What happened in Charlottesville last week was disgusting. Our hearts grieved as we watched folks marching in our streets who actually believe their race is better than others’. No one should have anything to do with that filth from Satan’s floor.
As Christians, our faith stands adamantly opposed to this, pointing to the incredible unity Christ brings: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9, emphasis added).
So this rally that took place ran against every grain of our being.
And since then, all the lawless insanity that has followed – including the media’s huge power grab to lump men and women of faith in with these supremacist nut jobs – is grieving, too.
Hearing Antifa (the hard left fringe group fomenting much of the violence) call for an escalation in tactics to stop Republicans or right-wingers from assembling or voicing their opinions is crazy. Antifa activists even labeled right-leaning speech violence, and now say they have a right to use self-defense or physical violence in return.
This is absolutely absurd.
Even more absurd is their protest in Boston, where they gathered to “stand against Nazis” by throwing bottles of urine at police and burning the flag that defeated Nazism!
And we can’t forget Missouri Sen. Maria Chappell-Nadal’s public call for the assassination of our president!
Are you kidding?!
The bottom line is, it doesn’t matter if it’s the “alt-right” (white supremacists) or hard-left (Antifa), any American with a soul abhors these groups. But what these groups – and the ongoing conflict we’re watching daily now – reveal to us is that we as a nation have entered a period of spiritual darkness, a darkness that can be felt.
So we believe this total solar eclipse means much more than a once-in-a-lifetime event we get to watch with our kids. We see it as a physical manifestation of a much deeper spiritual truth – that our nation has abandoned the Light of the World, and darkness has come upon us.
But there’s hope. There always is as long as Jesus is on the throne.
It’s up to us, as a nation, though, to listen to Him. We must “repent and return, that our sins may be wiped away and times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
We can’t continue to reject Him and revile His ways anymore. We have to quit pretending He doesn’t exist – even though we say we’re “One nation under God” and our currency proclaims, “In God we trust.”
These proclamations simply aren’t true anymore.
The consequence of this rejection is darkness, as Isaiah 5 reveals: “If one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof” (5:30b).
Today, the light from the sun will grow dark in the middle of the day. But just as sure as it will regain its light minutes later we can rest assured that if we turn back to God He will usher in a time of spiritual refreshing that we so desperately need as a nation.
Here’s a short video we did to bring a bit more clarity to everything going on today.
Media wishing to interview Jason & David Benham, please contact [email protected].
