19 June 2023
The appeal continues, but I need to make some distinctions.
Jesus and the Apostles told His followers to stay away from human politics. Our own internal community politics is hard enough when we do it exactly as Jesus expects. As a general rule, we have no business getting involved in the outside political situation.
I have said that, in theory, it is possible for us to form a community large enough to become a political factor. That is, our presence could become politically significant to outsiders. Should that be the case, we would seek the Lord and get a word from Him on how to proceed. I've outlined what I felt the Covenant would require of us, but the big issue at this point is that any such community must be compliant with the Covenant in order for this to work the way God says it should. At a minimum, this would require we hold to a tribal feudal household structure and manner of operation. That's what the Covenant demands, so any kind of community growth has to start there and not depart.
I don't see a huge covenant community happening any time soon, but there it is. If an outside government takes us seriously, we will try to negotiate in order to remain non-threatening, while protecting what God has given us.
Otherwise, we simply do not put our hands to the human political situation outside our covenant community. And for pretty much the same underlying reasons, we have no expectation of holding much influence on economic matters. We can try, but only under the counsel of Scripture and a prophetic word from God. Word from God is a native element of the Covenant.
About the only place where we do remain active is the social domain. We are commanded to present a witness. Notice that I'm not suggesting we can do anything about the cultural situation. We should have no illusion that it's of value to us, or that we can bring about any kind of shift in the culture, unless the Lord makes our Covenant presence really quite substantial within any human culture.
Rather, we aim to harvest the Covenant blessings and display them in certain appropriate ways. We address society, but we have no hope of changing it. Changing it would require a level of influence God warned we should not expect. Rather, we are harvesting the Elect from it. We should expect to leave an imprint of some kind, but by no means would we bring that into our planning and thinking about how to implement a witness. It's a result we can see coming, but it's not a goal.
As a part of our witness, we will from time to time find ourselves under the same threats as everyone else. It really depends on the political, economic and cultural situation how we should react. We are covenant people; our agenda will rarely ever overlap with any part of the society around us, but I can assure you that we are all under a threat right now. It would be very hard to act in our own protection without engaging the protection of others.
I worded that very carefully. Whether or not we add our protection efforts to theirs depends on the context, but it's for sure our concerns will overlap theirs. Given the nature of the current ruling regime's threats against life and safety here in the US, it's hard to avoid making allies with outsiders. When their efforts align with ours, there is a good cause to seek some common ground. Not to the point we would defile ourselves, but we would seek areas in which cooperation allows us to cling to the Cross.
We could jump right into any battles to fight the lock-downs and vaxxing. We can roll up our sleeves and help the local economy work, or rebuild what has been destroyed by official policy. And we can offer our counsel and support to some particular elements of the culture wars.
Are you aware that the wokie nonsense is a threat to our covenant obedience? It's not that we worry about LGBTQ+ people doing whatever they do, and whatever legal leverage they try to finagle. That's just part of Satan's domain. Yes, if you live in certain jurisdictions, you may have to flee to protect your children from being kidnapped by the government and forced into obscene sexual practices. But there is something behind all of that which is truly dangerous: the destruction of manhood and womanhood.
Again, directly fighting in that culture war is pointless. Rather, our efforts should be redemptive. We need to be there to pick up the wounded and help them heal. We are in no position to use force against the waves of changes washing over the US, but we are very much able to offer restorative care for the wounded hearts without first choking them on our covenant code. Sure, make them aware of our peculiarities when the moment presents itself, but don't let that be the first thing we do as a precondition for help. Treat them like the wandering pagan strangers Israelis encountered now and then who were wounded, famished and/or dehydrated in the wilderness.
Do you remember the story how David's forces picked up a very sick slave abandoned by the Amalekite forces David was pursuing? They fed him and he responded by giving intel. David didn't demand he convert to the Covenant of Moses, but simply offered lifesaving courtesy (1 Samuel 30).
We could also be like the Good Samaritan. He didn't lay a heavy message from the Samaritan religion on the Jewish man he found on the road, nor taunt him over political differences. Rather, he gave the man a reason to be grateful, to want to meet him some time when he was in better shape. Let's show them what our Covenant does for them as strangers in need of rescue.
I can tell you that there are a lot of people out there already seriously wounded by the culture wars over human sexual identity. Lots of people are drawn to the Red Pill message, which is quite consistent with our message. It's a good starting place to provide answers they'll recognize in order to have standing to begin reaching them for the rest of our message. It's not that we need to hide our peculiar faith and religious background, but that we not push it front and center, as if there is nothing else we can offer.
This is spiritual warfare against our Enemy. First heal the wounds that people already know about. Wait upon the Lord to reveal to them anything else He wants to heal. Make the offer without it sounding like polemics, as if you are another kind of enemy attacking them again. Let them discover the one thing that characterized Christians in the first century: they knew how to love others. You don't rescue captives of Satan by attacking them, but by dismantling Satan's chains on them.
Red Pill stuff not your forte? Can you fix cars or computers? Can you give someone a ride? Maybe get some food for the children of a single mother? Those things are economic warfare. Help a kid understand history or math? Give a few pieces of sidewalk chalk to the kids playing out front? Culture wars. Maybe the big strategic moves aren't that obvious to you, but within each of these things you represent the antidote to Satan's lies.
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