Here's where the 2 Kingdom doctrine earns its keep.

I haven't been sure what to put in my first blog entry, because I would have liked for it to have been memorable.  Being the day after the re-election of BHO, today is certainly a memorable day.  And, today is the 31st anniversary of the day that my wife and I married.  We had no special plans, so thankfully the bad news will not be dampening an otherwise good time.  Besides, I've been nursing a fever and what I think is a head cold for about 24 hours, and just made it to the keyboard.  So all plans would have been cancelled anyway.

The Republicans somehow snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. More than half the country wants more of what they have been subjected to. They are too stupid to realize that the fruits of production will eventually run out and we will be as bad off as Greece with nobody there to send help.

It is going to take a while for me to come to grips with the now undeniable fact that we are living in a post-Christian, post free-enterprise, post Norman Rockwell America.  We have always been on the mission field, but now that will begin to come home in new and clearer ways.  I blame no-one, and everyone, including myself.  This wasn't Gore trying to steal it.  Obama had what he needed, which is still to my amazement. One friend remarked,

Well, y'all can laugh at me if you want, but I am in tears here. My heart is broken that our country has been reduced to this - that more citizens than not really do only care about "freebies". That more than half of our citizenry does not have the self respect to be interested in working, but in taking. That more than half our citizens are willing to relinquish their freedoms to suck at the teat of the federal government...

Indeed.  Nationally, I fear we are in for it economically, and religious freedom is going to be withering away rapidly.  Expect not only more stupid suicidal policies, but also expect more Katrinas more Sandys and more Benghazi, the last of which most Americans don't even seem to know about, let alone care. The country is probably sunk.  So much for the left-hand kingdom. Said a friend;

Time to face the facts.  A "Christian Worldview" lost last night to a godless, pro-death, pro-sodomy worldview.
That is the pulse of our nation. Our "Christian" nation. Can we please drop the fiction that the USA is Christian, or that Jesus somehow died for it?  Thanks!

I certainly have to agree with that assessment.  I've been coming to it for quite some time.

Thank God for the right-hand Kingdom.  If you aren't familiar with the "Two Kingdom" hermeneutic, I would suggest you learn what it is.  Briefly, it comprehends that in certain respects the Kingdom is already, and in others that it is not yet.  It is both at once.  And it also comprehends that the triune God is ruling over both the "City of Man" on the left hand, and over the "Kingdom of God" on the  right.   According to the doctrines of providence and decree, God rules over all, and whatever may be, it is by God's will and according to God's attributes of wisdom, benevolence, and power. 

If I was still a Semi-Pelagian decisionist American Evangelical, I don't know how I would be handling this, but it would not be pretty.  My comfort is in the Sovereign, Omnipotent, and Omnibenevolent ontological Trinity, and in the benefits of the gospel.  I would have always said as much, but I understand it much better now.

If "fixing it" was up to me, I would despair,  because I've learned that I cannot even fix me.  And us "fixing it with God's help" is just as ridiculous, since you cannot fix you either.  Do not make the mistake of thinking that more of your works are going to change anything.  What we need is for God to work among us, if we are not already abandoned.

For the time being, God has chosen to give the USA what it asked for, and I am somehow able to accept that.  While my fortunes, and those of my loved ones are tied to this once good country, there is more to this life of real value than is dependent upon the flow of oil or the rate of taxation.

As for the highly likely religious persecution now on its way - it is written into the "Affordable Health Care Act", I'm OK with that too.  Cut off my meds and refuse me treatment and I get a pass out of here.  The same goes for my children, who are also in the body of Christ.

One of my Lutheran friends posted this today by another friend of his;

"God is always giving sinners over to their sin in every age while yet preserving His church by His Word and gifts. Perhaps the lesson for Christians in America is that what matters most is still and always has been Christ crucified, Good News that isn't just for a spoiled, well-off middle class life of ease." --Pr. Mark Buetow

The same friend posted himself, 

I was thinking this morning, why do we deserve a good government? We've had the best and still killed more babies than Nazi Germany killed grown adults! We (as Christians) are a minority in a country that thinks it's good, but is one of the bloodiest in history.  We're worse than the Nazis and the Soviets. "A Christian Nation" indeed.

It does seem as though few things could be worse for us than what happened yesterday. But it may be the best thing for the gospel, for the Church, and for the family.  We're going to have to learn to rely on one another, trust one another, pull our own weight and share together.  And if that is the future of America, it may not be all that bad.