What Did We Learn?

Countless articles and videos on the red wave that wasn’t.  Gonzalo Lira sums up the situation well, in a short 145-second video:

·         With seventy-five percent of the US population saying that the country is on the wrong track

·         With a president with the lowest approval rating ever

·         With gas prices going through the roof, food prices going through the roof, energy prices going through the roof.

·         In a mid-term election [he didn’t add, but I will, where the incumbent’s party almost always loses seats, and more so given the above facts]

What happened?

·         Not one democratic governor lost his seat (at least so far)

·         Not one incumbent democratic senator lost his seat

Now I haven’t fact-checked this, but it is closer to be true than not.  And as of the time of my writing this, the balance in both the house and senate remain in question.

His conclusion?

They did it again. …The democrats just seem to defy electoral gravity.  Sorry, no.  No.  No.  I don’t have to look at the specifics to know this is not possible.

He then went there: “They did it again.”  You know what “it” is.  Admittedly, the result was not as bad as I wrote in my “Headlines” piece – not really a prediction of precise results, but more an indication of the direction I felt things would go.

Now, in the countless articles and videos on this nonexistent red wave, I have seen only one point to the root of the problem, and that is offered by Doug Wilson, entitled Red, Red Whine (blog post / video).  After giving his analysis of the situation, he concludes:

So remember the two principles outlined above. The people really do suffer when ruled by miscreants. And, following hard on the first principle, mortal men in their own name, no matter how much common sense they might have, cannot save us from the miscreants.

Why is that?  Is it because our side isn’t at good at vote counting as their side is?  After all, aren’t we “mortal men” just trying to outwit their “mortal men.”  No, not according to Wilson (and me):

That is because the death wish that animates the Left is a spiritual power, it is a demon, and cannot be exorcised by stupidity or intelligence, ignorance or knowledge, bad intentions or good.

There are a couple of verses that have been the common theme for me these last many years:

Ephesians 6: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

These principalities aren’t just floating in the æther.  They work through real men and real women, humans walking among us.

Second:

Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience

As Jesus says in John 8: The sons of disobedience always lie, because their father always lies.  It is in their nature because it is their father’s nature.

Returning to Wilson:

Instead of looking to the next election, we need to be praying and looking for the next reformation and revival.

But one thing must come first:

But before looking for the April of reformation, we need to go through the November of repentance.

Wilson places this burden squarely where it belongs: on the churches in this country.

If we want unbelievers to repent of their sin, the first thing believers should do is show them how. Judgment should begin with the household of God (1 Pet. 4:17). How can we expect them to let go of their sins when we refuse to let go of ours? And more to the pinch point, evangelicals need to learn how to repent of things that we have serenely assumed to be our virtues.

He then proceeds with a long list of what we (Christian leaders and Christians generally) must repent of, concluding:

We must repent of thinking that reformation is a matter of transplanting a few bushes out in our ecclesiastical front yard when it is more a matter of getting certain tectonic plates to shift, a hundred miles below that front yard. We think in this superficial way because we believe we know how to transplant a bush (“there, fixed it!”), while only God can shake the earth. But when God shakes things up (Heb. 12:27), He does it so that the things that cannot be shaken might remain, and that leaves us feeling unsettled and puny. We no like.

The change required is a fundamental change.  It isn’t one of sprucing up the garden.

Conclusion

As I concluded in one of the aforementioned pieces (and for those who continue to wonder why I seemingly have strayed so far from the path of pursuing liberty):

Satan’s servants – both inside and outside of the church – are human actors.  They will not be convinced by the logic and purity of the non-aggression principle.  If all it took in this world was for reason to govern, libertarianism would be the accepted political regime globally.