Church: This Has to Stop

The mission of the Church is not to impose the Law of God on others. Such attempts at imposition were what the Pharisees, those first-century Judean legalists, were guilty of and that Jesus so often condemned.

The mission of the Church is to proclaim God's Word, both Law and Gospel, so that all people can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, receive the gifts of repentance and saving faith in Jesus Christ.

It's through the proclamation that Jesus Christ, God the Son, has died and risen to save sinners like you and me from the eternal death sentence we deserve, that God gives faith to us. It's through such God-given faith that people have eternal life with God.

I have repented for a past in which I, as a pastor of Christ's Church, engaged in partisan politics.

While individual Christians are free to be as involved in politics as they wish, the Church and its pastors should not, except in rare circumstances, get involved politically.

We are seeing today in the US and Europe the tragic results of pastors and churches adulterating the proclamation of God's Word by indulging the vain conceit that their political preferences come straight from Christ. People are turning away from Christ because they think there's some actual connection between the Lord we claim to follow and the politics some Christians push.

Whether the agenda of these Christian legalists is politically conservative or liberal, it's a lie, an idolatry of self or of ideology that, whether intended or not, pushes Christ from His throne and gives people an excuse not to listen to God's saving Word about Christ.

It has to stop. For Christ's sake, it has to stop.