Why is there so much confusion in America surrounding the presidential election? Why are American churches failing to stand strong as real salt and light in the country today? The root problem is the same in principle. Neither America nor its churches are functioning according to the rule of law on which each was founded.

Rule of Law refers to a written, legal standard of authority which determines right and wrong for a person or group of people. The founding fathers of America never intended this country to function as a pure democracy, where the final authority would rest on man's majority opinion. America's founding fathers understood the biblical truth that people are sinners with self-deceptive hearts. So they wrote a constitution based on sound biblical principles of government, emphasizing the separation of powers.

"The Constitution defines the fundamental law of the United States federal government, setting forth the three principal branches of the federal government, outlining their jurisdictions, and propounding the basic rights of U.S. citizens. It has become the landmark legal document of the Western world, and is the oldest written national constitution currently in effect. The essential principle of the document is that government must be confined to the rule of law."  (Library of Congress,  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/abt_const.html) [emphasis added]

They knew that every human election could be flawed by either unintentional errors or deliberate attempts to manipulate. So, the right of "one person - one vote" was placed under the legal constraints of both a system of representative electors as well as a specific time frame for counting and recounting votes. Now, however, the humanistic and erroneous belief that people are inherently trustworthy is fueling efforts to remove the checks and balances wisely established by the men who wrote America's constitution. The inevitable result if this trend continues will be increasing disrespect for the rule of law, then disorder, and finally destruction of the nation as we know it today.

Churches and Christians in America are following in the wayward footsteps of the culture as a whole. The Bible should be the written, legal standard of authority for every true believer and every true church of Jesus Christ. Churches, historically, have drafted written constitutions or covenants which attempt to establish their beliefs and practices according to their prayerful and careful interpretation of the Bible. Additionally, the first century churches were governed by pastoral elders, who had the responsibility of establishing the rule of law in the lives and families of their church.  

Sadly today, most people in America who call themselves "Christians" and most America "churches" only give lip service to the absolute authority of God's Word. Most church members don't even know that their church has a constitution, much less what is written in it. They belong to the church because they like the music, or the nursery, or the pageants, or the pastor's personality and preaching. But the rule of God's Law and their church's stand on it is usually not why they are members. Functionally, their real authority is man's majority opinion. Everyone does and demands what is right in his own eyes. For example, husbands and wives rarely if ever make decisions after prayerfully evaluating relevant principles from God's Word. And when was the last time you saw a church committee actually search the Bible in order to plan their policies and procedures?  

The result is that so often Christian men only passively serve as figure-heads.  Christian women have become the functional leaders of their homes and churches, even many of those who say they believe in God's delegated order of rank. Christian children on average are becoming more and more disrespectful, disobedient, disordered, and thus dysfunctionally dishonoring to their parents, their church, and the LORD.

So it's no wonder that the world is increasingly rejecting biblical Christianity and turning instead to pantheistic socialism, when they see that Christian families are just as dysfunctional as all the rest.  Folks, the most powerful influence we can have on the world is not through political activism, but by manifesting the holy (unique) lives and relationships that point upward toward God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Legal, political action is good, but please beware of man's natural tendency to let what's "good" and easier swallow up God's best!