By Joshua Arnold

“When do you think we’ll see the end of the current divisiveness?” asked a middle-aged man who knocked on my door this weekend. The question is a relevant one. Corrosive and toxic disagreements now pollute and consume practically any area of life. Hardly 24 hours after the conversation, former president and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump survived a second assassination attempt in two months.

“Things can’t remain this polarized forever,” I replied, after some thought. I said this because such polarization is fundamentally unstable. Unchecked, the current level of polarization could result in dramatic, potentially even violent change for America. This is not a wish, but it is my best guess about what the medium-term future holds, absent some unforeseen, unlooked-for cause of national reunification.

The well-dressed man at my door, along with his younger companion, also well-dressed, were offering a solution to present turmoil: future peace. He turned to the Bible, “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed … and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). “The meek … shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5), but “Transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the future of the wicked shall be cut off” (Psalm 37:37).

Yes, yes, and yes. Each of those items is biblical. Each will be fulfilled. Together, they sketch a portrait as biblical as it is desirable. So, I wondered, had I just encountered two fellow saints in exile, two fellow travelers on the narrow way that leads to eternal life together with God?

Alas, no. They soon handed me Jehovah’s Witness literature and invited me to a Jehovah’s Witness Bible study. I declined, saying that I believe they teach a “different gospel” (Galatians 1:6). Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the Trinity and the full deity of Jesus Christ. They practice a legalistic gospel and, for the most part, hope for eternal life in a restored earth — but without God himself. Jehovah’s Witnesses also produced their own translation of the Bible to edit verses that cause obvious problems for their teachings (like John 1:1, “the Word was God”).

But the presentation of these heterodox missionaries was plausible. Were it not for the “JW.org” label printed on their literature, it might have taken a much longer conversation to discover where their teaching diverges from true Christianity. Their pitch was relevant, their appeal was scriptural, and their invitation may have succeeded with someone unfamiliar with the Old Testament or theology.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are not the only group in America offering their own solution to current political divisiveness. In recent years, Americans have encountered pseudo-religious proclamations in politics, promising a better life through abolishing the police, atoning for past racial sins, climate-conscious lifestyle choices, tax cuts, health, or joy.

Paul warned the Colossians against those who “may delude you with plausible arguments” (Colossians 2:4) by pointing them to Christ (Colossians 2:2).

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ,” urged Paul. “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (Colossians 2:8-10).

No philosophy of human tradition, whether derived from Marx or Locke or Madison, is wiser, better, or more just than the policy of King Jesus. No political cause can offer more meaning or fulfillment than fearing God and keeping his commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13); King Solomon tried and found it to be vanity (Ecclesiastes 2:4-11), and now “something greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42). No religion of works can act as a substitute for delighting in God himself.

Jesus is better than any false gospel in the world because he offers a better salvation. You “were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,” said Paul, but “God made [us] alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).

Jesus is better because he offers the only true solution to divisive politics and moralistic ideologies. He both unites and sanctifies us because he is “the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God” (Colossians 2:19).

“When do you think we’ll see the end of the current divisiveness?” When God establishes his people as a New Jerusalem in perfect holiness and security. “The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day [because it faces no threat] — and there will be no night there” (Revelation 21:23-25).

In Jesus’s kingdom, there won’t be any assassination attempts, or bomb threats, or attack ads, or dirty campaigns because a perfectly holy ruler will establish perfect justice and righteousness in his obedient people.

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.