A Challenge to Every Christian Leader in America

I co-authored this piece with my friend and brother in Christ, Pastor Travis Witt. Check out Travis’s website here.

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On January 21, 1776, Reverend John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg preached his final sermon. He entered the pulpit as a pastor and exited the chancel as a colonel. Led by God and committed to biblical principles, he recruited, trained, and commanded Virginia’s 8^th Regiment, maintained point at Valley Forge, and was a Major General proudly serving his friend and Commander George Washington at Yorktown. He helped lead the American Revolution to create the freest, most prosperous nation Earth has ever known. In 1789, Muhlenberg continued his service to this nation as a member of the First House of Representatives debating and helping pass the Bill of Rights.

Muhlenberg and other Christian leaders understood that God’s people are called to fight oppression and injustices as echoed by the words of Patrick Henry: “Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual.” And the apostles: “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29)

Christian leaders of the Revolutionary era played an indispensible role in turning the hearts and minds of Americans toward resisting the oppression of Great Britain’s Big-Government rule. Two-hundred thirty-six years later, America faces oppression again. This time, its perpetrators are traveling a longer and more insidious route. Consider:

• America’s total current and future national debt is estimated to be at least $75 TRILLION—more than the combined monetary wealth of the entire world. Americans face blinding taxes, unemployment, inflation, and a loss of freedom most can’t even fathom. Every dollar we borrow from nations like China—who have little regard for human rights—tightens the chains they’ve secured to our wrists (Prov. 22:7).
• The Federal Government can now force Americans to purchase health insurance or be taxed—a power our Constitution does not grant, despite the recent and incorrect Supreme Court ruling. The powerful political class, no longer restricted by a constitutional government, has zero limitations on how they force us to spend the resources God gives us. Checks and balances are eliminated!
• Our federal tax code is 72,000 incomprehensible pages, often used to bully and oppress political enemies while rewarding allies. Average Americans in 2012 had to work from January 1 until April 17 to earn enough money to satisfy their combined federal, state, and local tax burden.
• Businesses are excessively regulated, forcing them to reduce production, ship their jobs overseas, and sometimes close down completely.
• Our government continues to wage undeclared wars with no end or discernible purpose.
• The Catholic Church is forced to fund contraceptive services against its conscience.

And the list goes on.

Unchecked, these types of government abuses advanced by both major political parties will ultimately lead America to full-fledged tyranny, possibly soon. And what is the response from many Christian leaders today?

A silence that will reverberate in eternity.

Why is not every church leader in America combating the open and growing oppression our government fosters against the American people? God gives pastors a platform to shout their opposition, but many remain silent, not wanting to get “political” for fear of losing tax-exempt status or offending congregants enough to leave.

But the Bible is not political. It is Truth—God’s Truth. With over 2,500 references to “king” and its derivations, the Bible describes how unchecked political power leads to oppression. The Old Testament chronicles corruption and violence perpetrated by earthly kings—a clarion warning unheeded today. When disregarded or redefined as “political,” we ignore and withhold God’s Truth.

Instead, God’s people must challenge the creeping oppression under both parties before America reaches the tyrannical point of no return. Emulating patriots like Reverend Muhlenberg, pastors must again, with clarity and certainty, address the dangers of consolidated political power and publicly scrutinize every politician’s beliefs and actions, current and future.

Pastors have a biblical responsibility to address every important issue so that congregants can make informed decisions to choose some wise, understanding and respected people from each of our geographic areas, so God will set them over us (Deut. 1:13, paraphrased). Pastors should urge congregants to not just vote, but also to educate themselves on the importance of limited government, hound representatives who lust after more power, and support candidates who will shrink the size of oppressive government at every level.

Thankfully, some church leaders are already standing openly against oppression and have been for a long time (regardless of how it may affect their tax designations and attendance rosters). And others are stepping up to join them. For that we rejoice.

But we need more. A lot more.

Therefore, we challenge every pastor, priest, and ministry leader with a speaking platform in America to resist an out-of-control government before it removes our precious freedom to speak—and everything else we cherish.

John Adams spoke about the crucial role pastors and Christians played in helping secure America’s freedom. We say that freedom will not be preserved without the help of Christian leaders today.

The church’s actions now will reverberate across Earth and into eternity. When we stand before God and He asks if we opposed a government that sold its people’s future to brutal nations, crippled individuals and businesses with excessive taxes and regulations, paid off its political allies, brought us to the brink of economic collapse, waged undeclared and questionable wars, and trampled the highest law of the land to further its own power and ultimately enslave us … will we, like Reverend Muhlenberg, be able to say that we did all we could to stand against this oppression?

Or will we say we remained silent because we didn’t want to get “political”?

About JonWakefield
As a political independent, Jonathan Wakefield serves on the Board of Directors of the Richmond Tea Party. He is the author of SAVING AMERICA: A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT, and the novel FATAL REALITY (an inspirational thriller). Jonathan is also a computer programmer and the owner of a copywriting and editing business. Visit his other website at www.jonathanwakefield.com.
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