Conservative Christians ordinarily make quite a big deal out of being Bible people. They say that we should all obey the Bible and go no further. This is good and right. But one of the problems, for example, is that conservatives ignore quite a lot of the Bible.
Take Ps. 2:12: "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." Now, let me ask some difficult questions for conservative American Christians: Should Obama be told to kiss the Son? Should he be required to obey King Jesus and submit to his righteous rule? "Uh, ur, but, but what about the separation of church and state, the separation of church and state, our inviolable notion of the separation of church and state?" So no doubt many would stutter and mutter while holding a big fat Bible. Well, what does the psalmist say? "Now, therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way" (vv 10-12). Does this include twenty-first century rulers? American Presidents? Of course. To whom do the apostles say this psalm refers? To King Jesus (see Acts 2 and Heb. 1, for instance). And should David, a mere pointer to the ultimate King, David's greater son and David's Lord, receive such regard but not the one to whom the psalm was ultimately pointing? The apostles upset the world with their preaching for a reason: the were preaching Jesus as King (Acts 17:6-7).
May God grant deep repentence in the church in America. And I mean all of us. We're in this stinkin' mess together, and we need to pray to the Lord of Hosts to deliver us. We continue to want to separate what God has joined together. Jesus is Lord of all. This is not difficult. This is, after all, to our shameful neglect, the basic Christian confession and the center of the Gospel. And somehow we've lost it and don't see it.
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