A call for Christians to engage boldly in politics- Why are we Sleeping?

While We Were Sleeping – Politics

This is my tenth in the series, highlighting key aspects from each chapter of my new book, While We Were Sleeping: A Wake-up Call For All Christians (2025).

A call for Christians to engage boldly in politics- Why are we Sleeping?

The Honourable John Anderson AC is a sixth-generation farmer and grazier from New South Wales, who spent 19 years in the Australian Parliament. This included six years as Leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister. His testimony forms the heart of this chapter. Here are some highlights from his story that he told me last year:

I got married and started a family. Then about three years later, in 1988, the member for Guider, Ralph Hunt, rang me, and said, ‘Are you ready?’ I blurted out, ‘Ready for what?’ I had assumed that as a Christian, God had His purposes, and I could get on as a husband and as a dad.

Ralph said, ‘I am now retiring, and I want you to run in my place.’ I said, ‘I think the time has gone, Ralph. I have a wife and young kid, and I am not sure this is the right move, taking on a seat this size.’

I asked John, should Christians be involved in politics?

I would say with Broughton Knox, former principal of Moore College, ‘You should be asking yourself, why would I not join the political party of my choice?’ He and I see politics as very important. Paul told Timothy to pray that they may live a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity, for the advancement of the gospel.

Christians have a huge stake in democracy, because it is the product of the Christian worldview. It was Christians, who struggled for concepts of dignity, worth, fairness, justice, and how to accord each individual recognition as unique, dignified human beings, made in the image of God, but flawed by sin. It was Christians who came up with democracy, more so, in my view, than the legacy of the Greeks. They have championed the idea of the equality of all souls in the eyes of heaven.

I would say to Christians, ‘Wake up, get behind people who are seeking to serve and are not seeking to be served. You’ve got a responsibility, they need you, so they can be strengthened and emboldened to carry on the battle.’

Here in Australia, the conservative right has moved so far left, there is now only one big uniparty in the middle. It is ineffectively opposed by a plethora of competing right wing conservative parties that mainstream media ignore. This is the perfect case for why good men and women of sound Christian conscience and wisdom are desperately needed in public life.

Christians hold the key. They have a secure hope, and they can point to reality. They can demonstrate the need to love and to sacrifice and to put others first, and to invest in their children. Or they can sit on the fence and hope it all goes away, but one day we will all be called to account.

Western Christians Sitting on the Fence

All Christians are naturally distraught when we look at the society we occupy and feel powerless to change anything. But consider how we got here, a combination of ingredients that we failed to see, While We Were Sleeping, it’s not too late to wake up.

Pastor Mark Durie reminded us that Paul encouraged his disciples in Romans 12:2, not to let the world squeeze them into its mould. A great example of this, by Cory Bernardi, is how many parents (as well as church and other community leaders) are now hesitant to draw a clear distinction between what is right and wrong, as this is deemed judgmental now that society has an excuse for every transgression (Genesis 3:4).

A further argument as to why so many Christians steer clear of politics by the Reverend Eliazar Baba is that the church has been most effective at training its own leadership but singularly lacking in equipping its people for works of service in the wider community, the political realm.

Then there is the misunderstood phrase ‘separation of Church and State’ which some believe came from the American founding documents, but didn’t.

Pastor Gary Hamrick explains that the phrase ‘building a wall of the separation of church and state’ was penned by President Jefferson in 1802 in a letter he wrote to a Baptist Association in Connecticut, assuring them that the First Amendment, regarding religious freedom, ensured that government interference or overreach was kept out of the church. It was never drafted to keep the church out of government. Tragically, many have bought the lie that Christians should keep out of government.

God Has a Lot to Say About Politics

For example, about 600 BC, Daniel and his friends were part of the first deportation of Jews into Babylon, under the pagan rule of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel’s friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were hauled into court for not serving Nebuchadnezzar’s gods nor worshipping his image. They were threatened with the burning fiery furnace (Daniel 3:16-18).

There was no compromise. They were prepared to die for their faith. Do we disciple new converts to count the cost of following Jesus? Unless we do, we set them up for the apparent safety of sitting on the fence.

Later, now under the reign of Darius the Mede, Daniel is proclaimed third ruler in the land – very political! And because of the excellent spirit within him, Darius was minded to set him over the whole kingdom (Daniel 5:29 – 6:4). A God-fearing, God-worshiping man to be elected to Prime Minister, just under the king. You can imagine the opposition! The trap was set:

All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counsellors, and advisors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.” Therefore King Darius signed the written decree. (Daniel 6:7-9)

Daniel’s response:

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. (Daniel 6:10)

We know what happened. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. The mouths of the lions were shut up by an angel sent to Daniel’s aid (Daniel 6:21-22). The outcome was tremendous; Darius, the ancestor of today’s Iranian people, came to worship our God and made this extraordinary proclamation:

I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. So, this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. (Daniel 6:26-28)

We may be praying for revival to sweep away all the evil in our land, and to rescue multitudes into the Kingdom, but if we are not taking a stand for good over evil, if we are not counting the cost, if we are sitting on the fence, will God heal our land?

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Jentezen Franklin Exposed – When Breakthrough Fasting, Subjective Guidance, and Destiny Theology Replace the Sufficiency of Scripture

There are some men in the modern church world who build their influence around prophecy charts, some around healing campaigns, some around leadership branding, and some around broad prosperity promises dressed in Christian language. Then there are others who build their system around something the Bible actually does talk about, something real, something serious, something that should humble the flesh and draw the heart toward God. That is what makes Jentezen Franklin especially dangerous. He does not build his platform around something obviously absurd at first glance. He builds it around fasting, prayer, breakthrough, hearing God’s voice, divine guidance, and walking into the plan God has for your life. To the undiscerning believer, that can sound deeply biblical. It can sound like a needed corrective to spiritual laziness and worldliness. But that is exactly why this must be tested very carefully, because error that borrows biblical vocabulary often travels farther than error that announces itself with flashing lights.

The issue is not whether fasting is biblical. It is. The issue is not whether prayer matters. It does. The issue is not whether God leads His people. He does. The issue is not whether storms come into the believer’s life and whether God can use them. Of course He can. The issue is what happens when a preacher takes those truths and turns them into a complete spiritual system where fasting becomes a mechanism for breakthroughs, blessing, healing, fertility, financial turnaround, and supernatural release, where the inner voice becomes a constant stream of guidance about your place, your people, your plan, and your destiny, and where ordinary trials become coded transitions into the next season of God’s purpose. At that point, the Christian life is no longer being framed by the plain sufficiency of Scripture. It is being framed by a spiritual process, a system, a method, and a branded way of interpreting life.

That is why Jentezen Franklin must be brought into the light. He is not merely a preacher who occasionally encourages fasting. He is a builder of a larger environment. He teaches people to see fasting as a trigger for blessings and breakthroughs, to treat subjective impressions as reliable divine guidance, to interpret storms as transitional events orchestrated for promotion, and to trust spiritual patterns and inner senses in a way that can move believers far away from the simplicity that is in Christ. Instead of grounding the church in the old paths of sound doctrine, obedience, suffering, patience, and clear submission to the written Word, he offers a high-energy, emotionally compelling, symbol-rich spirituality where divine results often seem tied to certain disciplines, certain interpretations, and certain acts of spiritual intensity. That kind of ministry may excite people, but excitement is not the test. Scripture is.

1. Jentezen Franklin Turns Fasting into a Breakthrough Formula

One of the clearest problems in Jentezen Franklin’s teaching is the way fasting is presented not simply as a biblical discipline of humbling oneself before God, but as a practical key to healing, provision, success, restoration, deliverance, and victory. Again, let it be said plainly, fasting is biblical. The Lord Jesus spoke about it. The prophets fasted. The apostles fasted. The church ought to know something about self-denial and seeking God. But Jentezen Franklin takes that biblical principle and wraps around it a whole structure of expected outcomes. Fasting is regularly presented as the thing that opens the windows of heaven, releases the blessing, breaks the delay, turns around the business, heals the body, restores the family, and triggers supernatural intervention. That is where a biblical discipline gets turned into a spiritual formula.

The church does not need that. It does not need a life-system. It needs the Scriptures. It needs the gospel. It needs sound doctrine. It needs pastors who preach repentance, grace, holiness, obedience, suffering, patience, and the fear of the Lord without dressing everything in breakthrough mechanics and destiny psychology. The New Testament does not tell believers to build their lives around annual fast movements, power relationships, internal compasses, or symbolic prayer reservoirs. It tells them to continue in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, to walk in the Spirit, to pray without ceasing, and to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Jentezen Franklin’s system is dangerous precisely because it uses so much biblical material. He does not lead people with obvious unbelief. He leads them with spiritual language, biblical references, and practical hope. But underneath it all is a religious architecture that depends on methods, impressions, and interpretive grids that go beyond the plain sufficiency of Scripture. That is where discernment must step in. A man may talk about God constantly and still move the church away from resting in the written Word alone.

Conclusion

Jentezen Franklin should be tested plainly because he has built a ministry world where good things like fasting and prayer are reshaped into a larger structure of breakthrough expectation, subjective guidance, destiny interpretation, and symbolic spiritual mechanics. He sounds sincere. He sounds earnest. He sounds biblical in many places. That is exactly why he is so effective. But sincerity does not sanctify a system, and earnestness does not make a framework safe.

The issue is not whether fasting can humble the soul. It can. The issue is not whether God can guide His people. He does. The issue is not whether the Lord uses storms. He certainly can. The issue is whether these truths are being taught in a way that leaves believers anchored in the hard sufficiency of Scripture, or whether they are being taught in a way that makes them dependent on methods, inward impressions, transition language, and the interpretive authority of a celebrity preacher. On that question, there is real reason for alarm.

So the answer is not to despise fasting. It is not to reject prayer. It is not to deny that God works. The answer is to reject every system that turns spiritual disciplines into formulas, inward impulses into guidance maps, and ordinary Christian suffering into coded destiny mechanics. The saints do not need Jentezen Franklin’s system to walk with God. They need the old Book, the old cross, the old gospel, and the old paths of faith and obedience. That is enough.