[EDITOR’S NOTE: Being a “Christ supremacist” is a far, far cry from being a “white supremacist.” In today’s blog, David is talking about the radical difference. Since the days of legal slavery in our country, ethnic issues have brought much pain and division. Christ offers hope! Drawing on a central vision of David’s latest book, Christ Is NOW! (available November 1), he shows us how Christians across America can become life-giving “Christ supremacists,” providing the antidote for all kinds of civil wars.]
“Is America Headed for a New Kind of Civil War?” asks resident scholar for The New Yorker Robin Wright, days after the Charlottesville disaster.
Good question. What do you think? Does another civil war threaten your future as an American citizen?
What Are the Prospects of Your Involvement in a Civil War in America?
Some national security experts now predict a 60% chance of civil war in the USA within the next 15 years. That reality resides in the rise of over (by some estimates) 900 and counting active, organized “hate groups” across the land. But opposing groups (often called “Antifa,” meaning “anti-fascists”) can prove just as vitriolic, carrying signs that read “Make Nazis Afraid” and “Smash White Supremacy.”
Dr. Wright reports that after Charlottesville, the big question asked by Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe was: “How did we get to this place?” You’ve probably asked that too.
However, to his question I must add: And where are we headed next? Is the United States entering the twilight of our republic? How close is the social fabric of our country to being torn apart—a country whose de facto national motto at its inception, ironically, claimed our highest aspiration to be “Out of Many, One”?
Let’s look at our plight more closely to see if, as Jesus followers, you and I may have a wonderfully unique role to play in the rebirth of unity for these United States— perhaps at a level of oneness never experienced before.
Digging Deeper Into the Diabolical Divisions Among Us
Clearly we are a divided people in almost every dimension imaginable: Political. Racial. Economic. Cultural. Religious. Generational. Lifestyle.
The single best summary of how desperate our condition is comes from the Pew Research Center, quoted in TIME magazine’s late August front cover story on “Hate in America.” Here is the Center’s finding:
Many in each [political] party now deny the other’s facts, disapprove of each other’s lifestyles, avoid each other’s neighborhoods, impugn each other’s motives, doubt each other’s patriotism, can’t stomach each other’s news sources and bring different value systems to such core social institutes as religion, marriage and parenthood. It’s as if they belong not to rival parties but to alien tribes (emphasis added).
The issues run much deeper than whether one watches MSNBC or Fox News.
There’s a general sense in every part of the country that America has lost conviction about its exceptional identity—its reason for existence in today’s world, its purpose and direction, its role in history and among the nations.
Fundamentally, “Make America Great Again” is more than a campaign slogan; it is the cry of millions of hearts that could also become a prayer if it were lifted to Heaven.
Recently, NBC’s dean of reporters, Andrea Mitchell, reflected during the coverage of Charlottesville: “I’m usually optimistic. But right now I see a spiritual corruption in America for which I see no way out.”
Did you catch that phrase—“spiritual corruption”?
At their root, the divisions among us rise from spiritual short circuits. Partly, this is due to the universal condition of the finite, fallen, sinful, rebellious human heart. But part of it also is diabolical—the work of Satan and his vicious forces whose primary goal is not only the disintegration of our nation but also of the whole creation.
America’s spiritual crisis caused conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks to conclude last week:
Most people say that most of America’s problems are pre-political. What’s needed is a revival of values, fraternity and a binding American story . . . [a] revival of spirit. (emphasis added)
So, what would such a “revival” look like?
Become Part of a “Christ Supremacist” Movement in America
The healing of America must begin inside the churches of America—where a recent Barna survey found that 53% of our pastors confess, regretfully, that their congregations love America more than they love Christ!
Talk about “spiritual corruption” and the need for a spiritual revival—there it is, among God’s people!
And as historians have observed, as goes the Church so goes the nation.
Looking at Charlottesville, Dr. Mark Labberton, president of the world’s largest seminary, called for Christians in the US to abandon our “comfort Christianity” and wake up to fresh “courage” in Christ, so as to live flat-out for Christ in the face of our worsening national crisis.
As Dr. Labberton reminds us, Ephesians 2: 11-22 declares how only Jesus Christ has the power to break down every kind of barrier, healing divisions with the same power by which he brought about our reconciliation with the living God by his cross, resurrection, and ascension.
To bring restoration to America, Jesus followers first of all need to run back to the greatness and glory of God’s Son and to what his reconciling reign over the nations—over our nation—is all about at this hour.
In other words, Christians need to become a movement of “Christ supremacists.” Together. From coast to coast. In community after community. Right now.
By definition, a “supremacist” believes that a specific person or group or worldview supersedes, transcends, and ultimately replaces every other competing person or group or worldview. If you’re referring to a racist, that kind of outlook can quickly lead to acts of division, violence, and hatred.
On the other hand, a “Christ supremacist” is a follower of Jesus whose life vision, life purpose, and life ministry is driven by the absolute conviction that currently the person of the exalted Lord Jesus Christ supersedes and transcends all other persons or perspectives in this world—even if currently multitudes know little or nothing about him—so that at the end he will prevail with love and truth in the triumphs of his kingdom.
However, unlike neo-Nazi’s and such tribes, Christ supremacists can become a force for healing and justice and reconciliation and godly community as they surrender daily to their Servant-King.
What If America Were Flooded With Christ Supremacists?
Think about this: What if millions of believers did become genuine Christ supremacists? What if their lives were saturated with the presence of Jesus as Lord? What if they were filled with the Holy Spirit so much that they abounded with the kind of love and joy and peace that comes straight from God’s heart through theirs in order to pour out his blessings on others?
It would be glorious, would it not? Becoming “new creations in Christ Jesus” would break captivity to pride and prejudice and bitterness and hate toward others. Addictions would be broken. Marriages and families would be healed. Ravaged neighborhoods would be restored.
But just as profoundly, because these Christ supremacists would be so caught up in the wonders of their reigning Savior and his redeeming purposes, they would go forth every day to live more lovingly, more morally, more honestly, more patiently, more kindly, more peacefully, less selfishly, less self-righteously, less defensively, less fearfully.
They would become hard workers on the job; sacrificial servants among the poor; promoters of all people as not only created by God, and therefore infinitely valuable to him and to the world, but also as equally welcomed to enter into eternal life through faith in Christ as their all in all.
Such a movement of Christ supremacists would bring spiritual and social revolution for the entire nation. Surely there could be no more effective way to end partisan rancor, hate speech, and racial violence than for a host of our citizens to become utterly focused on and responsive to the majesty, sovereignty, and saving activity of the Redeemer of the nations.
In fact, take note: This vision is the very message of a nationwide Christian endeavor starting September 20 called 40 Days of Love, facilitated by the Mission America Coalition (over 300 denominations and Christian ministries). It provides a great place for this kind of movement to gain traction. Learn more and get involved here.
There is hope for our nation to be restored. As I word it in bold lettering on the back cover of my next book, Christ Is NOW!, we have hope for the reclamation of our nation only when:
The whole church across the whole nation
becomes wholly alive
to the whole vision of the whole Christ!
In that miracle—what many define today as a “Christ awakening”—lies the only unequaled path to thwarting a second civil war in the USA.
In that miracle—nothing less than millions of Jesus followers becoming so totally consumed with and responsive to the full extent of his supremacy—lies the dynamic for the in-depth spiritual healing so many in our nation are crying for.
In that miracle lies the grandest answer to any prayer we make to ask God to bring America into true greatness, because:
- the greatness for which America was destined will come about only as Christ in his supremacy rescues us from crumbling in the clutches of our “spiritual corruption” (as Andrea Mitchell put it);
- true greatness will come only as the truth about Christ and his supremacy permeates every corner of our land bringing eternal bounties found only in his redeeming reign;
- God-given greatness comes about only for a people so thoroughly caught up in the wonders of Christ’s supremacy that through them the Holy Spirit is able to unleash his saving initiatives among nations beyond their borders.
In other words, it will come through a nationwide movement of Christ supremacists.
How Does One Grow as a Christ Supremacist?
The subtitle of my upcoming Christ Is NOW! gives the answer. In this book I help my readers discover:
7 Groundbreaking Keys
to Help You Explore and Experience
the Spectacular Supremacy of God’s Son Today
When believers across America employ these seven keys, designed to lead them into fresh, personal encounters with Jesus as Lord of all, many will feel like they are meeting him all over again. These seven keys will cause those with yielded and yearning hearts to grow increasingly fervent as Christ supremacists. Guaranteed.
After that happens for you, then all you need to do is take your re-engagement with Christ with you into whatever role God has for you to fulfill, individually and with others, in the spiritual redemption of America.
Suggestion: Before Christ Is NOW! becomes available November 1, begin to learn more about these seven keys by sampling some of the companion video teachings.
“Unum”—in Christ
Bottom line: Genuine, lasting “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one) can truly happen only to the degree we are united by and under the supremacy of Christ, just as we’re told in Scripture:
[The Messiah] tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance . . . Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility . . . God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building . . . fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together (Ephesians 2, MSG, emphasis added).
It starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with complete surrender to the lordship of Christ. It’s powered and possible by fervent prayer.
Together let’s make America really GREAT because Christ is seen as GREAT again in our life together!
There isn’t any single solution-but lots of options like I said in the beginning, there’s
no hard and speedy manual that claims to the point answers
to all your problems. Today in the event that you pose a specific problem into a panel of experts,
then you are guaranteed to find many distinct comments and
solutions at yield. This can turnout to become confusing.
You’re right. That’s often the experience. On the other hand, Jesus DID say that HE, in himself by virtue of who he is and on the basis of all he done for the reclamation of the universe and of each of our lives, was THE TRUTH, THE WAY, THE LIFE (John 14:6). Our living, reigning Lord and Savior IS the “manual” we’ve been looking for (to use your word). Thanks for writing back. David
Hello, I check your blog daily. Your writing style is awesome, keep
up the good work!