In the last lesson we talked about the necessity of relationships and how we are to relate to one another. Man was not created to live in isolation, but in community.
As a result of our collective gathering together, we need a system of common rules and enforcement mechanisms to make sure those rules are being followed. It’s the only way you have an orderly society and the community does not dissolve into chaos.
Aristotle who lived some 380 years before Christ, said collective life necessitates a constitution or a mechanism of rules, regulations and leadership to enforce those rules for the governing of society.
Approximately 1100 years before Aristotle God brought the children of Abraham out of Egypt, so He could take them to the land promised to Abraham. However, to get to the Promised Land they had to pass through the wilderness of Sinai. Exodus 19 shows us that it was here on Mt. Sinai that Moses was given the Law of God to govern the nation of Israel in the Promised Land. Before we go on I want to do a little detour and take a quick look at comparing the establishment of the American constitution with the Law of Moses.
Unlike the law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, the United States constitution was written by several different authors and debated among 55 delegates at the Continental Congress. It was then ratified by 39 signers. The U.S. Constitution was debated among men. The law given to Moses came directly from God on Mt. Sinai to one man. There was no debate, it was God’s direct communication to Moses, face to face. The U.S. Constitution was debated among the delegates for several months then ratified in 1788 and it has been the law that has ruled the United States since that time.
The U.S. Constitution is for America not for Canada, not for France, not for Brazil or any other nation since it directly relates to the governing of the United States. So, the U.S. Constitution was written to directly govern the United States, in like manner the law given to Moses was a constitution to govern the newly formed nation of Israel.
Unlike the constitution of the United States, the law given to Moses was ratified with a blood covenant, between the children of Israel and God. Exodus 24:7 thru 8 says Moses took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.
The Law of Moses was given to Israel specifically and exclusively to govern them as a nation. It was a covenant instructing them how to regulate their lives living in a Theocracy, which is a government ruled by God. It regulated how to legislate their legal system, their social way of life and it was instruction on how to worship the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. It was Israel’s system of common rules and enforcement mechanisms to make sure those rules were being followed.
It was some 2,000 years after Aristotle's time, that America’s founders were searching for the best constitution. America was in many ways quite different from Aristotle's Greece. For one thing, the 13 American states were a lot bigger than any of the Greek city-states. Still, the framers at Philadelphia understood Aristotle's political ideas and passed many of them on to us in the document they created called the American Constitution. Contrary to what is taught in many Christian circles, it was the ideas of the Greeks and Romans that had the greatest impact upon the founder's thinking.
It wasn’t the Torah that inspired the formulation of our Bill of Rights and the American Constitution, but the influence of the Enlightenment period affected by a renaissance of Greek and Roman ideas on how to govern societies.
Among these ideas are the belief in the rule of law, equality, moderation, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, property rights and a government that serves the common interest of all citizens.
In this lesson I am going to speak from an American perspective when it comes to civil authority, because my audience is primarily American. However, as a believer in Christ I’m going to integrate how we should live out our faith under any government. In a day when anarchy seems to be the rule, as members of the royal priesthood we need to understand the role of human governments. It’s in Romans chapter 13 verse 1 where we can clearly see that God has ordained human governments as an extension of His rule and we are told to obey the civil authority.
The natural tendency we have is to take the easy way out and live anyway we want to live. However, we are not an exception to the rule. There are laws to our cities, laws of our state and laws that come from the federal government. Now as believers in Christ, we are to be ruled by the Spirit of God and our lives are to be governed by him first of all. However, we also live in this world and are subject to the civil laws of the land.
As we look at the Bible as our guide and lens by which we view the world, we have to understand this one truth. The Bible does not tell us everything about world history nor does it tell us everything about how to live life.
The Bible is history, but it’s telling us the story of God’s redemptive history in time. It’s God’s love story to humanity showing us His redemptive hand through the Hebrew people, his chosen vehicle to redeem a fallen humanity bringing us back to Himself.
What I want to do first is talk to you about the four main schools of thought that had developed in Israel during the 400 silent years. The 400 silent years extended from the prophet Malachi to John the Baptist who was the last prophet opening the church age. As you read through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John which is what we call the gospel stories you see 3 of these groups mentioned. The first group is the Pharisees. The second group is the Sadducees. The third group is the Essenes which the gospels don’t mention. The fourth group is the Zealots. Let me briefly describe each one of these groups because they represent four viewpoints of how the Jews viewed the Roman government which ruled Israel during the time of Christ.
The vast majority of the Pharisees were middle class merchants. They believed in the entire Old Covenant Law and accepted oral tradition. The oral tradition is where you get all of the little rules that they came up with written in their rule book which added thousands of sub rules to the Torah Law. It’s why Jesus called them blind guides who strain at a gnat, but swallow a camel.
The oral tradition became very complicated and legalistic, however the vast majority of the population during the time of Jesus listened to them since they were the religious leaders of the day. The Pharisees did not have governmental authority in Israel, like the Sadducees who were the political leaders. However, because of their popularity among the religious Jews, they did have political power through the power of persuasion. Pharisees accepted Rome’s control as a necessary evil as long as they were allowed to practice their faith.
The second group was the Sadducees who descended from Zadok, Solomon’s high priest & became a faction around 200 BC.
The Sadducees were wealthy, aristocratic and often spoke Greek as their main language. They did acknowledge God’s Law, but only as a vehicle to retain their place of wealth and power within the Jewish nation. They rejected the oral traditions of the Pharisees and despised their strict moral codes along with rejecting the synagogues set up by the Pharisees.
The Sadducees despised the Pharisees and saw them as religious nuts. The Sadducees believed that the temple was the only pathway for the Jewish nation to worship because that’s how they retained their power since they controlled the temple and its ceremonies. The Sadducees dominated the Sanhedrin which was the Jewish ruling council and because of that they received Roman support.
The Sadducees were the high society of the Jewish power structure closely aligned with the Roman authorities.
They did not believe in bodily resurrection so therefore did not believe in an afterlife. The historian Josephus described them as secular and not interested in Judaism as a faith. He described them as not believing in a God who directed the affairs of men, but they believed man was left to his own devices to figure things out. I would call them practical atheists who used the Jewish religion as a means of power.
The third group during that period of time is the Essenes. You don't hear about them in the gospels because they pretty much lived outside of public life. It’s thought that the Essenes came from both the Sadducee and Pharisees faction. The Essenes were isolationist much in the same way you will see Mennonites in Canada or the Amish in parts of the United States who stay strictly within their own communities.
The Essenes practiced their faith in the wilderness because they believed participation in Temple services led by corrupt priests was against God. They felt the nation of Israel was corrupt politically and spiritually beyond fixing, therefore they withdrew from the corruption to the desert on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea in the towns of Judea. The Essenes thought of themselves as the true priests descended only from Zadok and followed a rigid adherence to the Torah. They believed that God was soon coming to judge the nation of Israel along with the nations and that they were the chosen ones to prepare for the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God.
The Essenes were scribes who copied the Torah, shared property, partook of communal meals and practiced ritual cleansing.
It is through their tireless dedication that we have some of our best manuscripts of the Old Covenant documents preserved which are referred to as the Dead Sea scrolls.
The fourth group was the Zealots.
The Zealots were kind of like the militia movement, sovereign citizen movement and what is becoming known as Patriot churches.
It was a movement formed against Roman rule in 6 A.D. By Judas of Galilee. The Zealots were mainly extreme Pharisees living primarily in Galilee, the same province Jesus was raised in. Their beliefs resembled the Pharisees, but they only believed God could rule the nation of Israel.
To the Zealot, cooperation with Rome constituted idolatry in the form of recognizing Caesar as lord in the place of God. The Zealots despised the Roman Empire and resisted what they considered their illegitimate authority over the nation of Israel, therefore they refused to pay taxes to Rome. The Zealots were nationalistic and had very similar ideas to today’s Christian nationalist movements.
The Zealots were considered terrorists by the Romans because they did commit acts of assassination targeting those who cooperated with the Roman authorities. The Zealot’s believed in physical resistance and saw themselves as freedom fighters.
To sum it up the Pharisees were the conservative religious leaders and were the majority viewpoint in Israel although their power was in persuasion over the people. The Sadducees were aligned with Rome and had power to rule granted by Rome. They were secular and I would call them leaders of the religious left. The Essenes were spiritual isolationists having no contact with public life and were apolitical which is why they were not interested in politics. The zealots were nationalist and wanted to overthrow Rome through force reestablishing Israel's sovereignty.
The Roman Empire ruling over Israel formed the context of Jesus’ ministry. I know this may be a controversial statement to some, but if you study the gospels Jesus was not political.
His mission was to fulfill redemptive history in time, consummating the joining together of heaven and earth.
He was the Word made flesh. The Word that created all things dwelt among us bringing his kingdom rule to earth. He came declaring that the kingdom of God had come to earth, which was definitely a controversial idea since a kingdom has a king. He denounced rulers and He spoke of good news for the poor.
At the start of a festival celebrating Israel’s liberation and right before his death he organized around himself what could only have looked like a royal procession. He entered the city of Jerusalem, which is the city of the king with shouts of hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! It could definitely be seen as a threat to the leaders of Israel.
He was accused of being a political insurrectionist and above his head on the cross was written king of the Jews in Aramaic, Latin and Greek for the whole known world to read. He died the death of a criminal on the cross, but all of this was merely the fulfilling of prophetic promises.
Right before his death and during his interrogation with Pontus Pilate, Jesus said in response to being questioned about him being Israel’s king: My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.
Jesus was clear about his mission. It was not to set up a political kingdom subduing the Romans authorities, but to subdue the power and government of sin.
The Pharisees tried to bring Jesus into a political argument over taxes. The Pharisees said teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax. And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said, Caesar’s. Then he said to them, therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.
In ancient times, an image on an object showed ownership. Since the Roman emperor viewed himself as a god, some Jews objected to paying taxes with Roman money, calling it idolatry. By acknowledging the image of Caesar, but not condemning it, Jesus confirms that the Zealot’s perspective of not paying taxes to Rome was flawed. Caesar’s right to claim taxes was backed up by his image appearing on Roman money. The image was not a demand for worship, just a demonstration of ownership.
Jesus was making a clear distinction, between the kingdoms of this present world order, which owned the money and His kingdom.
Let’s look at another story when Jesus had just finished feeding the 5,000 and they wanted to take him by force and make him king. Again, many of the Jews were expecting a king like David to restore the kingdom to Israel and deliver them from the Roman government. It says that when Jesus became aware of their intent, he withdrew to the mountain by himself.
I know that many will try to portray Jesus as a political figure, but he simply was not political.
He was born king of the Jews, died king of the Jews and will return as the King of kings ruling from the city of Jerusalem. His first mission, however, was not to set up a political kingdom, subduing the Romans authorities, but to subdue the power and government of sin.
In a day when the political left in America and the political right want to make Jesus their political figure, he is still refusing their advances, because his kingdom is not of this present world order.
The kingdom of God is now, but his rule is over the individual heart. It’s about the rule of God changing the human heart from the inside out, through the rule of the blood, water and Spirit of God.
Let’s now take a look at our American system of government so we can figure out how to operate as a part of the Jesus movement on the earth and not be taken captive by political extremes. Jesus told us to beware of the leaven of the Sadducees and Pharisees that’s in Matthew chapter 16 verse 12. These same extreme political views are still very much alive in our day. I want to identify four groups or views in the American church that are very similar to the four groups in the days of Jesus.
Now the first group I want to discuss is what has been labeled the Moral Majority over the last 40 years, which identifies with the political right. It gained its political stronghold during the Reagan years being galvanized around the two main wedge issues of anti-abortion and anti-gay rights.
It’s by far the largest group made up mainly of white Evangelicals which includes Pentecostals, charismatic and all blends of independent churches. It’s this group that solidly supported the 45th president giving him 75% of their vote in 2020. I would say the vast majority of this group is very similar to the Pharisee faction of Jesus day in regards to political viewpoints.
The next group is the Zealots which were an offshoot or extreme wing of the Pharisee faction. Today we are seeing a faction within the church gain traction that resembles the Zealots. I will identify them as the Patriot church and some within this group are actually Christian nationalist.
Spurring the Patriot church and Christian nationalist movement is the idea that America has a special covenant with God.
It’s not a new idea, but has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. The basic idea is that the founders set up America to be a Christian nation and made a covenant with God, many see America almost on the same level as Israel, as both having a covenant with God. The group is becoming more militant in their rhetoric. I go on record as disagreeing with these views. I know good people who hold these views, so I am not going to disparage them, but briefly describe why I disagree.
Number one God chose Israel, separated them from all the peoples of the earth through blood covenant and gave them the words of God. He chose them to be his special possession to bring redemption to the earth. God did not choose America, that’s just a fact. The Puritans did dedicate this land to God when they landed, but that’s not a covenant, it’s simply not and to make it one is simply a myth. Paul told us not to follow myths and the idea that America has a covenant with God is a myth.
Number two America was not set up to be a Christian nation. The founders were not all Christians. You did have Christians, but you also had Deists and Freemasons to name just a few of the pluralistic religious ideas of our founders. It’s well documented that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Hancock were all Freemasons.
Now let me be clear that Freemasonry and Deism are incompatible to Christianity. It’s like mixing oil and water. It just doesn’t mix together and if you do mix them, it’s called heresy. I’m not disparaging our founders, I’m just making the point that I don’t see evidence they wanted to set up a Christian nation because many of them were not Christians. They viewed church attendance as a good way to learn morality, ethics and good citizenship. The founders saw religion as a good mechanism to support a free society, but most of them did not even believe in the Deity of Christ.
The founders wanted freedom of religion. Freedom to practice the faith of your choice without being persecuted by the government.
The founders saw the fallacy of a state church like England because they had lived under the tyranny of a king anointed by the church. The founders were very familiar with what happened during the dark ages through the Catholic Church. It’s clear the founders did not want a government ruled by the church because throughout the history of man ecclesiastical rule always ended in tyranny.
The founders wanted the freedom of its people to worship with liberty and free from government influence.
Reason number three. The Bill of Rights and Constitution are not based on the Bible, but Enlightenment ideas along with Greek and Roman influences. I totally agree with the Bill of Rights, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and the right to petition the government is great. However, freedom of speech is not a biblical idea. Go study your Bible.
The Bible says we can’t say anything we want to say. The Bible tells us to bridle our tongues because it can be a source of evil.
How about Bill of right number two which is the right to bear arms. It’s not in the Bible. I agree with the right to bear arms in regard to self-defense, but I can’t find the idea in the Bible. It’s an American idea, but let’s not call it a Biblical idea.
Let’s look at the next group in the American church which is what I will call the Progressive church. It aligns itself with left leaning politics and closely resembles the Sadducees party of Jesus day.
The Progressive church identifies with such political issues as the environment, social justice issues, LBGTQ rights and pro-abortion to name a few. The Progressives church embraces a Liberal Social Gospel. It’s not a new thing. It’s been around since our founding, but it solidified itself as part of the American system in the early 1900’s.
The American president Woodrow Wilson embraced its teachings and implemented the ideas into the Ivy League Universities and U.S. Governmental institutions. After Wilson’s Social Gospel presidency, mainline Protestants and much of American Catholicism got on board to change American culture with the power of religion. It was the Progressive vision of using the Church and religion aligned with the U.S. Government as the principal force for good in American Society. It was where we got such policies as the New Deal under Roosevelt and The Great Society of Johnson’s administration.
The Social Gospel, Progressive movement or whatever you want to call it. It resembles the doctrine of the Sadducees who simply used religion for political power.
It’s the gospel of lawlessness I talked about in Lesson 5: Why the Law, but today it’s dressed up with equity, human rights, social justice, environmentalism and the sexual revolution. It’s empowered with the full force of big tech, big business and the United States government behind it. Today wokeness is their religion and the power of the state is their hammer to chisel out a god made in the image of man.
Now the political divide in America is the greatest I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. It’s fracturing American society and the church in so many ways.
The last view is the Isolationist wing of the church, which is the smallest. Its views are embraced by such groups as the Amish and old-line Pentecostals who see society as completely corrupt. So they separate from it, living unto themselves not involved in politics.
It’s during the time when I lived in Canada that my eyes were opened to how political I was in my own thinking. I was pastoring a small church in Ontario Canada in 1995 and 1996.
Quebec, which is the French speaking province, had just voted on a referendum with the question being should they leave Canada and form their own French nation. The province was split in half and the No faction won by only .5% the vote was a nail biter. I ended up moving to Montreal, Canada in 1997 spending two years as a missionary in the province of Quebec.
I remember listening to people in church while I was still living in the Toronto area and reading newspaper articles that made the French secessionists sound like Nazis. The rhetoric was over the charts much like what you hear in American politics today. When I moved to Montreal and begin to talk to French Christians who voted to separate from Canada, the way they had been portrayed in the press was completely inaccurate.
I am saying that to say this: extreme political rhetoric demonizes people and if politicians can make you think the other side is beyond redeemable, then what happened in Rwanda and Hitlers Germany becomes a possibility. I’ve heard Christian’s in the last few years call the other side Nazis, demons and even equating the way people vote as a sentence to damnation. The question I have, is how long before this extreme demonizing rhetoric continues before real conflict transpires?
The COVID pandemic of 2020 opened my eyes in ways that they had never been opened and not just about American politics, but my own heart. What I saw take place was terrifying and informative at the same time. The levels of information warfare against the American public was actually breathtaking. The inventor of the MRNA vaccine Robert Malone on the Joe Rogan podcast asks the audience a question.
What the heck happened to Germany in the 1920s and 1930s? Very intelligent, highly educated population and they went barking mad in following Hitler. And how did that happen?
It’s an excellent question. Malone continued saying, when you have a society that has become decoupled from each other and has free-floating anxiety in a sense that things don’t make sense. Then their attention gets focused by a leader or series of events on one small point, just like hypnosis, they literally become hypnotized and can be led anywhere.
Think about the crowds that one day were yelling in the streets ‘Hosanna to the king’ about Jesus and just days later yelling ‘crucify him, crucify him’.
I’m saying all of this, because we have to understand what we actually believe or we too can be swayed to believe anything and follow the delusional mindset of the hypnotized crowd. We are in some of the most confusing, disorienting and disruptive times in human history.
In this brief lesson I hope to give you the wisdom that I live by. It’s my views that I have developed over the last 30 years. You may not agree with all of them, but you know what? That’s okay, because we don’t have to agree on all of our political views, to be part of the same body of Christ.
As a member of the Jesus movement that lives in America, I want to try to navigate this system while staying on mission.
Political extremism has taken over our country and as believers we cannot get caught up in the madness. The question we have to answer for ourselves is how do we navigate these difficult days? How do we live as a part of the kingdom of priests, in a political environment that is at war from within?
Here are some of the conclusions that I’ve come to and that I’m following:
Number one: seek peace above all else. You can’t control what is happening politically, but you can control what’s going on inside your heart. Discern the spirits and know what spirit you are yielding too. What do I mean? Well, when Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem for the last time a certain Samaritan city would not receive him. Luke chapter 9 says when James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? But He turned and rebuked them and said, you do not know what kind of spirit you are of for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.
We are supposed to be living by the Spirit of God, who has come to give life and if political rhetoric is making you hateful, irritated, mean spirited, divisive and causing you to wish harm on others then you are not operating from the Spirit of God. Let me say that again because it’s worth repeating.
If political rhetoric is making you hateful, irritated, mean spirited, divisive and causing you to wish harm on others then you are not operating from the Spirit of God.
Number two: we must be obedient to civil authority and even civil authority we don’t agree with. Being obedient to the law shows our obedience to God and serves as a witness for Christ. Some Christians believe that they have the right to disregard civil authority. Their excuses may vary: Taxes are too high. The laws make no sense. The system is unjust. I'm just one person, it doesn't matter if I disobey. Everyone is doing it. All politicians are crooks.
You know, you can make all the excuses you want, but you cannot change the word of God.
Living under one of the most wicked and cruel governments known to man, the Roman Empire, Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 thru 4: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life. This is good and it’s pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Did you hear that? God wants all to come to the knowledge of the truth. We should pray for all who are in authority so we may lead a peaceful existence.
The task of government is divinely ordained to administer and enforce laws, it requires each citizen's financial support.
In our day taxes pay for police, fire departments, public parks, defense of the country and so much more. Romans 13:7 says to render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due. Instead of complaining we should be praying and obeying. It’s pretty simple because when people do not obey the laws of the land then they will be punished for their disobedience. Jail, prison time or fines should not be the burdens for Christians, but are for the disobedient. In 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 15 thru 16 he says let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer. I’m not going to jail for politics or any political figure.
Number 3: focus on the things you can change and do what you can do to help make society better. Should Christians vote? Yes, because we are called to be the salt of the earth so we should try and influence the society we live in.
Local government is where you can make a difference, so be involved in your community. Know the local and state candidates that have an impact on your life.
Proverbs chapter 29 verse 2 says when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, the people groan. To have good and even godly people in authority is a blessing, but our options are many times very limited. We must keep in mind that God is not a Democrat, Republican, Conservative or Liberal.
We should vote for the best man or woman that can get the job done and be a blessing to the people, but when it comes down to it you are voting your conscience.
Can Christians be in a political office? In the Bible we can see that God had men and women in political positions, such as Moses, Joseph, Daniel, Esther and Nehemiah. These men and women had great influence in some of the most ungodly nations of their time. They used the office of government to affect their times with the purposes of God. My opinion is that we need Christians in political offices on all levels of civil authority. There is no perfect government, but if we have godly people praying and influencing society with godly counsel it will be better for that city, state or nation.
Number 4: is to know when not to obey civil authority and this is where we need the greatest amount of wisdom. As I said earlier the COVID pandemic of 2020 opened my eyes in ways that they had never been opened. What I saw take place was terrifying and informative at the same time. The levels of information warfare against the American public was actually breathtaking.
I subscribe to the Bill of Rights and American Constitution as ruling documents that were written by wise men.
Were they perfect men and did they write a perfect document? No, but it’s served us well for over 200 years. As I said earlier, I don’t subscribe to the idea that America has a covenant with God or that our founding documents were grounded in the Bible, but were much more influenced by the Enlightenment period along with Greek and Roman ideas of governing.
I do subscribe to the idea that America has been a great nation because for the majority of our history we have had a majority Christian population.
I do agree with the words of John Adams who said our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. Very true statement and in our post Christian America, I’m not sure America is governed by its original documents anymore, nor can it be, due to our cultures eroding moral fabric. It seems to me that we are much more governed by corporate interests, technological advances and the military industrial complex.
We are rapidly leaving the rails of the last remnants of American constitutional rule and being thrust into the rise of a technocratic state where individual rights are quickly eroding. I wish I was talking about a Sci-Fi movie, but I’m not, we are living through the most transformative time in world history and it’s moving so fast it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on. It’s why most people have just checked out because they can no longer handle the disruption of their daily lives, not to mention what’s going on in the world.
How to respond to these times calls for wisdom.
The first amendment in the Bill of Rights says congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people to peaceably assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. If you lived through the COVID pandemic of 2020 you saw the first amendment pretty much obliterated. To me it was like living in a movie and I was witnessing things happening that would alter our American way of life forever. It brings us to the answer of when do we disobey civil authority?
As Christians we must disobey civil authority when it puts us in a position to disobey God's authority.
There are many examples in the Bible of the people of God rejecting civil law in obedience to God. The midwives in Egypt refused to kill the male children. Daniel continued to pray even when he was commanded not too. He and his three friends refused to worship the golden idol in defiance of the king. The apostles continued to preach the gospel in disobedience to the Jewish authorities. In all of these cases they obeyed God instead of the governing authorities and God approved of their actions.
I’m not going to jail for breaking the law, unless it’s because meeting together as believers or preaching the gospel is outlawed.
In America we still have the Bill of Rights, but as we witnessed in 2020, we can’t take anything for granted. How could these freedoms be restricted? Well for the first time in my lifetime I am witnessing the mechanisms to restrict freedom of speech and freedom of assembly on a scale I never thought imaginable. I was born in 1969 and got my first computer at the age of 19 which was just MS DOS, so it was a glorified word processor. I didn’t have my first cell phone until the early 1990’s and then came the internet. Today the technological advances going on are happening at breathtaking speed and the next ten years we are going to see more change than any of us thought imaginable.
The Chinese technocratic authoritarianism model seems to be the direction many nations are following and yes that includes our own. The Patriot Act under George Bush’s war on terror opened the door to the surveillance state and it has been turned upon the American public. For the first time in my lifetime everything we do has the ability to be monitored. The only way to escape would be to live completely off the grid.
I personally do not believe isolating ourselves away from the general public is God’s will for his people. We need the wisdom of the Spirit to be a positive influence in an increasingly post Christian America.
America has so many political causes that people spend their time focusing upon. It varies from environmentalism, sex trafficking, social justice, combatting woke ideology in schools, supporting racial issues, anti-corporatism, gun rights, anti-guns, Christian nationalism and the list could go on. A lot of these causes are just and noble. I can find Biblical verses to support some of these issues. I’m not going to tell you what causes to support and like. I think you have to follow your own conscience. I do want to ask you a few questions if you are going to take up a political cause. Are you willing to break the law for any of these causes? Do you think violence is ever justified in supporting one of these causes?
I’m cautioning and encouraging the Jesus movement in America to not get caught up in the extreme political causes on the right or left. I’m going to say it like this.
If the cause that you support is making you angry, irritable, hateful and pushing you to attack others then it’s not the cause of Christ.
We must have wisdom and discernment in our days, so that we are operating by the Spirit of the age to come which is living by the tree of life. I want to remind you that there were two trees in the garden. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is found in the wisdom of the cross with the fruit of peace, gentleness, it’s open to reason, full of mercy, reconciliation and it’s impartial. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is found in worldly wisdom with the fruit of disorder, jealousy, fighting, murder, hatred, prejudice and refusal to listen to reason. It may be a good cause, but does it take you off mission.
Our mission is not to go to jail for being violent or disruptive even if our American freedoms are being restricted. We are citizens of the kingdom of God first and America citizens second. Remember you are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Our mission is to preach, teach and live the ministry of reconciliation by being good stewards of the mystery of Christ.
Some rulers and governments may be wicked, but we must pray for the rulers to change and obey the laws they have made, unless those laws cause us to disobey the word of God. As a holy priesthood we should be model citizens to our neighbors, relatives and working partners living the cruciform life by faith working through love. God has ordained the civil authority to set the laws and enforce them, but it is the Christians' duty to support that process with prayer and godly counsel.
We should not retreat to some cave thinking everything will take care of itself instead, we need to be salt, proclaiming the soon return of the King of peace, who will bring his kingdom rule to this earth, establishing justice once and for all.
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Next Lesson: Lesson 36 - A Life of Obedience
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