A Christian response to the election, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the call to repent while there’s still time
Some mornings start with coffee. Others start with a deep sigh, a long stare at the ceiling, and then coffee. This was one of those.
If you spent any time scrolling last night, or this morning, or during that moment in the bathroom you’ll never admit to, you saw it. The anger. The gloating. The cruelty people usually keep behind their teeth came pouring out like somebody kicked over a bucket. Friends turned on friends. Strangers said things to each other that would make a sailor blush and then apologize to his mother.
And a lot of us believers sat there thinking the same thing: there it is. That’s what’s been under the surface the whole time.
The Serpent Never Left the Garden
Anybody who grew up in North Texas knows the rule. You don’t panic when you see a snake. You panic when you don’t see it and you know it’s out there.
The serpent has been around since Genesis 3. Same tactics, different decade. He still opens with the same line he used on Eve: “Yea, hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1, KJV). Did God really mean that? Is sin really sin? Surely you shall not die.
For a long time, a lot of that has stayed quiet. Coiled up under polite conversation and nice manners. But every so often, something stirs the grass, and the snake rears up where everyone can see it. This week was one of those times. The hatred, the mockery of God, the open celebration of things He calls sin. None of that started yesterday. It just stopped hiding.
Jesus said it plainly in John 3:19 (KJV): “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
Men loved darkness. Not tolerated it. Not stumbled into it. Loved it. When you watch people cheer for things God calls evil, you’re watching that verse play out in real time, usually with a lot of capital letters and some very creative spelling.
And here’s the good news for believers. A snake you can see is a snake you can deal with. Genesis 3:15 already told us how this story ends. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head. That’s Jesus. The serpent’s days are numbered, and he knows it, which might explain why he’s thrashing around so much lately.
What Sodom Actually Teaches Us
It’s hard not to think of Sodom and Gomorrah right now. Two cities so far gone that the outcry against them reached heaven itself. Genesis 18 and 19 tell the story, and it doesn’t end with a group hug.
But here’s what I notice every time I read it. Before fire fell, a man stood in the gap. Abraham walked right up to God and started negotiating. Fifty righteous? Forty-five? Thirty? Ten? He haggled like a man buying a used truck, except the stakes were eternal. And God listened. He was willing to spare the whole city for ten righteous people.
Ten. That’s it. That’s a small Sunday school class.
So the question for us isn’t just “How wicked is the world?” It’s “Are the righteous still standing in the gap?” Are we praying for our neighbors, or just posting about them?
Ezekiel 16:49 gives a list of Sodom’s sins that might surprise you. Pride. Fullness of bread. Abundance of idleness. And they didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. That list should make every comfortable Christian in America shift a little in the pew. Sodom’s rot started with pride and comfort long before it reached the headlines.
Judgment Is Coming
I’m not going to soften this. God is coming. He will judge the world in righteousness, and nobody is going to get a recount.
Acts 17:31 (KJV) says He “hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness.” Not might. Hath appointed. It’s on the calendar. We just don’t know the date. Matthew 24:36 reminds us that no man knows the day or the hour, which is good news for my blood pressure and bad news for the guys selling charts.
What I do know is this. Every headline that makes your stomach drop is a reminder that this world is not our home, and it was never supposed to be. Things are going exactly the way Scripture said they would. That’s not a reason to panic. It’s a reason to pay attention.
Repent Is a Word for Us First
John the Baptist showed up in the wilderness wearing camel hair and eating bugs, and his whole message fit on a bumper sticker: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, KJV). Jesus preached the exact same words when He started His ministry.
It’s easy to point that word outward. Them. Those people. The other side of the screen.
But 1 Peter 4:17 says judgment must begin at the house of God. That’s us. Before we call the culture to repent, the church has to go first. Our gossip. Our pride. Our love of comfort. The way we sometimes treat the people we disagree with like enemies instead of souls Jesus died for.
God’s heart in all this is surprising. Ezekiel 33:11 says He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but would rather the wicked turn from his way and live. Second Peter 3:9 says He is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
So yes, judgment is coming. And the door of mercy is still standing wide open. Both of those are true at the same time. If you’ve got someone in your life who’s far from God, this is not the week to write them off. This is the week to pray harder.
Keep Looking Up
When the disciples asked Jesus about the end of the age, He described a lot of frightening things. Wars. Distress. Men’s hearts failing them for fear. And then He said something I want tattooed on the inside of my eyelids.
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28, KJV).
Look up. Not down at your phone. Not sideways at your neighbor’s yard sign. Up.
The darkest part of the night comes right before the sun breaks over the horizon. Anybody who’s ever pulled an early shift knows that stretch. It’s cold, it’s quiet, and it feels like morning will never come. Then the sky starts to glow. You don’t give up and go back to bed when it’s darkest. That’s exactly when you hold on.
So What Do We Do Now?
We stay faithful. We pray for our leaders, even the ones we didn’t vote for, because 1 Timothy 2 tells us to and doesn’t include an exception clause. We love our neighbors. We tell the truth, kindly and without flinching. We keep our lamps trimmed and our oil full, like the wise virgins in Matthew 25, because the Bridegroom is coming and nobody wants to be out shopping for oil when He shows up.
And we repent. Daily. Honestly. Not because we’re afraid, but because the King is close and we want to be ready.
The snake showed its head. Fine. We already know who crushes it.
Keep looking up, believers. The kingdom of God is at hand.
