When Joshua was leading Israel across the Jordon River to possess their Promised Land, an angel appeared to him. Joshua asked the angel if he were for them (Israel) or for their enemies, and he replied, “Neither, but I have come as the captain of the hosts of the Lord” (see Joshua 5:14). This may seem confusing since Israel was God’s people, and they were being led by God to possess the land He had promised them. Why would His captain not be on their side? Because the Lord is not coming to take sides—He’s coming to take over.
The Lord is not a Republican, Democrat, liberal, or conservative. He loves them all. People can embrace right things with wrong motives and the wrong thing for the right reasons. Both major political parties and probably all the minor ones in America have noble causes. When I was young, I was a liberal and member of the Democratic Party, and I think I had good motives for this. When I could no longer support the Democratic Party because of their platform on abortion and other moral issues that I felt were in conflict with biblical morals, and as the antichristian groups were embraced by the Democratic Party, I had to leave. However, I continued to believe in some issues that had drawn me to the Democratic Party in the first place, and these things were sometimes harshly treated by the Republican Party. So what could I do?
I believe foundations are important. Abraham, in seeking the city that God was building, and not just men, was looking for a city with “foundations.” I went back to the foundation of each party and thought that both had very noble purposes in the beginning. Both have been off track from time to time in some things, have at other times come back, and at times kept going off track and into extremes. In short, just as an eagle needs a left wing and a right wing to fly, we need both in America. I therefore try to listen to and respect those on both sides. This does not mean that I will compromise my own position, but I do try to sincerely listen and often learn more when I do, though it still may not cause me to change my position. Understanding means to “stand under” someone else’s place.
When I became a businessman and started to understand finance and management better, I became even more of a conservative because of a concern that much of the liberal agenda, in relation to entitlements, would ultimately lead to a national disaster, which we are beginning to experience now. The intentions for creating these entitlements may have been good, but the application was tragically lacking in sustainability, not to mention common sense and basic math in some cases. Some may have done this to get immediate votes, but pushing off the day of reckoning to the next generation is unconscionable. Now those who are doing this do not think it is unconscionable because they are looking at present needs and think that we will just “grow out of it.” This sounds good, but the fact is that growing out of something has never worked in relation to correcting financial irresponsibility, or living beyond our means, at least not in government.
The truth is that our government, regardless of what party was in power, had become addicted to increasing spending, without doing the equivalent of cutting unnecessary or obsolete programs. A day of reckoning is inevitable, which now seems to be upon us.
It was for this reason that Winston Churchill said, “If you are not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you are not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.” Contrary to what many of my conservative friends may think, I believe many liberals truly do care about the poor and oppressed, which is one of the most basic precepts of the teachings of Jesus. I appreciate this, but I have some conflicts with this that I also think are foundational teachings of Jesus—for example stewardship. We need both.
Jesus called the slave who did not manage the resources entrusted to him a “wicked, lazy slave” (see Matthew 25:26). The one who was called a “good and faithful slave” (see Matthew 25:23) was the one that managed well what was entrusted to him. Good management is so important to the Lord that it has even been estimated between one-third and one-half of the teachings on righteousness in Scripture are about stewardship.
So why can’t we combine compassion with good stewardship? We can, but we need to start by considering that the government should not be doing many of the things it is not doing well—either compassionately or efficiently. A righteous culture will take care of the truly needy among them, but whenever charity is institutionalized, it becomes cold, hard, and demeaning, not to mention inefficient.
I appreciate having a government that at least cares and tries to help the needy, but I think it is only doing what God has called His people to do. The government is trying to do it because we have failed in this basic Christian duty. Of course not all have, but overall, even well-meaning Christian liberals want the government to do our job because we don’t want to do it. So, correcting the problem with entitlements is now in our face and has to be done. As Christians, we must consider that there are real people whom God loves who are soon going to be desperate— everyone who understands basic math knows we are about to hit a wall, and like we have begun to see in Europe, entitlements that have been promised are not going to be available. What is our plan when the breakdown comes?
There are answers—sound, biblical answers that can get us out of the mess we’re in by turning to God and His Word. The government of America was built on sound biblical principles, which is the main reason it has survived so many storms. In the last fifty years, we have drifted from our foundation—the further from this foundation we have gone, the worse shape we get into. We must turn back from the edge of the abyss we have been drifting toward and get back on the Rock.
