Secular or Theocratic
We see many who desire to omit every possible reference in our
society of the name of God or Jesus Christ by insisting on forbidding the
teaching of creation, by opposing anyone leading public school children in
prayer and opposing the public display of the ten commandments on our
court house walls.
We see on the other hand some do desire and
some are accused of desiring a theocratic government.
So….which
way is right? Is there not a compromise somewhere in the middle?
I
will examine the two extremes and possibilities. First of all if we
succeed in eliminating God out of our society without any public
recognition, the children unless they are raised in strong bible believing
homes will have no fear of God. In fact we see that today in our society
now. Sooner or later, there will come a day when the value of life will
decrease. Already we have abortion that is legal in the United States and
it is considered evil or “right wing” to oppose abortion. Some states have
legalized doctor-assisted suicide and there are groups pushing for
legalized euthanasia. Our value of life is already declining. If
evolution is taught without any opposing viewpoints, we then do not think
of ourselves as created in the image of a loving God but think ourselves
as an accident of nature. The survival of the fittest enters into
our mindsets.
The push for homosexual marriage, the
increased divorce rate among Christians and many other signs we see show
us that we already have a lack of any fear of God and a total disregard to
the word of God. If we throw out any reference to the word of God or the
bible, we really are throwing out any possible guide to what is right and
what it wrong. The bible is the source from which many of our laws are
based. The result of ignoring God completely will sooner or later lead to
anarchy. Lack of proper law and order will surely lead to anarchy as we
saw in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. We need law but
law based on what???? Without the bible, which tells us it is wrong to
steal or wrong to kill, where are we going to get any basis to form a good
government?
ON OTHER HAND………………………………..
To my dear fellow
believers in Jesus Christ who hold to the Kingdom now theology or Dominion
theology I must say this: “BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.”
The church, the
Muslims, the Jews and all others who have tried to set up theocratic
governments have failed miserably. Someone gets hurt. Those with opposing
opinions end up being persecuted and put to death just for disagreeing
with the majority opinion.
Man (all humans) has already proven
himself incapable of running a fair and sound government by establishing a
theocracy.
There is only one man that ever lived upon the earth
that would be capable of that type of government and that man is Jesus
Christ. Until Jesus Christ returns as He promised years ago, we cannot set
up a government that is totally Christian or theocratic. The man who could
do that has to be the resurrected Jesus at His literal coming and not
someone merely representing Him or claiming to be Him. Until He visibly
comes Himself, we cannot have a fair and balanced theocratic government. I
wish we could but we have already tried and failed many times. We see
present day theocratic governments all over the world and they persecute
and kill their opponents. We saw the Roman Catholic Church during the
middle ages burn at the stake even those who merely wanted to translate
the bible into a language all could understand. We saw John Calvin set up
this kind of government in Geneva Switzerland where a few descendants were
put to death for disagreeing with the Calvinistic viewpoint. The puritans
in American also set up a government that became intolerant of a few who
dared to disagree. The persecution was not widespread but a few were
either driven out of their homes or punished severely. There were some put
to death.
We can read Foxes Book of Martyrs for more accounts of
persecution.
The flesh is weak. We are supposed to love, be kind
and instruct heretics in the spirit of meekness but the church have failed
in that task. We are too easily angered when faced with opposition. We
cannot love to the extent that Jesus Christ is able to love. We get it
wrong too many times. We cannot have a theocratic government before the
visible return of Jesus.
Jesus Himself said to go into the entire
world and preach the gospel baptizing them in the name of the Father, the
Son and the Holy Ghost. He did not say to go into all the world and force
baptism. He did not say go into the entire world and set up theocratic
governments. He did not say to persecute those that oppose us. We are to
be harmless as doves. We are to love our enemies, do good to them that
persecute us and pray for them that despitefully persecute us. God is the
one who is capable of bring fair judgment and vengeance upon those that
are persecuted for preaching the gospel and He will do that in His own
time but He never once gave the church permission to persecute any
dissenters much less put someone to death, take their property or expel
them out of the nation. We cannot set up a theocracy before His literal
coming. The persecuted church became the persecutors when they took over
the governments after the fall of the Roman Empire. That is what
would happen again.
Following the left wing anti-god policies will
lead to anarchy, rape, and murder of the innocent and setting up
theocracies will lead to anarchy, rape and the murder of the innocent.
Democratic governments are the best but only if we exercise restraint and
do not shut God completely out of our society. There is a place for Him.
We must have a free marketplace of ideas and not shut out or persecute
anyone who sees things in a different light. Either extreme is wrong in
this present day and age. Jesus will return and set up the perfect
government but we must wait for Him to have it. For now we can influence,
preach the gospel and share our ideas but using force, threats or taking
over the government is not that thing to do.
The founding fathers
in the United States came the closest to the best government in the
history of mankind. They believed in God and did not keep Him out yet they
did not set up a theocracy. The only fault I find in their government was
not with the constitution but the fact that they did not practice entirely
what they believed. The black slaves and the Indians were left out of the
equation some how. I put that down to ignorance. Too bad it took a war
that cost the lives of many to start us on the road out of the evil of
slavery.
We have yet to see a perfect government. Having a
monarchy, totalitarianism, a theocracy, an oligarchy, communism,
socialism, have failed, A Democracy will work but only if it has good
representation and moral restraint by the will of the people. One side
must respect the ideas of the other. If we fail in this, our government
will not work.
Theocracy might have worked if they would have
retained love and compassion. It is not the word of God that failed for
the Roman church forsook most of that and substituted its own theology.
Calvin also strayed from the scriptures and took a few verses to extremes.
We have to understand all the word in the right context and not just use a
few pet scriptures. Yet until Jesus comes we cannot rule the government.
We can influence it by our ideas and votes but we can't take over. I hope
none of us have that faulty goal in mind. Let us return to preaching the
gospel and let Jesus take care of the rest. That must be the real Jesus
and not just someone claiming to be Him or represent Him. So let us
stand for the truth contained in the word of God but with compassion and
genuine love. It cannot be forced. Only God can make a true
convert. Its called being "born again" by the Spirit of God.
Dorna
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