2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [7]. Dear Pastor/Leader
For Christian eyes. For pastors and leaders especially.
What is at stake? Our liberty to believe, to speak what we believe, and to teach it to our children.
We are facing in the coming election the most critical choices between good and evil that we have faced since Federation.
I have a vision – and have had for more than a decade – that Australia might be a beacon of righteousness for the Western world. We have, I think, lost the battle in other parts of the West so much that it is no longer recoverable, but it still is in this country – this year – and it hinges on the coming election.
In short, if Labor wins this election there is no turning things around. We will enter a time of persecution against the Bride of Christ that, just a year ago, we would have thought not possible.
And maybe that’s how it’s going to be before Jesus returns as Conqueror. And maybe that is what is needed. The consequences we will face are listed in paper [1] of this series of small papers.
But with a double dissolution it is also a year of unparalleled opportunity for Christians to be elected to parliament and be salt and light in that arena, possibly even to have the balance of power – not that such power should be wielded except in extreme circumstances but to hold God’s law high in our land and be a constant beacon for righteousness in government.
Even if you only partly agree with me (and the many much more fluent voices across our world) what needs to be done?
- We need to share this burden – personally and for the body of Christ to share it with us. We need to weep (Ezekiel 9:4).
- To do that we need to be informed. How? Through you as leaders. Through this series of papers.
- We need to pray. As never before. Together, in special gatherings, for this purpose, for our nation. For God to be honoured in this nation.
- We need to discern what is truly evil and what is a deliberate shaking of our fist against God. And this needs to be taught – by you as leaders.
- We need to be taught that voting in an election – when there is the opportunity of making a difference – is a matter of Christian responsibility and not to be done in ignorance.
- And, I’m sorry, back on my hobby-horse of 14 years, we need to be taught how to not waste our vote and to put the Christian party as [1], not [2]. Who is going to teach the people of God? You, as leader. Even Christians who understand the issues fail on this latter point. (And as you probably know I would have been in upper house of WA parliament in 2005 if just 91 Liberal voting Christians in an electorate of 90,000 had put me [1] instead of [2].)
- And we need to pray. As never before.
May God bless and lead you as you consider these things.
“…taking on not just our own sufferings but those of God in the world, watching with Christ in Gethsemane.” Bonhoeffer
https://www.chooselifeaustralia.au/life/reflections-and-a-call-to-shepherds/ [1]
https://www.chooselifeaustralia.au/life/where-was-the-christian-vote-in-the-federal-election/ [2]