Suppose your nation was fighting a war. And … there were great and talented leaders in charge. Your nation had never lost a war and was a dominant power in the world. However, in this nation public opinion was turning against the war and the elected officials who were worried about their re-election started giving into public opinion. The elected officials started making military decisions. Many of these elected officials had no military experience but that did not stop them from getting involved.
The elected officials started telling the military that they could only bomb here or there. Even though the military knew where much of the ordinance was being kept by the enemy the elected officials instructed the military not to bomb or attack in any way those supply depots.
Consequently, things did not go well in that military campaign and that is often the case when people attempt to control something for which they are not qualified.
You don’t want your plumber to perform open heart surgery on you
You don’t want the government balancing your checkbook
You don’t want a Vegas commedian to be your pastor
Why? Some things just naturally do not fit! Plumbers should not perform surgery and most surgeons don’t do their own plumbing or welding or electrical work.
Now, as important as it is for someone to be skilled in a job it is even more important in the spiritual world for someone to be listening to God as to whether they should do something or not.
God had a plan for the leadership of Israel. He would lead!
Israel had a different plan … they wanted a King like the other nations!
God said, OK. You’re rejecting Me and I will give you a King but you won’t like it!
In spite of their rejection of Him, He gave them instructions as to how a king could rule over them in a righteous manner.
Deuteronomy 17:18-21
“When [the King of Israel] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.
“It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees
“and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”
And, since Friday was July 4, Independence Day, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at the so-called separation of Church and State.
Now, if we’ve read anything in the Bible we know that we as Christians are to be wholly devoted to the Lord and that we should take that devotion with us everywhere we go and that it should influence everything we do and that includes Christians who are politicians.
John Adams stated:
The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.
Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company: I mean hell.
The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.
Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. . . . What a Eutopia – what a Paradise would this region be.
I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.
Congress 1854
The great, vital, and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
If the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle... In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity... That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.
John Jay
PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; DIPLOMAT; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; ORIGINAL CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE U. S. SUPREME COURT; GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK
I recommend a general and public return of praise and thanksgiving to Him from whose goodness these blessings descend. The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow.
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
What does God say about it?
(Repeat the Scripture and enhance as it would apply to the USA)
Deuteronomy 17:18-21
“When [the King of Israel] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.
It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees
“and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”
From this Holy Scripture it is safe to see that the Lord does NOT expect us to lay aside our Christian beliefs if He leads us into positions of government.
And, from the quotes of just a few of our founding fathers we can see that it was certainly their intention that Christian values SHOULD be woven into the very fabric of the American Nation.
The Separation of Church and State as it is known today would have been ridiculed by our founding fathers and early American government and it is certainly not the will of our Holy Father who is in heaven! Holy is His Name!
This wall of separation or the establishment clause has been turned upside down on its head. It was originally intended to keep the government out of the church, not to keep Christians and Christian values out of the government!
Do you want an example of what can happen when the government becomes involved in the oversight of a church.
The Three-Self Patriotic Movement Church in China
Three Self churches are the 57,000+ churches in China that belong to the Chinese Communist Party-controlled Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM).
The three ‘Self’s are Self-governance, Self-support, Self-propagation, and respectively reject foreigners' influence on the church leadership, foreign financing and foreign missionaries, while “Patriotic” indicates the church's loyalty to China.
The three rejections have kept the divisive Western denominationalism out of China and thus aren't necessarily bad on their own. What is bad is that the Three Self Patriotic Movement tries to restrict, control and twist the Christianity of the Bible. Consider some of the rules governing the Three Self churches:
• The Communist Party is the head of the church in China (Three Self churches report to the Three Self Patriotic Movement, which reports to the State Administration for Religious Affairs, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party).
• The Communist Party decides how many people can be baptized per year.
• The Communist Party has the final decision on who can preach and what can be preached.
• Preaching should focus on the social rules and the social benefits of Christianity.
• Preaching about resurrection and the second coming of Jesus is forbidden.
• Preaching against religions that deny the deity of Jesus is forbidden.
• Preaching that atheist communist heroes went to hell is forbidden; good communists go to heaven
• Preaching against abortion is forbidden.
• Gathering to worship outside Three Self churches and official "meeting points" is forbidden.
• Preachers cannot preach at a Three Self church other than the one to which they were assigned.
• Evangelizing or giving out tracts is forbidden.
• Importing Bibles is forbidden, even if they are given away for free.
• Printing Bibles is forbidden, even if they are given away for free.
• Government officials cannot be Christian.
• Teachers cannot be Christian.
• Soldiers cannot be Christian.
• Police officers cannot be Christian.
• Children and teenagers cannot be Christian.
That is where the church will inevitably end up when left to the spirit of anti-Christ which was in the world even when Jesus was on earth.
That’s the bad news! What’s the Good News?
Despite the fact that the Chinese government has turned the “church” in to a Communist propaganda machine the Church of Jesus Christ is alive and well in China and growing by leaps and bounds!
In the book of Ecclesiastes this phrase is found nine times
“Chasing after the wind”
What are examples of “Chasing after the wind” in regards to Christianity?
1) People trying to be Christians without God? Example: Constantine
Proclamation that all Romans were now Christians
Why? Constantine saw a vision which led him to victory in a military battle
“Whatever you say Emperor Constantine …”
If Constantine had said, “You are all boiled eggs they would have said,
‘Yes, Sir.’”
2) Persecution trying to stop Christianity
Heard much about persecution from the Missionary at Church camp
Man who was beheaded and DVD made/distributed around the country in
order to stop Christianity actually increased the spread of Christianity
Another time they did research in order to see the affect of martyrdom and
found that in each instance where a Christian was killed the cause of
Christ increased within a one kilometer radius of the killing. Why?
People won’t die for a lie!
What persecution WILL do is persecution will refine the church and bring it together!
There are no lukewarm Christians in China or North Korea or Somalia or the Middle East.
Where the persecution is great, there is no such thing as a church split!
Where persecution is great, there are no believers who claim that their faith is a “private matter”. If there was any way at all that they could worship with other believers they would be there in a heartbeat!
So, what does this mean to us regarding the separation of Church and state?
We will need to make a choice, that’s what it means.
If the government says you can no longer preach, teach or even believe that you serve the One and Only True God we will have to make a choice!
If the government says that preaching what the Bible says about homosexuality being a sin is hate speech we will have to make a choice.
What if the government says that your tithes and offerings will no longer be tax deductable? What choice will you make?
You must admit that these are piddly little squabbles compared to having your head sawed off from your neck for belief in Jesus!
But the bottom line of “separation of Church and state” is this. Governments are no match for Jesus!!!!!
You know, I thank God for Family Camp! Why, I learned something in the morning teaching sessions! Dr. Sarah Derck was teaching and on a side note she mentioned the proclamation of Peter.
Matthew 16:15-18
“[Jesus] said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!
“For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
This is what I learned - the gates of hell are a defense
The very gates of hell standing against the power of Christ on earth will be crushed and broken down! The will not prevail! They cannot withstand the power of the blood of Jesus Christ!
And, when the church is refined by persecution it won’t matter what the government says the Bride of Christ, the Church of God can or cannot do!
Christ will prevail. Praise be to God!
As elements of the government battle to keep Christ and Christian values out of the fabric of the United States we as Christians must be faithful to take Jesus with us wherever we go for His honor and His Glory so that His kingdom will come and His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Praise the Lord!
