From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Christians must not seek man-made, illusive "normalcy" but God's unchanging righteousness.

In the United States election of 1920, Warren G. Harding ran for president of the United States on the promise of a "return to normalcy" after the First World War. As is the case with virtually all political promises, Harding never allowed the public or the press to corner him into defining exactly what he meant by "normal".

Harding won the presidency on that ill-defined promise, but the years that followed were not "normal" by anyone's definition. The Teapot Dome bribery scandal occurred on Harding's watch, and for the first time in American history a member of the president's cabinet, Interior Secretary Albert Fall, went to prison for criminal acts. After Harding's death from a stroke after serving only 29 months as president, it became known that he had long been involved in sexual immorality both before his election and also after he was in the White House, and had fathered a child out of wedlock only a year before running for president.

Edmund Starling, a veteran Secret Service agent assigned to protecting Harding, described the era of the so-called "return to normalcy" thus:

We were smack in the middle of the Roaring Twenties, with hip flasks, joy rides, and bathtub gin parties setting the social standards. [1]

Of Calvin Coolidge, Harding's successor, Starling wrote,

Coolidge was the apotheosis of the American's idea of himself - a canny fellow with a dry wit, a sharp mind, a trading instinct, and a solid backlog of morality. But while this solemn Sunday notion of himself was in the White House, the American was disporting himself in Saturday night abandon. [2]

What can we say of our own time, one hundred years later? Immorality that was unthinkable and unmentionable in the 1920s is the common talk and everyday routine of American life in the 2020s. Americans may have been dancing in the gutter in the 1920s, but one hundred years later the nation is reveling in the septic tank. Many among us are proud of the fact, and insist that the so-called "rights" of those who defile society must be protected. The inclusivist post-evangelical church fears to speak against these evils - and in many cases treats the situation as acceptable and even desirable.

Merriam-Webster defines normalcy as "conformity to a type, standard, or regular pattern, characterized by that which is considered usual, typical, or routine." It is noteworthy that we do not find the word "normal" in the Bible. The definition of "normalcy" is a calculation of sinful human beings. It can differ from century to century, from decade to decade, from nation to nation, and from family to family.

The word that we do find in Scripture, over three hundred times, is righteousness - the immutable, eternal standard of the holiness of God:

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach [more literally, a disgrace] to any people. (Proverbs 14:34)

But the Lord shall endure forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness, and He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness. (Psalm 9:7-8)

The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain coals; fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright. (Psalm 11:5-7)

Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth. (Psalm 119:142)

Dear reader, Christians must not seek man-made normalcy but God's righteousness. "Normalcy" is elusive and illusory. No politician, philosopher, pundit, or other public figure can bring it. It will never come. But Jesus Christ, the righteous judge, will surely come, and His church must preach that fact without fear or apology:

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Jeremiah 23:5-6)

When Daniel the prophet was in captivity in Babylon, he understood these great truths. This was his prayer to the Lord in response. More than ever, it must also be the prayer of God's people today:

And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day - to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

"O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

"As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day - we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

"O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name."

References:

1. Edmund W. Starling and Thomas Sugrue, Starling of the White House (Chicago: People's Book Club, 1946), page 243

2. Starling, page 324

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