Posted on 08/19/2016 4:58:38 AM PDT by Gamecock
“Thus says the LORD: ‘For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom.’ ”
- Amos 2:1 The Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution forbids the federal government from establishing a particular church as the official religion of the nation. Over time, this principle of disestablishment has come to be known on the popular level and in the language of U.S. courts as the “separation of church and state.” In many ways, it has served the country well, for it has tended to keep the federal government from getting involved with theological disputes between Christian denominations, church discipline issues, and other matters that God has not given to the state to address and that the state is not competent to assess.
Since the first half of the twentieth century, however, this principle of separation of church and state has often been stretched in ways that the founding fathers of the United States did not intend. State and federal courts have often interpreted the disestablishment clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution as requiring the removal of all mention of religion from public life. The effect has been to enforce a kind of militant secularism that says no religious group has the right to have a say in how the nation is governed. In sum, the courts have moved from the separation of church and state to the separation of God and state.
We have seen that God has created a division of labor between church and state, assigning each entity specific tasks not given to the other. However, this in no way means that the Lord wants His church to be silent with respect to civil issues. Throughout Scripture, we find believers addressing state officials, praising them when they do what is right and condemning them when they do what is wrong. Often, this takes the form of the Jewish prophets’ confronting the Jewish theocracy of the Old Testament, but such is not always the case. In today’s passage, for example, Amos addresses Moab and condemns the nation not for breaking the ceremonial laws in the Mosaic legal code but for violating assumed, universal moral norms (Amos 2:1). Amos spoke as the conscience of the state against the state’s evil practices.
Following in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, the church is to fulfill the role of the state’s conscience. We do not look for the state to establish one church, but we do look for it to be accountable to God’s moral norms. When the state is not doing its duty to uphold justice, the church is called to exhort the state to do its job.
Coram Deo
How Christians and churches live out their roles as prophetic voices in the civic process is a matter of some complexity. One thing is clear, however, and that is that believers cannot be silent when babies are aborted, sexual immorality is promoted by the government, legal verdicts are bought and sold, and other matters. The church must call the state to act justly whenever it is failing to do so.
Passages for Further Study
Deuteronomy 16:18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, hand you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
1 Kings 21
Mark 6:18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears; The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears: Before the throne my surety stands, Before the throne my surety stands, My name is written on His hands.
He ever lives above, for me to intercede; His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead: His blood atoned for all our race, His blood atoned for all our race, And sprinkles now the throne of grace.
Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary; They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me: “Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry, “Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry, “Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”
The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One; He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son; His Spirit answers to the blood, His Spirit answers to the blood, And tells me I am born of God.
My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear; He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear: With confidence I now draw nigh, With confidence I now draw nigh, And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.
Please pray for all who loved him, espcially Mark17, Mrs Mark17 and Mrs WVKayaker, and offer thanksgiving to God for the assurance that all who have faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Psalm23:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Good post, although Scripture never says God is reconciled to man. Instead, man is reconciled to God through the work of Christ. 2Cor 5:19, Eph 2:16, Col 1:20
We've come to believe that meekness means milquetoast.
The Bible clearly teaches that meekness is a form of exercising or exuding power but keeping it under control.
Not every offense requires bringing the hammer down on the offender. There needs to be some common sense.
Instead of interpreting Scripture based upon political consensus, I prefer to base politics upon faith in Christ.
Separation of Church and State simply recognizes no one ecclesiastical system should prevail over all civil and criminal law. Likewise, the Freedom of Religion recognizes all believers might come to God through faith in Christ, but their walk in sanctification might follow different timelines.
Attempting to call a civil or criminal code illegitimate if it coincides with Scriptural guidance simply makes humanism a prevailing religion, which is itself unconstitutional.
Additionally, if a church of humanism is promoted over faith in Christ, then the Separation of Church and State has been violated, opening up competition of other churches to prevail over humanism.
Amen GC. After the experience we just went through, this is the promise of God that we cling to. What other words in scripture, offer us more hope than these? Thank you, and all our FRiends, for your prayers and condolences. Check it out here, at the Free Republic Memorial Wall
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