CHRISTIAN EMERGENCY LEAGUE: PASTOR AND CHRISTIAN, STAND UP, STAND FAST
On September 11th, 1933, a group of 61 German pastors gathered to form The Pfarrernotbund – The Pastor’s Emergency League. Outraged by Nazi incursion into Church affairs and disappointed by the silent pulpits of their peers, men like Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer forged this covenant so that the light of the Christian gospel in Germany would neither be stamped out by Jack-boots nor trimmed by black robes.
Is America entering into a post-Christian era? Are we repeating the tragedy of pre-war Germany? As an American Air Force General once said, “History may not repeat itself but it sure as Hell paraphrases.”
The current administration has tried to dictate who Lutherans can hire and fire, they’ve told Catholics to pay for contraceptives and are in the midst of forcing every American to subsidize the holocaust in the womb. The Obama administration has declared that bakers, photographers, bed and breakfast owners, and even farmers must accommodate sexual anarchy or risk annihilation by litigation.
The speed in which our culture and political institutions have turned against Biblical Christianity has been as swift and sweeping as a tsunami. A Christian Nation with a secular government has turned into an anti-Christian Nation with a hostile government.
We cannot expect God’s blessing for the future in a nation whose leaders are summoning the demons of the past.
I believe it was Warren Wiersbe who said that modern Christianity has abandoned the battle ground for the playground. And I would only add that when Christians go AWOL, the wicked overrun the hallowed ground.
As our own government targets people of faith, Biblical marriage, and the child in the womb, politicians and pulpits have largely remained silent. And while Christians slumber, the forces of darkness wage a blitzkrieg against all things sacred.
Bonhoeffer wrote that the church is to act as “the conscience of the state”, so if the state becomes unconscionable, the pulpit is responsible. “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice,” wrote Bonhoeffer, “We are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”
When the enemies of faith, family, and freedom approach the gates, it is our duty, as watchman on the wall, to sound the shofar. And when that enemy is our own government, we must be the spoke in the wheel. It’s time for American pastors to rise in defense of the gospel. For this purpose, a group of pastors have formed the Christian Emergency League.
Calvin Lindstrom, the group’s Executive Director writes, “While individual Christians must speak to the issues of today, how much better to join voices rather than to sing solo. As an organization led by a core group of pastors, we will encourage other pastors, leaders, and parishioners not to remain silent in the face of evil, calling to account both the pulpit and the politician.”
“Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,” says Associate Director James Pittman Jr, “Him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. In this dark time in which we find ourselves, Christians will either confess Christ with boldness – come what may, or in fear of men, shrink to the false comfort of surrender. It is imperative that we as Christian leaders sound the shofar and in His name gather the flock.”
The Apostle Paul wrote, “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” There are 350,000 churches in America and not all of them are selling diet books or channeling Tony Robbins. Most Christian pastors take their calling seriously, but the press has a vested interest in parading and promoting the clowns. It’s time that the remnant gathered and drown out the voice of the hireling.
Historians speak of the courage in defeat that was the 300 Spartans, and theologians – of the victory of Gideon’s 300. Well, I don’t know if we’re following Gideon or Leonidas but I do know that we’re called to be faithful and whether we know temporal victory or heroic defeat, the faithful must live and die for Christ in the arena.
Chesterton had it right when he wrote, “The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are mortally hurt. People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists.”
I know that when the horizon of our country’s future is painted in Rembrandt colors, it is easy to get discouraged, but remember God’s answer to the prophet when he felt that he was the only one left in Israel who cared: “I have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee.” Folks, we are that remnant. Elijah didn’t have the luxury of rallying those 7,000 but in the age of technology we have no excuse not to organize and coordinate.
It’s time we stopped asking what we can do and got on with the doing. Share this article with your pastor and your Christian friends; encourage them to go to our website: www.christianleague.org and get involved — organize your church, your county, your state. Imagine if a clear Christian message was heard and defended by whole groups of churches and pastors in all 50 states.
Imagine if the politician feared and respected the divine intention as they now do the evil one. Imagine if the American pulpit, as the Black Robed Regiment before us, rode to the sound of the roar once more, and shook the very foundations of tyranny. Imagine if the Christian philanthropist spent as much time, planning, and money in the defense of freedom and the gospel as George Soros and others have spent to dismantle it. Imagine timid Christians now in hiding inspired by the strength of our stand, as those in Rome who witnessed the boldness of the “Apostle in chains” in the defense of the gospel.
Imagine if we allowed once more, the wisdom of God to organize our community. Imagine if we are that remnant – the happy few, that will raise the next generation of American heroes who restore freedom and preserve God given opportunity for faith and family. Imagine the consequences for our children and our children’s children, if we are not.
Friends, America is in dire straits, not because sinners act as sinners, but because saints don’t act at all. May it not be so on our watch! I encourage you to join us in the Christian Emergency League and with a clear, Christian voice, “We the People” will challenge the status woe.
Spes Mea en Deo!
Image: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/576038608561286469/
