by Dr. Alan Keyes • ChurchMilitant.com • October 24, 2018
Faithful should hold fast to Christ's example
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Dr. Alan Keyes
These days, events cause some faithful Catholics and other careful followers of Christ to wonder if we are witnessing harbingers of the end time predicted in the Book of Revelation. As worse comes to worst, some wonder aloud whether it makes sense to strive in earnest against the tides of evil raising against the faithful, not just in the United States, but throughout the world.
Perhaps its time to seek shelter against the storm, trusting in God's triumph, but tending rather to fortify ourselves, in good faith, against the inevitable sorrows that precede Our Savior's triumphant return.
This view fails to take full account of the events Revelation prepares us to endure, if indeed the end is near. Moreover, it neglects the example of Christ. He knew full well that the way of the cross leads through suffering even unto death. He warned His followers to prepare to be treated even as He was treated, in this regard. Like Jesus, Christians in the United States have seen times when it was the way of the world to honor and even extol their faith.
America's founding generation raised the standard of God, emblazoned with the word of His creation, as the rule for right and justice, constraining the power of all human governments. We have seen times when "the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free" defined and preserved our freedom as a people. It allowed our national union to survive when the inevitable conflict between true liberty and the specious rights of human slavery brought the American people into terrible war against itself.
Before the American colonies broke free of Great Britain, the war among Christian denominations wreaked havoc among Christians in European countries. The founding generation self-consciously sought to defuse that possibility under the government of the United States by withholding from it the power to establish religion by force of law.
This did not require an end to all religious establishments at the state level. It simply meant that the force of law could not be used to coerce others into conformity, regardless of their conscientious beliefs, nor did it mean that we denied the dependence of our self-government on the authority of God, a dependency plainly acknowledged in the American Declaration of Independence.
As a nation, we believed, but we did not claim the right to coerce others fearfully to profess our beliefs, knowing full well (because Christ told us so) that God rejects such hollow professions, however scrupulously maintained.
As a nation, we believed, but we did not claim the right to coerce others fearfully to profess our beliefs.
We learn from Scripture that some insights into human right and justice are made known in "the laws of Nature and of nature's God," are known to conscience and may, therefore, guide the behavior of all people. In accord with the principles of our declared sovereignty as a people, America's founding generation fashioned a constitution of government intended to respect God's laws in regard to all persons, i.e., all those who can lay claim the title of humanity.
Thus, as a matter of material and moral fact, our nation laid itself open to all humanity. When we stepped onto the stage of human events, the people of the United States already included a variety of such persons. In the course of time, we have become a nation of nations, encompassing people of every kind and nation on Earth.
This has consequences for our deliberations and actions as a nation. But for Christ-followers, it also has consequences for our reaction to contemporary events. If it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me, then I cannot react to those events except in conformity with the mind and example of Christ.
If the end is approaching — be it my own as an individual; that of my people or nation; or that of all creation — Christ must be my standard and guide. So what did Christ do when, in human terms, He neared the close of His deeply human life? Even nailed to the cross and bleeding His life's blood into its timbers, He remembered His father's will. He ministered to the salvation even of those the world had reason to despise, upraised like Him on a cross of pain.
He took note of a sinner whose heart was not so hard he could not recognize the truth. And when, like Peter, he acknowledged Christ the King, the Man of Sorrows, He rewarded his good faith with the assurance of salvation, even as He is willing to reward us all when with all our heart we thus acknowledge His truth.
We should go on offering Christ's salvation to all who come near to acknowledge Him.
By Christ's example, what should we be doing if the end is near? We should go on offering Christ's salvation to all who come near to acknowledge Him. We should go on bearing witness to the truth of God's mercy and trusting in it ourselves. Far from abandoning the vocation to go and teach all nations, we should go on sharing Christ's example with all nations, including our own.
We should engage in this, our best vocation, with all our mind, soul, heart and strength — no need to be mindful of death when all is bent on witnessing to life, and that more abounding than death can ever reach. Thus, we will join in the light of Christ against the darkness, commingling our spirit with His, thereby commending ourselves to God.
Dr. Alan Keyes served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations under President Ronald Reagan, and ran for president in 1996, 2000 and 2008. He holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard, and writes at his website Loyal to Liberty.
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This has consequences for our deliberations and actions as a nation. But for Christ-followers, it also has consequences for our reaction to contemporary events. If it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me, then I cannot react to those events except in conformity with the mind and example of Christ.
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