Why the cross can do what politics can;'t

Dr. Erwin Lutzer, evangelical Pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, in this 1999 book, addressed the fascination of Christians with politics as a means of affecting the values of society, in contrast to reliance upon the cross of Christ and the power of the gospel to change people’s hearts, and eventually the culture.

From the introduction:

Have we…forgotten that God’s power is more clearly seen in the message of the cross than in any political or social plan we might devise? Might not our search for some antidotes to our grievous [cultural] ills be symptomatic of our lost confidence in the power of the gospel to change people from the inside out?…

At a time when we need to engage our culture with the one truth that has any hope of transforming it, many among us have turned aside to fight the world on its own terms and with its own strategies…

We are tempted to think that our times are unique. But the fact is that the disciples and their followers had all of our national woes times ten; and yet without any political base, without a voting bloc in the Roman senate, and without as much as one sympathetic Roman emperor, they changed their world, turning it “upside down” as Luke the historian put it (Acts 17:6)…

This book is based on two fundamental premises. First, that the problems of America are too far gone to be remedied by a change of administrations in Washington and other levels of government…We dare not think that solidifying Christians into one voting bloc to confront the world with our own version of political power will actually change the direction of our disintegrating culture…

The question is not whether we should be involved in our cultural battles; the question is whether we are willing to fight the right battles in the right way…The answer is not isolation, but confrontation – with the right attitude and the right message. It would be a tragedy indeed if we just got accustomed to the darkness.

However, the other danger is that we become so overburdened with social/political issues that our message is lost amid these skirmishes…

We must not let the world define our agenda. Nor can we hope to fight the world with its own methods…

The second premise of this book is my deep conviction that our so-called culture war is really a spiritual war. In other words, our problems are not fundamentally abortion, trash television, and homosexual values…As always our greatest challenge is theological, not political or cultural…

If there is any good news in America, Christians must proclaim it. The truly good news will not come from Washington in the form of new legislation or a proclamation from the president, or even the Supreme Court…

We can be involved in legislation and moral crusades, but let us not think that this is the way to transform society…

[I]t is our society’s view of God, and not society’s view of morals, that lies at the heart of our dilemma…

The cross can shine a light much more powerful than political victories…

We must be convinced that we have chosen the wrong path because we have chosen the wrong god. So our first agenda is to return to the message that made the church great.