Church and Civil Government, Part III

I was reading a blog from Pastor Doug Wilson and he wrote an excellent piece on the separation of church and state in a post. The post is in response to an atheist he has debated in the past, who is railing against the Christmas season. Here is an excerpt from the blog regarding the church and the civil government...

The United States Constitution does not mandate separation of church and state. The phrase "wall of separation" comes from a letter that Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists, and that phrase has no constitutional authority or ground. It was Jefferson's opinion, which, when he was alive, he had a right to. What the Constitution actually mandates with regard to religion is two-fold -- one, the non-establishment of a national church by act of Congress, and two, non-interference with the free exercise of religion by Congress. Got that? No Church of the United States, comparable to the Church of Denmark, or the Church of England. When the Constitution was ratified, nine of the thirteen colonies had established state churches at the state level. There is no conflict if the national bird is different from the various state birds, or the national flower from the state flowers, and so on. But if one Christian denomination were privileged at the national level, this could and would lead to conflicts with the established churches at the state level. Prior to the War Between the States, the country was governed on true federalist principles, and all this made sense. But get this down. The Constitution prohibits establishing a national denomination and supporting it with tax money. It does not require every branch of civil government, down to the smallest municipalities, to ignore the nature and will of the triune God. Still less does it require them to pretend that Jesus Christ, by His birth in Bethlehem, did not actually come to establish a new humanity in His own person and work.

Church and Civil Government, Part II

To continue from my last blog, church and state 'overlap' too much when a pastor becomes a mayor. If the argument is that pastors should not preach about politics, nations and the world we live in, I disagree. Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a kook. However that does not mean all pastors are kooks and that they all lead their flock astray. If a pastor does not lead his congregation in a certain area, who does? CNN, Newsweek? Yikes!! To expand on my earlier point...is Wright only a kook when he talks about the 'state'? Safe to say no. No matter what he is preaching on, he could be leading the flock astray. That is for the people who attended his church to decide and judge…we are commanded to…

19Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22Avoid every kind of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5 (New International Version)

The biblical references for the type of pastors I am talking about are the prophets Amos and Jeremiah. They spoke against the political establishment of their day. Their message was "knock off the sin, thus sayeth the Lord. God's judgment with fall on all of us!" We need pastors who speak the truth and declare the need for repentance to our political leaders. After all, who else will?

Church and Civil Government

I believe in the separation of Church and state…after all God ordained it. He created three governments. The Family Government, the Church Government and the Civil Government. Each one has responsibilities and duties. The civil should be separate from the church. In other words a pastor should not be the mayor of a township or the governor of a state. However the governments do overlap. Here is an illustration…lets say a math teacher goes to a diner for breakfast. He orders three eggs over-easy. Fifteen minutes later two eggs appear in front of him. He tells the cook…”Hey I ordered three eggs!” The cooks replies…”Do not tell me how to cook!” The math teacher responds with…”I’m not…I telling you how to count.” Their professions overlap. The same is true with the church and politics. When our government leaders meddle in sin we need pastors to stand up and declare God’s law and truth. When babies are slaughtered on a daily basis and marriage is redefined in this nation we need pastors to say…”Knock it off…thus sayeth the Lord!”

Pendulums and Wedding Dresses

In a recent conversation with some friends I lamented the fact that the modern church has become more and more casual in the attire of its members. This can be seen with adults, but especially with children. It concerns me with children because the message is that church is a casual place that deserves no reverence and that anything goes.

Where did the casual influence come from? I believe from two places. First, the world...specifically the business world. Work has become more and more casual and unfortunately the church has followed 'suit'. The other influence is a religious one. Modern church leaders place a heavy emphasis on a person's heart. It is the inside that matters, not the outside they tell us. God is concerned with heart issues, not with designer clothes. While I believe God starts with the heart, it is out of our hearts all things flow. That is why foul language is foul...it is a pipeline to the anger and bitterness in a person's heart.

In Matthew 23 Jesus said...
25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

So Jesus the inside matters, but the outside does too. I believe that our clothes should reflect the condition and attitude of our heart...and often they do. Black at a funeral comes to mind. When the Saints gather to worship God on Sunday there is significance in the day. It is important. God is gathering with us and that deserves our respect. Our clothes should reflect the importance of what we are doing at church.

Often people are concerned that if visitors come in they will feel out of place if they are not dressed correctly. Specifically if they are underdressed. But I would contend that how they are treated will be the greatest factor in whether they feel welcomed to come back the next week.

There is also a concern of people faking it..dressing up for church, but being crummy on the inside. My response is that God never jumps at a pump fake. He is not fooled and usually His children aren't either.

So the pendulum has swung from formal to informal. While I do not believe church should be super-formal, I think that most modern churchs are way too informal. But does it matter? I obvoiusly think it does and I think the illustration of a wedding perfectly relates how I feel. For our wedding, Melissa wore a beautiful white wedding gown. She was adorned with simple but spectacular jewelry and her make-up along with her hair highlighted her natural beauty. Simply put she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

Now would our wedding have been less of a union with God if she was in jeans and t-shirt? Would the day have been less important? No and No. However, would it have been as sacred? as meaningful? as symbolic? No, No and No. The dress and the accesories inhanced the ceremony in my eyes and in God's eyes. There was reverence, importance and symbolism.

I believe this is a good illustration because what is the church? We are the bride of Christ. And every Sunday we should clean ourselves up from being dirtied by the world and go meet with the Bridegroom in a ceremony that is important and significant. Our hearts should be right with God and our clothes should show Him the proper respect He deserves.

Sabbath Living

Over the past week I asked God to show me where our small group should go for the next few weeks. What came to my mind was the fact that we will look at what Biblical marriage is after the new year and how that it is the opposite of what the world says. Thus to prepare us we examined antithesis and what God says about the world. Please examine the following verses...

James 4:4-10
James 1:27
Romans 12:1-2
1 John 2:15-17
John 15:18-19
John 18:36

After examining what God says about the world, look at God Himself...
Rev 1:8
Malachi 3:6
James 1:17

Next, it is important to look at the Ten Commandments...
Exodus 20
Deuteronomy 5

A personal observation is that most Christians believe and honor all the commandments sans one. Most believe is it is sin to break nine of them, but if you mention the Sabbath they say..."well that is just an Old Testament thing. Our culture is different...the world is different." But we know what God says about the world and our relation to it.

So I challenged my small group to observe the Sabbath.

Melissa and I have agreed to. On Sunday we will rest from our work, gather with the Saints to celebrate what God has done for us, to feast and to rely on Him to provide for us. I invite your families to join us. We talked in detail what we think it means to observe the Sabbath and I will share more later. Now I ask you to look at the scripture, pray and discuss it with your family to see what you think.

To go back the the original idea, this is one way we can be the antithesis to the world.

I pray that this finds you with a open heart and mind. Comment if you have any questions.