There are those who tell us that the first amendment prohibits the presence of the Christian faith in politics (as a side note, I find that Islam, Wicca, the Baha’i Faith, militant atheism, evangelistic homosexuality, and other faiths don’t seem to fall under this prohibition, nor does the sort of viciously anti-American “Christianity” that Barack Obama exemplifies).  Before I proceed, let me just quote the actual text of the first amendment to the Constitution; I shan’t comment on it here, but will leave the reader to search in vain for the prohibition of which I speak:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Okay, you’ve looked at the amendment, and we can move on.  With the mythical prohibition clearly non-existent, the question of whether Christians can be politically active pretty much vanishes; if there’s no constitutional prohibition, the only possible restraint would be within our own faith.

And while Christianity isn’t about political action, but about whether and how we relate to God, there certainly is nothing in the Bible which prohibits us from acting within our citizenship and our constitutional rights.  The apostle Paul presents us with an example of a Christian doing just that.

On two separate occasions Paul used his Roman citizenship to protect himself from unjust punishment.  In the 16^th chapter of Acts he demanded an official release from prison, and an apology, because the local authorities had violated his rights as a Roman citizen.  And in the 22^nd chapter of the same book, when a soldier was preparing to scourge him without trial, Paul claimed the protection of his Roman citizenship against punishment without due process of law.  Paul clearly saw no conflict between his legal, civil rights, and his position as a follower of the Lord Christ.

Indeed, in the 13^th chapter of Romans Paul pointed out that government exists to protect the weak and punish criminals, and that no government can exist without the direct will of God. (vv. 1-7)  This being the case, then, Christians have a right to expect the protection of their government, and to seek it if that protection is not immediately forthcoming.  And since government is a divine institution (though individual governments – for instance, the Muslim government of Sudan which has for years been engaged in persecution of Christians – may not meet with God’s approval), there can be no conflict between the faith of a Christian, and service in government office.

Certainly those who founded this country saw no such conflict.  George Washington was very devout in his faith.  Many others among the founding fathers expressed, at the very least, a confirmed belief that God exists, though not all were orthodox in their beliefs.  Further on, Abraham Lincoln was a committed Christian, and wasn’t so much concerned as to whether God was on his side or that of Jefferson Davis, as he was concerned whether he was on God’s side.  Even Franklin D. Roosevelt, who created today’s atmosphere of government-as-de-facto-god, appealed to the God of heaven in more than one of his speeches, and he explicitly and publicly called for divine aid in the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

As Christians, then, we have just as much right to be politically active, and to hold public office – up to and including the presidency – as anyone else.  We don’t have to shut our mouths and sit on the sidelines while those who do not believe as we do, and whose beliefs may in fact be antithetical to ours, decide what laws we shall live under.  We have an equal right to participate in the making of legislation on the city, county, state, and federal levels.  The Constitution, reason, and our own faith grant us the right to sit in Congress oir the Oval Office, and to write, vote on, and sign or veto bills in accordance with our faith, without fear or shame.

I am not promoting something like the Moral Majority.  I’m not talking about organized efforts to impose the church on the government.  Rather I’m talking about American citizens being able to fully participate in government, whether they’re atheists, Muslims, Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Hindus…or Christians.  We have as much right to hold office, and to act in office according to our beliefs, as anyone else does.  And we ought to do so – without fuss, without spewing fire and brimstone all over the place, but equally without allowing the enemies of the faith to deny us what is our reasonable, religious, and constitutional right.

John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  He ought to know – he was there at the founding of the United States, and was one of those who, in signing the Declaration of Independence, literally put their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the line.  When John Adams says that the Constitution came into existence to govern moral and Christian people (that was the standard meaning of “religious” at that time and place), and can’t govern those who are immoral and irreligious, we have to take him seriously.

This fact causes me to believe that there is a very real and close correlation between the religious state of this country, and its political condition.  And I think history will show that as Christianity has waned among the people in general, liberalism has grown in its influence and power.

Liberalism, as we know it today, did not spring suddenly into existence in 1960 with the election of John F. Kennedy.  Indeed, it didn’t appear out of nowhere when Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933 (as a purely historical side note, 1933 was also the year that Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany).  Roosevelt’s ideas came out of what had preceded him.  Woodrow Wilson’s ideas were recognizable as what we would call liberalism, and it may be that even earlier presidents had at least some liberal notions in their heads.

And it’s been, roughly, since the turn of the 20^th century that Christianity has become less and less influential in American life.  The beginnings of the decline go even further back, of course, to the New England intellectuals who began turning their churches into pallid social clubs.  But especially since 1900, Christianity has become less and less public, less and less important, less and less able to gain the attention and reverence of public officials.  And today, though a majority of Americans call themselves Christians, genuine Biblical Christianity is a minority religion – and rampant, flaming, arrogant liberalism holds the federal government in an iron grip.  The correlation may be coincidence – and it may also be a coincidence that a man who jumps off the Empire State Building also goes splat on the sidewalk below.

I have to admit that the close correspondence between Christianity’s health, and the health of our government, had never before struck me.  I have, of course, known for years – for decades – that this country’s foundation rests on Christian principles, and that most of the founding fathers were devout Christians (even those who weren’t, firmly believed in God, and in the benefits of a godly life).  But the close connection between the Christian faith, and the liberties that the Constitution protects, had escaped me.

But I find the connection hard to escape, now that I see it; indeed, I find it impossible to deny.  If John Adams knew anything at all about what he was saying – and it is puerile to think he did not – then there is, and must be, a direct correlation between the spiritual health of the United States, and the political health of the nation.  And our spiritual condition is not good.

More and more people in this country think the Bible is a collection of myths and parables.  They think that perhaps it contains some interesting stories and some moral truths, but the doctrines and history are, in their view, no more valid than the geographical descriptions of Alice In Wonderland.

More and more Americans don’t have any idea what the Bible says about God, and certainly don’t believe in the Biblical God.  Such expressions as “the man upstairs” reflect a vast ignorance of who and what God is, and they are far more common than the reverential and informed statements that we ought to utter.  Americans have no notion whatsoever that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and sovereign over His creation, nor do they grasp His graciousness, His kindness, His eternity, His love, His justice, or His holiness.  And many flatly don’t believe in God at all; there was a time when to believe in no God whatsoever would have been scandalous, but today it’s almost a badge of honor.

More and more people find the church irrelevant.  They know nothing about the church, they know even less about what the Bible has to say on the subject, and if they attend church services at all it’s only at Christmas or Easter.

More and more people, even in the church, have abandoned Biblical morality.  The divorce rate among church members isn’t significantly different than among non-members.  Members of churches get pregnant outside of marriage, and get others pregnant, with distressing frequency.  Pastors gather money to themselves, or consort with women not their wives (or with other men!), more and more frequently.

More and more congregations and denominations have abandoned any meaningful commitment to the Bible.  There are “ministers” who “preach” week after week without more than a passing reference to the Bible, and without once deriving their precepts from the Bible’s doctrines.  And even among those who espouse the Bible as the “inspiredinerrantinfallibleWordaGod” (I am not making that up – I’ve heard more than one preacher and denominational official say it in exactly that offhand, unthinking, run together way) there is little practice of the Bible; those who utter that shibboleth very often treat others in a way that Christ would unequivocally condemn – and indeed has already condemned, in the pages of the Bible the oppressors claim to believe.

To be a Christian in the United States today – that is, to be a Biblical Christian – is to be in the minority.  There are millions who believe that church membership, receipt of or participation in ordinances, performing good works, or just saying “I’m a Christian,” are what make you or prove you a Christian.  There are vanishingly few who understand that the only people who are Christians are those who’ve repented of their sin, and cast themselves completely, without reservation, at the feet of Jesus, trusting Him alone to save them.  The Biblical teaching that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, is a minority view in today’s United States.

And yet the Constitution is suited only for a Christian people, and cannot adequately govern any other.

Is it any wonder that we have in our government, at all levels, people who have no more moral compass than Jeffrey Dahmer?  Is it any wonder that our city councilmen, our state legislators, our mayors and governors, our Senators and Representatives, and our presidents, are willing to abandon any principle, to tell any lie, to oppress anyone, in order to gain and to retain power?  Is it any wonder that government cares nothing for our property rights, our right to life, our right to keep a substantial fraction of what we’ve earned through our labor?  Is it any wonder that the government sponsors and protects the wholesale slaughter of over a million innocent Americans a year, for no better reason that they haven’t yet been born and are an inconvenience to the immoral men and women who conceived them?  We have, as a nation, abandoned Christianity, and in consequence our government has ceased to be our servant, and has become a vampire, feeding on us with no thought for what will happen when there’s nothing left to feed upon.

What we need, therefore, is revival.  I don’t mean what passes for revival among Christians today.  Holding a meeting for a week (or just over the weekend, in some churches), with a visiting preacher, is not revival.  It may perhaps lead to revival, but it is not itself revival.  We don’t need preachers and sermons and meetings, though these are good things and I support them.  What we need is revival, a fresh work of the Holy Spirit all across the United States.

Revival is what this country experienced during the First and Second Great Awakenings.  Revival is what God brought to England through the preaching of George Whitefield and John Wesley.  Revival is what swept through the returning exiles when Ezra and Nehemiah ministered in the ruins of Jerusalem.  Revival is what fell upon the fledgling church on the day of Pentecost, and swept out from Jerusalem like a hurricane, turning the world upside down.  Revival is what happens when God comes down, and sweeps wholesale across the land.

When there is revival, those who’ve never given a thought to God, or who have been His active enemies, fall at the feet of Christ begging His forgiveness.  When there is revival, Christians who’ve been sitting on the premises for years get up, stand on the promises, and go out from their church buildings to proclaim the Gospel.  When there is genuine revival, there is no need to arrest prostitutes, for they cease to be prostitutes.  When there is genuine revival, temperance movements find themselves out of work – the drunks have ceased to be drunken.  When there is revival, those who stole steal no more, those who lied become devoted to the truth, those who defrauded their constituents become dedicated servants of the electorate, those who used sharp practice in their business dealings become paragons of honesty.

When there is revival, those who run for office will be Christians.  Those who sit on the bench will walk with God.  Those who make the laws will do so with Christ’s precepts in mind.  Those who vote will be temples of the Holy Spirit.  And there will be no need – nor anyone trying to convince us there is a need – for a government which controls every aspect of our lives.  We will be free, as only those who are in Christ can be free, and will live responsibly without anyone looking over our shoulder.  We will give to those in need voluntarily, not letting our right hand know what our left hand is doing.  We will care for widows and orphans, we will help those who cannot work, we will assist those who can to find jobs.

Our Constitution can only operate properly if the citizens of the United States are also citizens of the heavenly kingdom.  As long as the majority of Americans are not Christians, constitutional government will limp along under a handicap, for the only government which can effectively rule the wicked is a tyranny.  But when each person hears the word behind him, telling him the way to go, whether to turn to the right or the left (see Is. 30:21), there will be no need of secret police to enforce government decrees, there will be no need for multiplied volumes of government regulations, there will be no need for a massive federal code of laws, for each person will have within him the law, and he will live as he ought to because the Spirit dwells within him.

As conservatives and as Christians, therefore, let us pray earnestly for revival.  We ought not, of course, abandon our efforts to achieve good through political means; even when revival comes, it will still be necessary to vote, to elect good men to office, to run ourselves if that is the will of God and the people.  But all our efforts will be at most temporary fixes, Band-Aids on the body politic, if there is no revival.  We cannot do what only God can do – we cannot turn this country around by ourselves.  We cannot force people to be godly, we can’t make them by pure human effort and persuasion into Christians.  Only God can transform the soul and the life.  We must pray for revival, for without it our Constitution is doomed.