​Sermon: Revelation 7:9-17
See also 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12
November 3, 2024
         I have a friend who went to church with an old German guy. We'll call him Gustav. Gustav is a good German Lutheran, very faithful in church attendance and all that. He's also a very old German Lutheran—in fact, he actually grew up in old Germany, in the 1920s and '30s. And old Gustav believed something that makes a lot of people really uncomfortable: he believed that Adolf Hitler was a good leader.
         Why, you ask? Well, Hitler put food on the table! Gustav said. Gustav's earliest memories were of profound hunger and uncertainty as his poor farming family struggled to make ends meet. The German economy hadn't recovered since the First World War, and it only got worse in the Depression. Then along comes Hitler and the Nazis, and they got people working again. Gustav didn't know what they did, exactly; all he knew was that Adolf Hitler was good for the German economy.
         "But what about the Holocaust?" you may ask, "Or when he annexed Poland and started World War II?" Well, Gustav was convinced that the Holocaust was just Allied propaganda. He never saw those alleged concentration camps with his own eyes.
         As for the invasion of Poland? Eh, Gustav was no expert in international politics. Hitler is hardly the first great world leader to invade his neighbors; why hold it against him? The guy must have had his reasons. Just because a lot of other countries didn't agree with his reasons, that doesn't make him wrong.
         Now, I'm not saying I agree with ol' Gustav, but the guy makes a point: when you're poor and starving, having a leader who can make his country prosper can be the difference between life and death. But how far are you willing to go to have a leader like that?
         Gustav is willing to defend Hitler's invasion of Poland and deny the reality of the Holocaust. Over six million innocent people were murdered under Hitler. He is almost universally regarded as the physical embodiment of pure evil. I don't care if a guy can spin straw into gold; if he's carrying out systemized murder on a scale like that, he definitely doesn't deserve to be a leader.
         Clearly some issues are more important than the economy, even when your own family is at stake. If a starving Jew in Nazi Germany somehow still had the right to vote, I don't think anyone would blame him for voting against Hitler over the whole "Holocaust" issue. Yes, that might make him a "single-issue voter" going against a popular and prosperous leader, but it's kind of an important issue, isn't it?
         In case you've somehow forgotten, our country's elections are coming up this Tuesday. You've probably been inundated with political ads on TV and the radio and the internet and whatever other media you use, and I'm sure you've heard every opinion under the sun about how you should vote. But you haven't heard from your pastor; I've made an effort not to add to the noise up to this point. Yet I would be remiss in my duty to you if I didn't talk about the election at all, since God's Word has a lot to say about how nations should operate. So if you would, please lend me your ears for just one sermon and take into consideration how our Lord would have you exercise your civic duty in this election.
         I'm actually not allowed to advocate for any one political party or candidate, lest our church lose her status as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. That’s good for me personally, I think, as I would hate to preach in favor of a candidate who later turned out to be a really rotten apple. “Trust not in princes,” Psalm 146 tells us. Voting is not about doing your part to save America. God will save America. Not Trump or Harris or any other politician. Your vote should reflect your Christian values and should be cast for candidates whose platforms and promises align with those values. If a politician breaks those promises, he or she will be held accountable to God for that. 
         The Lord holds rulers accountable for the decisions they make in office, and in our country, that likewise includes the everyday citizens who choose those rulers. How you vote is in no way independent from how you believe as a Christian; your faith very much influences your decision. If you are willing to elect the next Adolf Hitler because you think it'll help the economy or for some other selfish reason, that's evil. And if you are willing to neglect your duty as a citizen and sit back while other people elect the next Hitler, you are no less guilty.
         We Christians need to be informed citizens, both when it comes to candidates and when it comes to issues. I'm not exaggerating when I talk about electing the next Hitler. Hitler is most remembered as the guy who murdered six million innocent people during his reign. Yet here in the U.S., over a million innocent people are legally murdered every year through the institution of abortion, with over 50 million performed since Roe v Wade made it legal in 1973. Even Hitler couldn't pull off numbers like that!
         Overturning Roe v Wade in 2022 does not appear to have made a difference in overall numbers; just where abortions can be performed. And in case you haven’t heard, Minnesota has some of the most lax abortion laws in the nation. People literally come here from other states because we make it easy to murder unborn children.
         God's Word and informed reason both agree that unborn humans are just as human as the rest of us; however, the leaders of this state and those who profit from abortion have decided otherwise. Your vote can help to change that, but only if you use it.
         It's no secret also that the LGBTQ movement has done great damage to our nation’s understanding of marriage and sexuality as God designed them. Against God's design, homosexual unions can now be sanctioned by the state as "marriages," and people celebrate that. In fact, speaking against gay marriage and the transgender movement will not only earn you labels like "bigot" and "transphobe," but are also quickly becoming downright illegal!
         It won't be long before biblical teaching on marriage and sexuality will be legally labeled as hate speech. I am not being sensationalist up here, and I'm not appealing to a slippery slope fallacy, I promise you. If something does not change very soon, the Bible's teaching on human sexuality will be legally punishable as hate speech within the next 25 years, and that's a conservative time estimate.
         We need to battle against our culture's embrace of sin, not just for our own sake, our children's sake, or even the Church's sake; we need to fight this stuff simply because it's the right thing to do. The unborn need an advocate; those who God’s plan need to be shown their sin and led away from it. God's Word will never pass away from this land, but it'll become a lot harder to share if it's outlawed. Not to mention the damage that is done to society when the fundamental structure of the family unit is crumbling as it is.
         Frankly, election season can be a discouraging time. I've heard countless times how it doesn't matter how we vote because the people in the cities run this state. And more and more it feels like the antichristian elements in this whole country have the majority. None of us knows where this country is going, but it's hard to imagine how it could be good.
         We all hate our politicians—it's practically un-American not to—but they simply represent the majority of the people. If the culture continues to embrace sin and welcome evil, our votes aren't going to stop it. Even if we somehow elected the perfect president, that won’t fix the culture.
         King Josiah ruled in the nation of Judah for 31 years in 2 Kings 22 and 23. He was a good king who did everything in his power to turn Judah away from idol worship and back to the Lord. Yet within 25 years of Josiah’s death, God allowed Babylon to conquer Judah in brutal and horrifying fashion because his people had forsaken him. Trust not in princes.
         That's why the real fight for this country is fought not just at the polls, but in our everyday lives. We need to understand what the Bible says on various issues. Sometimes that involves reading books and articles written by other faithful Christians. We need to understand how the world thinks in contradiction to the Bible, and why. We need to learn how to counter their false thinking with God's Truth, and, believe it or not, we sometimes need to be able to do that without quoting the Bible.
         Why? Because people who advocate for abortion and the like tend not to care about the Bible. The Bible is the most reliable source for truth, but it isn't the onlysource. You can be pro-life for purely secular reasons if you realize that the only thing separating a fetus from a baby is the birth canal. You can even oppose the gay and trans movements for purely secular reasons if you see the danger in allowing the government to redefine reality to fit the trends of the day. And if advocating this kind of stuff isn't your cup of tea, you can still fight the good fight by praying for and donating to organizations that do.
         Here's a bit of truth from the Bible: do you remember how God helped the Israelites conquer the Promised Land? This ragtag nation of slaves, untrained in the art of war and unequipped to fight anybody, took over an entire country by force in three years. Several countries, in fact. They obviously had God's help in the matter, but do you remember why God helped them? It wasn't just that he loved them, or that he had promised that land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Deuteronomy 9:5: "Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you."
         The previous inhabitants of the Promised Land practiced idolatry of the worst sort. They burned their children alive to satisfy the dark god Molech. They participated in the most perverted sex acts as part of their fertility worship. God didn't just want them to move; he wanted their entire culture obliterated. The Israelites were simply the tool he used to accomplish that.
         And yet, consider this: a god, biblically speaking, is the thing you live for, the thing you serve, the thing you fear, love, and trust above all else. To the Canaanites, their gods were Molech and Baal and their lot; but to the average American, their god is themselves. They live for and serve and find meaning in the god of self. They murder their own offspring and debase their bodies in service to this false god, just like the Canaanites did. So then we're left to wonder: how long before the Lord allows this nation of idolaters to be obliterated?
         We don't know. We don't know what will happen to this country, or to any current earthly kingdom. Most kingdoms from Biblical times are no more, or else persist in name only. Egypt; Syria; Rome; Israel; they're around, but only as mere shadows of what they once were. Whether and for how long the United States will survive is not for us to know.
         There is one Kingdom that will never perish, though. In today's reading from Revelation, God is seen seated on a throne. Seven times in this passage is God's throne mentioned. Now a throne is not just a fancy chair; it signifies power beyond itself. Someone seated on a throne wields dominion over a kingdom. And who is seated on the throne of heaven, the highest throne of all? God himself.
         God is in control. He is in control even now, as he uses kingdoms and rulers and even voters to accomplish his purposes. He is called the King of Kings for good reason; whether they know it or not, all rulers and powers of the earth are his to command. And by the death and resurrection of Christ, even death itself has been brought under his feet.
         In uncertain times such as these, one thing remains unshakeable: that at the end of days, God will rule all. He will accomplish what no king could ever hope for and will establish perfect justice. He will punish those who do evil in the same manner by which he punished Jesus, who took our evil. For those who call upon the name of Jesus, though, they will be pardoned for their sin. For the sake of Christ, God will have mercy on all who believe in him, even those who have had abortions or succumbed to the basest sexual temptations. He will forgive even you, even me, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
         I don't know how things will turn out on Election Day, but I do know this: whatever America decides, and however that affects this land, God will use it according to his plan. And no matter who wins or who loses or what hardship may befall us, we have a hope for a future of peace and prosperity in Christ. May you find comfort in the hope of a future in God's eternal kingdom, in Jesus' name. Amen.