The title for this post is misleading in that God is great whether we as humans acknowledge his greatness or not. This title could also lead mislead people to think I am equating the re-election of President Donald Trump as making God great again, or even worse equating Trump as God. I am doing neither. I am simply stating the need for a spiritual awaking in our country. “Woke” has become the new word of the day. I prefer to use the word in a different way in this post. God’s church needs to wake up and make God great again!
In my last post, I spoke some on the reality of heaven to come. This past week, President Trump said that “If Joe Biden gets elected, the whole country would go to hell. And we’re not going to let it go to hell.” Theologically speaking, Trump is dead wrong. Are there hellish things happening on this earth and specifically in America? Certainly. But, we need to distinguish between what we often call “hell on earth” and hell.
I prefer not to use the word “hell” unless I am talking about the real place the Bible refers to as hell. No matter your stance on the word, you should never use the word in passing or as a way to express your anger. Hell is nothing less than eternal death in an eternal place. Physical death on earth happens to us all in a moment, though our suffering before death may last much longer. But eternal death is different. Eternal death is a state of death that you live in forever, not just a moment. I can’t explain what that looks like. I am not like some who claim they have travelled to hell and come back. These folks usually write books or make movies and then make money off of their experience. The hell I read about in the Bible is different. If and when you go there, you don’t come back. Not only have you died, you are dead forever.
The church needs to make God great again so that people don’t have to go to hell. We need to tell people that it is bad on earth, but that it doesn’t compare to eternal death because anything that happens here is temporary. Jesus is the Way out of hell and Jesus is the way we can all make it through the current mess we have to endure. Joe Biden is not the answer. Donald Trump is not the answer. Jesus is the answer!
But how will people hear the good news of Jesus if the church doesn’t go and tell? The church has already been commissioned and sent. Jesus is waiting on you. What are you waiting on? Trump always talks about Biden hiding down in his basement and not coming out. I worry that Christians are in their basement just waiting for Jesus to come back and take them home. We always need to be on watch! But rather than waiting in our basements, we need to be working for the Master. Does a certain parable in Scripture come to mind? In a land full of division, God has called you to be a peacemaker. Now, go and make peace! Make God great again!