There is a growing divide between the so-called political class and the people. The former pays lip service to biblical Christianity while exalting the god of government. Yes, there are sincere Christians among the political class. However, in the face of government support for same-sex marriage and support of the dismemberment of babies by Planned Parenthood, Bible-believing Christians are branded as extremists.

The political class, like King Jeroboam of old, has always had an agenda. First, they propose alternate gods. “The king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, ‘You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt’” (1 Kings 12:28). The political class seeks the abandonment of the true and living God in favor of the kindness and goodwill of government.

Second, to wean the populace away from houses of true worship, the political class often directs men and women to alternate places of devotion. Jeroboam “set one [golden calf] in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one” (1 Kings 12:29-30). Today, men and women are called to appear in the temples of government, often adorned with religious symbols, to show proper obeisance to the politicos who are ceremonially seated above them on the dais and prepared with statements to bestow on them.

Third, the political class appoints its own priesthood. “[Jeroboam] also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites” (1 Kings 12:31). Members of the communities of science, education, medicine, and law have become robed experts, not to be questioned. These disciplines view and teach the theory of evolution as fact. Creationists are kooks! Yet, “pre-human” remains, recently discovered in a South African cave, do not seem to fit the current evolutionary mold.

Fourth, government supported by the political class ordains its own holy days. “Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah….He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart” (1 Kings 12:32-33). God designated the seventh month as holy, and the Sabbath as the primary holy day (Lev. 23:3, 23-33). The term holiday comes from the Old English, holy day. Today, governments declare the days to be taken as federal holidays. In the meantime, upholding Sabbath observance diminishes. It is business as usual on God’s special holy day, even among many Christians.

Fifth, this not-too-subtle foisting of alternatives to biblical Christianity on the public amounts to an effort to cause you and me to turn from Christ and follow mere men. “Jeroboam said in his heart…‘If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah’” (1 Kings 12:27). And so Jeroboam “devised from his own heart” (v. 33) alternate gods, alternate places of worship, an alternate priesthood, and alternate holy days. For him, this was a life-or-death matter.

Jeroboam’s legacy lives. Many antichrists have appeared (1 John 2:18). “Oh God, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand in order to faithfully follow You.”

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