Blog

The biblical model for civil government, as pictured by the Hebrew Republic, looks strikingly like our constitutional republic. I posed the question at the end of last week’s posting—”What do these principles tell us about the kind of people who will be citizens in this nation?” How do they relate politically to King Jesus? Historically, there have been two possibilities, the first being a THEOCRACY. Since God created us to worship, we will worship! Even though we initially rejected the Triune God, who created…

We have seen in past blog postings how the New Testament church is to function in order to be the kind of church that fulfills its mission to rule in the kingdom of God—by preaching the gospel to the world and speaking prophetically to the civil government. We have focused exclusively on the former. Much of the church has not seen the latter calling and has, instead, comfortably withdrawn from the current cultural battle with Satan’s acolytes, as they work feverishly to destroy the…

We looked at Roger Wheelock’s article on Propaganda Wars in last week’s posting, as he clearly laid out where we are in our nation today and how we got there. We will continue to look at his answer to the question, “What can we do about it?” this week. He has already answered that question with two points: 1.) Return to Scripture, and 2.) Boldly enter into the battle of ideas. Here again is Wheelock, finishing with his third point in his answer, “What…

“THIS is the article I would write … If I had the skill, knowledge and understanding!” That was how I introduced this article to a much smaller group on my “political” (mailing) list a couple of months ago. However, a friend recently reminded me how excellent it is, so I thought I would send it out to my much larger, “Two Edges of the Sword,”  list. There is a brief bio of Roger Wheelock, the author, following at the end. The remainder of the…

“…and good Christians don’t get involved in it.” This was the attitude of the church I grew up in, and although it was not often openly discussed, it was understood by all. There was no doubt that we were superior to and above all that messy “politics stuff.” This attitude has been prevalent in the evangelical church since the early 20th century. It had its genesis after the twin ideas of Darwinism and Marxism were birthed in Europe in the mid 19th century. Until…

I had a very interesting conversation with a good friend based on this week’s blog posting, “Keep On Keepin’ On.” He is a very knowledgeable and outspoken member of the American Orthodox church, and likes the blog, commenting on it relatively regularly. We discussed the fact that God has us each on a different path to The City with Foundations, and we are all exactly where He wants us to be on that journey. Yesterday, he brought up the subject of icons, and how…

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Colossians 2:6). Here Paul is saying to the Colossians, “Look, this Christian life is not difficult. You continue it just like you started it, by doing NOTHING but trusting your Heavenly Father for everything, just like a little child. Is that not how you began your Christian life? So, just keep on keepin’ on.”  This means that everywhere we go, as we walk by faith in this manner, we are following…

The Lord has been so good to me I can’t contain it! In my declining years, He has led me to write these blog postings, and they have given me such joy and fulfillment that I want to express my appreciation to you for faithfully reading my musings each week! Much love and blessing on you for doing so. We saw last week, via the eye-chart illustration, that forgiving others is not the cause of God’s forgiveness of me, but a naturally occurring result…

The sword of the Word of God has two edges, and I can generally sense when the Lord is prompting me to sharpen the “other edge,” rather than the one I have been working on in my recent blog postings. A conversation I had with my wife, Jill, last week about forgiving others, who, in my estimation, have sinned against me, gave me the final nudge to transition from discussing our part in the kingdom of God to again examining the gospel of His…

The church and the state (the civil government) are institutions created by God, along with the family, that are clearly distinct from one another. None of them has any authority over the other two in the particular activity sphere in which they are designed by God to function, i.e., the family—raising and training children; the church—equipping its members to proclaim the gospel and the kingdom; the civil government—to protect family and church as they do their jobs.  This means that there is a distinct…