Monday Morning Music Ministry

3-31-25

Please note, for readers who do not read well or carefully – the title of these thoughts does not refer to the Democrat party. Rather, I want us for a moment to think about small-d democracy as the theoretical system of “majority rules.”

I can summarize my intention as parsing the difference between theory and theology.

So I am not sniping at Democrats, not essentially anyway; because I expect many readers will be ready to assign a partisan aspect, from Socialist to Fascist, to the Almighty. That has never been effective, and never should be, but folks are determined to be persuaded and persuasive. I admire, however, Abraham Lincoln’s dictum that it is not so important that we pray that God is on our side, than that we be on God’s side.

Wearing one of my other hats, a political columnist, I recently have been studying polls and surveys. During the recent campaign, writing articles for outlets like Real Clear Politics, and since then researching for a major book on public and private polling and mistaken assumptions in the disciplines. The deeper I dig, the more I am tempted to trademark a meme that says “A poll has determined that 87.3 per cent of surveys are ridiculous!”

Ridiculous or mistaken or naive, the news cycles and the world often seem to rely on polls. Stats are the first references of many talking heads on news broadcasts… if a poll agreeing with their predetermined points of view (always low-hanging, ripe fruit) can be found. But let us remember Marschall’s dictum: “Statistics don’t lie… but statisticians do.”

How is theology – how does Almighty God – become part of this discussion? Very simply, in fact emphatically, God is not a democrat. We remember that there are occasions in the Bible where God has been moved by prayers, and even instances where He tests (not tempts) His people and responds. And, of course, He never moves in ways contrary to His nature or covenants.

However, throughout history and today; “His” people and secularists alike; in both minor and consequential ways; people attempt to graft their versions of the “will of God” onto their own plans. Sometimes things are done arrogantly in the name of God. Sometimes such “covers” are innocent. Frequently, people act upon the belief that God can be not only invoked but the guarantor of their own designs – a belief that inevitably proves to be advanced by dopes, imposed by malignants, and accepted by the gullible.

Nevertheless, it happens over and over, even by people who ought to know better, if not from logic or history’s examples, but are willfully ignorant. They have “itching ears,” as the Bible calls the situation. “Lie to me,” as a country-music song calls the tendency.

The next step is to believe Vox Populi, Vox Dei – that the voice of the people is the voice of God. It is one of the seductions of democracy posing as a perfect system. Meanwhile the perfect system, on earth as it is in Heaven, is God’s voice; God’s will. In campaigns and elections? Occasionally. More of it applies (but seldom is applied) to cultural attitudes and society’s standards. Name an issue, and we can discern God’s will, but we often yield to pressure groups or partisan demands. And when we cannot easily discern God’s will, we still are better off after honest debates are engaged.

Crimes big and little… jealousy bitter or soft… Sins or indiscretions. We operate according to our own changing rules, not God’s immutable laws. Taboos have lost their censure. Prejudices are looked down upon, but have been replaced by other “correct” criticism. We have moved beyond the blood-lust of wanton animal slaughter, but are inured to killing babies. We tolerate the self-destructive widespread use of drugs; we regard marriage as a temporary “commitment”; we debate the possibilities of supernatural phenomena, but dismiss the evidences of the Holy Spirit’s active ministry in people’s lives.

And we are so smart about our present stage of development that we think that we are smarter than God. Or that He is a figment of obsolete imagination. Or that His commands and counsels were OK once upon a time, but surely not now…

But God has never put His commands up for a vote among His children; certainly not these days. What God calls sin does not depend on our opinion of it. The Ten Commandments never were the Ten Suggestions, and the Sermon On the Mount was for our consumption as much as for the hearers two thousand years ago. If Jesus is “the same yesterday, today, and forever”… then so are we humans.

It is in fact a most wonderful thing that our God is constant, never-changing. We can trust that He is our ever-present – not ever-changing – help in times of trouble. The Creator of the universe and Savior of our souls does not require our opinions, or votes, or approvals when it comes to living our lives. He does welcome the praise that is due Him, but all He requires is obedience.

About the positions we commit to take and courses we choose to follow in society, we can discern, reject, or obey. When honest debates on consequential, life-altering issues point in one direction, too many people say, “Yes, but…” when they ought to be saying, “Yes, Lord…” The polls are closed; actually they never were open. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords has decided all matters important to us. And the victor is… you, if you trust and obey.

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Click: Trust & Obey