ElizabethI had the incredible opportunity to attend the Standing For Freedom conference at Liberty University. Unfortunately, due to a power outage, the conference was cut short, but I was still able to hear from some amazing speakers. The post below is a summary of what I learned from the various speakers that I heard from! Enjoy!
The main topic of this event was teaching “Biblical Principles in a Woke World.” In other words, the speakers at this event were trying to show how important it is for Christians (and the church in general) to stand up for conservative values.
William Wolfe: Writer for the Freedom Center, former Deputy Assistant Secretary at Department of Defense
William Wolfe had an extremely powerful speech explaining how the church can practically preach the gospel and practice politics at the same time.
He began by sharing three things that the church must reject: Pietism, Perfectionism, and Passivism.
Pietism is a religious movement that tells you to focus your faith according to your feelings. Not only is this unbiblical, as the Bible tells us that our heart is deceitful above all else, but it is also unethical. If people voted according to their feelings, well, one ends up with the kind of incompetent administration that we have now (but hey, at least there are no mean tweets am I right!).
Perfectionism must also be rejected, for no church, nor candidate, will be perfect. Jesus was the only perfect person to ever walk the earth, and thus, when choosing a church or a political leader, one is obligated to choose that which is most righteous, not the one that is perfect.
Lastly, passivism, or the want to stay idle and comfortable, must also be rejected. The modern church has a tendency to want to keep things as they are. They so often reject politics because to get caught up in that arena would mean rocking the boat of society. But to stay passive and idle in the midst of so much evil is really a sin. God actually commands His people to be active in the world. In Genesis 1:27-28 God says , “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God wanted Adam and Eve to be active in their world. He gave them dominion over it and wanted them to “subdue it.” The church must not be passive.
Ralph Reed: Chairman and CEO of Faith and Freedom Coalition
Ralph Reed had an incredible speech outlining why it is Biblical for the church to get involved in politics. He brought up Acts 22 where Paul was about to be flogged by Roman soldiers. Before they struck him, Paul asked, “‘Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?'” Paul appealed to the rights that he knew he possessed as a human. The Roman soldiers even became afraid when he mentioned that he was a Roman citizen, for they too understood that rights are sacred. In chapter 25, Paul also seeks a trial before Caesar, thus continuing to fight the injustice that was happening to him. He did not sit idly by. He fought for his rights.
The human rights that we enjoy in this country were given to us by God, it is not unbiblical to fight for them. In fact, God calls us to do so. If Paul, one of the greatest apostles for Christ, felt it necessary to fight for his freedom, then we are also able to.
Ryan Helfenbein: Executive Director, The Standing for Freedom Center
In Ryan Helfenbein’s speech, he continued what Ryan Reed had to say and further explained why it is important for the church to participate in freedom fighting. He mentioned that freedom is spiritual, not political. He mentioned that the formation of America was so miraculous that it had to be a thing of God. The freedom that we possess in this nation is God-given, and to stand idly by while it is being taken away shows God that we are not thankful for this gift.
Liz Wheeler: Commentator, Author and Host of the “Liz Wheeler Show”
Liz Wheeler took a different approach to her speech, which I appreciated. She decided to share with the audience a letter that she wrote to Elon Musk after he bought Twitter. In this letter, Wheeler congratulated Musk on his dedication to free speech and warned against compromising with the radical left, as there is no compromise that will be good enough for them. Unless freedom is completely repealed, the radical left will always be seeking more.
An example that Wheeler cited for this fact was how members of the left have been calling for “pandemic amnesty.” In other words, the leaders who needlessly forced us to wear masks, to stay home, to social distance, and to put our lives completely on hold want us to simply “forgive them.” They say that “we didn’t really know much about covid so we did what we had to do. No hard feelings right?” But we knew. We knew it was all pointless. But they didn’t listen to us did they? And now they seek forgiveness? The left always seeks complete compliance and nothing less. They will never compromise.
Wheeler used her letter to Elon Musk to explain to the American people that we must never back down from fighting for what is right, especially when the enemy is incapable of compromise.
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson: Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was the last speaker that I had the privilege to hear from. His speech was extremely invigorating as he finished the night petitioning America to bring Biblical principles back into society. He said that we should be living with “the Bible in one hand and the American flag in the other.” He says that by being patriotic, we are living out Biblical values, for America could not exist without the hand of God in its founding. America came into existence because a bunch of rag-tag, untrained, uncoordinated men decided to take a stand against what was the world superpower at the time. America’s founding was statistically impossible, but we have a God that worked beyond the statistics to bring about the freest, greatest nation in the world. It is “One nation under GOD after all!”
God knew that the world needed an America in it. To not fight for America is to turn your back to the blessings of our Heavenly Father.
Do not let God be replaced by government. Do not stand idle. Fight for Biblical Principles in a Woke World.
If you would like to read more about this, check out my post Christianity and Politics!
