God and Government REVISED, part I
When we look at the world's problems today, what are we supposed to think?
For the past 20 years,we have seen Republicans and Democrats spend like drunken sailors over the past 20 years, after the Contract with American finally balanced the budget ! No offense to drunken sailors! Now, we have a disease in Covid-19 that is killing millions of people in the world because world leaders and world citizens failed to stop the Chinese Communist Party! God's Word has solutions, let's find them over the next few weeks.
First, I will tell you a little bit about my journey into politics/ It all started in my junior year in High School when some of my friends encouraged my to join a Teenage Republicans group in my rural county in Wisconsin. Later, my junior year at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College (hereafter, Pillsbury), I was approached by fellow students to help with the Ethics class project. Our subject was the role of the Ten Commandments in government. The question our group asked was 'Should the government uphold the Ten Commandments?'. I presented the historical angle, telling my classmates of the basic Biblical principles of glorifying God in government and how God has punished governments who have failed to meet God's expectations. I will expound on this later.
For the past 20 years,we have seen Republicans and Democrats spend like drunken sailors over the past 20 years, after the Contract with American finally balanced the budget ! No offense to drunken sailors! Now, we have a disease in Covid-19 that is killing millions of people in the world because world leaders and world citizens failed to stop the Chinese Communist Party! God's Word has solutions, let's find them over the next few weeks.
First, I will tell you a little bit about my journey into politics/ It all started in my junior year in High School when some of my friends encouraged my to join a Teenage Republicans group in my rural county in Wisconsin. Later, my junior year at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College (hereafter, Pillsbury), I was approached by fellow students to help with the Ethics class project. Our subject was the role of the Ten Commandments in government. The question our group asked was 'Should the government uphold the Ten Commandments?'. I presented the historical angle, telling my classmates of the basic Biblical principles of glorifying God in government and how God has punished governments who have failed to meet God's expectations. I will expound on this later.
At the same time, I was informed by other peers that my beloved President, George W. Bush, had compounded the national debt by fighting two wars halfway across the world. I had been sheltered from this information because I was so busy with my studies, ministry, and friendships. I began to resent the previous generation for telling me to help re-elect Bush43 in 2004, and for good reason.
Then in the last several years, I have seen a dozen states legislatively re-define marriage as a relationship including two men or two women along with that "weird" idea of heterosexual monogamy. Then, the states that combatted this immorality by defining marriage correctly, were defeated by various levels of the judicial branch with their own reading of the 14th Amendment.
Now we see a terrible influx of criminals, whom the media call "immigrants" and "undocumented workers". What is the solution to these problems? What government form should Christians be advocating?
Then in the last several years, I have seen a dozen states legislatively re-define marriage as a relationship including two men or two women along with that "weird" idea of heterosexual monogamy. Then, the states that combatted this immorality by defining marriage correctly, were defeated by various levels of the judicial branch with their own reading of the 14th Amendment.
Now we see a terrible influx of criminals, whom the media call "immigrants" and "undocumented workers". What is the solution to these problems? What government form should Christians be advocating?
Before I answer that question, let me tell you the current Baptist mantra. The vast majority of Baptists (Fundamentalist or not) believe in separation of church and state. This is the belief that the church does not run the state because when the organized church ran the Medieval governments it turned into widespread persecution of true believers and other dissenters. On the other hand, state-run churches have rarely produced genuine conversions and solid discipleship. I agree wholeheartedly with this principle. But I disagree with the solution to the two problems that framed the Baptist distinctive. The vast majority of Baptists advocate some type of representative, democratic, or libertarian government. They teach that as long as all people have freedom to worship God or to not worship God in the way they choose, then the true Christian church can thrive with no persecution. Plus unbelievers are much more attracted to Christianity because it is not persecuting them. The Bible simply does not teach this.
Instead, the Bible teaches a form of goverment that has long since left most of the Western world. This form of government is introduced in Genesis 9 and expanded in Exodus 20, then re-affirmed in Romans 13. Let us look at these passages and others to see what God wants in the ideal government.
In Genesis 9, the family of Noah has survived the flood. Noah is now in charge of the continuation of the earth. He is the oldest and most powerful person on the planet. God tells Noah to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Gen. 9:1b KJV). After some dietary laws, God continues with his social demands
"And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." (Genesis 9:5-6 KJV)
Here God sets up his first long-term set of laws since the time of Adam and Eve. God bans murder, which was rampant before the flood. Although murder was wrong before the flood, God now makes an understood law banning the practice. His reasoning gives us some insight into the calling of man. God makes murder an understood crime, not just because of His pro-life character, but because man is made in the made in the image of God and is expected to share that image with his fellow man.
The punishment for murder is also significant. God requires the blood of the convicted murderer. He is to be executed by the men who are obeying this law. Prison time and parole hearings are not biblical ideas. Capital punishment is a pro-life policy! It is interesting that God gives this command to Noah, the oldest man on the earth, at the time. Noah is to establish a world of justice for the victims of homicide. This is not some passage limited to First-Century Christians. Rather, all image-bearers of God are expected to implement this policy. Any government that does not practice capital punishment for convicted murderers is disobeying God's command in Genesis 9:1-5.
The punishment for murder is also significant. God requires the blood of the convicted murderer. He is to be executed by the men who are obeying this law. Prison time and parole hearings are not biblical ideas. Capital punishment is a pro-life policy! It is interesting that God gives this command to Noah, the oldest man on the earth, at the time. Noah is to establish a world of justice for the victims of homicide. This is not some passage limited to First-Century Christians. Rather, all image-bearers of God are expected to implement this policy. Any government that does not practice capital punishment for convicted murderers is disobeying God's command in Genesis 9:1-5.
Part two of this explosive study comes next week!
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