CAN WE LEGISLATE OUR WAY TO VICTORY?
The day is coming when “the lawlessness one”, the antichrist, will greatly influence the world for a time (2 Thess. 2:9). In the meantime, put out your political yard signs in each election and obsess over new laws and how our rights as citizens cannot be compromised; but please do not lose sight of your citizenship in the kingdom of God and your God-given mandate to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Let’s do what we can to save lives legislatively, but let’s also get off our “blessed assurance” and pray in the next move of God.
Our culture seems to think that revising or introducing new laws is the answer. Well, yes and no. It is true that if we change laws people will be safer or lives will even be saved. For instance, when a legislative body passes a mandatory seat belt law, lives are saved. If texting and driving has stiff legal implications, surely some lives will be saved. If it becomes legally impossible for anyone to purchase a firearm, or an assault rifle until they are 21 years old, then surely there are instances where lives would be saved. If abortion became illegal, one could say that there would be fewer abortions. If you crunch the numbers, it is safe to say that laws can and do have an impact on our culture.
However, laws do not in any way effectively legislate morality. Prohibition didn’t halt alcohol sales. Laws concerning drug usage have never kept people from using drugs. The death penalty isn’t a deterrent to murder. We cannot legislate morality. In fact, when a law is no longer effective in influencing behavior, the behavior sometimes flips from illegal to legal. Prostitution and gambling are such examples.
The law doesn’t affect the human heart. It is not the law that will permeate the heart of a greatly disturbed teen longing to massacre his fellow students. The law will not provide frightened freshman with a soothing sense of protection. The law will not lessen the latent anxiety within the bully on campus. The law is only laughed at by the demonically influenced active shooter. The law can do some things, but the law cannot and will not do the rest. At some point, this country will need to come to the realization that there is but One God, that Himself had a great deal of laws that only revealed our need of Him to keep them.
Our problems will not ultimately be solved through bi-partisan votes. Our problems will not be solved by Presidents or Senators but by the Spirit of the Sovereign God. We can ill afford to pontificate over how to extinguish moral forest fires with squirt guns. It’s past time to bring in the power through prayer for a move of God that permeates and delivers would-be shooters.
Some laugh at such “religious” rhetoric. But when you are done mocking Christianity, know this; In true moves of God like Wales, Azusa Street, The Great Awakening, Hebrides, etc., crime drastically dropped and was documented. One other thing dropped along with crime…conversations about passing laws to stop it. Let’s do what we can to save lives legislatively but let’s also get off our “blessed assurance” and pray in the next move of God. America will heal if she humbles herself before God in a deep Spirit of humility and appreciation that calls out for God.
-Dr. Gary Hewins,
Lifepoints.life
