Stan Moody:
The 2024 election had all the makings of a wakeup call to the Confessing Church to reclaim the
Gospel of the Kingdom as the abiding, ruling presence of God with His people. With both parties
promising a messianic rule minus the Messiah, the gross incapacity of human engineering in
politics will be fully on display. Pop the corn or cork! Settle in! Get ready for the latest
administration to stumble its way through a miasma of kneejerk actions and reactions in the hope
of lowering the price of eggs! Maybe we who profess Jesus as Lord finally will unconditionally
care enough for our neighbors to want for them everything we want for ourselves! A scripture
popped into my head:
“Straighten up; Lift up Your Heads; Your Redemption Draws Near!” (Luke 21:28):
Is this only a warning when signs appear of Jesus’ imminent return? My take is that it is an
ongoing description of citizenship in the Kingdom of God from the 1st Century onward. In order
to keep focused on the Source of abundant life, regardless of the price of eggs, we are
encouraged to keep looking up! Here’s a brief look at the context of that scripture!
Jesus and His disciples had just observed some rich folks and a poor widow putting
offerings in the Temple treasury. The poor widow put in a couple of small copper coins
(v. 2). Jesus’ response: “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them”
He stated that the days were coming when there would be no stone left in the temple (v.
6). When asked when that would be, He said, “When you hear of wars and disturbances,
do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow
immediately” (v. 9). He then began to teach His disciples:
“It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony” (v. 13).
“…make up your minds not to prepare to defend yourselves…” (v. 14).
“…you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends…” (v. 15).
“…Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles
are fulfilled” (v. 24).
Are you with me so far? When is this supposed to happen? “…this generation will not pass away
until all things take place” (v. 32). Jesus clearly is answering the query of His disciples about the
destruction of Jerusalem and the Herodian temple that would happen in the generation of the
very folks listening to His sermon.
For the record, that all happened in AD 70 in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Want a more
encouraging note? Redemption has been drawing near to believers ever since, despite our
insistence on looking down instead of up! The Prophet Isaiah saw our day in terms of a roadway
that he called a “Highway of Holiness” (Isaiah 35:8):
Fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up on it.
But the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return…
American Evangelicals: We Are Now Living and Dying in the Nearness of our Redemption!
2024 was never about Redemption of any kind!
2024 was always about conflicting versions of the American Dream of prosperity and
success prosecuted by political parties in their own interests.
The Kingdom of God is eternal; there is nothing eternal about Democracy or Christian
Nationalism.
Is the Confessing Church sacrificing the transforming power of rebirth for strategies
proposed to make us happy and rich?
The Gospel of the Kingdom is within immediate reach of every child of God turning his
or her head away from faith in the darkness of politics toward the light of divine hope.
Our spiritual refuge has degenerated into a handful of would-be stars for Jesus stamping
out OPS – Other People’s Sin. “Straighten up! Lift up your heads!”
I am pumped over the potential for renewal and rebirth! Our nation at long last is firmly in the
hands of a bastion of pseudo-Christians exempted from any need for repentance. As a member of
a thin minority within both Evangelicalism and American politics, I can hope for no less than
God’s corrective hand on our nation and on His Church! Ready to suffer the pains of nationbirth
without the relief of abortion? Try the present, dynamic, triumphant Kingdom of God!
My fellow Evangelicals, get ready for our self-imposed Armageddon! “Straighten up! Lift up
Your Heads! Your Redemption is on the immediate horizon!”
1 Brainless Jellyfish Are Capable of Learning, Study Suggests | Smithsonian
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