What Now for the Church in America?

Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Jewish exiles in Babylon.

4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;

5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;

6 Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.

7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

If that's true of Babylon, it's more true of whatever version of the United States we end up with after this election.

The future of G-d's people was in the exiles--not in the dwindling remnant back in subjugated and soon-to-be-burned Jerusalem:

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

As I remarked to an old friend from my days at Forman Christian College, Pakistani Christians could come over to the US and preach to us now. We'd need to hear them, but we wouldn't want to. They know a thing or two about being Christians in a hostile culture. And yes--the United States is rife with hostility to Christians. Has been my entire life. The embrace of same-sex (so-called) marriage, transgenderism, and critical race theory are just some of the newer manifestations. Before them we had various forms of debauched culture from (at least) the folly of the world of The Great Gatsby all the way to the sexualized TV of the 90s.

(I'm Baptist. We've been railing against this crap for centuries.)

And yet America is, and may remain for some time, relatively friendly to Christians. Every reader reacting to what I just said can list his own reasons, and to them I will add: church spires all over the place, politicians praying and quoting the Bible in public, no government-sponsored Christian martyrdoms ever, and more. In fact, for a fuller picture, Americans should know that even Pakistan shows kindnesses to Christians. I've seen a few myself, and worked in the presence of some of these kindnesses at FC College.

Which brings us to where we stand now. Our political leaders will no doubt continue to quote out-of-context Bible verses about caring for the poor, but that won't drown out the hostility to Bible-believing Christianity. That problem will continue to grow in a culture shaped by deeper degrees of socialist commitment, welfare stateism, abortion, and transgenderism.

Remember when nuns had to go to court to not pay for someone else's birth control? Don't expect to wait for the next Democratic presidency for more of that sort of thing.

So what do Christians in America do now? I have nothing profound to offer here. We do now what we've always done (if we weren't being faithless). Pray. Follow the Golden Rule. Give—even to the point that it's uncomfortable—to the poor. Be "ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." Repent of that one sin you haven't stopped doing yet. "Do the next right thing." Search the Scriptures daily. Take Jeremiah's advice: Marry, have babies, and train them to "keep the way of the Lord."

Those of us grieved by the recent election should actually be grateful for this reminder to "Put not your trust in princes."

Verily, verily I say unto thee--put not even thy trust in Texas.

And one more thing--remember what Augustine said long ago to Christians who had inherited a semi-Christianized Roman Empire only to watch it crumble around them. Your country is not the devil's kingdom, the City of Man--the dwelling of those who reject G-d and seek happiness in this world and in themselves. But neither is your country the City of G-d. Your country is a mingling of those who are on one side and those on the other. And you can even work with those on the other side. Seek the peace of the Babylon you find yourselves in. When they order what G-d forbids or forbid what G-d orders, don't go along. But continue seeking that peace.

The City of Man, like the City of G-d, seeks peace and happiness. But we seek it in Heaven, wherein is our citizenship--Philippians 3:20--and we know we won't find it in the present earthly arrangements. We'll only find it in earthly arrangements after the Savior returns--also in Philippians 3:20. (And there's one point where you could take a little N. T. Wright with your Augustine.)

The earthly utopia our friends on the left seem so optimistic about--that's City of Man talk. But seek the peace of the nation you share with them, and seek their peace as well. After all, to borrow another observation from Augustine, you never know for sure which of them is a future brother or sister in Christ.