Whacking Us Good | Blog & Mablog

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I have some bad news and some good news.

The bad news is that the House of Representatives now has before it that Humongoid Health Bill, and there is a prospect of that thing actually passing, and so the time has come for us to consider the possibility that God is trying to whack us good.

The good news is that salvation and deliverance is not by works. I have consistently said (and continue to say) that reformation in the Church is an absolute prerequisite to any kind of substantial change in the direction our nation is going — that direction currently consisting of smaller and smaller circles as the drain gets closer and closer.

So reformation in the Church does not mean five hundred years of ecclesiastical glory, followed by the world starting to notice. The only thing that the Church needs to learn how to do is cry out to God.

“And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother” (Judg 3:9).

“But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab” (Judg 3:15).

“And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel” (Judg 4:3).

“And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites . . .” (Judg 6:6-7).

“And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim” (Judg 10:10).

“The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand” (Judg 10:12)

You get the picture. Deliverance was given by God’s sheer grace, in response to simple, straight up the middle repentance. But so far that is something the Church in our nation has thus far not been willing to do.

Repentance does not look like the faculty of Calvin College saying that there is a great deal to admire in the sexually liberating practices of the Zidonians, or a book by Jim Wallis saying that when you think about it the sense of economic justice among the Amalekites is much more highly refined and nuanced than ours, or that waiting periods for health care among the Midianites have been grossly exaggerated by certain special interest groups. Repentance does not look like that.