Keep Calm and Carry On

By Pastor Brooks Simpson

 

What would you do if you believed the nation that you loved—your home, your people—was headed for tyranny and darkness? How would you carry on? How would you function? Would you seek to be a light and source of comfort to the panicked masses, or would you feed their fears? 

These hypothetical questions were stark realities for British citizens in the spring of 1940. Nothing but the English Channel and the British Royal Air Force stood between survival and annihilation, between freedom and occupation. In an attempt to boost morale, the British government printed 2.5 million posters with the image of the Royal Crown and the phrase Keep Calm and Carry On. 

 

How is it possible for us to keep calm and carry on when democracy appears to be at stake?

 

In recent decades, people have turned this famous slogan into hundreds of memes—Keep Calm and Drink Coffee, Keep Calm and Do Yoga—but the original is the standard: Keep Calm and Carry On. How would a British citizen keep calm and fill sandbags when the night sky regularly rained fire on the people and nation they loved? 

How is it possible for us to keep calm and carry on when democracy appears to be at stake? If you are a follower of Jesus living in the United States, now is a time to Keep Calm and Carry On. Remember that we have an unshakable hope because of Christ, and we’re called to carry on doing the work of his kingdom, regardless of the political climate or state of the nation.

Every presidential election is declared to be the most important yet, but to me this year’s rhetoric feels different. There is a dark, even desperate tone. Each candidate portrays their opponent as a threat to democracy. It is common to hear democrats refer to former President Trump as “the next Hitler” and republicans refer to Vice President Harris as “Comrade Harris.” The not-so-subtle implication is that a vote for the democrat contributes to America becoming a communist state, and a vote for the republican ushers in fascism. One enormous difference between our hype and the British government of 1939 is that no one is exhorting Americans to Keep Calm and Carry On—quite the opposite, actually. Here are our candidates in their own words.

President Joe Biden (before withdrawing) called Trump, “one existential threat” at a fundraiser in February. He has written on X, “In this election, your freedom, your democracy, and America itself is at stake.”

Vice President Kamala Harris said at an event in July, “This is the one. The most existential, consequential, and important election of our lifetime.”

Former President Donald Trump stated at the Faith and Freedom Coalition this summer, “this will be the most important election in the history of our country” and “our one chance to save America.” When asked in March to address the claim he was a threat to democracy, Trump replied, “I’m not a threat. I am the one who is ending the threat to democracy.” ^[1]

At a campaign rally in Wisconsin September 6, Trump said, “And if I don't win this election, Israel, with comrade Kamala Harris at the helm of the United States, is doomed… One year, two years. Israel will no longer exist. I better win, I better win, or you're going to have problems like we've never had. We may have no country left. It may be our last election." ^[2]

Immediately following the second attempt on his life within one month, Trump said of Biden and Harris, "Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out." ^[3]

Fear is the Mantra

A vote for [my opponent] helps end democracy. I suppose the only claim no one is making is that the opposing candidate is the antichrist. Of course, there aren’t enough people in America who believe in a future antichrist to make it a profitable political claim, or it would have been made. But it is only September… Where are the voices exhorting us to keep calm and carry on as disciples of the cross? 

 

We need a hope that cannot be shaken, and, we need to know our duty as citizens of a heavenly kingdom.

 

This kind of fear is a double-edged  sword. It may inspire you to vote. But it also threatens to destroy our peace, tempts us to act like jerks, and can keep us from carrying on as disciples of Jesus. Our calling is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39). But how do you extend love and charity toward someone you believe will cast a vote for the demise of your beloved nation? How can you love someone if you believe their vote will contribute to the end of democracy? 

If we are to keep calm and carry on doing the will of our Father in heaven, we need to have a firm grasp on two non-negotiables: we need a hope that cannot be shaken, and, we need to know our duty as citizens of a heavenly kingdom. 

Keep Calm—An Unshakable Hope

A hope built on the preservation of any nation state, America or otherwise, is a foundation built on sand. It is one thing to love your country. It is another thing altogether to place your hope in the prosperity of your nation. It is not possible to keep calm and carry on when your hope is destined to perish. No geo-political government has a lasting place in God’s kingdom. Even Israel’s place is not as a geopolitical entity, but rather as the recipients of the promises given to Abraham, Moses, and David. 

History is littered with nations that rose to power, fell from power, and faded into history. Our nation’s founders understood this and its implications for our nation’s fragility. As Benjamin Franklin exited the constitutional convention in 1787 he was asked, ”Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” He understood the survival of a republic is dependent on the character of its citizens. Similarly, his peer and our nation’s second president, John Adams, wrote in 1817, “Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a Democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.”

 

Citizens of God’s kingdom are in a fight, but not one for political power.

 

Our founders knew democratic republics never last. Eighty-five years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, our nation was on the verge of dissolving. Democracy was truly at stake. It was not political hyperbole but civil war. After the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the shortest and most famous of all presidential speeches: 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here, have, thus far, so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Lincoln characterized our republic as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The phrase captures the heart of what it means to be a free people. The government consists of the people, not aristocrats or family lineages. The government is by the people in that we elect people from amongst our own who will represent us. Finally, the government is for the people in that the representatives serve us, those who they represent. This government of the people, by the people, and for the people makes America great. And yet, the very same phrase is why our founders believed this beautiful experiment called America would never last. Read again John Adams’ words: 

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other. [4]

Adams understood our nation’s stability is dependent on the virtue of its citizens. A nation permeated with people who love God with all their hearts and their neighbors as they love themselves will thrive under a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. For these would be a people who see themselves first as citizens of God’s kingdom, not man’s. A nation consisting predominantly of people dead in their sin, who follow the desires of their flesh (Ephesians 2:1-3) and pursue the establishment of their own kingdoms, will inevitably trample the very Constitution designed to protect their liberty. 

So the question is, do you see yourself first as a citizen of God’s kingdom or man’s? Citizens of human-made kingdoms place their hope in the preservation of the nation they love. Do you feel compelled to fight or take your nation back from your political opponents? Citizens of human-made kingdoms will feel compelled to fight to keep control of power—from both a desire to continue wielding that power and fear of what others would do with it.

Citizens of God’s kingdom are in a fight, but not one for political power. For our fight is not against flesh and blood but against unseen spiritual forces (Eph 6:10-18). God’s kingdom does not depend on its citizens gaining or maintaining any sort of political power. And, our problems are not political; they are spiritual.

Our nation does not need another political movement, but it does need a spiritual one. And unless the nation experiences a repentance like in Nineveh (Jonah 3:6-10), the sinful desires of our nation’s people will breach the net as surely as any whale, and as Adams predicted, we will become the democracy that murders itself.

 

The Results of Conflicted Loyalty

To the politicians in the boat holding that net, and to many who elect them, any suggestion that the nation most needs repentance and spiritual renewal will seem absurd. There are prophets who hold no office nor any social capital who preach repentance. The Christian suspects the prophets might be right, but like everyone else, they are influenced by the voices they listen to most. The prophets may be right, but politicians sound more practical, pragmatic, and convincing. Consider a politician who interacted with Jesus, Pontus Pilate. 

33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.”
John 18:33–38 (ESV)

Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” is not an inquiry on the nature of truth but scoffing. His question communicates how he and perhaps most people view Jesus’ emphasis on truth and God’s invisible kingdom. If Pilate elaborated, it might sound something like this:

Truth? You are in chains. You have no army. You have no influence. You have no money. Your own people want you dead, and you insist truth is what the world needs most. Truth won’t feed the starving. Truth won’t protect a city from invaders. Truth won’t keep you from the cross. You are a sad idealist.

Pilate’s take on truth is the norm. Truth is useful only inasmuch as it helps gain or maintain power. Jesus only and always spoke the truth. The world speaks truth only when doing so will advance their agenda.  

 

God’s people can do nothing more important or powerful for their leaders than pray that they will know and submit to Jesus.

 

Our confessional beliefs may align with Jesus, but if our practical actions align with Pilate, the desires fueling those actions will lead to misplaced identity, despair, rage, and other bad fruit. The question is, where is your hope actually? Is it in the kingdom of men or the kingdom of God? For those who place their hope in Christ, God promises us the fruit of the spirit as citizens of his kingdom…

• You will be able to keep calm and carry on if your hope is in the kingdom of God, which resides in the hearts of his redeemed (John 18:33-38). 
• You will be able to keep calm and carry on if you remember great kingdoms rise only to fall, all according to God’s sovereign plan (Daniel 2). 
• You will be able to keep calm and carry on if you remember that every world leader, virtuous or evil, has been and will always be the willing or unwitting servants of the living God (Romans 13:1-8).
• You will be able to keep calm and carry on if you remember that God will judge the nations with a rod of iron (Psalm 2). 
• You will be able to keep calm and carry on if you remember the gates of hell cannot stand against God’s kingdom (Matthew 16:18).

While it is foolish and sinful to place our hope in the dominion or prosperity of any human kingdom, it is good and right to love your nation’s people and long for them to thrive as followers of Christ. There is nothing wrong with preferring or loving the form of governance our founders left us, a democratic republic. But placing your hope there is unwise, for systems and structures are only as good as the people who make and occupy them. Only God can change the nature of the people of a nation, and he does so as his children keep calm and carry on within the place and time he has us. 

 

Carry On—Our Duty to Make Disciples, Pray, and Submit

Moments before Jesus ascended to his Father, his disciples inquired about the nation they loved, “How long before you restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Tired of corruption and oppression, they longed for their people and the governmental system they believed most suited their prosperity to rise up and make things right. But these things still represented a human kingdom, not God’s. Jesus answered their question by shifting the focus to their duty, assuring them that God would provide the gifts needed to carry it out and encouragement to carry on. These are also things God calls us toward as we seek to advance his kingdom.

7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:7–8 (ESV)

Duty #1—Make Disciples

The disciples wanted revolution and reform. Jesus wanted them to witness, or testify to, the truth about his person, his work, and his kingdom. That truth liberated the disciples (John 8:31-32), but the world will remain in captivity as long as it remains ignorant or suppresses that truth. Their duty, and ours, entails being disciples and making disciples of all nations, including the citizens of the United States of America.

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18–20

Only with hope cemented firmly in the establishment of God’s kingdom can we keep calm and carry on with our duty to make disciples. We are to testify to the saving work of Jesus Christ: his victory over sin and death and our new, Spirit-empowered life through him. It requires us to live out our faith and share it with our family, friends, neighbors, and enemies. It requires us to teach one another to obey everything Jesus commands. 

 

Duty #2—Pray

In a country where we are offered the privilege and opportunity to participate in the democratic process, we might be inclined to think the most important thing we can do as disciples is to elect Christian officials and pass just laws. Both of those things are important but not of first importance. Our greatest privilege and power is found in prayer.

 1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
1 Timothy 2:1–6

God’s people can do nothing more important or powerful for their leaders than pray that they will know and submit to Jesus. We should pray that Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, third-party candidates, and everyone in state and local levels of leadership will come to worship Jesus as the one true king. When a nation’s leaders and its people repent of their sin and become new creations in Christ, the nation reflects this renewal. In 1739, Whitefield and the Wesley brothers led a spiritual revival in England. England went on to raise a generation of leaders who not only abolished slavery, but did so in parliament without a single shot fired. On our own continent, without revival, half a million Americans lost their lives fighting a civil war. 

The single greatest thing any American can do to preserve democracy is to pray for its citizens and leaders. As Adams stated, our constitution is only fit for a moral and religious people. Only the Spirit can take citizens and their leaders, dead in sin, and make them rise and walk, alive in Christ. 

 

Duty #3—Submit

With our hope firmly in Christ, we can keep calm and carry on making disciples and praying, and also submitting to the governing authorities.

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
Romans 13:1–7 (ESV)

God ordains governments to restrain and punish evil. Without them the strong will devour the weak. Sometimes, authorities are mostly just and good; other times, they are horribly corrupt and wicked. Either way, we are called to submit as long as our submission does not violate God’s commands (Acts 4:19 and 5:29). In Paul’s day, Rome was a totalitarian dictatorship under Nero as emperor. They had no rights, no voice, only a duty to obey and pay taxes. In our day and context, our government is a democratic republic of the people, by the people, and for the people. Jefferson describes it this way in the Declaration of Independence:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...

We consent to being governed because we possess the privilege and opportunity to participate in our own governance. As citizens, we can run for office, elect officials, and petition officials to enact and enforce just laws which reflect God’s morals and design. In our context, submission looks like both obedience and participation. Jesus calls his disciples “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13), and one of salt’s uses is as a preservative. A disciple’s participation in the democratic process serves as salt to preserve that which, if left to itself without the influence of Christ, trends towards moral decay. Christians should indeed use our right and privilege to advocate for just laws and protest unjust laws. 

 

Conclusion

If your mind is saturated with the propaganda of the world—from left, right, or center—instead of filled with the hope of Christ, you will come to believe the future of democracy rests on your shoulders. Fear for the future of the nation you love will begin, or already has been, causing you to view your neighbors (whom Jesus calls you to love) as enemies of all that is good and decent in the world. If your candidate wins, you may feel secure for a few more years. But your security would be short-lived and false. If your candidate loses, you will bitterly resent your enemies because you believe they threaten to make America fascist or communist or something else. Either way, you will find it nearly impossible to keep calm and carry on. 

But if Jesus is your king, Lord, master, brother, and beloved, and if his Spirit indwells you, empowers you, and informs your mind, then the trials and tribulations of this world, even those that affect the nation you love, will not unsettle you. Like the citizens of Great Britain, fire may rain from the sky, but in Christ, your hope is unshakable. This nation’s future may be uncertain but the kingdom of God, of which we are eternal citizens, is growing, and it will displace all the political powers that have ever been or ever will be (Daniel 2:44-45). 

 

So...

Keep Calm and Carry On.