Jeff Essmann

Poland just showed us how this ends. Pay attention. Last night in Warsaw, armed state officers escorted seven judges into Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal. The court’s president was declared suspended. Riot police locked the doors. The President of the Republic turned his plane around mid-flight, walked up to the building, and had to push his way past judges to get inside his own nation’s highest court. The government says it is restoring the rule of law. The opposition says it is a coup. Both sides quote the constitution at each other while men in riot gear decide who gets through the door. Here is the lesson. 1. Somebody is going to rule you. The only question is who. There is no neutral state. Every law is somebody’s morality with a badge. If Christians will not govern, pagans and atheists will, and they will govern against your GOD and family. “When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light” (2 Samuel 23:3-4). God’s standard for a magistrate was never “secular.” It was “able men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe” (Exodus 18:21). That is Christian Nationalism. Christians ruled by Christians under Christ. Anything else is Christians ruled by their enemies. 2. Whoever holds the pen rewrites the law. PiS packed the court in 2015. Tusk is unpacking it by force in 2026. Each side believes it is the lawful one. When a nation loses a shared standard above the state, “rule of law” just means “rule of whoever won last.” Proverbs 29:2: “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.” The law has to answer to something higher than the next election. It has to answer to God. 3. Cultural Christianity does not hold the line. Poland is 90 percent baptized. There are crucifixes in its parliament. And this same week, thousands marched in Polish streets demanding abortion, while fewer than one in three hundred Poles sit under gospel preaching on Sunday. A nation can be covered in crosses and empty of Christ. Heritage is not discipleship. A country does not get Christian rulers from pagan households. 4. You cannot outsource your hope to a court. Both Polish camps spent a decade believing the Tribunal would save them. Now the Tribunal is the battlefield. “Put not your trust in princes” (Psalm 146:3). Christian rule is not a judge you hope for. It is men you raise, send, and seat. 5. Institutions are captured quietly, then held loudly. The seven judges walked in on a Friday night when the staff was gone. That is how it always happens. Not with tanks. With paperwork, timing, and a locked door. If godly men are not in the building, ungodly men will be. What we do here: Build the household. Family worship every night. Catechize your sons to rule and your daughters to build rulers. Your home is the first jurisdiction and the one no court can seize. Build the church. Faithful elders, disciplined members, men trained to lead. Christian magistrates come out of Christian congregations or they do not come at all. Take the offices. Sheriff. School board. County commission. State house. Run, or recruit and fund the man who will. “Be wise, O kings; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear” (Psalm 2:10-11). That command is not optional for a Christian with a ballot or a filing deadline. Pray for Poland. Then put Christians in every seat you can reach so nobody has to pray for us. “The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.” Psalm 103:19. That court sits in Warsaw. Ours sits higher, and it claims every court beneath it.