God's judgment on Lynchburg?

Call it "God's judgment on Lynchburg," or "Benham's Revenge" -- the terminology is really immaterial. Lynchburg's Spring elections for City Council ended in complete catastrophe for the local Republican Party. In the face of Flip's arrest, it was the Republicans on City Council who thought political wisdom decreed strategic moderation. Despite our runaway liberal school system, and despite the awful injustice of Flip's sentence, Republican leaders were deafenly silent. Why stick up for Flip, right before Counciliar elections? 

Well, it's 9:00 p.m. and the results are in. Despite the fact that the Democratic candidates were the most liberal in recent history, and despite the fact that Republicans had apparently built a loss proof system for winning elections, the liberals won going away. The Republican candidates were economic conservatives who were noticeably silent on issues dear to the Bible and the Lord. Only one of the three was clearly pro life. In the race, the Republicans were counseled to ignore the Benham arrest, and dodge any "Benham questions" which might come their way. Bottom line: the "moderation-low- profile strategy" evidently became a recipe for disaster with the surprise Democratic majority gain of four seats (out of seven). 

 The sad thing is that this reversed a trend of some eight years for Republicans, which had followed a Democratic trend of some twenty years. In the Republican ascendancy, in fighting the Goliath of Democratic entrenchment, the Republicans who broke through followed David's pattern. They did not fight Goliath using the wisdom of men. In David's case, he refused the armor of King Saul (I Sam. 17: 38-39) which could be identified as the tools/weapons of this world. King Saul was a moderate man. God's pure word was always qualified by Saul's humanistic reasoning. But David fought a pure battle out of zeal for the Lord, using God's weapons of truth and righteousness. So in Lynchburg, elections were won with purity, courage, hard work and God's Sovereign blessing. But this cycle came to an end tonight on an entirely different note. 

 In Lynchburg's case, all kinds of "causes" might be highlighted as precipitating the disaster of May 5, 1998. But based on biblical type observations, only one stands out in my mind: God's man, the Rev. Flip Benham, came to Lynchburg and was savaged by the world of unbelief, and God's people stood back -- out of fear that they would lose what they had by identifying with God's jailed servant. Forgetting God's past blessing they forsook his present servant. But "God will not be mocked," the Bible says. (Gal. 6:7) Jehovah God poured out His wrath on Lynchburg's "conservatives" in their attempt at maintaining power without honoring Him. They lost anyway, but without the justifying theme of at least "fighting the good fight!" 

 Please pray for us that we would repent of our sin, and that God would once again allow us to receive a portion of His inheritance. 

 In the Lamb, 
The Rev. R. E. Knodel, Jr. 
May 5, 1998