A Moment With Pastor Fred

Memorial Day is a time where we commemorate those who died in defending our nation. We owe them our deepest gratitude. I am thankful to be an American. As a history buff I appreciate the Judeo-Christian ethic upon which our country was founded.

We often hear folks say things like “we need to take America back for God.” Back to God presupposes we were once a Christian nation. That isn’t so. While I appreciate our founding fathers, the majority were not believers – they were deists (believing in “Providence” while rejecting the deity of Christ and the Trinity). I read with interest an article in World magazine (April 20, 2024), “The Debate Over Christian Nationalism.” The liberal left wants to paint all evangelicals into wanting to replace our democracy with a religious hierarchy. Be careful of being sucked into such thinking. Many Christian nationalists share a postmillennial eschatology – believing we are to establish God’s kingdom here – now.  We must be reminded of Jesus’ words, “My kingdom is not of this world.” As believers we need to keep the main thing the main thing. It’s not politics. It’s the gospel. Yes, as believers we need to influence our nation in godliness, but that comes as we evangelize not politicize. “We are not seeing terrible things in our culture because we vote the wrong way. We are seeing terrible things in our culture because men love darkness rather than light,”  wrote pastor/author Voddie Baucham.

So, on this Memorial Day weekend I can be patriotic. I am flying our nation’s flag in front of my house. I will take time to pray for our country and for her leaders. I am grateful for those who died to preserve my freedom. But my foremost  allegiance is to Christ and his coming kingdom.