ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE STATE OF THE NATION, Part 2

[Regner A Capener]

Another Coffee Break: The State of Our Nation, Part 2

 

Thanks to all those who have written in and expressed their appreciation for the things I've been sharing in the series on tribulation and wrath.  While these truths have been with me for a number of years, there really has been a fresh outpouring of understanding and revelation in the past weeks and months as I have followed the direction of Holy Spirit to share this.  We will return to that series next week as we take a different approach and consider the wrath of God.

Let me simply dive in once again to this review of the spiritual, emotional and political state of our nation, and talk about the why's and wherefore's of our need to spend these last weeks prior to the election in some serious prayer and intercession.  I've shared some of these comments in previous Coffee Breaks, but they bear repeating.  Following is an amplified version of some commentary I provided as a guest columnist this past week in our local newspaper.

Without realizing it at the time, my father did a great deal to inspire me to become involved in the political process.  When Dwight D. Eisenhower was running for President in 1952 against Adlai Stevenson, Dad frequently offered up commentary on the political process, and on the ills of our nation.  I once asked him why he didn't run for President and he replied, "Son, God didn't call me to political office.  He didn't call me to run for President.  He called me to preach the Gospel, and that's what I'm doing."  It was the first time that I actually realized God does call some people to political office and to government.

It was perhaps 14 years later that I sat on an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle with the then-chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.  We had known each other at a distance for several years and he urged me to run for the U. S. House of Representatives in the upcoming election.  I had already committed to take on the youth ministry at Bethel Union Church in Duarte, California (and in fact was headed there) and declined his offer of support.  But it planted a seed that would grow during the coming years.

It would be another dozen years or so before I actually got involved personally in the political process, and I won't take the time in this commentary to recount my various political activities other than to say that I have actively campaigned for folks (and co-managed one gubernatorial campaign) on both sides of the political aisle, based in large part on their stance as committed Christians and support for issues that affect our liberties as believers in Christ Jesus.

Allow me to pose something for your serious consideration.  It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by our Founding Fathers.  James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government."   The idea?  That government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man.

In one of Ronald Reagan's speeches nearly 30 years ago he made a statement that almost sounds like he wrote it for the election we have some four weeks from now.  Reagan said, "This is the issue of this upcoming election: whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that intellectual elites in Washington can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

"We've been told we must choose between a left or right, but I would suggest that in politics there is more than just a left or right.  There is an up or down: Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity or humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path."

Now let me address my next comments to the "extreme right." (I've been accused of being wayyy too far to the right, but I submit that I'm simply "on the right" from the perspective of what the Word defines as "right."(Grin!)  What makes people jump so far to the so-called "right" is that they want to IMMEDIATELY undo the changes introduced into American Law and society by the leftist, socialist-driven judges of the past 50-plus years.

Patience, my friends!  Patience!  That reversal IS going to come; and those changes are not that far away.

We WILL see an ultimate reversal of Roe v. Wade and an eventual ruling that life begins at conception or fertilization.  We WILL see it!

We WILL see the Constitution properly interpreted so that the rights of Christians are no longer infringed upon -- so that Christians and Christianity is not infringed upon or interfered with by Federal or State or Local government(s).  We WILL see the restoration of the Ten Commandments in public venues.  We WILL see the return of the Bible as an acceptable text in our public schools, in the same way that it was for some 200 years of our nation's history.

We WILL see the homosexual agenda driven back, along with the executive orders which have been issued by the current administration in violation of the doctrine of the separation of powers enshrined by the Founding Fathers in our Constitution.

Our society has degenerated into a "me first" society, with special interest groups demanding their "rights."  What our Constitution does NOT guarantee is the right of one group to have more chances than another group to succeed in our society.  Opportunity abounds on every hand for those willing to get out and take advantage of it.

Despite the cries we hear from the anti-American crowd both here in America and abroad, people are trying to get to this country -- both legally and illegally -- because America provides more opportunities for those willing to make whatever effort is required to prosper.  This nation is by far the most prosperous nation on the face of the earth.  It is the ONLY Nation that -- for more than 225 years -- has had as its motto, "In God We Trust."

There is a fundamental spiritual principle that underlies our nation's founding.  We find that principle revealed in Proverbs 11:11: "By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked." 

Again we read in Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."

From the earliest foundations of this nation, we have had pastors and church leaders serving at just about every level in our Federal Government.  In the Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (Yale University Press, 1911: Vol. 1, pp 450-452) James Madison records the comments of Benjamin Franklin in a portion of his address to Congress:

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

Jedediah Morse, the "father of American Geography," delivered a sermon at the swearing in of John Adams when he became the second President of the United States.  In that sermon, he stated, "To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."

Yes, Ma'am!  Yes, Sir!  Once again, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."  We as Christians have a solemn responsibility before God to get involved in our affairs of government.

When I ran for Congress in 2003-2004, a friend -- Tony W. Smith -- who was a political consultant helped me craft the following as a part of the foundation of my campaign and my stance as a Constitutional conservative:

I believe that the writings of the U.S. Constitution apply to every man, woman, boy or girl who is a citizen of the United States. There should never be a distinction between a natural born citizen and a naturalized citizen.

I believe the Constitution should apply equally to every citizen, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity (which is simply a circumstance of birth), religion, or political affiliation. The Constitution creates a representative government "Of the People, By the People and For the People."

I believe that the Constitution must apply to government at all levels, from one's home town city council or school board to Washington D.C. I also believe that when we choose a representative, they should actually represent us. When they do not, I believe that they must be removed and someone else chosen who will represent us.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.  Our Founding Fathers never designed America's government to replace the private sector.

All political power and influence should flow from the grass roots upward, not from government down to the people.  All human rights are granted by God, not by government.  Government exists primarily to protect the God-given rights of its citizens.  The Constitution was written by wise men under the inspiration of God; and the original intent of the Founders is as valid and binding today as it was in their day.

No government in any nation can replace private enterprise, its abilities, its inventiveness and its ingenuity.  That's not its purpose.  Neither has it been anointed by God or commissioned to replace the body of Christ in its support of the needy.  Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals.

Throughout history, every single nation that has accepted and endorsed homosexuality has disintegrated, been defeated by stronger nations and scattered into oblivion.  This is the judgment of the Lord against this sin.  Homosexuality makes a lie of the purposes of God.  It flies in the face of the picture of Jesus Christ and the love He has for His Bride, His people.  It distorts and perverts the whole purpose of creation and procreation.

What we must have, as the apostle Paul so appropriate describes it, is a government that allows us “to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” (see I Timothy 2:2)

This nation was founded as a Christian nation.  It was founded upon solid family foundations.  We must return to those foundations and rebuild.  Will you help me begin that rebuilding on November 6th?

The Psalmist David wrote, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people He hath chosen for an inheritance.”  (Psalm 33:12)

The apostle Paul instructs us, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."  (see I Timothy 2:1-2)

Our first responsibility as Christians, therefore, is to pray for our government, for our nation, for our people -- BEFORE we pray for anything else!

Why?

Because righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to the people of that nation.  Because a nation led by righteous leaders will facilitate a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty.  Because a nation led by righteous leaders, IN righteousness, will facilitate an environment in which men can be "saved and come unto the knowledge of the Truth."

Finally, for us to have righteous leadership in the nation, Christians MUST become involved at every level.  That means we have to be involved in a political party.  It is through political parties that we choose our leadership, first at the local, secondly at the county or regional level, then at the state and finally at the federal level.

I've heard more Christians than I can count make the remark, "Well, God didn't call me to get involved in politics."  Really?  That's about as cheap a cop-out as I've ever heard!

Maybe He didn't call you to run for office, but you can't avoid your responsibility to be involved.  If we are going to have Christians -- born again, committed, Holy Spirit-led Christians -- governing the affairs of our cities, our counties, our states and our national government, we have to be involved.  I'm not telling folks to become Republicans or Democrats.  I'm saying they need to get involved.

The reason why the Republican Party has become a party of RINO's is because compromisers have been allowed to be in authority in the party, causing it to swerve from its conservative, Christian roots.  The reason why the Democratic Party has become the voice of insanity and shrill, hateful rhetoric is because Christians have abandoned the party to leftists, socialists and communists.  Both parties have been contaminated by extremists who have neither the will nor the backbone to hear and respond to the direction God has, and has had, for America.

Having a different political philosophy is one thing.  Allowing the God-hating, the unrighteous, and the wicked to take control of the party is another thing altogether.  There's only one place where we can lay the responsibility for that happening: at the feet of God's people who have abdicated their responsibility for spiritual oversight of the nation.

Wake up, folks!  Do you want a righteous judiciary?  Do you want a righteous President?  Do you want righteous governors, senators, congressmen, state leaders and mayors of cities?  First, get on your knees and begin to fulfill your responsibility in intercession.  Secondly, get involved with the party that God instructs you to get involved in!  Don't pick a political party because it's what you grew up with, because your friends are involved, or because it just seems to fit your political philosophy.  Get involved where the Holy Spirit leads you.  Make a difference – not so much for the party's politics, but for righteousness' sake!

I cannot emphasize enough just how critical it is that YOU become involved NOW at the precinct level, at the county level, at the state, and at the federal level in shaping the policies and stances of your political party according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit -- not the whims of deceitful men!  Della and I have served at the precinct level, the county level, and the state level; and we have had the privilege of influencing national affairs, even if it was in the tiniest of ways; so my remarks come from both conviction and personal experience!

Once again, let me repeat: this nation was founded as a Christian nation.  It was founded upon solid Godly family foundations.  We must return to those foundations and rebuild.  Will you help me begin the rebuilding on November 6th?

"Throughout our history, we have been a blessing to other nations. And it is my belief that from a benevolent standpoint, the church in America has made America great. No matter what difficulties we have gone through, we have always been a generous people. We give to those who are suffering from disasters or hard times, both in our own country and in other nations. 

I believe this generosity allows us to hold onto God’s redemptive thread as a nation. By caring for those in need, the church has given the nation access to God’s promise in Isaiah 58:8, that in our time of need for healing, our “recovery would speedily spring forth.”

Samuel was instrumental to the reconfirming of God’s covenant with Israel following Hophni and Phineas’ destructive leadership tenure. Samuel represented a new generation—a righteous priesthood to replace that which was profaned. He was an uncompromised, prophetic voice of courage used by God to call the people back to His ways.

I believe in our own nation, God is going to raise up a new, prophetic voice of courage, one that will call our nation back to God. This Samuel generation will challenge the unjust judiciaries and corrupt politicians. They will refill the lamp of God with the oil of the Spirit and restore His light within the church.

Our restoration as a nation, however, requires that we take an honest look at our true state. We cannot continue on as we have been and expect different results. To remain on the same path will only mean a further moral decline.  God used Samuel to show Israel their true state. His predecessor, Eli, had lost his eyesight. Eli had allowed the evil his sons were committing to continue. He maintained the status quo. As a result, the Lord had to raise up Samuel to expose the true state of Israel’s leadership.

I believe God wants to empower a generation in our land who will serve this same purpose. They are unwilling to allow the evil that is being committed to continue unchecked. They are not interested in maintaining the status quo. Their concern is for the true state of the church and of the nation, and they will be courageous in speaking forth God’s truth."  (Prophetic Word from Doug Stringer)

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

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