Are you about worn out with the 2008 presidential campaign?
I know I am.
With few exceptions, it really is the same old same old; although the Huckabee candidacy is putting to rest that lame-stream notion that the “religious right” is all but washed up.
But all this campaign talk so early on is more than I can bear.
The thing is – aside from some insightful analysis – almost all of the commentary and trash talking on the talk-radio circuit is about Hillary Clinton.
I do take some delight in her recent negative press, but frankly, if the media obsession over Hillary is a prelude to the next 12 months, Lord help us all!
And it’s not just the “mainstream” media that is obsessed with Hillary. Conservatives are, too. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s our need to wallow in misery, or maybe we feel the need to condition ourselves with bits and bites of political arsenic now so that when the supposed inevitable coronation of Queen Hillary takes place, we won’t all want to commit suicide (just kidding).
But really, all the navel gazing and hand wringing over Hillary is a huge killjoy, especially at Christmas! It’s bad enough that we have to endure a “war on Christmas” every “holiday season”; do we really need to spoil the joy of the season by talking about the supposed “Clintonian inevitability”?
Maybe this is deliberate. Perhaps some conservatives feel that the only way to defeat her is to perpetually remind everyone that she’s going to be the next president of the United States of America, that scaring everyone is the best way to motivate grass-roots opposition.
And that’s why Christmas is especially important to me this year. Because of the 2008 campaign, this particular Christmas has vividly reminded me of what Psalm 2 says:
Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying: “Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.”
Pushing aside the foreboding prospects of another Clinton era, an era full of sexual escapades, political scandal, abuse of power, private investigators, scheming and underhanded political backstabbing, the thing we need to remember is that the Clintonian era is not actually inevitable.
Christmas reminds me of the inevitability of someone else’s political dynasty.
Christmas isn’t simply a nostalgic reminder of a “babe in a manger” or even about the “Savior of the world” – even though both of these ideas are very important details.
Christmas is about the birth of a great king who overcame obscurity and opposition to establish an ever-advancing kingdom. Christmas is about the birth of the King of kings and Ruler of the nations.
It was because Jesus was a king that Herod, the Roman-appointed king of Judah, schemed and plotted His early demise. It was because Jesus was the king that the Pharisees and Sadducees, in cooperation with the Romans, plotted to overthrow and murder him. And it was because Jesus was a king that his life of humiliation, his service as a “suffering servant” and his miserable death on a God-forsaken symbol of Roman justice, takes on monumental significance 2,000 years after the fact.
Since the birth of Christ, political regimes have sought ways to stamp out His rule, marginalize His influence, suppress His gospel and oppress His church.
But none of them has succeeded.
The Clintons aren’t exactly the equivalent of a Herod, a Pilate or even a Diocletian. However, the Clintons are very interested in re-making the United States of America into a “utopia” fashioned according to their own image, a utopia that cares nothing for the principles of biblical justice and liberty. That’s why they are ultimately opposed to the rule of Jesus Christ. And in that sense they are just as evil, corrupt and foolish as the rulers referred to in the opening verses of Psalm 2.
They may succeed for a season. Evil people always seem to prosper for a time. But their day of reckoning is even more inevitable than Hillary’s supposed presidency.
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” (Psalm 2:4-6)
The Psalmist was writing about the ancient King David. Yet this passage also foretells the wonderful story of Christmas.
Christmas reminds me that the only political dynasty that is inevitable isn’t the Clintons, the U.N., Iran or even Russia. It’s about the King of glory, Jesus Christ.
Hillary, like her husband, is a foolish pawn. Her desire to acquire political power and to radicalize a once-decent nation and further erode America’s moral consciousness may be realized for a season. But ultimately she will fail miserably, and history will remember her as it remembers Jezebel – “a wicked woman.”
Christmas tells us that in spite of appearances, God has appointed his King, and He is in charge.
That kind of puts everything into perspective.
And perspective is what the 2008 presidential campaign needs most.
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. And of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. …
This Christmas, let’s put things into perspective. There is nothing “inevitable” about Mrs. Clinton. There is only one Ruler that holds our future in His hands.
Merry Christmas.
Related special offers:
“Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton”
“Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton”
“I’ve Always Been a Yankees Fan: Hillary Clinton in Her Own Words”
“Hillary’s Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists”
