Over my lengthy lifetime, I have been a hard Democrat and a hard Republican. In the years of my youth in South Texas, I knew no one who was a Republican. All our most respected community leaders voted Democrat, the businessmen, the pastors, the priests, the law enforcement officers, and the teachers.
Presidents Harry Truman and Kennedy were Democrats. President Eisenhower was a Republican. All three were solid patriots.
When President Kennedy was murdered in downtown Dallas, Lyndon B. Johnson inherited the presidency. Although Johnson was a fellow Texan, his shady politics was well known in our state.
Richard Nixon, a Republican, succeeded Johnson. His short-lived presidency was punctuated with criminal behavior, and he resigned.
The question of how two groups of people can view clear evidence and have points of view diametrically opposed to one another. Please remember that I speak in broad generalities on purpose.
Reading the autobiography of Benjamin Netanyahu, I discover our situation in the United States is similar to the situation in Israel. Netanyahu’s Likud Party is to the right, and the Labor Party, which evolved from socialism, represents the left.
The Bible has the answer to my question.
First, let’s review the time when the prophet Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Reference: 1 Kings 18:16-40 MEV
If you are familiar with the story, you know that God answered by fire, and a large number of false prophets were summarily executed.
Next, let’s revisit Jesus confronting a body of Jews; some were believers, the balance skeptics. The self-righteous skeptics claimed Abraham as their father, but Jesus exposed them as evil children of Satan, the Devil.
All of mankind are spiritual beings with earthly bodies. Our bodies will die and be disposed of; my own will be planted at Rest Haven Cemetery in Rockwall, Texas. But my spirit that came from my Heavenly Father, the Living God, will return to Him upon my physical death.
Your spiritual father is either the Devil, aka Satan, or God. Jesus exposed the unbelieving Jews in John 8:1-58 MEV as the children of Satan and confirmed the believers in Jesus were the children of God.
The same facts of Jesus’ divinity were exposed to the unbelievers and the believers, yet the two groups held opposite points of view on the facts.
Contemporary American society, and for that matter, contemporary societies throughout the world, hold opposing viewpoints within their respective societies. These points of view divide as left and right. Learn the political origin of left and right from History.com.
In a nutshell, our differences are not politically based; they are spiritually based.
Is it possible to unify Americans, similar to the way our people came together to defeat the British? In fact, there were left-right divisions even then. Can we be unified? Yes, just as the Revolutionary leaders became unified on a Thursday, June 28, 1787, after Benjamin Franklin addressed “our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes and ays, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding.”
The left and right differences were not and could not be resolved through human reasoning. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 yielded to Franklin’s proposal that they turn to “the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings.”
At the site of Jericho, Joshua, the top leader of the Jewish refugees of Egypt, encountered an angel of the Lord. I quote Joshua 5:13-14 MEV: “Now when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him. In His hand was His drawn sword. Joshua went to Him and said, “Are You for us or for our enemies?” He said, “Neither, for I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” Then Joshua fell with his face to the ground and worshipped. Then he said, “What does my Lord wish to say to His servant?”
The desire to lead people wisely is not to be found within either the liberal leftists or the conservative right. God implants within us a calling, from Latin vocare, to call. His calling is to do His will, and you can be sure God has also empowered you to answer his calling. As it is written in Philippians 2:13, “For God is the One working in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure.” God’s grace is a gift of the desire to do His will and the power, the ability to do His will.
John White
Rockwall, Texas
John N. White 