To some readers, this is a shocking title for a posting by a blogger who is sometimes accused of being an antinomian (“against the law”) because, as I wrote last week, I believe that we follow God’s leading in our lives by doing exactly what we want to do, rather than by trying to obey God’s law. As we saw last week, one of the two indispensable edges of the two-edged sword of the word of God is God’s law, the gospel being the…
I believe one of Martin Luther’s greatest contributions, second only to his recovery of salvation by grace alone, was his differentiation between the GOSPEL and the KINGDOM. Everything he taught was founded on two distinct messages for us in the Bible; what is above us (our relationship with God), and what is beneath us (our relationships in His kingdom on the earth). These messages are like two fraternal twins, each honored and loved by their father. Both are making irreplaceable contributions to the family…
For the past two years we have faced one of the most difficult times in our country’s history. The freedoms assured us in our Constitution, and that our government officials swear to protect as they are sworn in, have been challenged. The Constitution, based on biblical truth, is itself under assault by a major political party for the first time in my lifetime. It has been a tense two years. This makes many wonder, “What does the future hold for America?” We don’t know…
If you have opened this blog posting you are, at the very least, a Christian who is semi-interested in following Jesus Christ and growing in your understanding of how to do that. I would like to share in this posting a rather unconventional, but I believe biblical, and absolutely essential idea that I have learned over the years about how to go about following Jesus. Once we “believe in Jesus” and then set out to live a Christian life, we soon learn from church…
For the last number of weeks I have been sharpening the kingdom edge of the sword of the Word of God in these blog postings. My intention has been to focus on what the Bible says about civil government, and what we have discovered has been shocking to many of us. However, I can always tell by the restlessness in my heart when it becomes time to switch our focus to the other edge of the sword—the gospel of the unconditional grace of God—and…
As we conclude our discussions on attempting to envision our country as officially a Christian one, you may have had one of the two following reactions to the changes I suggested: “This won’t work. It isn’t practical. To think that this is a workable plan is ridiculous. You could never get even a small percentage of the population to agree to such a scheme.” This is probably the reaction most of you had, and, of course, it is undeniably true. However, our task is…
As we continue to look at this question, we must keep in mind that this is not a call to set out on a project to achieve, a goal to reach, or an esoteric idea that only the enlightened have “seen.” No! This is nothing but a call for us to learn to think biblically about civil government (to “think like God thinks”). and to look again at presuppositions that have limited our vision of God’s plan. We discussed last week a few of…
Who would be a citizen if the United States of America were a de jure Christian nation? Currently, based on the 14th Amendment passed in 1868, all those who are born on United States soil, irrespective who their parents are, are citizens. Or, if they are born to at least one parent who is an American citizen, living outside the U.S., they are citizens. Citizenship is based on either the location of birth or the citizenship of parents. In the biblical pattern of the…
A nagging question continues to lie in the recesses of my mind and bug me: Why don’t I hear or read Christian leaders talk about the single basic issue in all of life—”Why are we all here on the earth?” Those of you who are regular attendees at my little weekly meetings at this blog know that the answer is unequivocally stated in Genesis 1:26-28, at the conclusion of the creation story: “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to…
In our investigation of a biblical civil government, I have tried to distinguish between the church and the state as two clearly distinct institutions, with two clearly different tasks, both separately accountable to God. The church’s job is to equip the saints to spread the gospel—the full-on, “nothing-left-to-do” grace of God in our relationship with Him, WHO IS ABOVE US. In that mission, the institution of the civil government is not involved in any way. The civil government, on the other hand, is to…