I woke this morning earlier than usual (around 4:30) and my mind raced to the reality that Mr. Trump is the Republican nominee.  It’s certainly easy to get discouraged, perhaps even to lose sleep.  Yet in my quiet time this morning (one of the benefits of getting up early), as I reflected on what God is doing, I couldn’t help but be encouraged. Life’s two big questions are “who is God?” and “what is truth.” Those questions are asked daily in our individual decisions, and how they are answered collectively shows up in our political processes. And God always answers that He is both, just as he did with Elijah and King Ahab at Mt Carmel.

Yes God is on His throne, and yes he is intimately involved in the details of the election process—even raising Mr. Trump up to his current level. Wouldn’t be my plan, but most of the good things that God has done for us would not be our own plans. So we have to ask, what is God up to here? The ongoing cultural decay has led me to openly speculate that God’s purposes right now are the purification of His bride, the church. As culture becomes increasingly hostile to Christianity, the price of being associated with Christ is rising. We know from our basic economics that when the price of anything rises, the quantity demanded of it will fall. Of course no price would be too high for true believers, but the chaff that also sits in the pews will find it increasingly difficult to continue affiliating with Christ. God, I believe, is in the process of sifting the wheat from the chaff. This should not cause us to lament, but to celebrate!

In a similar fashion, God is up to something in the political process. Many Christians, including to some degree your Bereans, have been uncomfortable with the Republican Party being identified with Christianity, and vice versa. We are to be set apart—sanctified—from the culture, even though we are required to engage and preserve culture. God is a lot more concerned about the propagation of His truth than Republican victories, and if His witness is being compromised by being associated with a political party, it could be good to see a Donald Trump arise. Now this is necessarily speculative, but it would be consistent with how I would expect God to act. So let’s say this is true. What would it mean?

While we are to be set apart, we are still the best hope to be part of God’s cultural redemptive process—indeed, I believe that is part of our blessing of stewardship. How that manifests itself, however, is precisely the question going forward. Is the problem with the Republican Party that it was associated with conservative Christianity in name only? For example, Mr. Cruz identified with evangelicals, and yet was reported to only give 1% of his income to charity. Really? While there is no hard and fast tithing rule in the new covenant, one has to wonder how big an influence God is on his life given that low number. After all, we often criticize (and rightfully so) Democratic candidates for similar values. So if the issue is that those politicians espousing support of Christian values don’t act (publicly or privately) in a Christian fashion, then the answer might be, as Mike Huckabee told us at Cedarville University during a visit last year, that our response needs to be to “get our hands in the dirty dish water and start cleaning it up!” If the problem is rather that God only wants cultural redemption from the “bottom’s up,” then we need to redouble our efforts to evangelize the world and make disciples. Of course that is always the Church’s mission. But as individuals what do we do? Do we cede the public sphere to those that are hostile to God’s values? Maybe the Berean’s should hang up a sign that says “closed until further notice.”

There is another aspect to this. While the media crows the discord in the Republican Party, make no mistake: the Democratic Party is in disastrous shape too. Mr. Obama’s policies have led to a decimation of the ranks. Ask yourself: who are the rising Democratic stars? Further, a big reason for Mr. Trump’s success is that he has embraced populist policies that are a core of what the Democratic Party has always been. These Democratic crossover votes are real (at least for Mr. Trump) and are reflective of a reality that much of the Democrat’s base feels betrayed, certainly the white working class feels abandoned. Can the Democrats win with African-Americans, LGBTQ, and young progressives only? And yes, many of those young progressives think that Mr. Obama is way too centrist. This is not a recipe for electoral success.  Perhaps even the Democratic Party could open up to Christian values, should they be rebuked in the upcoming election.  Yes, that would be a God thing.  From the ashes of both parties, who knows what might arise?

Bottom line for me: the church must continue to be the church, and Christians must continue to bring a Christian worldview to bear on whatever they do: whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That includes our voting and our politicking. I think we redouble our efforts on all fronts. But here is the good thing: with Mr. Trump as the nominee, Christians especially should hold him accountable. It’s a lot easier when he is clearly not one of us, than when the candidate is with us on many issues but abandons us on key issues. This is going to be good thing. Because God is working all things out for our good!