Post 13-Trump Wins. Now What?

Photograph of sign from a government building

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John Emailed Dana at 6:59 AM on 11/9/16

Hey Dana

I hoped for it, prayed for it, but I can’t believe it.

Thank you God and thank you Franklin Graham

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Dana Replied at 11:32 AM

     Yea and amen!

     But now is not the time for the church to sit back, take its shoes off, breathe a sigh of relief, and reach for the remote, thinking we've got it made for a few years.  Four years from now if Trump has not produced the results (ie. saving the country) which many people expect, the tables could just as easily turn drastically, and someone as bad if not worse than Ms. Clinton could take the office and rain hell down upon the church....remember George H.W. Bush ("Read my lips....").  

      Now is the time for the church to become militant once again and start being the church worthy of being called the "Bride."  If we do not make inroads into the culture, and we either grow lazier, or just remain content to march in place, thinking that Donald Trump will deliver us from evil, it will come back to bite us in a big way.  It's easier to negotiate from a position of strength than with hat in hand and our head down staring at our shoes, and I'm not talking about being in prayer.  Hillary might have moved off the political scene, but the devil has not.  Don't expect him to take this temporary setback lying down. I know a little bit about Revelation, and the dragon's overthrow doesn't occur until right before the very end.  We'd do well to remember that.

      But for today we give thanks.  But along with the celebratory shouts of "Hallelujah" it would behoove us to repent of our laxness and humbly ask for the strength and courage to confront the culture, and the grace to not turn back if so doing gets us bloody.

      Do you know for what the "D" in "D-Day" stands?  Some say it stands for "Decisive!"  Historians count the Normandy invasion as the sign of the Allied victory, because the back of the Nazis was broken there, and they were always on the retreat from that point until the end of the war. So while the end of the war was marked by D-Day, yet there were more lives lost between D-Day and VE Day than in the entirety of the war before D-Day. 

      Until Jesus returns, victory doesn't mean the end of the struggle, and in fact, we should brace for even more fierce fighting rather than less. 

      It ain't over 'til it's over.   

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John Concludes

            Why Franklin Graham?

            We know that a victory of this unmatched magnitude can only come from God. But why did I thank Franklin Graham? Earlier in the year, he began a 50 state prayer crusade, going from state capital to state capital. Many people told him, “Franklin, it’s too late for America.” His response, “No, it’s not-not when the church begins to pray.” (see Decision Magazine, Nov 2016, pg10, “Message for a Troubled Nation.”) Graham believed God and His word,

 

            2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV) ¹⁴ If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

 

            Several hundred thousand people, presumably mostly Christians, came out and prayed. And God honored His word.  Men and women, boys, and girls, stood on the steps or on the grounds of state capitals from Augusta to Honolulu and from Juneau to Tallahassee, confessed the sins of America, and asked for God’s forgiveness. Some readers may even have gone to Harrisburg, or their state capital, when the prayer tour was there recently.

             God is giving us another chance, but what are we going to do with it? (A question for another post.)

            Some readers will remember the Watergate. I was living in Washington, D. C. during the Watergate hearings and the Washington Post’s cause to bring crooked and corrupt government leaders, including the President to justice.  And justice was done. One of those on whom justice was served was Charles (Chuck) Colson. He went to jail. But God had other plans for him. Colson got saved and became His hands and His feet to the prison world through his ministry Prison Fellowship.

            I was surprised that in the same issue of Decision referenced above was a partial reprint of a Colson article “Church vs Government: The Coming Showdown, When Is It Right For Christians to Disobey the Law?” Colson said there may come a time when civil disobedience may be necessary and the right thing to do. I was astounded when I read that in Decision, that the country had disintegrated that far. That the magazine founded by none other than Billy Graham would advocate civil disobedience, if necessary.

            What will the Church and Christ’s followers do now?  Dana and I postponed our forthcoming post “Relevant, or Business As Usual-The Church Today” to celebrate Trump’s (God’s) political victory. It is historic, and worthy of publication. But now that God is giving us one more chance, will it just be business as usual for the church, or will it become, as Prof. Steve Boyer said in his message, "scandalously better"?