The Almighty...

I believe in the God the Father Almighty. Almighty is a word loaded with political implications. Caesar’s liked to see themselves at autocrats, self-rulers. The people were expected to worship them as gods. They even made nominal offerings to the Caesars as gods.

In such a world early Christians proclaimed that God is the pantocrator, or all-ruler, the Almighty. Since God is the all-ruler, the early Christians would not offer worship to Caesar. The early Christians refused to make a good citizen’s nominal token gift to Caesar. They paid taxes to Caesar, but would not worship Caesar.

Early Christians would pray for Caesar to the all ruling God, the Almighty, but not pray to Caesar. Praying for our government and living as good citizens is most biblical.

In this election cycle, as in others, we need to be careful to recall that God is the true all-ruler. We the people like to think of ourselves as the rulers - in a democracy the people rule. Sometimes we lift political office holders too high, or think they have more say than they possess, as if they are rulers - but that is a mistake. God is the true ruler. Politicians will not fix all our problems. Democracy cannot even fix all our problems. If we think politics can fix our problems we will find politics can greatly dishearten us.

This leads me to realize the world will not stand, or end, based upon any election. The world endures, and comes to an end, in God’s time. The nations are like grasshoppers and fade. Politicians fade even faster. Elections have value. They are important. We are privileged to have them. We are responsible for the governments we choose. But, we must not allow politics to be our god - a god is the most important thing in life. Only the Lord is the One in whom we put our final trust. He is our God. The Lord, the Almighty, endures forever.

(Editor’s Note: This column is written by a different Littlefield pastor for the Leader-News each week. The columns are published on this page on Wednesdays.)