Create In His Image

Conference Concluding Remarks

One more suggestion in support of preterist view. Gary could
have read selections of one of the latter chapters in Hal
Lindsey’s book _Vanished Into Thin Air_ where Hal unloads his
pessimistic view of the future. Then Gary could have painted a
verbal picture: imagine the futility in the hearts of Hal’s
children and grandchildren listening to all this.

There is much more to discuss in eschatology. Perhaps a topic
such as “Revelation 20 – The millennium – Present or Future”
would be a good topic with the intent of exchanging more
information in the eschatology debate.

Gary DeMar closed the conference asking “Where Do We Go From
Here?”. I would like to see more intra-Christian debates. Here
are some suggestions:

The U.S. Constitution – a Christian document

Herb Titus or Bill Federer – yes
Gary North or Dennis Woods – no

The Marriage Protection Amendment

Pro – James Dobson
Con – Herb Titus

1st amendment includes anti-discrimination
toward atheists

Pro – John Whitehead or Keith Fornier
Con – someone who believes USC is Christian?

Christian Theocracy – Is it good or bad?

Good – Gary DeMar? or someone who takes Greg Bahnsen literally
Bad – Richard Land (of Southern Baptist ethics and religious
liberty)

The Kingdom of God – Spiritual only or ‘everything’

Pro – John Piper or John MacArthur?
Con – Gary DeMar (or any preterist really)

I heard both Bill Federer and Herb Titus speak today. Bill made
a good point about the U.S. Constitution (USC) mentioning that on
Sunday no work would be performed. This is directly linked to
the 4th Commandment in the judicially-tossed-out 10 Commandments
found in the Bible. Bill presented many other solid historical
facts which refute the secular nature of the United States
government during the colonial era. Unfortunately, the majority
of federal justices today don’t claim this holds any legal
weight.

Herb Titus spoke on both the original U.S. Constitution as well
as the meaning of the 14th amendment. He gave much interesting
detail about the context of the USC such as it mentioning the
time between the USC adoption and the birth of our nation in
1776. This fact requires the USC be moored to the
obviously-religious Declaration of Independence. As a result Herb
holds to a view that the Declaration holds civil judicial clout
just as much as the USC. He agreed with Bill in that the
original USC was decidedly a Christian document.

I wish I could comment intelligently on Herb’s 14th amendment
talk. About all I could understand from this presentation is
that *all* Supreme Court justices, including the most
conservative ones, held to a view of this amendment which was
different from Herb’s. The only other tidbit I could understand
was that the “equal protection clause” only has meaning in a
religious sense. For if this is taken in a Darwinian sense then
there is no equality. It’s back to the Greg Bahnsen
presupposition idea. If God’s creation of man (which by the way
is all races since from one couple all races came) is rejected
then man is an evolved animal and by survival-of-the-fittest
definition *not* equal to other men. There have been court cases
to demonstrate this insanity. For example, a couple suing a
hospital because with pre-natal testing the couple could have
legally gotten rid of a pregnancy by abortion but now that they
have a permanently disabled infant/child they cannot legally kill
it.

Gary DeMar debated Tommy Ice on the Great Tribulation time frame
being past or future. I have two suggestions for Gary.
Supernatural vs natural judgments often follow one another. One
of the best examples is the supernatural destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah vs the natural (civil war) destruction of Gibeah as well
as all of Israel. There is text in Genesis and Judges which ties
these two judgment stories together. The other is a suggestion
to use Brian Godawa’s point of imagery and storytelling. Gary
should have ‘painted’ a verbal picture of the Roman General
assigned to destroy the temple in 70 AD. Talk about this Roman
general strutting into the Holiest of Holies then doing some
abomination of desecration just before he orders his army to tear
it down. This would cripple Tommy Ice’s ability to get any of
the audience to believe in pushing this event into the end times.

There were other great speakers. This conference has been a
great blessing. Thank you American Vision and Gary DeMar.

I am at the first maybe-annual Superworldview conference this
Memorial Day weekend. The debate last night between the humanist,
Ed Buchner, and Bill Federer was interesting to say the least.

These debaters didn’t address each other’s points. Ed Buchner
seemed to focus in on the secularism of the current U.S.
Constitution with all amendments and thus federal law today,
while Bill discussed mostly the development and original meaning
of the U.S. Constitution including only the bill of rights.

The idea of a constitutional republic vs democracy was avoided.
In fact, Ed used Bill’s argument: that the democracy should
decide religious law; against him. Bill should have made it
clearer that the democratic majority only allowed the judicial
branch to protect certain minorities from being discriminated
against.

It is interesting that neither side brought up the 1964 Civil
Rights Act which protected religious minorities from
discrimination at all levels of government from federal right on
down to local public school or public library employee.

From the start of the debate Ed said that he believes civil law
as dictated by our current U.S. Constitution is religiously
neutral. I was surprised that Bill waited until very late in his
presentation to propose that not only is civil law inherently
religious but must be so by philosophical presuppositions. But
by the time in the debate he clearly presented this point it was
too late.

Tonight’s debate was between an evolutionist, Dr. Mark Farmer,
and a creationist, Dr. Carl Wieland. In Mark’s opening comments
he said “I do not believe in evolution”. “Scientific theory
cannot prove anything; it can only disprove.” “Evolution is one
of the most proven of theories and thus needs to be accepted as
fact.” So, with these quotes in hand I decided I could safely go
get my wife a hot drink to help keep her warm in tonight’s
debate. 😉

 Since a vote in the U.S. Senate is coming up soon for the
Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) James Dobson’s June, 2006,
‘Citizen’ magazine is almost entirely focused on this topic.

On page 21, Citizen attempts “Answering the skeptics”. Argument
1 is: “Discriminates against gays. The amendment violates the
U.S. Constitution’s guarantee that every American be treated
equally under the law.”

The argument is improperly phrased because amendments do indeed
change the original. *If* it had been illegal to discriminate
against gays all this time and now is the time the 2/3 super
majority adds an amendment to make it legal to discriminate
against gays this is the way it’s done. In a legal sense the
proponents of the MPA are admitting discrimination against gays
violates the U.S. Constitution in it’s current form.

Another point is missing in the way Citizen defines the debate.
In Citizen’s defense I believe this is a slight-of-hand from the
‘gay’ side which most liberals in general use. But the truth is
that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee that every American
be treated equally under the law. The right to liberty and
pursuit of happiness doesn’t apply to the law breaker. That’s
why we -supposedly- have prisons.

Citizen’s answer skirts the entire issue. It avoids the
accusation by retelling the long history of cultural acceptable
heterosexual marriage. Citizen concludes by saying “marriage
predates …the Bible itself”. Although true I can’t help but
think this is an attempt to distance this intentional
discrimination against gays for religious reasons. In summary,
by avoiding the argument altogether, all Citizen really said is
that there has been a long history of discrimination against
gays!

Turning the page I read this: “What’s the number-one reason
America needs a marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Can
anyone say ‘Lawrence’?”. So, the real argument is now defined.
Is it legal to discriminate against gays via current marriage law
when gay behavior is law-abiding behavior? When America used to
have sodomy law there was no argument about “marriage” being
sanctioned by the state for adults of the same sex.
Discrimination was not the issue because consensual sex of same
sex partners was an illegal behavior and thus there was no
U.S. Constitutional “right” beyond that. Taking away
the illegal nature of homosexual sex is what exposes current
heterosexual marriage law as discriminatory against gays.

“Do Gays really Want ‘marriage’?” Citizen answers this question
on pages 28 and 29. They present useful data in support of the
‘average’ answer – a resounding ‘NO’. They also conclude
correctly about what it is all these gays really are fighting
for: an abolition of marriage.

Does Citizen really embrace the idea that civil law can be
religiously neutral? They close with truth everyone (including
gays) know. The gay’s “deepest desire is that homosexual
behavior would no longer be sin.” It is the Christian’s duty to
“reflect God’s heart on the matter and commit to fully engage
those in the public arena who seek to declare ‘good’ that which
God calls ‘evil’.”

Citizen is straddling the fence. On one side they embrace
secular humanism’s tenent that civil law can and must be
religiously neutral but on the other they know the Bible
says otherwise. This is why their MPA argument is weak.

Using the root composition of the word it simply means: Civil
rule by God. This is something different than democracy: rule by
the people. Most people have a negative view of theocracy. This
explains it’s use both within and without fundamentalist
Christianity. For example, the New York Times published a
full-page ad last December paid for by the political left. It
said our government “is moving each day closer to a theocracy,
where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will
rule”. More than once I have heard a Christian fundamentalist
give their opinion “I don’t want a theocracy (Old Testament civil
law).” Roger Williams is perhaps the most well known historical
figure holding this position.

Another view states Theocracy is inescapable. In Gary DeMar’s
essay, http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive/12-03-04.asp,
he uses examples to explain what he means. He opens with the
French revolutionary democracy which is linked with the phrase
“The voice of the people is the voice of God”. Gary closes with
the example of Nazi Germany: a secular theocracy. Hitler defined
morality in his own way answerable to no one. Those Germans who
were complicitly murdering Jews were not just following orders.
They had come to believe what they were doing was “right”. They
believed they would not be in judgment of hell fire upon their
own death.

There is a third view. Theocracy is impossible. In support one
may argue that civil governments are put in place by humans. The
human or humans may claim to be god, but God, Himself, doesn’t
rule, the human does.

These three views of “Theocracy” do not void the word’s meaning.
In fact, I believe it reinforces the idea that the act of civil
governing, making decisions of what is right or wrong,
determination of civil punishment, etc. is essentially a
religious act.

Those inside the fundamentalist camp need to answer these
questions. If you don’t want a theocracy, then how can you
maintain belief in Divinely inspired Scripture which defines
morality (ethics)? If you are going to defend public displays of
10-Commandments monuments why not defend them as being the basis
of our current civil law system instead of having only historical
relevance?

Those outside the fundamentalist camp need to be asked: without
God how can there be any concept of right and wrong?

Both camps, indeed every one of us, needs to ask: who or what is
the ‘god’ who determines who wins when there is a disagreement
about right and wrong? What causes me to change my mind
concerning civil morality, law and punishment? Is it public
opinion? or the Bible or someone I respect or forget it ’cause I
don’t ever change my opinion about such matters?

Confidence in prayer requires three beliefs. One, God has the
authority to grant a request. Two, God agrees that the request
is something He too desires. Three, God actually has heard the
prayer. All three of these ideas are worth investigating. But
let’s assume the Bible-believer agrees God has given Christ power
to do anything and everything (Matthew 28:18). Let’s also assume
the Bible believer daily confesses any known sin and lives with
the intent to please God and believes God hears him. Thus, the
only question left is this: is the prayer within God’s will.

The Old Testament has much to say about the destiny of civil
authority in opposition to God’s law. When Israel was suffering
under Pharaoh of Egypt, God responded to their prayers by giving
them self-government under God with Moses as the human leader.
They only asked for relief. They didn’t specifically ask for a
civil government change (Exodus 3:7-10). In spite of the ungodly
civil government of Pharaoh their prayers were effective; God
rescued them. Pharaoh and his army were destroyed in the Red
Sea. Abraham prayed for his nephew’s city, Sodom. He asked God
to spare it for the sake of the righteous living there. God told
Abraham there were less than 10 righteous people living in the
city of Sodom. Abraham’s prayer was outside of God’s will and
God consumed the city with fire and brimstone.

What does the New Testament have to say? In 1 Timothy 2:1&2 Paul
tells us to pray for kings and those in authority. Paul unafraid
calls the civil ruler God’s servant in Romans 13. Paul as well
as other New Testament believers resorted to only prayer and
teaching because they had no legal role in the pagan Roman
government. However, they understood the Old Testament. For
their own peace the civil government needed to be under God’s
Law. However, following Jesus’ example these believers wrote
about a soon-coming wrath of God upon the earth. Using the Roman
army God layed waste Jerusalem and totally destroyed the Jewish
temple in 70 AD.

It appears the presence of a non-Christian civil government is
unrelated to prayer being within God’s will. However, if the
person praying held to the world-view that God wants civil
government without Christ at its head; this will influence what
the person will pray for. Why waste time praying for a change in
our civil government placing it under God’s authority if you
don’t believe God desires it? Instead, prayer for God’s wrath to
come swiftly would be in order. Indeed, those who believe in a
pre-tribulation rapture and pray for the saint’s rapture to take
place are praying for this very thing!

Hal Lindsey believes the prophecy in Scripture about God’s
soon-coming wrath isn’t fulfilled yet. He puts it this way in
his “Vanished into Thin Air” book. “We live in a world
essentially devoid of hope. Visions of the future as portrayed by
popular books and films include catastrophic events like asteroid
strikes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and plagues. Images of
the future are more often than not eerie, post-apocalyptic scenes
complete with darkened skies over ruined cities presided over by
chaos. Those images are completely in harmony with the
prophecies of the Book of the Revelation for the last days.”

I wonder what world-view Hal’s grandchildren have? Do they even
plan to have children if they believe their grandfather?

Do you believe the ‘world’ is doomed? Do you believe the ungodly
civil governments of today are going to take the ship called
‘planet earth’ down with them? Then you also probably believe
that God wants the United States to maintain a religiously
pluralistic civil government. Effective prayer to change our
nation placing authority back under God (Christ) Himself is
simply – absent. Instead, unanswered prayer asking for Christ’s
coming for his own and swift judgment on the rest of the world
fills the void. Thus, prayer is weakened because unanswered
prayer erodes faith in God. Who’s prayers are the opposite of
the powerful effective righteous man [James 5:16b]? “He who
doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” [James
1:6-8]

As Dr. Gary North would say, eschatology matters.

Fundamentalist Christians place evangelism as a high priority.
But, does a religiously pluralistic civil government hinder
evangelism?

From my previous blog, we already saw that the need for a
savior is diluted by ethical civil law condoning all kinds of
evil behavior. As Jesus told his Pharisee dinner host, tongue
in cheek, “the well are not in need of a physician but only the
sick”, so too our society doesn’t even know it is “sin sick”.

By grace through faith is how God saves. We have already seen
that the true import of ‘grace’ is also weakened by the huge
welfare programs provided by the state which only cause the
recipient to expect the free lunch.

It is perhaps ironic that God himself may be the one to allow
so many to perish without salvation. Most of the 300,000 souls
lost in the tsunami were not Christian. Many of the hurricane
victims were not Christians. God even permits wars to punish
cultures for their disobedience toward Him. The great Israel
civil war recorded in the last chapters of Judges was a result
of the corporate ethical sin of the nation. The description
of the Benjamite town of Gibeah in Judges 19:12-30 mirrors the
description of Sodom in Genesis 19:1-11.

When was the last time you had a conversation about politics,
law, or a state institution? Did the conversation naturally turn
to presenting the gospel? Probably not for most Christians.
Why? Politics, law, and the state institutions are considered
secular topics where religious conversation is unwelcome. Just
two quick examples: 1) the current flap concerning the Air Force
Academy is all about sharing the gospel; and 2) when a lawyer
quoted from Scripture to a jury the judge threw out the case. Is
it any surprise that God’s law is forbidden to be used as well as
displayed in our civil courtrooms?

In my city of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, the city council asked for
clergy to open their meetings with prayer. The city’s attorney
placed restrictions on the prayer however. It could not
proselytize nor could it discriminate against any religion. This
ruling was so far removed from biblical Christianity I replied
with a letter to the editor. I didn’t notice any other letter
printed in the paper on the subject.

We have the same situation in America that Peter and John faced
with the Jewish civil authorities: “Don’t preach or teach in the
name of Jesus”. Unlike Peter and John, who replied “we must obey
God rather than men” the fundamentalist Christians have obeyed
(secular humanistic) men rather than God.

In a sense *everything* ultimately gives God the glory. Evil
itself when punished is a form of glory given back to God but
this is not what I am talking about; but rather, does it give God
the credit for anything good that comes out of it.

Is God glorified by our military? Some good acts which borrow
from the Christian world-view may give a faint ‘yes’, but when
this question is asked in the light of the Bible the answer is a
resounding ‘no’. For example, Psalm 44:3-8 says

It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did
their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your
arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. You are
my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through
you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample
our foes. I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring
me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put
our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day
long, and we will praise your name forever.

Much of this could apply to the American French and Indian and
Revolutionary Wars. But it is far cry from describing the
current Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

What about the benevolence of our government? Does it glorify
God? When the Tsunami struck last December 26th were any
government funds used in a way that thanked God or gave Him
credit? No. In fact, because much of the devastation was in
Muslim areas U.S. government relief efforts were consciously
sterilized of any negative-Islam voice. Also the idea of grace
was totally washed away by the pressure of worldwide public
opinion that the U.S. government needed to do more. This same
mental attitude was also evident in our own Katrina and Rita
hurricane victims/survivors. Welfare is owed to the
underprivileged. Grace is the great unknown.

Let’s take one more example: ethics. In sociology Sola-Scriptura
is applied to both family and church by fundamentalist Christians
but not to our civil government (state). Human relationships and
interaction within the family and church are judged either good
or evil based on the Bible, but not the state. Adultery is
considered sin within the church and family, but fundamentalists
have stopped requiring or even expecting the state to punish this
evil. Why? Most U. S. citizens, who are not fundamentalists,
don’t believe adultery is evil. The larger cultural ethic, which
is upheld by the state, has brainwashed even the children of the
fundamentalists. The public school is perhaps one of the more
well known tools in doing this. As a result, there is no need of
a savior because there is no ethical sin to be saved from. The
state and it’s institutions do not give God glory.

Why bother asking such a question? In most fundamental
Bible-believing circles it is believed that any activity done
without faith is displeasing to God. Without faith [in God] it
is impossible to please God. [Hebrews 11:6a]. Does this include
only what man decides to label as ‘spiritual’ or does it include
the so-called ‘secular’ things as well? Romans 14:23 says
whatsoever is not of faith is sin. A closer examination of the
apostle Paul’s argument in Romans 14 does reveal a primary work:
building the Kingdom of God as well as secondary work in support
of the primary. Let’s assume for the moment that civil
government is put in the same category as eating and drinking.
We may paraphrase Romans 14:17 as “for the kingdom of God is not
a matter of [political philosophy] but of righteousness, peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Paul’s teaching here is that even
the secondary work, such as eating and drinking which are
necessary to keep the body alive, must be holy. The Bible says
it must be of faith or else it is sin.

God will not grant success to a Christian who attempts to
accomplish the primary goals of the Kingdom of God [Romans 14:17]
by using unholy (without faith) works. In agreement with this
idea, James says that faith without works is dead [James 2:20],
i.e., where their is no faith God is not present. He does not
bless kingdom growth.

A minority of voting citizens within this country have lobbied
for law in support of such unpopular ideas as legalized human
fetus murder and sexual orientation anti-discrimination. This
minority is continuing to push in this area for a complete
cultural acceptance of homosexual “rights”. How come this small
minority, has overcome the vast majority who permit themselves to
be called Christian?

God will not be mocked. If we put these two ideas together when
considering the American Christian’s influence on politics and
civil law then we have a correlation. Because religious
pluralistic civil government is not of faith, relative to
democratic numbers of Christians, we have been unsuccessful in
the civil realm. For the most part Christians are inactive
politically. Indeed some vote, but very few go beyond that. How
many dialog with elected officials? How many give money to good
candidates? This is why citizens with the self-consistent
opposing political world-view are winning.

Instead of faith in Christ we have placed faith in democracy.
Instead of faith in the Holy Spirit we have placed faith in the
conscience of the voters. Instead of faith in God we have placed
faith in ‘We the People’. This is sin.

Religious pluralism means that our civil government can and
should be religiously neutral. Most Christians including most
political conservatives believe this. What is the legal
authority? The answer is best given by quoting from the most
prominent Christian U.S. Constitutional lawyers. John Whitehead
of the Rutherford Institute has said “the United States Supreme
Court has expanded the definition of religion under the first
amendment to include various religions and philosophical systems.
Therefore, the first amendment protects all religions and
religious expression in guaranteeing freedom for all (and rightly
so).” [essay “Fundamental Principles Undergirding the American
Constitution”, 1990]

Does this mean belief system only? No. Keith Fornier of the
American Center for Law and Justice also states “Of course, the
government should not endorse one religion over another … That
is what the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment is
designed to prevent.” [“Religious Cleansing in the American
Republic”, 1993]

In contrast to the religious pluralism view, the Bible states
that the civil servant is God’s servant and his function is to
punish evil [Romans 13:4-6]. Furthermore, the definition of evil
is determined by the spiritually mature [Hebrews 5:11-14].
Religious pluralism proponents attempt to force the lie “civil
government is secular not religious” down our throats. This
‘god’ is not the same ‘God’ of the Bible. The neutrality
position is illogical.

Why is murder (well, most kinds anyway) illegal? Why is a civil
punishment attached? It’s because somebody’s law system *must*
be enforced. Suppose it’s left up to the “democracy”. In a
society of 51% wolves and 49% sheep, what’s to prevent them from
taking a vote on what to eat for dinner? From whatever angle you
examine the authority behind civil law there is just one answer:
there is no such thing as neutrality of “religions and
philosophical systems” in civil law.

—-

In spite of Romans 13 being perfectly clear about civil authority
being under God’s ultimate authority other Scriptures have been
used to defend religious pluralism.

—

“He who is without sin may cast the first stone.” Jesus Christ
said this responding to the accusers of a woman caught in
adultery. Most of main-stream Christianity has taken this to
mean Christ taught love and tolerance to all. Since every one is
a sinner, no one may participate in putting to death someone else
for committing a crime. Thus the New Testament says capital
punishment is wrong. Many passages on religious liberty and
freedom from the New Testament seem to agree.

But what is the context of the woman-caught-in-adultery story?
The civil government was in subjection to Roman authority. In
particular, only the Romans had civil authority to carry out
capital punishment. Only a year or two later, during Jesus’
Jewish trial, Herod’s court insisted on bringing Jesus to Pilate
and having Pilate sentence Jesus to death. They did not have the
authority. However, in early Israel, Moses, via God’s civil law
system as recorded in Scripture, commanded the people to stone
adulterers. The accusers expected to put Jesus into a no-win
situation. If he said yes to Mosaic law and condoned a stoning
of the woman he would be in trouble with the Roman authorities.
If he said no then he was going against Moses and God’s law.
Jesus bypassed the corporate (civil) punishment question
temporarily by making it personal. “He who is without sin may
cast the first stone.” Since everyone but Jesus was a sinner,
they all eventually left. Jesus then said “Neither do I condemn
you. Go and sin no more.” Jesus had personal authority because
he was sinless. He permitted her to live but under the
understanding she no longer committed adultery. Now, back to the
question of corporate (civil) punishment for adultery. The Jews
had lost their authority over capital punishment because of their
corporate (national) sins. I believe the wiser of the woman’s
accusers had already figured this out.

Plain logic would also lead to a similar conclusion of this
story. If Jesus taught love and tolerance to all, was it wrong
for our government to punish Terry Nichols and Timothy McVey for
their over-300 murders when they blew up the Murray building in
Oklahoma City? Of course not. It’s the government’s function to
carry the “sword” as seen in Romans 13.

—

Matthew 7:1 says “Do not judge or you too will be judged”. On
it’s face this also appeals to love and tolerance to all. Jesus
had also equated mere glances at a woman to adultery. So, if
someone finds fault in another they are exposing their own selves
to be judged to Jesus’ stricter standard. A mere glance at a
woman with lust is worthy of the adultery punishment – death.
It’s best to simply assume the best in everyone.

But what is the context? In verse 3 Jesus continues with
recognizing fault in someone else as debris caught in one’s eye.
He concludes the thought in verse 5 by saying first deal with
your own faults (take the plank out of your own eye) so that you
may assist someone else to overcome their fault (help remove the
speck from your brother’s eye). So, in context Jesus actually
encourages us to do all we can to see that we (first) and others
(next) live righteously (not in sin).

—

“My kingdom is not of this world” [John 18:36] meant that
Christ’s kingdom was a spiritual kingdom and not physical.

This interpretation simply doesn’t stand up next to other
biblical passages. Jesus also said to Pilate that the Father has
the authority to place anyone He so chooses in any position of
authority [John 19:11]. Romans 13 has already been given in
support of the civil authority being under God’s authority.
Psalm 2 is the most often quoted Old Testament passage in the New
Testament. The “Son” is an obvious reference to Jesus Christ.
Matthew 28:18 states Jesus was given all earthly authority. No
exception for civil authority is mentioned. Even those who
believe Jesus’ kingdom was not a physical one then actually
reverse their position when it comes to the last days. Most
believe that in the millennium Christ will wield civil authority
[Revelation 20:4-9]. We can also reach back into history and if
we assume Christ *did* want a pluralistic civil government then
was the Mayflower Compact wrong because it specifically set up a
Christian civil government? Were the charters of the majority of
our original 13 colonies wrong to require religious oaths to hold
civil office?

—

Render unto Caesar what belongs to him and to God what is his
[Matthew 22:21; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:25]. This supports the idea
of two separate kingdoms. If Jesus condoned the pagan Roman
civil authority over him he obviously recognizes that the
spiritual authority, God, is different from the pagan physical
authority, Rome.

History teaches that Rome exempt the Jews from being forced to
worship the Caesars. This is because the Jews, rightfully so,
recognized this civil law contrary to their Sovereign’s will.
This second commandment was not simply outside the jurisdiction
of the civil government. In fact, God specifically forbid any
thing or any one from receiving worship other than himself. The
inscription of Caesar on the coin meant that the money system
belonged to Rome. Pay taxes. This is Rome’s law. Jesus
implicitly was telling each person, since they were created in
the image of God, that God required their worship. I believe
Jesus would have never bowed to a Caesar in spite of any civil
law Rome made. What about you? Rome was not free to determine
if Caesar worship was ok or not. God had already said it was not
many times.

The first time Jerusalem along with the temple (God’s temporary
dwelling place) was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar God made
sure that the vassal kingdoms of the world knew that He was still
in control [Daniel 4:32]. Isaiah 10:12-19 gives an account of
how God punished Assyria for similar cause. This is a
reoccurring theme throughout Scripture. There are many more
references. The fact that ungodly kingdoms are successful for
awhile does not alter God’s sovereign authority [Daniel 11:36].

This is not to say we can or need to set up a Theocracy which
claims civil authority is over every other authority. The Bible
does recognize a division (separation) of power among a few human
institutions. These are 1) individual, 2) family, 3) church, and
4) civil. Christians may always hold differences of opinion
about where these touch or overlap one another. But if we claim
to believe the Bible, Sola Scriptura, we should at least confess
the answers are given in the Bible.

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“When the Gentiles, who do not have the Law, do instinctively the
things of the Law they show the work of the Law written in their
hearts, their conscience bearing witness” [Romans 2:14-15]. Some
say this passage condones religious pluralism within civil
government since everyone, not just Christians, have a conscience
to guide them. Some believe this supports a “Law of Nature and
of Nature’s god”, which is best expressed in the Declaration of
Independence.

But, more importantly, what does a proper exegesis teach? The
theme begins in Romans 1:18. Godlessness and wickedness of men
suppress the truth by their wickedness. Their thinking becomes
futile and God then darkens their foolish hearts [v.21]. God
gave them over to their sinful desires [v.24] to depraved minds
[v.28] which approve of those who do likewise [v.32]. However,
God’s kindness [Ch.2 v.4] prods both the Jew, the one with the
law [v.13] as well as the gentile, the one outside of the law
[vs. 14&15] to persist in doing good [v.7]. Therefore one cannot
rely on conscience because with incorrigible actions the truth is
sealed up by a dominant rival world-view (kingdom). In other
words this kind of person is in a conspiracy against God the true
Sovereign authority [Colossians 2:8]. The Bible is given for
reproof, correction and instruction in right living for every
good work [II Timothy 3:16&17], even those in civil authority.

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When the political kingdom of man refuses subordination to Jesus
Christ, it becomes a rival religion: a religion of humanity. See
Rousas J. Rushdoony “The Nature of the American System”.