Our Tactics Define Our End

Written by David E. Smith

One of the great truths that history teaches us is this: your means define your end. The methods you employ in pursuit of power reveal not only your character, but the kind of world you intend to create.

For years now, we have watched the political Left justify political violence and arson, widespread looting, heavy-handed censorship, and even election manipulation under the banner of “saving democracy.” During the 2020 riots, many progressives quietly admitted that movements like Antifa and BLM were destructive—but excused them as necessary to stop Donald Trump, whom they continue to equate with Adolf Hitler and Nazism. They honestly believe that the end justify the means.

But as Larry Alex Taunton points out in a recent video podcast,

“If you are using terrorist tactics to achieve your ends, you’re a terrorist. If you’re using leftist tactics to achieve your ends that are supposedly on the right, nonsense. You are on the left. The moment you start using leftist tactics, you are on the left, that’s why you can’t say woke right, those things are complete opposites.”

Watch this four minute segment for better context:

Taunton’s point cannot be emphasized strongly enough: if you adopt terrorist tactics, you are a terrorist. If you embrace lawlessness, you are lawless. If you silence free speech and trample on dissent, you are no defender of democracy—you are its enemy. The claim that these tactics are merely “temporary” is false. They reveal who you are.

Christian conservatives cannot imitate the Left’s methods and expect to remain true to our principles. There is no such thing as a “woke conservative.” Woke ideology is inherently leftist. It is of this world… not of God. If conservatives adopt the language and strategies of the Left, they cease to be conservative at all.

Wokeism is built on relativism, victimhood, and the rejection of absolute, biblical truth. The moment conservatives adopt its strategies, they cease to be conservative at all. If you fight with the Left’s weapons, you will become what you claim to oppose.

The Rule of Law and God’s Law

As Christian conservatives, we must remain rooted in a higher standard. Taunton rightly points out that our Founding Fathers recognized that our most fundamental civil rights are not gifts from the government but are inherent, “endowed by our Creator” and protected by the laws of nature. The Declaration of Independence makes this plain: our rights do not come from kings, parliaments, or presidents.

More importantly, we cannot forget what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:17:

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

According to an article at Got Questions, the Greek word for “liberty” is defined as

“personal freedom from servitude, confinement, or oppression.”

True liberty is not the license to do whatever we please—it is freedom from the bondage of sin, which leads only to death and eternal separation from Almighty God. Real freedom gives us the choice: to obey God and His Word, or to rebel against Him to our own destruction. In the Gospel of John, Jesus explains (John 8:34-36):

“Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed…”

This is why the Apostle Paul exhorts us in Galatians 5:1:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

God ordained government to recognize and protect our God-given liberties—not to redefine or abolish them. When human laws trample the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, those laws lose their moral authority.

The clearest example is abortion. Legislatures may call it “legal,” but legality does not erase evil. Abortion remains the unjust taking of innocent human life—life made in the image of God. Every person bears an inherent dignity that no government has the right to violate. No statute, no court ruling, and no political decree can disguise this moral reality.

A Call to Action

For Christian conservatives, the path is clear (and narrow). We must stand firmly for the rule of law, but even more so for God’s law. We must expose the lie that woke strategies can ever “coexist” with true conservatism. And we must reject every attempt to make peace with evil—whether it comes in the form of abortion, transgender confusion, or the erosion of religious liberties and parental rights.

At the same time, we must show the world a better way: one rooted in truth, justice, and the recognition that liberty is a gift from God. If our tactics reflect those principles, then our ends will also reflect them.

The late Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who suffered under the Soviet regime, once wrote:

“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.”

That is our task today. We must not adopt the Left’s tactics, ignore their lies, or excuse them—but confront every falsehood with truth.

Our tactics define our end. Let us make sure our means—and therefore our ends—are worthy of the God who gave us life and liberty.

Therefore, whether you eat or drink,
or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
~1 Corinthians 10:31~

And whatever you do, do it heartily,
as to the Lord and not to men,
~Colossians 3:23~

Watch Taunton’s entire “Ideas Have Consequences” podcast episode: How the Left Uses ‘Nazi’ as a Political Weapon