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On The Worship Of The Church And The Government Of The World

1/29/2015

My last post argued that Christ’s authority extends not just over believers but over secular government and all men today. His status as ‘Ruler of the kings of the earth’ is a present reality and not just a future promise. However, Jesus expects His Church to cooperate with Him in the government of the world. He moves in response to the prayers and especially the corporate worship of His Church. The following excerpt from EMPIRE expands on this concept.

“The Church on earth is called the Church Militant and the Church in heaven is called the Church Triumphant. The book of Revelation shows us how the worship of the whole Church governs the world. The prayers of the earth bound saints assembled in corporate worship go up like incense to the throne room of God in heaven, where the saints in heaven and all the heavenly hosts are likewise gathered in worship. In response to these prayers, lightning and thunders and a great earthquake are poured out on earth. In other words, when the Church Militant, assembled in its official capacity, joins with the Church Triumphant in worshiping God, and bringing prayers and supplications to His throne, God moves in power on the earth and changes the course of history.

In contrast, worship in churches today looks nothing like this at all. The idea that the Church worships to wage war, change history, and advance the kingdom against its foes is almost completely absent everywhere. If worship is not dead liturgy it is vapid Christian entertainment. At best, it is a “bless me and pray for you” service. The idea that the Church gathers together to wage war in worship is alien. This is why the Church lacks power, and why, despite her numbers, wealth and programs, she is losing the cultural battle to her much weaker foes. When reformation in worship along the lines of ‘The Revelation of Jesus Chris’ begins, that will be reformation that matters.”

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Just What Belongs To Caesar And Not God?

1/15/2015

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The following is an excerpt from EMPIRE on the true meaning of Christ’s statement in Mark 12:17 “And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

“Probably no verse in the whole Bible has been more misunderstood than this one. (See also Matthew 22:21 and Luke 20:25) This saying of Jesus is commonly used to support the proposition that there are two separate spheres of government, each with a legitimate claim on our obedience. God has some sort of limited claim on our spiritual life, while the civil government has an independent claim on everything else.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The prior verses 13 through 16 show that Jesus knew He was answering a trick question. The tax paid to Caesar was a tribute, a tax that acknowledged his claim to total sovereignty. If Jesus said to pay the tax, He would be agreeing with Caesar’s claim and undercutting His whole ministry. If He said not to pay the tax they could have Him arrested. So He asked them whose image was on the coin used to pay the tax. Of course, it was Caesar’s image. His indirect answer was to give what is Caesar’s to Caesar and God what was God’s. The obvious point is that while the coin bore Caesar’s image, Caesar and every other man bore God’s image. Thus, without giving them an answer they could use to have Him arrested, He affirmed that everyone and everything is subject to God, denying Caesar’s claim to sovereignty.”

It is important to understand that the civil government is not another god with a sphere of action independent from the true God in heaven. That way of thinking amounts to denying the total Lordship of Jesus Christ and in fact borders on polytheism. When Christians say “I am personally opposed to abortion but would never impose my morality on others because not everyone is Christian” they are affirming the Lordship of Jesus over their personal life and denying His Lordship over civil government. Revelation 1:8 calls Jesus “the Ruler of the kings of the earth.” Do we proclaim that total Lordship, or a more modest and limited one? Is our confession of who Jesus is adequate or inadequate?

Let me submit that this limited view of the Lordship of Jesus Christ is a doctrinal error that has corrupted our faith and witness. It is necessary for us to confess this error, repent, and take up a full-throated defense of our Lord before men. Let us be like John the Baptist who said to Herod concerning his brother’s wife “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Better we should lose our heads for a faithful confession before men than risk Jesus being unwilling to confess us before the Father.

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Enviro-Nazis

7/16/2014

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Congressman Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity budget proposal has been released. It is one of the first serious proposals as to what we would have to do if we were serious about ending America’s debt crisis. Hint: it’s more than a $38 billion one time cut. He proposes changing Medicare to a privatized insurance system with capped government subsidies, and turning Medicaid into a block grant to states. He does not touch Social Security.

The most important under-reported story of the last few years is the emergence of Shale Gas as an energy source for America. We have always known shale formations far underground held enormous amounts of natural gas, but recovering it was uneconomic. Recently, Texas entrepreneurs have figured out how to tap it, resulting in an increase in our natural gas reserve of perhaps five fold. Cheap and plentiful natural gas may color our future for a century. It may also impact Europe by providing the West with its own gas supplies, reducing their dependence on Russia.

It also will likely delay a nuclear renaissance in America by making the easy to build and run gas plants cheaper than any nuke. Gas plants already produce electricity cheaper than coal owing to the high capital cost of coal plants.

Environmentalists, having killed off nuclear and coal are in a panic as to how to shut down this source of energy and speed the economic demise of that Great Satan, America.
Christian persecution hit a new spike in China where Beijing cracked down on the unofficial Church. Over there, Christians are not afraid to stand up for their faith. This is in contrast with the American Church which seems concerned mostly with making the enemies of Christ like them, and which never speaks up on behalf of their suffering brothers in China or Moslem lands, or even the handful of American Christians willing to confront evil at home. Witness the cases of Michael Marcavage in Philadelphia or Pastor Hoye in Oakland .

An amusing commentary on the shallow people pleasing American Church is found on the Youtube video Sunday Morning.

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Capital Punishment

7/17/2013

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One issue that divides pro-life Christians is capital punishment. Some see a consistent pro-life position as including opposition to capital punishment in most or all cases. Others oppose abortion as the killing of innocent people but support capital punishment for people guilty of capital crimes. The former view seems more common among Catholics and the latter among Evangelicals. In my opinion, these positions reflect either the rationalist approach to scripture, in which extracting principles and creating a rationally consistent philosophy is the dominant mode of thinking, or the more literalist approach that takes scripture closer to face value. I am in the latter camp.

Two items I have come across lately highlighted this issue for me. The first was the case of the murder of Jitka Vesel by Dimitry Smirnov on April 13 in Oak Brook, Illinois. Smirnov told police he had verified that Illinois had no death penalty before deciding on killing his ex-girlfriend.
The other was an opinion piece by Roger Olsen, a theology professor from Baylor in the Associated Baptist Press entitled “Capital Punishment is a Sin.” In addition to citing a number of anecdotes about erroneous or problematic cases of capital punishment, Olsen was good enough to provide a list of specific arguments in favor of his position, for which I commend him. This provided a convenient set list to which I could respond. Here is his list with my responses in italics.

OLSEN: “There are several theological and ethical problems with capital punishment. First, it ends a person’s opportunity to exonerate himself or herself."
RESPONSE: The opportunity to exonerate one’s self is available at a fair trial. This is not unique to capital cases as an innocent man may die in prison without exoneration.

OLSEN: Second, it ends a person’s opportunity to accept Christ and live a God-honoring life in prison ministering to other inmates and guards.
RESPONSE: The prospect of a swift execution may concentrate one’s mind on their need for salvation, while endless imprisonment may just harden a heart.

OLSEN: Third, it usurps God’s place and assumes a God-like right and power to take the life of a person created in God’s image and likeness.
RESPONSE: God has delegated the power of executing murderers to man and requires us to carry it out Obedience is not usurpation..

OLSEN: Fourth, it has no social benefit. It only serves a blood thirst for vengeance.
RESPONSE: When capital punishment is carried out as part of a legal system tied to God’s moral law it serves to reinforce the Law of God in the minds of the people. It is the Law of God in the minds of the people that restrains murder and lesser offenses.

OLSEN: Fifth, no modern, Western country still has capital punishment.
RESPONSE: And few would be called Christian. All embrace child killing and Sodomy for example.

OLSEN: Sixth, capital punishment is barbaric and cruel -- if not to the person being executed (and who can know for sure?), to his or her family.
RESPONSE: If capital punishment is required by God this argument insults God. Life imprisonment is pretty cruel too. The cruelty inflicted on relatives of the victim by denying them justice just to show how morally superior we are is amazingly heartless.

OLSEN: Seventh, innocent people are executed. A few years ago Ethel Rosenberg’s brother came forward and admitted publicly that he knew she was not complicit in the plot to steal American nuclear secrets and deliver them to the Soviet Union. He fingered her to help himself. She was electrocuted in 1953 leaving behind two small, traumatized boys.
For these and other reasons, capital punishment needs to be abolished and Christians ought to be in the forefront of that effort.
RESPONSE: Innocent people are executed and some always will be. Rosenberg’s brother’s statement is likely self-serving. Innocent people are shot by police and people thinking they are acting in self-defense. Should police and citizens be denied the right to self-defense?

OLSEN: Most Christians who support capital punishment rely entirely on Old Testament material which was transcended by Jesus.”
RESPONSE: In the New Testament, Jesus Himself affirmed the continuity of the Law and the Prophets. The saved thief on the cross affirmed the justice of his punishment. Paul said if he was guilty of an offense worthy of death he” refused not to die.” Paul said malefactors should rightly fear the civil magistrate who, as God’s minister, does not bear the sword in vain. Swords are for killing. Capital punishment for murder is required throughout the Bible. The death penalty is not optional.

So there you have it. I invite you to join in the debate.

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American Exceptionalism

9/15/2011

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A recent posting by Newt Gingrich on this subject inspired me to write something about why I think America appears to be an exceptional nation and what it means.

The most obvious thing that makes America seem exceptional has been its status as the “Land of Opportunity.” People from all over the world have always flocked to America seeking economic opportunity they could not find in their native lands. England and European countries often had rigid class structures that locked people into certain kinds of jobs and locked them out of others.

The idea of your economic opportunity being limited by class or race or political affiliation is oppressive, and a land where you are only limited by ability, drive, and luck is exhilarating. America has never been perfect in this regard, but the fact that it has always been seen as much better than most other nations is reflected in our history of immigration, which continues. So the top-level characteristic that makes America exceptional is economic opportunity founded on private property, freedom of contract, and free enterprise.

This top level rests on our form of government, which is a Constitutional Federal Republic. This system constitutes a government of law, rather than a government of men, and embodies an elaborate set of checks and balances making it difficult for a faction to gain control of the governmental power for their economic benefit. It is not a monarchy, dictatorship, or democracy. This form gives people security in their property and freedom to compete economically, and has resulted in a level of prosperity and liberty seldom seen.

Because of their success, these top two layers have been copied in many countries with varying degrees of success. We have even tried to impose them on other countries following wars, again with varying success. Furthermore, we see these features of our country eroding at home. Arbitrary government grows and economic opportunity shrinks under both political parties. Why is this?

The reason has to do with the third layer, which is the foundation to the systems of government and economics, the religious layer. The top two layers were built on a Biblical World View owing to the strong Protestantism of the Founders. In this view, God is above all human institutions and man is individually accountable to God. God’s moral law is known and applicable to both the individual and government.

This makes collectivist ideas of society and unlimited government untenable. We would like to think that limited government and free enterprise could be built on any religious foundation, but this goes against both reason and experience. If America continues on her path of religious apostasy she will lose both her political liberty and economic prosperity as we plainly see happening today.

In the larger picture, America is but one link in the chain of Christianity, whereby God is unfolding His plan in history. Italy, France, Germany and England have been “exceptional” links in the past as America still is today. If America falls it will be a nightmare. But the plan of God will continue to unfold in another exceptional nation.

On May 6th, two-time gold medalist Peter Vidmar was forced to resign as head of the 2012 Olympic Team by the gay mafia because he donated money to the Proposition 8 campaign which banned gay marriage in California. The military is running ahead with implementing homosexual indoctrination of the troops, even encouraging chaplains to perform same sex marriages in base chapels in apparent violation of federal law under DOMA.

Meanwhile, Jim Wallis and Sojourners takes heat for not being 100% on board with the homosexual political agenda. Wallis is doing valuable work for the political left by peeling weak Christians away from voting for Republicans based on social issues to vote for Democrats based on “concern for the poor.” To do this he has to pose as Evangelical and not come out as pro-abortion and pro-gay, which would cause him to lose credibility with his target audience. But the homosexual lobby is single issue and uncompromising even if it kills them.

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Barney Fife Versus California

5/27/2011

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The US Supreme Court by a 5-3 majority has ordered California to release 30,000 prisoners into the population over the next two years. They found that prison overcrowding has resulted in a lack of medical care they consider unconstitutional. There are many causes for this situation being discussed, including high costs flowing from the power of the Prison Guards union, the three strikes law, and illegal immigration. But lost in these discussions is what I consider to be the biggest cause of all.

Contrast the modern state of California (and most of America) with the picture of Mayberry in the popular Andy Griffith series. In Mayberry, the face of law enforcement is Barney Fife, with his one bullet locked in a special drawer. A crime wave in Mayberry consists of children chewing gum in school or the town drunk failing to report in for his overnight jailing. In California it is endless rapes, murders and street gang activities. The police look like a military occupation force. The people demand harsher sentencing and prisons bulge beyond capacity. What is the reason for the difference?

In the late 1960’s and early 70’s California led the nation in creating a radical break between the law and its moral and religious basis. With the legalizing of things like abortion and sodomy, and with radical separation of church and state jurisprudence, we declared as a people that the law was one thing and religion and morality another unrelated thing.

In Mayberry, by contrast, you have a civilized community where the law rested lightly on a social order based on a religiously defined morality. Such a unified system of right and wrong has a powerful hold on the conscience of the individual. This internal moral restraint needs only the occasional reinforcement of the civil law.

But when the system of law is disassociated with any system of morality, and morality is considered a matter of personal choice rather than constrained by the Law of God, then that system of law has little or no claim on conscience. Law is then seen as just a set of rules of the game, to be ignored or navigated as best you can to get what you want. The sense of community dissolves and people form gangs or move into gated “communities” where no one knows anyone else.

Bleeding hearts will scream for prisoners to be released, “conservatives” will scream for the key to be thrown away, but neither approach will work. Only a return to an integrated whole of Christian belief, morality, and law offers any hope.

The main barrier to this return is the heresy of “dualism” in the Church. We accept the proposition that human government must be independent of if not hostile to the Law of God. We hold Caesar as running a parallel world independent of the Lord Jesus Christ. We hold that Christians should not be involved in politics except as members of some ordinary interest group. In effect, we deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ with respect to civil government, and then act surprised when things go to hell. No change in the world is possible until the Church escapes from this dualistic error and once again proclaims the total Lordship of Jesus Christ.

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On The Worship Of The Church And The Government Of The World

Just What Belongs To Caesar And Not God?

Enviro-Nazis

Capital Punishment

American Exceptionalism

Barney Fife Versus California

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