The pastor admits the midterms were ‘grievous,’ but he’s not despairing: The church has outlasted every cultural collapse, and America’s revival story isn’t over.
asserted
story → admit → collapse
BlazeTV host and Lakepointe Church Pastor Josh Howerton isn’t sugarcoating last week’s blue tsunami that installed Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, flipped multiple governorships to blue, expanded abortion access up to birth in Virginia, and elevated a wave of progressive, DSA, and Islamic candidates.
asserted
that → sugarcoat → candidates
It was sad and very grievous,” he says bluntly.
asserted
he → say → ?
“A significant amount of national sin was chosen in that moment.”
asserted
amount → choose → moment
Howerton visits Romans 1’s warning about what happens when societies turn their backs on God.
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societies → visit → God
“The passive wrath of God is when God looks at people who have decided, ‘I hate you.
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I → look → you
I hate everything that you call good.
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you → hate → that
I'm gonna call what you call good evil and what you call evil good,’” he summarizes.
asserted
he → go → what
“God looks at them and he goes … ‘I'm gonna let you have all the evil things that you have always wanted, and I'll just give you over to those things and you will destroy yourself and your culture will destroy itself’ — and that, in and of itself, is the wrath of God.”
asserted
that → look → God
This is where America finds herself right now, Howerton argues.
asserted
Howerton → find → herself
“You're watching Romans 1 play out before your very eyes.
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Romans → watch → eyes
And I will give a final warning: You cannot do Romans 1:21 through 1:27 and not think that your culture will eventually end up in Romans 2:9 that talks about the day when the wrath and fury of God will no longer be passive; it will be active,” he warns.
asserted
he → give → God
But as much as Howerton hoped midterms would go differently, he knows “there is no political solution to a spiritual problem.”
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he → hop → problem
“Politics cannot fix what politics did not break.
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politics → fix → what
And mankind was broken long before any political solution,” he says.
asserted
he → break → solution
And that’s why a blue wave doesn’t shake him.
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wave → ’ → him
“The church that preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ — we're the hope of the world, baby!” he exclaims.
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he → preach → world
We are people of hope,” fellow pastor and “Live Free” co-host Carlos Erazo echoes.
asserted
Erazo → live → hope
“In Luke 21, Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he's talking about destruction and persecution and wars and earthquakes and global chaos, and he says this: ‘When' — not if — 'when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near.”
asserted
redemption → speak → heads
Even in times of “despair,” Christians can take heart, he says, because they “know how the story ends.”
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story → take → heart
“We speak up.
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We → speak → ?
We get involved.
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We → involve → ?
We vote.
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We → vote → ?
We labor so that righteous leaders can sit on earthly thrones, but we also rest and we trust that no matter what, we know that there is one that sits on a heavenly throne and that's Jesus,” Erazo says.
asserted
Erazo → labor → throne
Howerton points out that Christianity thrives when the darkness looms.
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darkness → point → ?
“We've been flipping nations for 2,000 years.
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We → flip → years
That's our thing,” he says.
asserted
he → say → ?
“There was a time when there was no such thing as a country that was full of a bunch of Christians, and now I got 2.6 billion brothers and sisters all over this planet.
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I → be → planet
If you're freaking out because of this one little thing, did you read your Bible and have you ever heard about church history?” he asks.
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he → freak → history
He concludes by quoting globally celebrated Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton: “At least five times in human history it has seemed that Christianity has gone to the dogs, and every single time it was the dog that died.”
asserted
that → conclude → dogs
“Our country was formed out of a revival and an outpouring of God's Spirit that swept the entire nation and changed everything,” he says, “and listen, dude, He did it once.
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He → form → it
He's going to do it again.”
asserted
He → go → it
The Aporia
