In about 600 B.C., God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah with what I am sure appeared to his people, the Jews, words that were incomprehensible and mind-blowing: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man…
“Andrews, your blog postings are sounding more and more like the rantings of a crazy person. Why should I waste my time even opening this drivel? Certainly anyone who floats the idea that our U.S. Constitution violates the biblical pattern for civil government and needs to be changed after 250 years, needs to be written off and ignored.” I understand this feeling completely, because I once had it myself—over the whole idea of a theocracy vs. pluralism! Obviously, the U.S. is a religiously pluralistic…
It is a shock to many to discover that our Constitution so blatantly and purposefully violates the two most basic tenets of God’s biblical model for a biblical civil government, the Hebrew Republic. Those violated tenets are the first two we discussed last week: 1.) the unity of God, and 2.) the spiritual unity of the citizens. As we investigate these ideas, keep in mind that I believe our current Constitution is the most insightful, complete and powerful governing document ever written by man—but…
We have been discussing the source of our United States Constitution, and we saw last week that, according to 19th century biblical scholar E.C. Wines, that source was the Hebrew Republic. It functioned from about 1450 B.C. until about 1050 B.C. In his book, The Roots of the American Republic, written in 1863. Wines presents 17 foundation stones that were intrinsic in God’s design for the civil government of His people We will look with some detail at the first four of these and…
Last week we looked at three lies Satan has used, very effectively over the last 150 years, to sidetrack, neutralize, and even destroy one of the three weapons God has given us by which we are to rule over the earth—the Civil Government. Those three Satanic lies are Marxism, Evolution and Escapist Theology. We can add Islam to that list as well. Islam is an even more ancient lie, and is violently at odds with these other three, but the old adage, “the enemies…
Today, we will begin our investigation of our least recognized, utilized, and certainly the most vilified of our three weapons—the Civil Government. The title of today’s posting is what I heard regularly in my church-growing-up experience to explain our complete disengagement from politics We have already discussed two of the three major weapons God has given us to fulfill our commission to rule over the earth—the Family and the Church. We concluded last week’s posting on how the church equips us to rule by…
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved ” (Luke 5:37, 38). My contention is that these words of Jesus can be applied to the NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH, as it forms a “NEW WINESKIN” that is ordained by God to hold the “NEW WINE” OF THE GOSPEL.” This limitless, unconditional grace of…
After 10 years as an earnest believer in Jesus Christ, the last six of those as a full-time staff member of a nation-wide, campus organization through which I had met the Lord, I had begun to have serious questions about that organization. Some of us on its staff had just discovered the full-on, unmitigated grace of God poured out on us at the cross. I was realizing that the constant pressure to witness by this organization, exerted on both staff and students, WAS NOT…
In last week’s posting, we discussed the first two of the three lines of Kingdom distinctives in the FAMILY—authority and responsibility. Today, I want to look at the third: accountability. All of these distinctives function differently in each of the three God-ordained institutions, family, church and civil government, as each of these institutions have distinctly different organizational structures. As we have seen, leadership in the biblical family resides in a single person, the husband. He has final authority and full responsibility for the well-being…
After studying “the forest” of God’s Kingdom (for what may seem like an eternity to many!) we are finally (I promise!) going to begin our study of “the individual tree” of the first of God’s Kingdom tools through which He will rule—THE FAMILY. In our diagram of the Ship of the Kingdom, the vertical line from Jesus, seated on His throne in Heaven, flowing down to the Family, is today’s topic of discussion. Remember, the characteristics that flow in this line, two from Jesus…