Politics: God's got this.

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

1 Thessalonians 5:2

The day is coming when Jesus will return. The day is coming when God will judge the world of humanity and no one will hide from Him. It will catch us all off guard like a sneak thief who robs us unsuspecting in the dark of night. A big part of our urgency with the gospel is the call to be ready for that day.

It's summer of 2015 and in America that means political candidates are oozing up zombie-like out of the political swamp to run for the highest office in the land next year. Yes, its another presidential circus. And along with it shall inevitably come a shrill, out of step voice from certain elements of the American evangelical community declaring which one of these fine candidates is more than likely the Antichrist. It will happen because these people ignore 1 Thessalonians 5 and even Jesus' own declaration that the Son does not know "the day nor the hour".

I see it as a sign of idolatry. Many Americans put their trust more in politics than the God Who is working all human history for HIS glory. This is a God who chose to bring the gospel into blazing power under Nero who set Christians on fire in his gardens to stroll through them at night! I think God knows how to deal with evil and beat it every time! Yet these "moral" Christians will push legal and political agendas that will fail to save society. They will fail because God plans through Jesus to transform people one by one so that His kingdom changes us. We don't change the world. The Lord changes us... do we get that? Thus, we should share the gospel and live as salt and light. We should have nothing to do with the unprofitable works of darkness. Yet anything we do will never surpass the power of the gospel. And even then God has appointed a day to judge the world that will just keep getting worse and worse. He knows that. He's told us that in the scriptures. He has a purpose to deal with it. It's as good as done. It is all under His love and sovereign control.

Ultimately, the future day of the Lord is a comfort. It is why the Thessalonians could encourage one another even though the day was coming like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:11). We should do the same thing.