As the dust settles, let me offer here a few more reflections on the re-election of Obama. Plenty of commentary will be forthcoming in the days ahead from all sorts of quarters and all sorts of folks. We will be inundated with talk for quite some time. I too will likely have more thoughts in the next few days as well. But for now, a few more reflections:
Politically
We will now have an even more radically leftist president working overtime to implement his socialist agenda. He knows that he can now do everything he could not try in his first term. So what if he alienates people now? He is not facing re-election anymore, so he can do whatever he likes. And it will not be pretty.
There are of course major winners and losers here because of this election outcome. Let me offer a brief list of some of them:
Winners:
The welfare state
The entitlement mentality
Big government
Socialism
Radical leftism
Secular Humanism
Planned Parenthood
The radical homosexual agenda
Radical Islam
The Muslim Brotherhood
Tyrants around the globe
The mainstream media
Golf courses
Losers:
Christianity
Religious freedom
Israel
The US military
Those seeking freedom around the world
Freedom of speech
Freedom of conscience
The rights of the unborn
Marriage
Family
Prosperity
Democracy
Responsibility
Hard Work
The US Constitution
The rule of law
Common sense
As always there will also be a lot of soul-searching and re-thinking on the part of the losers. The worry is – as is already happening – that some foolish Republican leaders will think that the Party needs to get more lefty, not less. One has already incredibly claimed that perhaps the Republicans should start fully embracing things like homosexual marriage.
Talk about destroying both America and a political party. Now is certainly not the time for the conservatives to wimp out and abandon their core values and principles. Indeed, it could be argued that the Republicans have had two defeats in a row now (2008, 2012), because of running with moderates instead of proper conservatives.
This is the time that we need more Reagans, not less. True conservatives like Reagan won by landslides. Becoming more like the Democrats is certainly not going to help anyone here. So hopefully sanity will prevail in the months ahead, and the Republicans will hold a steady course, and not listen to these poisonous RINOs.
And they will need to, as they still hold the House of Representatives, perhaps with even a greater majority. They are now the only ones left to stop the horrific agenda of Obama from going full-steam ahead. They need to regroup, recommit, and dig in for the long haul.
Spiritually
At the end of the day this is even more important than the political concerns we all have. And the spiritual truths we need to hear are of course the old truths. They are the same biblical truths we must cling to in all times of darkness and despair. They are the things we must never let go of in difficult times. These include the following:
-God is still on the throne and he is still working out his purposes. Thus we must keep trusting, keep praying, and keep working for what is right, knowing that at the end of the day we win. We may lose some battles along the way, but we win the war. God is sovereign, and he will not allow evil to ultimately triumph.
-There are two things we cannot succumb to now: anger and bitterness; and defeatism and hopelessness. We must persevere and keep fighting. We cannot allow ourselves to be consumed with rage or paralysed with hopelessness. All that this election result means is that we must pray more than ever, work more than ever, and trust more than ever.
Indeed, if you have not yet already done so, get down on your face before almighty God and cry out to him. Let him be your comfort now, and let him remind you why we must never give up. Let him console you, encourage you, and refresh you.
-We must remind ourselves that our ultimate hope must always be in God, and never in politics, or government, or legislation. Sure, all these things are very important indeed, and we should all strive to see Godly influence in all these areas, but when push comes to shove, it is the living God, not politics, that will save us.
-We do not always have all the answers. Millions of God’s people right now are crying out, “Why O Lord?” We don’t know all the reasons why, and it is often hard to see why God allows things to proceed as they do. But this is where faith and trust come in. We must cling as strongly to our Lord as ever, and not let this discourage us or cause us to waver in faith, hope and trust.
-We need to keep the eternal perspective. Four more years looks to be a really long time. And it is – think of all the damage that can and will be done. Think of all the dead babies, the war on marriage and family, the powder keg that the Middle East will further become, and so on. Think of the lefty Supreme Court judges who will be appointed.
But God’s calendar is much bigger than ours. I often wondered, during the Cold War, why God allowed so many people to suffer so horrifically under Soviet communism. For decade after decade millions of people were killed or sent to the Gulag, etc. Yet that too came to an end.
After some 72 years the wall came down, and the evil monolithic tyranny of godless communism came to an end. The Obama regime will also one day come to an end. Sure, he will have inflicted a huge amount of damage along the way, but we will not be there forever.
And I believe it is fully justified to pray that God will either improve or remove our leaders. We should be praying this for Obama and other leaders who are running roughshod over all that made America great. Its Christian heritage is being trampled on, and they will have to give an account for allowing this to happen.
-I have long been saying that in the West things will more than likely have to get worse before they get better. We are certainly seeing this happen right now in the US. My soul groans when I think of how much more evil and destruction will take place under this man.
Yet God allows this persecution and hardship to get the church’s attention. The church has been asleep, and it has been characterised by compromise, carnality and consumerism. It is a sin-soaked church which must repent, seek God’s face, and turn from its wicked ways. That is the only way America will recover.
But before America can recover, the people of God must recover. The best thing Christians in America (and around the world) can do right now is to get on their knees before a holy and righteous God and seek his forgiveness. We need a mighty wind of repentance to sweep through the church right now.
Until we get right with God, things will only get worse in America. And I greatly fear for how much worse it will have to get before American Christians finally wake up and turn 180 degrees from their sin and sloth. But until then, it will sadly be business as usual for the church.
It just does not really want God badly enough. It is too comfortable, too contented, and too compromised. That is why it is not seeking God. It really does not want God. Until something changes, things can only get even worse, as hard as that is to imagine.
Leonard Ravenhill nicely sums up the whole situation here, albeit in a slightly different context: “I offer it as my considered judgment that the main reason why we do not have heaven-born, Spirit-operated revival in our day is that we are content to live without it.”
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