I was pondering the ‘bear pit’ of politics in ancient Rome the other day, and happened to read this description of it:

Imagine a world in which political norms have broken down. Senators use bad faith arguments to block the government from getting anything done. An autocrat rigs elections and gives himself complete control over the government. Even stranger, many voters subscribe to the autocrat’s personality cult and agree that he should have absolute control.

Welcome to Rome in the first century BCE. The republic that had existed for over 400 years had finally hit a crisis it couldn’t overcome. Rome itself wouldn’t fall, but during this period it lost its republic forever.

The man who played the biggest role in disrupting Rome’s republic was Augustus Caesar, who made himself the first emperor of Rome in 27 BCE. By that point, the republic’s political norms had been breaking down for about a century, and Augustus was in a position to take advantage of that . . .’

Does that remind you of anything?!?

If we had been alive and in active ministry nearly a century later, how uncomfortable it would have felt as Nero, the first of a series of tyrannical dictators, began to impose his unjust dictates on the Roman world. No wonder Peter, seeing that the present discrimination against believers would shortly explode into the full horrors that Nero (and later dictators) would unleash against them, was at such pains to encourage patience and persistence in the face of whatever laws and decrees the current assembly, patricians, plebeians, consuls or the three hundred senators were coming up with by way of laws and decrees, and to urge them to lead such lives that would enable the Kingdom of God to continue to spread despite the mayhem.

How utterly poignant it is that God sent His Son in the fullness of time to a Roman-occupied province, with all the taxes, laws, and oppressions that that entailed. Most certainly these were not the conditions for the spread of the Gospel that we would have chosen, and yet somehow God caused His purposes to prosper despite even deeply unjust suffering. This offers hope as we consider the ‘bear pit’ that American politics has now reached.

A major part of the problem we have noted in the American church is the fact that it has appeared eager to acquire political power in order to achieve spiritual goals. The Spirit of God does not rely on such things! Under Roman rule, it was the poor and the downtrodden, prostitutes, slaves, and migrants, along with the sick and the prisoner, who found it easier to enter the Kingdom of God than many amongst the religious elite and the well to do classes.

For us today, with the reemergence of an ‘emperor’ who has cast himself in the role of supreme Disrupter in Chief, the days ahead for America might look a lot like those of Rome. The prayers we pray, and the life we choose to live (and lay down for His sake) are not unknown to the Lord, and are every bit as much a part of the fulfilment of His purposes as the lives of those heroic early Christians. It is our turn now.

No surprise, then, that I am feeling such a strong call to mount the watchman’s ramparts, and to report what I see, both for the purpose of rounding up prayer, but also to broadcast truth to power in the heavenly places. No doubt, all manner of deceitful spirits are rejoicing in the lower spiritual spheres over so many beliefs and practices that have become encrusted in the hearts and minds of certain favoured Democrat causes, just as they will be over the naïve Republican promotion of strong leaders who are woefully lacking in fine character. To say nothing of the susceptibility of so many to embrace and disseminate falsehoods and distortions on every possible subject under the oh-so-swiftly-and-ever-increasingly-warming sun. There is much shouting going on in the demonic realms as satan seeks to introduce his preferred candidates into the mix; but much activity too no doubt in the courts of the Lord, both to defend the people of God and to advance the cause of the Kingdom.

The good news is that God’s purposes remain firm! Through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God [is to] be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Eph. 3:10-11) What a thought! O Lord let the voice of the Church and the sound of its worship be pure in Your sight!