What is a Christian to do?

So what is a Christian to do?  Let’s say for a moment that America is the second Beast as per my theory.  What do we do?  

Whether I’m right or not, I think the first thing is to stop trying to impose our belief through the government.  God warned the Israelites not to have a king.  For four hundred years, Israel was “ruled” by judges.  But “everyone did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25).”  Having a king, with a separation church and state (so to speak) and a set of Laws to govern the king, we see that was a disaster too.  First the Northern Kingdoms rebelled because they did not feel part of the nation.  Then, the power of the king corrupted, as all power always has throughout history.  Eventually, the Jews became so legalistic, so wrong-headed, that most of their leaders missed their Messiah when he came the first time.  

So Israel, one nation under God if ever there was one, failed to impart faith to its people.  Certainly Jesus could have instituted an earthly kingdom, could have converted the high priest or Pilate or Caesar, but did none of those things.  After Jesus’ resurrection, for nearly three hundred years, Christianity thrived as an underground movement.  The church in those days was (generally) loving, sharing (communistic), and egalitarian (with women having senior roles).  

Then came Constantine.  I don’t want to go into the many evils the Catholic Church has committed over the centuries.  Nor do I want to ignore all the good its followers have done.  I simply cannot believe that God wants us ruling over one another, ordering those “beneath” us how to believe, how to pray, how to worship.  I think these institutional churches, Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Episcopal, that have accumulated wealth and power, that have committed atrocities, fought wars, hurt any person in the Name, by the Authority of God must make him much more angry than he was when he drove the money-changers from the Temple.  

So America.  I see several choices.  One, support our government, actively work to spread God’s word by force.  Two, ignore it all and try to go about our business.  Hey, did you see how the Mets did yesterday?  Or three, try to love one another.  Pay our taxes.  Pray for our leaders around the world.  Stand up against injustice and on behalf of the poor, the outcast and the marginalized, those who cannot stand up for themselves.  Remember that God loves our enemies, that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).”

My goal in writing on the two beasts is to try to wake up to the things I have been missing.  I’ve said before, Matthew 7:22-23 is the scariest passage in the Bible.  “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”  Or Matthew 25:31-46.  I do not want my faith to be so wrong-headed that I miss the signs of his coming, because when he comes again, it will not be in meekness, laid in a manger and worshipped by shepherds, but in power and glory and Judgment.  And it might well be one day soon.