babylonian. His armies swept west to the Mediterranean,
south to Egypt and Ethiopia, north to Turkey, and east to India. He built a golden city that could not be
conquered. He had no respect for any
single God until a simple man named Daniel came along.
Then something really weird by today’s Christian standards
occurred. This pagan, heathen, arrogant,
proud dictator king, was given a vision of the upcoming history of the
world. Think about it folks, the Jewish
people were his captives. He killed them
by the barrel load while invading their “blessed” country. He killed God’s chosen people, sparing only
the young healthy wise-men types (who he largely turned into eunuchs). This was the Hitler of his day. Many of God’s servants died on the end of
Babylonian spears and swords. This was
the guy who God chose to reveal the next 4000 years of political forecast
to. NOT to the Jewish prophet who served
God daily and prayed to Him 3 times a day out of an open window; no to the
pagan King, responsible for the downfall of His nation.
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream showed his own empire as the golden
head of a statue, followed by the Medo Persian silver arms, the Greek Brass
thighs, the Roman iron legs, and the current state of affairs with mixed iron
and clay – some countries weak, some very strong – until Christ Himself returns
from heaven as a stone that crumbles the entire statue and replaces it with His
own kingdom.
So how does this pagan king react to learning the meaning of
his dream? Like any good dictator he
sends the messenger Daniel away on ‘important’ business and summons every other
kingdom leader to Babylon to worship an 80 foot high SOLID gold statue of
himself. Essentially Nebuchadnezzar was
sending God a message that he alone would be king forever. He figured with Daniel away, he could easily
get the buy-in from the other leaders of his kingdom, but 3 Jewish servants
stood alone on the plain and refused to bow despite the ever present
furnace. On bursting the pride of this
king, and reclaiming them from the fire, Nebuchadnezzar recognizes “the
likeness of the Son of God” walking in the flames with the 3 other
Hebrews. He saw Christ. And he knew who He was.
Did God put Nebuchadnezzar in charge? Or perhaps like your boss, our President, and
Hitler – God allowed the affairs of men to work themselves out without much
interference and then He approached each of these men to work His will through
them, IF they would allow it. Some would
not. Some there may yet be hope
for. Nebuchadnezzar did. But this experience did not make him
perfect. His world wide decree to serve
the God of the Hebrews was accompanied not with a loving reason to do so, but
with a threat to kill any dissenters.
Despite all he had been through he was still a dictator king. But again, even though the edict he sent out
was not the ideals God would have wanted, it did cause the entire ‘known’ world
to pay attention to the religion of the one true God.
The book of Daniel in the Old Testament is a love story of
how God reclaims the loyalty of a completely pagan king. It is a love story of a God who wished to
open the doors of prophesies to his people both then and now as to what the
world would experience before redemption was permanent here. The people described in the book of Daniel
are NOT perfect. They screw up, just
like us. They react badly. They misuse power. They commit grievous sin. And yet they run the world, interpret the
prophesy, and bring the attention of all mankind to a true God.
The question of whether G.W. Bush was called by God to be
President, is not nearly as important as the question of how he reacts when God
tries to work through him. I am a devout
democrat who believes we have lost more of our freedoms, values, and wealth
during this presidency than in the entire history of our country. And I blame this administration for all of
it. But who am I to judge? Despite it all, I also know that this same
man sent huge amounts of Aids medicine to Africa. Even if he did nothing else right, millions
will live because of this fact. Is any
one of their lives something to begrudge?
Saving one would make G.W. a hero to me, saving millions defines him
like everyone else in humanity a mix of excellence and decadence, a mix of
infinite potential and unlimited destruction.
He is neither our Messiah nor our Satan.
G.W. is merely a man, a leader. And someone who is personally responsible for
saving the lives of millions in Africa no matter what else he may be
responsible for. Those lives are
important. He is therefore a hero of the
highest regard. Just like me, he is
flawed, but unlike me, he has saved countless lives – on that alone he deserves
the designation of hero. Like his father
before him and my favorite President Bill Clinton who worked tirelessly to
relieve suffering from the tsunami – those who serve others are heroes to
me. I aspire to do the same.
It is not the power that defines the man, but how he uses
it. It is not the office that man
attains that is the mark of his character, it is how his character is reflected
in the decisions and actions of his office that matter. Every man is a child of our God, a brother to
each of us. When we realize this, it
makes it hard to fight wars, or torture others.
But it also should impact us more in our day-to-day conversations about
others, our interactions with others.
Perhaps we should judge less, ridicule less, and criticize less. Perhaps despite everything I believe we have
suffered as a nation, we should choose to focus on supporting those ideas that
save lives, heal wounds, and bring us ALL collectively closer to our Creator
God. After all we are family. All of us.
By choice if not by blood.
I hope that in my career, in my position of responsibility,
great or small, whatever it happens to be – that I allow God to work through me
His will. I hope I allow Him to create
in me a servant’s heart, and remove my heart of stone. I hope when my colleagues and my subordinates
look at me they see Bill Clinton or George Bush – not Hitler or Saddam. This is my hope, and I put my trust in my God
to make it so within me …
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