David Alan Black 

A famous composer had an unruly son who would come in late at night after his father and mother had gone to bed. Before going to his own room he would go to his father’s piano and loudly play a simple scale, all but the final note. Thus leaving the scale uncompleted, he would retire to his room. The father, hearing the scale minus the final note, would writhe on his bed until finally, in great consternation, he would stumble down the stairs and hit the previously unstruck note. Only then would his mind surrender to sleep once again.

I was recently asked why I have become such an outspoken critic of government hypocrisy and an avid supporter of the Constitution. The answer is simple. I believe God’s work on America is not complete. The final note has yet to be struck. But He seeks our obedient submission along the way.

One’s walk should square with his talk. We can say we are pro-life and in reality do nothing about it. We can take an oath of fidelity to the Constitution and not even know what it says. Any righteousness we may have upon us without having righteousness within us is false righteousness.

Suppose you are having an operation and the surgeon says, “All that matters is position. We are surgeons. See our diplomas. We do not worry about proper procedures or about keeping clean. Our condition is of no importance.” I fear that some of our Christian magistrates come perilously close to taking such an attitude. Meanwhile we are losing our national integrity in internationalism and the professing church is losing her peculiar characteristics in a world-church religious amalgam. When we equate the Sermon on the Mount with the Koran we forget that we belong to the holy nation of the people of God.

That’s why I applaud those who stand up for the primacy of King Jesus. How refreshing in a day when black and white have become a smudge of indefinite gray! The age is a wreck but God sent His Son to be the Adam of a new race, and as many as receive Him become sons of God and heirs of the kingdom to come. The whole creation is on tiptoe awaiting the day when the sons of God shall be revealed. Is it wrong, then, to tell His people to look out for a compromising spirit? Is it not false tolerance that has corrupted the life of the church and the nation in the first place?

If it is possible to build churches and raise money and carry on gigantic religious programs without the Lord, how much easier is it to raise taxes and carry out policies and do a lot of good deeds without Him. God counts only that service – whether spiritual or political – which is the result of our love for Christ. All the time, money, and effort spent trying to improve our lot go for absolutely nothing if it is merely spent by the natural or carnal man under religious auspices.

God has yet to hit the final note in America. There is much work to be done, but it must be done in God’s way and for His glory.