Seeking a Better Country

                The outcome of last week’s elections seems to have discouraged many Christians in the United States, at least for those who identify with conservatism and the “Christian Right.” Perhaps you saw the election as a defeat, or at least a setback, for sound moral values in this country--another reminder that the Biblical foundation upon which America was founded continues to crumble. Many Christians see the United States of America as a nation in decline, perhaps even having gone beyond the point of no return. There are some bright spots, to be sure. For example, of the eight states that considered “defense of marriage” amendments, seven were approved. That brings to 20 the total number of states that have passed measures defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Such hopeful signs seem to be the exception, however, and many fear that this nation is in a moral nosedive from which it will never recover.
 

Now, before you go thinking that this is political commentary and quit reading, let me get to my biblical point. I did find these elections to be a reminder, but not of a nation in decline (or on the rise, depending on your political viewpoint). What I was reminded of was that as Christians, we have our citizenship elsewhere, “for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3.20). Jesus said that while we must live in the world, we are not of the world (Jn 17.16; 15.19). Peter speaks of us as “aliens and strangers” (1 Pet 2.11). The Hebrew writer speaks of the saints of old as “having confessed that they are strangers and exiles on earth” and that “those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own…a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (vs.13-16).
 

For the first three centuries after Christ, Christians truly lived as aliens in a strange land. They were a tiny minority, with no political clout, nor even any political aspirations. They could not have even conceived of a “moral majority” or a “Christian Right.” Moral values were not something to be legislated, but simply to be lived out in a world so depraved that we can hardly imagine it even today. During much of that time, Christians were not only aliens, but illegal aliens (so-to-speak). Then under Emperor Constantine Christianity took on a position of influence and power in western civilization. The rest is a history we cannot be proud of.
 

Perhaps Christianity in western society is returning to that “pre-Constantine” condition in which the Christian world-view is no longer the dominant influence in society--a “post-Christian” world. In such a world, Christians will be marginalized, powerless, of little influence--at least on the political front. Our moral values will be looked on as outdated and irrelevant. Perhaps we are already there. But before we lament, let us remember two things: (1) the church was always intended to live as exiles, “outside the camp, bearing the reproach of Christ,”  a place of exile (Heb 13.12-13); and (2) it is there in the place of exile that we “receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Heb 12.28), the “better country”. We may not have “lasting city” (or country, or kingdom) from a worldly point of view, but we need not fret, for “we are seeking the city which is to come” (Heb 13.14).

© 2006 Randy Hohf