The Most Influential Position in the Nation? SWING VOTE Pt. 3

Date: September 2, 2015 1:31 AM

Topic: The Most Influential Position in the Nation?   SWING VOTE Pt. 3

The Most Influential Position in the Nation?

SWING VOTE

Pt. 3

By Darrel and Cindy Deville

While the president and our nation's other leaders play a critical role, we believe there is an even more essential role in influencing the course of our nation - the pulpits of America.

Confirming this is Charles Finney.  It is said his life and writings influenced more people toward revival and reformation than any other preacher of the 1800's.   He recognized the critical role of the church - especially the pulpits (the five-fold ministry) - plays in the shaping of our culture and nation.  A portion of his sermon "Decay of Conscience" says it well:

Our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits

If immorality prevails in the land,

the fault is ours [the pulpits] in a great degree.

It there is a decay of conscience,

the pulpit is responsible for it. . .

If the church is degenerate and worldly,

the pulpit is responsible for it.

If the world loses is interest in [God],

the pulpit is responsible for it.

If Satan rules in our halls of legislation,

the pulpits is responsible for it.

If our politics become so corrupt that the

very foundations of our government are

ready to fall away,

the pulpits is responsible for it. . .

We believe the case could be made that, biblically speaking, the highest place of ultimate authority and influence for our nation lies not in Washington, D.C., but rather in the pulpits of America, for the spiritual greatly affects the natural (Eph. 6:12).  God's leaders and people hold the greatest spiritual authority as ambassadors representing the supreme kingdom of God, and Christ, the King of kings ( Matt. 28:18-20; Rev. 19:16).  And what the church allows or disallows both inside and outside the church can affect the entire nation (Matt. 18:18).

In relation to all this, Martin Luther King Jr.  prophetically wrote in 1963:

The church must be reminded that it is

not the master or the servant of the state,

but rather the conscience of the state.

It must be the guide and the critic of the

state, and never its tool.  If the church

does not recapture its prophetic zeal,

it will become an irrelevant social club

without moral or spiritual authority."