And make no mistake, we all have a civic responsibility, especially in the United States. It has been said that Satan's greatest deception was convincing man that he doesn't exist. I don't want to debate absolute position of ranking, but convincing Christians that they should keep their faith to themselves, especially in civic matters, has to be right up there at the top of that list.

All governments exist, and all rulers have power, because God ordained them (Romans 13: 1, 2). In this nation, the United States, it is the electorate (the people) that bear the crucial role and responsibility to hold our representative government accountable. It is written into the foundations of our nation that the electorate is the ultimate check and balance of our government. Therefore, this is as God ordained.

So we, as Christians, are not merely responsible. We are doubly responsible. As citizens we are doubly responsible, both to the nation and to God, to fulfill our God-ordained responsibility to hold our representatives accountable, especially when they steer our nation towards His wrath. And moreover we are also doubly responsible, both to the nation and to God, to be the salt and light that God has purposed for us. Scripture says quite succinctly that if one is charged to warn the wicked and does not, and the wicked then perish in their iniquity, then God will require the blood of the lost at the hands of the one who withheld God's warning (Ezekiel 3: 18 - 21). Or in keeping to the scripture already cited, Matthew 5: 13, if as salt you have lost your savour, what good are you?

But too many Christians have been too complacent for too long. Lies have been told until they have been accepted as truth. Our own First Amendment has been so perverted that instead of guaranteeing our religious liberty it now serves to silence the prayers of school children while protecting filth-mongers like Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt. How much more than this can we call good evil, and evil good (Isaiah 5: 20)?

Can there be any doubt that ours is a decadent society? I challenge you to name a single liberty that we as a nation hold sacrosanct that doesn't involve sexual indulgence. "Free speech," you ask? There has been no greater subversion of our liberty than the abject assault on political free speech that is the McCain-Feingold Act, yet it has been passed by our representatives, signed into law by our President and upheld as Constitutional by the Supreme Court, without so much as being noticed by the American people. The Patriot Act was just renewed again, with the peoples' blessing. Do you know what new powers it gives law enforcement officials to set aside your civic protections? Do you care? But try to pass a law protecting God-ordained marriage and people take notice. Try to pass a law to protect our children from predatory pedophiles and watch the ensuing uproar. How many men stand quietly, timidly aside while strangers grope and strip search their wives and daughters for no other reason than wanting to board an airplane? Yet as long as the government, "stays out of their bedrooms," the people are content.

Now I ask you, who among us, the electorate of this nation and the elect of God, stood to say, "No! The First Amendment does not protect pornography and vulgarity!" Who among us stood to say, "No! The Establishment Clause does not preclude our public schools from teaching Christianity!" Who among us stood to say, "No! The Constitution does not give mothers the right to murder their unborn children!" Who among us even took the time to learn the truth, that these assertions are all lies?

How many of us chose instead to simply accept the lies as truth? How many of us have simply accepted prima facie the lie that we can't understand the Constitution, or Supreme Court rulings? How many of us have simply accepted the lie that judges are appointed for life? Most have heard of The Federalist Papers, but how many know that they were a series of 85 articles published, not in some elite Ivy League peer reviewed law journal, but in the New York Independent Journal, the daily newspaper, beginning with Federalist I on 27 October 1787? They were written and published for the common man, not the scholarly elite, but who among us has ever read them?

God and Christians have been pushed from the public discourse, at least in part because too many Christians are perfectly willing to be pushed out, to abandon the world, whose preservation they are divinely charged with, to decadence and the wiles of Satan. Can there be then any question that we risk God's wrath? Yes, fulfilling our responsibilities to God and country may require an effort on our part, if reading is an effort, but not much of one. In this information age we live in, none of this, not the Federalist Papers or the Constitution or Supreme Court rulings or proposed legislation, is ever more than an internet search away. So if we stand before God and He asks why we didn't warn our neighbors before they were lost to decadence and iniquity, we will be without excuse.

Romans 10: 17    So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

John 1    1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Matthew 4: 4, 7, 10    4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.  7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.  10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Luke 11: 9    And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Isaiah 1: 18    Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: ...

John 17    6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.  9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.  11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we [are].  14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.  16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Matthew 5: 13 - 16    13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.  14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.  16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 13: 24 - 30    24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Romans 13: 1, 2     1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.  2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

Ezekiel 3: 18 - 21     18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked [man] shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.  19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.  20 Again, When a righteous [man] doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.  21 Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous [man], that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

Isaiah 5: 20     Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!