By L.A. Williams
Raleigh, NC – “It is time for pastors to stand in the pulpit to declare the truth and not only declare the truth but march down to the city council … to the school board … and to the capitol and give them the what for. And when they don’t listen to that, it’s time for us to march down to the board of elections and … sign up to run for office,” N.C. Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson told a crowd of ministers on Monday, urging them to bring God back to government.
Keynote speaker for the North Carolina Pastor Gathering hosted by the N.C. Renewal Project on the campus of Cross Assembly in Raleigh, Robinson made it clear he doesn’t believe politics will rescue Western Civilization from its decline.
“People are saying, ‘What can government do to save our schools? What can Congress do? What can the Senate do?’ We have forgotten about the power that actually built our schools and actually built our military and actually built our nation,” Robinson said amid cheers and applause. “That power does not reside with the Supreme Court; it does not reside in Congress; it doesn’t reside in the House of Representatives. It resides in the house of God.”
He told the crowd that when he was growing up poor in Greensboro discussing issues with his family the questions were not about politics, but instead, “It always came down to three things: what was right; what was fair; and what God said about the situation.”
It always comes down to three things: what is right; what is fair; and what God said about the situation.
Doing what’s right is standing up for the unborn and fairness is knowing if you commit the crime you will be dealt with properly, the Lieutenant Governor said. “And what does God say about the situation? I can tell you what He says because me and Him talk.”
Robinson said it is time for politicians to push aside politics and go to God.
“We don’t need men who rely on their own understanding; we don’t need men who think that the caucus is going to solve the problems; we don’t need men who think they can crack open a law book. See that’s part of the problem in this nation, we have entirely (and I have nothing against lawyers; my daughter is one) we have entirely too many lawyers in government and not enough men of God in government,” he proclaimed. “We need people who know the principles behind the laws. That is what is missing.”
“When folks have to sit in the stands and watch boys compete against girls on the track team, we have forgotten the spirit of the law,” Robinson said. “When we have to see babies murdered in our community with impunity, we have forgotten the spirit of the law. When we have to sit and listen to somebody debate about the gender of a plastic potato, we have forgotten the spirit of the law.”
He said we are witnessing the decline of Western Civilization.
“Let’s make no mistake about it, Western Civilization was not built on the wisdom of man’s philosophy,” Robinson said. “Every great crusade to solve the problems of mankind was borne from a desire to do the work of Jesus Christ.”
Robinson’s speech was buttressed on either side by messages from Pastor Ken Graves of Calvary Chapel in Bangor, Maine, and Pastor Cameron McGill of Lake Church in White Lake, N.C.
Embroiled in a legal battle with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over what are now the strictest rules on church gatherings in the nation, Graves admonished fellow pastors to stop seeing themselves as “citizens of heaven, when in fact, we are subjects of the King,” and to stop seeing themselves as “subjects of the U.S. government, but rather citizens and stewards of it.”
“The presumption to be able to suspend God-given and constitutionally enshrined rights cannot be tolerated,” Graves said of Mills’ orders. “We could not comply as men and women of God. I urge you, if they are not open already, open your eyes all the way and let’s not pretend that our governors have our best interest at heart…. A significant number of churches in the state will never reopen.”
Graves said what is going on in our nation is a call for “a new season of being a pastor in America.”
“We need to be willing to stand up and embrace cancellation and persecution, recognizing that our King told us that if they hated him, they would hate us and that we are supposed to rejoice and be exceeding glad …” he said, sadly noting that many pastors are more concerned about what people will think of them than of what God says.
“The fear of man is a snare. Our pastors have forgotten that the cause itself, the Gospel, is an offense itself. Far too many of them are trying to pull the teeth out of a passage that God intends to bite with,” Graves preached. He said pastors are often unwilling to do the work of the Good Samaritan, who poured both cleansing wine and soothing oil into the wounds of the injured traveler.
“Wounds cleaned with wine heal better. That certain Samaritan stung him, but did him no wrong,” Graves continued. “I want to remind you it is our job to sting. It is our job to sooth. … the festering wounds in this nation… It is the Gospel of our King that brings solace on the other side of the sting.”
Pastor McGill, a newly elected Bladen County commissioner, furthered the illustration from Luke 10, pointing out that the wounded man in the story of the Good Samaritan had been traveling from the Holy City of Jerusalem to the sinful city of Jericho.
“We have a nation that once … called right, right and wrong, wrong … but oh man have we gone toward Jericho, a place of sin and corruption,” McGill said, describing the nation as half-dead and bleeding. He said it was time for Christians – unlike the priest and the Levite – to “get down off their high horse and get into the ditch” to save America.
“If we are going to take this nation back we’re not going to do it from the top down. We’re going to do it from the bottom up,” McGill fired.
In addition to the three sermons, the crowd heard encouraging words from Scott Lamb, senior vice president of communications at Liberty University and several other ministry leaders. After each of the main speeches, the meeting hosts called on the room full of pastors to lift speakers up in audible prayer.
Monday’s free luncheon event was open to ministry leaders as well as their spouses.