An Iowa pastor wants other Christians to understand one irrefutable fact: politics killed Jesus the Christ.
“So why is it that so many have accepted the myth that Jesus ‘didn’t address’ politics?” said Cary Gordon, senior pastor of Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City, Iowa. “To respond to that ironic myth, I conducted a study of 55 of Jesus’ most notable parables over a period of several years, and chronicled that during 52.73 percent of Jesus’ teachings, He directly and indirectly dealt with His culture’s political issues surrounding civil government.”
The balance of His teachings, Gordon said, dealt with the issue of self-government.
“Said another way, 100 percent of the time Jesus was giving instruction on some form of government,” he added. “In fact, His most remarkable teachings were on the subject of ‘the kingdom of God.’ The word ‘kingdom’ is a synonym for what word? Government.”
Gordon has been politically active most of his life. In fact, he can point to the exact date when he says God began an awakening in his mind and heart as it applies to the arena of politics—it was March 30, 1981—as he stood at the foot of his parents’ bed while his mother directed his attention to an old black-and-white television that was broadcasting the news of an assassination attempt upon President Ronald Reagan.
“[She] said something along the lines of, ‘Cary, you need to stand here and watch this. History is happening right before your eyes. Never forget what you see today,'” he said. “We all stopped what we were doing and prayed for God to spare his life. It was a very serious and unsettling thing to experience. The images were indeed impressed upon my mind. I have never forgotten them.”
A few years later, before he was even old enough to drive—and probably not old enough to attend)—Gordon tagged along with an older friend who introduced him to the community’s Young Republicans group.
Despite his interest in politics, it was his family’s devotion to Christian ministry that captured his heart. This marks his 20th year of serving the Cornerstone congregation.
Gordon has often spoken out about “political issues” from the pulpit, ranging from marriage and life to the IRS. He said this stems from “proper church theonomy.”
“I am one of the few, if not the only pastor in America that has ever built a grass-roots coalition of more than 300 churches across denominational lines, had them agree to an act of righteous civil disobedience (defying IRS intimidation) and contributed to successfully removing three state supreme court justices from their benches.
Gordon said he has put about 80 percent of his “love your neighbor” energies into his local community, sparing the remaining 20 percent to play a significant role in steering the presidential process in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. For example, in 2012, he publicly endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time.
“I publicly endorsed a candidate who was dragging the bottom in national polls at somewhere around 4 percent,” he said. “A few weeks later, the man I endorsed, Sen. Rick Santorum, defeated Mitt Romney, won the Iowa Caucus, and went on to win 11 states across the country.”
Gordon’s 80/20 ratio of engagement is the opposite strategy implemented by most (if not all) Christian political organizations in America. He said that explains why the so-called “Christian right” has failed to preserve our culture.
“To God be the glory forever and ever,” he said. “He has chosen to allow me the privilege of earning credibility to address this problem, not from an ivory tower, but from the front lines of a messy culture war rife with casualties.”
In the 2016 race, Gordon has yet to endorse a candidate, and hasn’t said if he will endorse a candidate, even though Santorum remains in the race. Instead, he is asking Bible-conscious Christians to do “the necessary work” of carefully vetting qualifications for the presidency.
“Before being promoted to such an important and powerful position on the world stage, it is essential that Christians obey and apply the prerequisites for such leadership given in the Bible,” he said. “My role in the Iowa Caucus, so far, has been that I have winnowed the extra-large Republican field down to three candidates who appear to meet minimum biblical muster, and therefore, deserve further examination: Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz. These three deserve further careful scrutiny.”
Sifting through the Bible, Gordon has compiled a book that provides a powerful means for Christians to see the “proverbial forest for the trees” with evidence—complete with footnotes—that is presented in a clear and unambiguous way in A Storm, A Message, A Bottle: A Road Map to American Redemption.
“This book is designed for Christians who desire to understand the proper role of the church and the necessary legal and political world that is authorized by the Lord of that church to exist,” he said. “It has a strategic plan of action that should be implemented by every Christian in every city, town, village and hamlet of America, as it has already been done in my own city and beyond.”
Gordon said he spent more than 3,500 hours in his home and church offices researching and then writing the book, which took the past decade to put together. He said he did so because Americans have reached an all-time low in terms of having a functional biblical worldview:
“I have written this book as a ‘hail Mary’ attempt to address the epic failure of my fellow clergy to do their complete job. The American church has all but abandoned the full scope of the Great Commission. It is not possible to correct that failure without taking an ax to the root of the mind-binding false teachings that have replaced practical power with mysticism. What do I mean? Well, we have read and recited the Lord’s Prayer—the prayer of Jesus—yet we insist to pretend that He prayed, ‘Thy will be done, only in heaven, as it never should be on Earth’.
“Does the individual give permission for their government to exist, or does the government give permission for the individual person to exist? Both can’t be true at the same time. Answering incorrectly is the difference between freedom and tyranny. Few dedicated Christians can give the answer. The Bible has it all there for us, translated in plain English. This book is just spotlight on the text that has been left in the shadows, in some ways, since the American Civil War.”
Gordon said he this is accomplished in the following ways:
- Direct Christians toward resources showing how to educate their local church with a proper biblical worldview.
- Show how to successfully uproot the secularist stronghold in a city government.
- Show how to train Christians to take positions of authority in their community.
- Unlock the long-term potential for successful evangelism and church growth.
- Help pastors and lay-leaders discover and experience the difference between pastoring a city and merely pastoring in a city.
“This book is ultimately a call to action that offers clear instructions for leaders ready to embrace the full scope of the authentic Great Commission, as opposed to the shrunken down version of it commonly taught in America today, which hardly resembles the meaning of the term,” he added.
Gordon said his book “addresses the root of the American problem”—antinomian (anti-law) theology—and recaptures the lost Christian doctrine of divine law, once dominant enough among the New Testament churches to give birth to Western civilization. He offered the following points of evidence he said are rarely understood by today’s typical Christian congregations:
- Jesus warned everyone in His day not to buy into the poisonous political doctrines of King Herod Antipas in Mark 8:15.
- The contents of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) were murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation, jurisprudence, charitable donations, justice and so on.
- Jesus used two national tragedies to forecast His own nation’s political and spiritual disaster in Luke 13:1-5.
- Jesus lucidly endorsed the right for a family victimized by murder of a loved one to receive proper justice in Mark 12:1-9.
- Jesus did not hesitate to confront the Sanhedrin, who were the equivalent of legislative, executive and judicial branches of government in His day.
- Jesus warned Pilate that consequences were coming for his abuse of power in John 19:11.
- Jesus’s economic illustrations in Luke 19 were deliberately presented within the larger context of an unmistakable political scenario.
- Jesus endorsed the obligation of civil government to severely punish criminal activity in Matthew 18:23-35.
- Jesus was indicted by political rulers for political reason, not the least of which His profound public impact which threatened corrupt government officials.
To augment what his book is teaching, as applied by Christians who go to the ballot booth, Gordon also created a series of “whiteboard cartoons” titled 5 Steps to Political Epiphany. In that series, he compressed the 355 pages of the book down to five short vignettes that could be understood by both churched and unchurched American voters.
So far, he said, the response to his book has been positive. He said just in the past few days he received a letter from one reader, whom he has never met, who shared how much the book meant to her and her husband.
He also shared a letter from a Libertarian reader:
“Just finished reading my daughter’s copy of a Storm, a Message, a Bottle. The book clearly defines our responsibility to keep the 1st tablet of the Law beginning in our own hearts. It is the first book I’ve read that distinguishes the role of civil government to uphold and enforce the 2nd tablet of the law.
“From the time I was in Junior High, I have considered myself a Libertarian. This book forced me to wrestle with truths that I have ignored for four decades. My political philosophy in short was, ‘Government that governs least governs best.’ I believed that non-intervention was the best foreign policy. (Avoid foreign entanglements; let all other nations go to hell if they wish.) After reading (and re-reading and re-reading) Chapter 6, I now more clearly understand God’s purpose in our dominion of this planet!
“I especially appreciate the Appendix of Biblical Law and Jesus’s Impact On Politics and Law in 55 Parables. They help supply me with a ready answer for the many ‘Christians’ I work with who believe Jesus was not political. I want my family to invest the time necessary to dig through all 500 pages of this revelation.”
Several of the Republican presidential campaigns were provided copies of the book, as well. Gordon said he received a complimentary note from former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and a note from Raphael Cruz, the father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who said he had “eagerly read through the book twice. “
This likely won’t be the last writing endeavor for Gordon. He said his next project will be to expand upon the 55 major parables of Jesus Christ, which are provided in outline form as an appendix to his current book.
To obtain a signed limited edition hardcover copy of the book, visit cornerstoneworld.org/a_storm_a_message_a_bottle. E-books are also available through Amazon.
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