When Jesus prayed that we’d all be one, He was praying for the church, not for a nation. And when He said a kingdom divided against itself could not stand, He wasn’t talking about a nation, but the kingdom of Satan. When Patrick Henry, however, said “United we stand, divided we fall”, he was expressing concern for our nation, and many share that fear today.
We obviously do live in a nation that is politically divided, but is that a bad thing? I’m not so sure.
Before the flood, God saw that all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth, and He would have blotted out mankind if He hadn’t found one righteous man. After sparing Noah and his family, He told them to fill the earth. But his descendants didn’t want to be scattered over the face of the earth, so they built a city that would bring glory to themselves. God could see where that was going, so He divided them into nations, speaking different languages.
It seems that when everyone in a fallen world is united as one, they always head away from God. Apparently nations were created to keep sinful men divided, and to contain the spread of rebellion against God within smaller units.
Being divided into nations also makes it possible for God to work through one nation to bless or discipline another, and this He has done throughout history. He even divided Israel into two countries in the hopes that one would influence the other. But when they both failed to obey Him, He used other countries to discipline and to eventually destroy them both.
The founders of our country were good students of history. They recognized the need for checks and balances, and even recognized that political parties were a necessary evil if we were to survive. In spite of the rhetoric and lying, parties serve a good purpose because they give us the opportunity to choose a platform that is more in keeping with our God-given values.
With that in mind, I encourage you to vote for a platform instead of a person. If you feel the stated goals and objectives of a particular party are more in line with God’s will, please vote for the lesser of two evils.
God Bless, Rick
Chatham Christian Church 