Published: October 19, 2023 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Pauline Studies 4 - The Church in the World - Part 12 | Scripture: Romans 12:14-21, 13:1-14; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Timothy 2:1-2
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cover this evening hopefully we'll get through it all let's open with word of prayer father again we thank you for the opportunity to to get together to um be
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in your word to be with fellow Believers and to again look into your purpose for your church we pray that your Holy
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Spirit would guide us in our thoughts and certainly as we turn to your word our interpretation that you would guide us into all the truth as you have promised and that conversely you would
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keep us from error from falsehood so we pray that you would Enlighten our minds and shed light upon your word grant us Grace to understand and
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Grace to apply what we learn for we ask in Jesus name amen so this this evening's lesson and
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we're going to start putting the rubber on the road um and also probably touching on touching on subjects that will um offend
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any uh conservative American Christian U thoughts Traditions that you have um this is a topic and we've already
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seen this is a topic that it's easy to go extremes that either you roll up your sleeves and the church gets involved in changing Society or you join a monastery
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it seems to be and what we're going to be talking about tonight we're going to actually use the American revolutionary period as another case study but we next week Lord willing will be talking about
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the Christian and War uh and the whole idea and it seems that within traditional Christian teaching you are either my country right or wrong
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wrap yourself in the flag flag's up there on the stage next to the Christian Flag you know Paul never had that but or you're a pacifist one or the other um
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and that's the way it's been throughout the history of the church is that either you're gungho or you're nothing not at all you're a conscientious objector you're a
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pacifist those are not the only choices we have in our country Country and this is something we should be familiar with we have when we're born
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dual citizenship we are citizens of the state in which we live and have residency and we are citizens of the United States and so they can both tax us okay so dual
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citizenship is something we should have some understanding especially in the times of our country where those two sovereignties were opposing one another and and that's that's the issue
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that we're going to be we're fa faed with especially in the United States where we have political um rights now some would say
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we have political power they are naive we do not have political power and never has the common folk had political
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power uh the power that the common folk have is so incredibly diluted as to be spit in the ocean um and and and I'm not just being
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cynical I think it's a well-established fact that our our politics is largely dominated by big money and none of us here have big money so the idea that we have political power is a misleading
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comment the fact that we have political rights well that's true we do what we do with them um is a subject of debate within Christianity there are those who
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will say very ardently that it is your god-given duty to vote and we're going to address that whether that is your god-given duty to
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vote we're going to address the the issue of tonight is politics in the Pulpit um start out this lesson by
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saying to ask a an American to be apolitical is like asking a dolphin not to swim we are widely stereotyped as the most political people on the planet and
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it's it's in our DNA okay we started out that way we we left we like to think that we left Great Britain because of religious uh
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Toleration issues that's true in part but not but not entirely um a lot of it was just simply the seeking of of a different political establishment that would allow
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greater power than people could exercise in England or in Scotland um but really religious descent
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is primarily New England not the midatlantic states and not the Carolinas they were Presbyterian or Episcopalian and just kept the same
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religion they had which was legal I mean it was a legal religion not illegal in Great Britain and they just carried it over into the colonies and establish
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those churches Episcopalian or Presbyterian in the southern states so the idea that this is you know this country was founded for Religious Freedom that's not actually true to
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history as Roger Williams would tell you uh there wasn't all that much Freedom even in colonial America Roger Williams of course was the Baptist who was kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and
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founded the plantation of Rhode Island um so you know because he was a Baptist and he was not a congregationalist he was not welcome an Hutchinson was another I think of the same
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uh type so religious toleration was not high on the original charters of our colonies so there's a lot of rewriting of American History a
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lot of lot of um galvanizing of our founding fathers religious devotion and thought uh a lot
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of christianizing of men who were clearly by their own writings deists at best atheists some of them U but they were
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not regenerate okay so the idea again that we have in our country we're going to talk about this idea of Christian nationalism that the United States is a Christian Nation that's false on two
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counts the church is the holy people the holy nation not any country there is no Nation on the planet even now with all of the hostility going on again in the
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mid East we are mistaken to think that is Israel is somehow holier than any other Nation because of its history uh that history
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that history changed dramatically when the tomb was empty and and those of us who understand that should be careful what we say in terms of what is purely a political
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conflict in the Middle East wasn't a lot
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writing oh yeah freedom and their faith was in Freedom and that's what there's going to be a lot of writings and quotes in the notes what their faith was in one thing you will find very rarely you'll find it I'm not saying there were no Christians there most certainly were
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Christians but when you read the founding fathers you find you rarely find the name Jesus mentioned at all sometimes all sometimes Christ usually
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Providence first oh well now now you go to the ma the Plymouth Bay yeah sure but I'm saying that's that's actually a mic that's a small part of the settlement of the 13 the 13 colonies it has become it has somewhat
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become dominant in our memory of the colonial era but it was really only one small part Pennsylvania was founded as a very tolerant Colony but by
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Quakers Quakers were not Christians they did denied the deity of Jesus Christ right Quakers are are lumped in as being
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Christ sufferers for for their faith well yeah but their faith wasn't Christianity okay so when we look into the details we think oh yeah they talked about faith but if you look carefully
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their faith was not in Jesus Christ not not the New England preachers especially in the 17th century I'm moving us up
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into the 18th centur Century as we're moving toward the Revolution and it's becoming less and less Evangelical as you go in
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fact the most Evangelical preachers during the mid 18th century were the Loyalists not the Patriots and you can go through reams of sermons and read them and like wait a
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minute this is Faith in John lock or John Milton this is faith in Freedom not in Christ okay so it's you know again we
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can't rewrite history we have to take it as it was okay so you're right I'm not saying that the colonists were all atheists in fact they were
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not what I am leading toward is that politics and religion don't mix well and things said from the pulpit in terms of the political situ
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situation are often very detrimental to the true church and again I'm just talking about history okay so um but again you say okay then we don't get involved in politics at all there's
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that there's that ex you know one extreme or the other well the issue the question is what is the role of the church in the world it's not what are what is what is
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the role of an individual in his Society the role of the church in the world is is the topic of our study as 21st century
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Americans we have rights and we have responsibilities to one citizenship our citizenship in the United States we also have rights and
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responsibilities to our other citizenship which is from heaven we ow dual citizenship we cannot neglect one for the other
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because Paul doesn't allow us to do that he actually does tell us how to live as citizens of Christ's Kingdom and as citizens of whatever
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Nation we happen to be providentially living in living in right do we does anybody disagree that the current Conservative
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Christian history of our Colonial is somewhat rose-colored does anybody disagree with
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that again this this might upset some people who have been raised in a Christian home and and heard you know how devout you know you've got that how many people have seen the picture of of
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George Washington kneeling in the snow and Valley Forge okay there is actually no historical evidence that he was kneeling in the snow at Valley Forge
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anymore that he was stupidly standing in the front of the boat as it crossed the Delaware all right okay got to give the man more credit than that okay were trying to give
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himon there's no because the same people the
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past saying back a Mormon or whatever they
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are mention Jesus and like yeah it's it's never been any different actually at least in our country um we're we do have a especially as Christians we have the idea that we
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can only support support that which is Christian the result being that we christianize anything we support that's squaring the circle okay
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um both premises are false we do not need to support things simply because they're Christian nor do they need to be Christian in order for us to support
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them and we should never christianize something just so we can support it okay trying to make a Christan out of someone who clearly isn't is not truth so that it's very complex and I
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know that I'm not going to be able to do justice to even my own thoughts on the matter but I I do want to ask that you resist the temptation to extremes that if I say we can't do this
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it doesn't mean we must do that that we're actually called to a very complex Middle Road whereby we exercise do dual
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citizenship one of which however must be controlling the question is which one does that does that make
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sense any
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questions yes um that that's a good way of putting it we're we're we really are not torn between these two citizenships and and in fact um throughout
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history professing Believers have have avoided the horns of the Dilemma by choosing one or the other
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sovereignties okay U it's kind of analogous to the way so many people deal with the issue of divine sovereignty versus human choice and
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responsibility they choose one or the other right and and then they deny anything that argues for the one they haven't chosen okay that's not right
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clearly I say clearly God is Sovereign as he presents himself in the word he is Sovereign in Salvation but I think equally clearly man is responsible for
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his life his life choices they're both true therefore we cannot deny one in favor of the other what we need to do is decide which one is dominant which one is primary is
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human Free Will primary or is divine sovereignty primary well it's same here we have two citizenships which is why Paul spends a fair amount of time
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teaching us how to live in this world because we're living in this world and we're witnessing the grace of God in this world so we cannot go out of the
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world Paul specifically denies that in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 that you must go if if it meant not associate with unbelievers you would have to go out of the world and clearly he's saying that's
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not what I'm advocating so monasticism and Chism is not the solution but then assimilating and accommodating is also not the
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solution so it's a dual citizenship which is a reality but we must um you know we must ask ourselves
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which one is primary in in the church I think we should ask it also as individual Believers which one is dominant in my life okay which which is
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the one that has the primary filter in terms of what I perceive and then what I say what I think which one
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is dominant now I I think you'll all agree that according to Paul our citizenship in heaven is to be the dominant one I think it's arguable that
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that's not the dominant one in much of modern Evangelical Christianity both conservative and conservative and liberal okay the conservative
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Christianity of the United States is the one that is most associated with Christianity or religion
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but there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of liberal Christians now maybe you think that's an oxymoron that you can't be a liberal and
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a Christian that's not for us to to determine that's for God but they the point being is that they they profess to be Christians and
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they attempt to use Christianity to advance their agenda in reality some of the things that they that they Advocate are more
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biblical alleviating biblical alleviating poverty helping widows single mothers overcoming racism okay it's
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pretty hard to argue biblically against these principles now their methodology that's something else the way they want to go about it well that's diff that's different matter altogether
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but um you know I can't get into all the details but you know if you you can't make a hard and fast dichotomy between
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conservatives and liberals and say that Christianity divides along the same cut you can't can't do that okay but we tend
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to do that because we do tend even though we don't join an actual Cloister we do tend to uh what's the word we do we do tend to to
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become nuclear with those subatomic particles that we're attracted to and those that we are repelled by we are offended by and that's that's just
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human nature unfortunately um but it is it is very much a part of the American political scene um one other aspect of of Americans is that we are considered
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to be among most religious people on the planet so but I want to read this was a graduate student who was doing a um Master's thesis I believe on
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the concept of Christian nationalism and in doing this she attended Freedom attended Freedom Sunday at um First Baptist Church of Dallas now anybody know who pastors
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First Baptist of Dallas no no no uh I don't know what his church is called Robert
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called Robert jeffris he was on the cover of Time Magazine a few years ago with the label Trump's Pastor okay
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so no no no uh no that was not that was one of Trump's pastors he didn't even claim to be Trump's Pastor um the flight that didn't leave from Newark was a godsend because I was seated by beside someone from Easley who was who was up
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in New York because he was one of Trump's pastors I just looked at him one of Trump's pastors huh um fortunately the pilots timed out we
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got off the plate um yeah yeah that would have been an interesting flight it would have been a very interesting flight so anyhow she attends this service jeffris begins his sermon by
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reading a letter of praise to the church from then vice president Mike Pence and then she described how things were led up to the sermon we
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climbed up to our balcony seats as the 200 member choir saying the Saints go well I I don't know why I say the saint there's a typo there The Saints Go Marching In and this land is your land
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worship continued with the national anthem then there was a salute to the Armed Forces featuring a medley of anthems while uniform men and women representing each branch of the military walked out on stage and Veterans or
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service members of that Branch stood up to the audience's Applause the end of this salute included pyrotechnic fireworks that exploded up the edges of the church the church Orchestra maybe too bad it wasn't under
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the church Orchestra after a rousing special Anthem titled his truth keeps marching on an arrangement based on the Civil Wars battle hym of the Republic Pastor Jeffers climbed the steps and
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began his sermon by reading a letter from vice president Mike Pence now what really got me about that analysis was her use of the the word worship worship
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worship worship continued worship didn't even start okay but how many churches have freedom Sundays somewhere around July 4th and this although this was
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undoubtedly more elaborate than many the sermon is going to be about God's Nation the United
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States is is that is that proper is that truth is that what should be coming from our pulpits so that's what I want to talk
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about tonight and again I understand that what I'm saying May offend you and I'm not doing that on purpose um I I do
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believe that what the church is faced with in the world today is largely of its own making and it's become coming as I've
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mentioned before the recognition that we live in a postc constantinian age is now pretty widely stated in the literature very few people think that
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the church has anywhere near the influence it had even 50 years ago in terms of political clout but it's begun it's beginning to to Dawn on people
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that that political clout was actually
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that what the church was doing at the time it's really the title of next week's lesson is that they were building a tower and not a temple they were coming alongside the
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state instead of being the church and that needs to stop if the church is going to be what it's called to be in the world then there is no
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situation in this age where the church can Ally itself with the state there is no Fellowship between Christ and
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Christ and Bal the citizenship is antagonistic that's unfortunate as I was saying sometimes State citizenship in our history was antagonistic to Federal
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still is okay still is when you have dual citizenship it's almost like trying to serve God in Mammon they don't get along and they're not willing to yield
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any ounce of their own sovereignty to the other read the history and the literature leading up to the war between the states and you'll realize that the southern states especially were not
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willing to give one iota of sovereignty to the federal government or just read the Articles of Confederation or the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 that was the big
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issue is the states having to yield sovereignty so our flag flesh our natural thinking our fallen nature does
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not want to yield sovereignty and it is so much easier to be absorbed in what we see than in what we don't
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see and we think and we are convinced that if we are not involved then our lives and the way we live life will be negatively altered and
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that's what we're told all the time and we've been told this in our country since at least the election the general election of 1800 that if the other guy
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wins your religion will be destroyed you will be persecuted you will be burned at the stake okay um life as you know it will will no longer exist well life as I
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knew it no longer exists anyhow our country continues to change and even with the Intensive religious nature of the American people and the American
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churches we have not arrested the corruption of our country and our society have society have we again cal Thomas very famous
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syndicated columnist who was a major part of the Moral Majority back in the 80s quit that movement and publicly stated this is not right this is not
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biblical and this doesn't work but we keep trying it which of course is the definition of definition of insanity okay we keep trying to to play
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the political game thinking that it will somehow work this time this election will work we keep thinking that we need more Christianity in the government
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right well whenever we have had that Christianity it's almost never been our brand it's been some other brand that wasn't fond of our brand and I'm talking about the whole history of the
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church the bottom line again it's easy to think well then I just don't do anything I don't vote I don't I don't pay attention now I don't think that's the
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solution I don't even think that's reasonable I mean we have to pay attention how can we be a witness and how can we speak truth if we don't know what's going
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what's going on so again don't go to The Other Extreme and think that I'm saying that we are to be a political pacifists I'm not I think that
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Christianity by biblical nature is intensely political we talked about that before when Paul calls Christ Savior soter and Lord kuras he
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was using the titles that were then appropriated solely to the emperor and many other things that he said were incredibly political even when
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he says that our citizenship is in heaven the word he uses is essentially the the Greek root word for politics which comes from the Greek word
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pois which was the city state so Christianity is is essentially political it's just not political the world's way does that make
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sense or at least what I'm saying that it's not an either or we we cannot be apolitical human beings okay our our
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nature is social so we cannot isolate our nature is political our nature is economic these are part of human human nature you cannot deny them because
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you're a Believer okay so um this is why again Paul teaches us so much so what I want to talk about as a case study is the American
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the American Revolution now we hear a lot in our day about the separation of church and state and we've touched upon it briefly and I think everybody body understands what that was meant to convey first of all it is not in the US
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Constitution it's in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association but the intent as he even points out in his letter was not to keep
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the church out of the government but to keep the government out of the church and it it actually reads that way that the government shall make no law establishing religion it was part of our freedoms and
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the Bill of Rights but freedom to be Freedom cannot be limited so you cannot
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simply give freedom of worship to one form of religion or even one form of that form of
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religion in order to be free we have to Grant freedom and toleration of all religions and none
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atheism Americans have the right to be atheists they have the right to be Muslim Hindu Muslim Hindu bahai whatever bahai whatever Mormon Baptist okay the government is
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not allowed to establish any law prohibiting anybody's religion that's the um that's what the amendment says
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but it wasn't intended to isolate religion from the public forum it was intended to allow freedom of religion within the public forum do that does that all make sense
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okay but that that is also um viewed very much by modern historians that religion especially Christianity was a
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driving force in the American revolutionary period well that's true the problem is what's lost in the historical telling of the story
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is that there were two sides there were two different types of pulpits in the colonial era especially 1760s and 1770s there were the Patriot
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pulpits and there were the loyalist P pulpits the problem is the loyalist pulpits were considered treasonous they were shut
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down and the preachers were exiled to England most of whom had been born in the United in the colonies and
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several of them actually quite a few of them had been multiple Generations in the colonies but because they opposed the revolution or
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revolution or revolution they were very poorly treated and their sermons are now being they have been but they're they're finally being dug up whereas the sermons of men
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like John with Witherspoon who was a preacher he was the was he Princeton or Yale president of one of the universities signer of the Declaration of Independence member of the Second
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Continental Congress a very political preacher and his writings have been available and they have been quoted time and time again for the last 250 years
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you don't see many people quoting loyalist sermons from the colonial era um but they are well worth reading U because they they teach us something
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that we're going to be discussing tonight they teach us that there is almost always two views to
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any matter and sometimes more than that but at least two even from a Christian perspective there is there is almost
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never when we when we interact politically with the world around us the culture in which we live there is almost never one
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never one view that contains all truth okay but very often we we act as if there is only one
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View and that the other view is either heral or heral or treasonous so that's something you'll read in the notes if you have if you have the opportunity
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but um a quote from uh fellow I don't know he wrote an article called the church militant the American Loyalist clergy and the making of the British
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counterrevolution he says this the Revolution was about politics politics was about ideology and ideology was about theology therefore the Revolution was about
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theology now that's a very simplistic uh s syllogism that he has there and certainly it's it's open to debate but I but I like it because it shows how in
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our country especially but but you can go back to the 17th century and the Civil War the English Civil War or you can go back to the 16th century and the
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Protestant Reformation and the wars that came from came from that and you can go further back to that to The Hite Wars and you realize that politics and religion politics and
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theology are never separate because it's the theology that gives us our ideology and it's our ideology that informs our
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informs our politics so the idea that that you could be religious on Sunday and political on Monday is is just false to human nature and we're not the only people
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that are like that the only reason that other nations are less theological about their politics is because at this point in their evolution they are ranked
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atheists but that is also a theology it's a Theology of no God right a Theology of humanism which informs
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their ideology which then informs their politics okay does that make sense I mean we call we can't really call atheism a theology but but I think everybody understands it is a form of
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theology it is the denial of of God but that is a form of theology so it it is it is a belief system that is not based on any type of
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scientific fact or proof it's not based on any logical syllogism it's based on what you believe you believe there is no God and that is what then informs your
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politics so as political creatures and as religious creatures you can't Che you can't separate church and state that is the dual citizenship Augustine wrote
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that back in the fifth century in his de day the city of God that there is the city of man and there is the city of God and we as Believers are citizens of both
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but really we are citizens of one and surgers in the other and that's an important distinction but sometimes it gets
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flipped and the church acts more like it is a citizen of the city of man and a sojer in the city of God or put it a different way a sojer to the city of
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God we're so convinced by much of modern teaching regarding teaching regarding eschatology that the city of God the kingdom of Christ is in the
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future so there's no mixing of it now which allows us to be purely citizens of whatever country we live in because we have no thought to that
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citizenship that's coming later but no it would be too easy that would be no challenge to our faith no discipline to our faith we can
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simply walk down the aisle raise our hands sign the card become a Christian and then go on and live in the world like nothing's changed because that which is going to change is going to
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change sometime in the future and what I have to deal with now is my job the politics you know the taxes that's what I have to deal with well now it's not that Paul I think very clearly indicates
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that our life as Believers in this world and in this age is a whole lot more complex than that that we are members of both entities and we are it is part of
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our witness as a church to live as citizens of the kingdom in the midst of our citizenship in whatever Nation we live in
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so the closer we get to the world around us the us the less differential there is between our witness and the witness of the world
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between our words and the words of everyone else that's what happens when politics comes into the pulpit okay so we're going to look at that this
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evening um in the colonial era the the Colonial
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is is something that we might in the 21st century uh be somewhat envious of because it was the center in fact it was almost always located in the center of town it was a center of life it was a
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center of Village Life Town life and Life in the colonial era the colonies were much more more
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homogeneous both in people and in religion than we are today I mentioned that earlier but if you went to church in Boston you were going to a
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Congregational Church okay unless you were meeting in somebody's home with the shades drawn if you went to church in Virginia you were going to an Anglican church now there were Baptists in
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Virginia if you went to church in the Carolinas you were probably going to a Presbyterian Church there weren't many others okay uh methodism had some impact
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especially in Georgia Savannah area but still there wasn't the blending of different denominations that happened later they were still even in their
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Charters and then later their state constitutions people in Virginia were still taxed to pay for the Episcopal Church even after re
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Revolution okay because it was a state church so church so the church was more monolithic and far more Central than it
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has been in many generations in fact it was essentially the Town Meeting Hall and in many places for example in Williamsburg it doubled as the Town Meeting Hall that was the best place to
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have everybody come and meet to talk about whatever was going on um and so it was the center of
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life and it was the The Meeting Hall where political topics would be
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discussed especially when the Royal Governors forbad or or refused to call the actual legislative assemblies just
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like Parliament the Assembly of the colonial assemblies the B House of Burgesses and whatnot was at the will and the pleasure of the governor who
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could call or dismiss as he wished so when they were not allowed to meet they would form committees well those committees were essentially the same men
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who met in the assembly but were not allowed to meet as an assembly because the governor had disbanded them so they all moved over sometimes to the church often times to the church South Church
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in Boston because it was able to hold thousands of people so that's where they would go okay and many of the clergy were leaders among those
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legislative uh Representatives so the clergy the clergyman was was respected uh he was often the most learned man in
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the village or town or city um because there was very little college education among the colonists only the most wealthy would go to Harvard or Princeton
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or Yale uh but that's also what Harvard started as was was a preachers College that's what it was endowed to do was to put out preachers of the Gospel same
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with Yale and Princeton so these these were essentially were essentially seminaries um before they were actually universities so the intertwining of
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religion and politics in our founding like I said it's in our DNA it's how we got started much of the um the the the
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foment of opposition and resistance to the British government especially Parliament came from the pulpits the other part came from the
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printed material that was just flying off the presses but much of that was written by the clergy what you're talking about sound like tribalism like it's a form of
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tribalism yes it was um and actually it the colonial era was very tribalistic and one of the most difficult things that they had to
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overcome was to join the tribes together because the the the native Virginians were were were very suspicious of the Native Massachusetts
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and whatever they call them okay the natives from Massachusetts um and and tribalism is really kind of a good word because they they had all things in common within
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their colony but not much in common with the other colonies okay and we don't really realize that we were not a Melting Pot in the mid 18th century we were not 13
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United Colonies we were 13 colonies that each had their own separate Charter and it was a Herculean task for
43:43
those few men who who saw the only hope for what they thought was a country and began to think of as separate from Great Britain The Only Hope Was You
43:57
but that was again it was a a huge obstacle to overcome the tribalism of each separate Colony okay so that that's actually a good way to look at it thank you um so uh the church was
44:10
essentially the the town center and the
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conscience the clergyman was the conscience of the village he wasn't always agreed with just like the human uh psyche we we don't always pay attention to our
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conscience but the voice of the of the sermon was considered to be the voice of conscience it was often called that U
44:49
not necessarily the voice of God although it was often called that as well um John Witherspoon who I mentioned earlier was certainly
45:00
was certainly convinced that what the colonists were doing in resistance and keep in mind Revolution was not mentioned until
45:11
pretty much pretty much 1775 after Lexington and conquered okay there were people who might have written about it in private letters that we now have but they didn't say it
45:24
publicly reol ution was a very hard pill to force down the throats of people who considered themselves to be good and faithful British loyal British citizens
45:38
okay their beef at first was not with George it was with Parliament okay but here's where it begins to to to get into the
45:50
idea of idea of freedom and what we are permitted by God to do to achieve or maintain
46:02
Freedom now this is um I I can't go into the details but much of this was informed by the 17th century British philosopher John philosopher John Lock in his Second Treatise on
46:14
government that's kind of the primary one but it's John Lock who philosophically establish the right of people to people to revolt okay did not make John Lock very
46:25
popular with the British government but um that's or the English at that point um but that's what he said so so um Witherspoon writes this he says if your
46:35
cause is cause is just you may look with confidence to the Lord and entreat him to plead it as his own you are all my witnesses that this is the first time of my introducing any
46:47
political subject into the pulpit it would not be the last at this season however it is not only lawful but necessary and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion
47:00
without any hesitation that the cause in which America is now in arms is the cause of Justice Liberty and of human
47:10
nature yeah yeah human nature okay if your cause is just um who determines
47:22
that it's a very open-ended statement and very subjective is is it not the idea of just war and we're going to talk about war next week um but the
47:33
quote if your cause is
47:47
just God takes it as his own now to that I would point you to Joshua 5
48:00
when Joshua comes before the angel of the Lord of H the uh captain of The Lord of hosts and Joshua's first question is just like the colonial pulpits to which side do you fight for
48:12
are you for us or for our enemies and the answer is
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no I really how could you think that but we think it all the time that God is adopting our cause like no it's got to be the other way around we're supposed to adopt his and again that that scene
48:37
is is just so Timeless because we want to claim God for our side and we are convinced that our cause is
48:47
just as if God does will not allow Injustice well history shows us that God does allow habach is a great example
49:00
there I mean habach is like Lord when are you going to discipline your people he says well I'm going to do it and these are the people I'm going to use the calans is it the calans I think so Andy
49:13
says Whoa lord they're worse than us that's not just now you don't argue Justice with God but we do assume what his Justice looks like and it certainly
49:25
doesn't look like a three Pence tax on a pound of pound of tea come on what can be more unjust than having to pay three extra Pence for a
49:35
pound of tea when most of my tea is not from the East India Company anyhow it's smuggled from Holland okay I mean when you look at the actual particulars of the colonial era you think really
49:49
guys especially if you look at the conditions of society in England at the same time you realize that no one had greater representation and control of their lives within the British Empire than the
50:03
Americans but our cause was just and therefore God adopted it all right uh see this is one of the problems when politics goes into the pulpit things are said that are just not true well in that
50:15
case let's start a revolution because I had to use five stamps to send one flat piece of paper today okay five stamps the Stamp
50:27
Act I don't know but I think the US Postal Service might be caused for
50:37
Rebellion what you're saying is people that have a liid definition of justice but same with freedom like freedom from what I can choose what Freedom means from day to
50:49
day depending on how I feel and oppressing me right freedom freedom is also I mentioned that earlier earlier that you know freedom is something that is very nebulous and fluid um and the
51:00
concept itself if it's truly freedom and liberty it does not allow itself any limitation which is its own demise that would say
51:11
would say well God God this is where I draw it God this is where God draws it where I draw it too what do you mean the well you're free to do whatever and I'm free to do
51:24
whatever until you well yes then you draw the line as to what is free and what is not free that's where God supports me right and and then because my cause is just I I'm not sure there's
51:36
ever been two combatants in a war that did not each think their cause was just Abraham Lincoln famously said of course it's on the internet um you know that
51:46
that you know God may be for this Confederacy he may be for the union but he can't be for both and yet both were claiming it claiming it so we speak for God when we speak
51:58
politics in the Pulpit because we're we're not actually speaking his word we're speaking our word and claiming his approbation of it now we
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may be may be right and we may be wrong but in either case we're going beyond what is written so um let's let's
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continue the Patriotic Pulpit so there were two typ of pulpits in the Colonial Church two types of sermons there was the
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Patriotic and the loyalist yes seem like he was questioning his own there is such a
52:49
thing as a good cause isn't there a cause a freedom is a
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that's what said not that kind of Freedom that's the thing how do you define the define the freedom okay John Wesley wrote this from over in England he wrote this in relationship to the American
53:12
colonies he said and and he was talking about King George he was talking about the charters okay but I think he was speaking uh more pre than he realized kind of like
53:23
Caiaphas they have a right to all that the King has given them but not to all that they have given themselves we have a right to all that God has given us but not to what we have given
53:39
ourselves okay do I not enjoy freedom of course I do uh frankly I am glad the revolution happened I've been to Great Britain I am
53:49
very glad our dryers dry clothes okay our food is edible I mean I am tremendously glad that I have nothing to
53:59
do with the British royal family whatsoever okay that's not the point and and I I'm also going to tell you that the things that happen in the world happen Paul says that in Acts
54:12
17 that the he says in Corinthians that the the the principle or the the age in which we live is passing away but it's being replaced by another one that's then passing away so there's that
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reality I'm asking what is the role of the church in this if we cannot point to scripture we cannot
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speak we cannot speak with truth and and definitiveness as to the definition of anything other than what scripture teaches us because that is
54:47
truth so what is freedom would you say that that freedom allows a man to marry a man and a woman woman to marry a woman the answer is yes it
55:00
does that's does that's freedom is it not it's freedom to be perverse where do you stop it see right now we have drawn
55:12
the line above pedophilia that won't be for long that will not be for long we have lowered the bar in pervers
55:25
so far under the name of Liberty and freedom and rights my rights see there there you you recognize the the uh the
55:36
conjoining of freedom and rights you understand rights are what we have because of our freedom so now we live in an age where
55:48
everything including whatever gender or non-gender or cisgender or whatever you think think you are is your right even if it defies all logic
56:00
biology and just common sense it's your freedom how do we deny
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under God to God to rebel against the lawful government of our colonies is that a fair
56:28
question we have always assumed that we did because people like Witherspoon said we did but did God say we did ises
56:41
that yeah okay well good I'm glad you're listening um both of these pulpits used a lot of what was called
56:51
natural law philosophy that was very very um upand cominging in the 16th 17th centuries Jean jacqu rouso John Lock
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John Milton um a number of French and and English philosophers and Scottish David Hume they they wrote about the the
57:12
Rights of Rights of Man uh it was very much Renaissance humanism kind of ascending the altar that man had inalienable rights that
57:25
phrase from the Declaration of Independence was not the first time that was used that's really kind of plucked right out of John lock that we have inalienable rights meaning that these are rights that cannot be taken away
57:36
from us by the government the question is if man has unlimited inalienable
57:47
unlimited inalienable rights he is thereby ungovernable what is government if it's not a limitation on individual
58:00
rights is that fair okay so what we end up with logically with the idea of inalienable rights is that we must then somehow
58:11
Define them life liberty and the pursuit of happiness which first was life liberty and the pursuit of property that didn't sound good so they
58:22
changed it to happiness which meant property everybody knew what it meant all right see but but I want you to understand what I'm saying here when you say something like rights or Freedom or
58:34
Liberty you then must immediately Define it okay but you can't hold that definition as soon as someone challenges it they say well wait a minute people up
58:46
north for example would say but you're denying those rights to your
58:56
slaves right okay that was a major flaw the English did not leave it unnoticed a major flaw in the whole Paradigm is that we were arguing for
59:07
rights we were not willing to give our fellow human beings because they were black so that that was you know uh what they call it basically America's
59:19
original sin was slavery so we have to limit it not only to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness we have to limit it to white people versus black
59:29
people okay and then what do we do with crime when we punish crime we take away people's rights now we say they have
59:40
forfeited their rights but actually they forfeited their rights according to our laws because they broke our laws now not
59:52
saying those laws were bad but but that we're now getting to a point where laws are being are being challenged and that which was illegal a decade ago is now legal
1:00:05
marijuana for example in many states was he illegal now it's legal um abortion was illegal then it became legal now it's legal in many states do
1:00:17
you get what I'm saying here there's a there's an interaction between law and Liberty and that interaction is not rigid it's rigid it's fluid and the problem is is that in the
1:00:29
world system that fluidity rarely flows from truth to truth and glory to glory it generally flows
1:00:41
downhill where things become more licentious as time goes on in any human society all human societies talk about
1:00:52
the good old days you know when things were orderly well the good old days also included segregation and separate restrooms and water fountains based on your skin color
1:01:03
those good old days so there are some things that evolve that are good but then there are other things that evolve that are that are bad where do we stand in this we stand in the Stream of the time in which we
1:01:15
live what Paul is saying about the stream is that it's moving on and it's moving downhill it's passing away if you set your boat in that stream
1:01:27
you'll go with it but we actually have a different light we have a different mind we have the mind of Christ we have a different
1:01:38
age when it is not passing away the age of the new creation that is what Believers should be meditating upon in the midst of the
1:01:51
stream where they stand now I know that sounds very uh esoteric but um again I don't have enough time to to really get into it but
1:02:01
loyalist pulpits when you look at the different sermons and I do recommend that you pull some up on the internet and read them um they're very interesting there's some excellent books the anthologies of these sermons and you
1:02:13
read them and I want you to I want you to look for scripture exegesis something that that we pretty much require in in our reform pulpits is
1:02:25
to exoge the scripture you will find more biblical exegesis in the loyalist sermons than you will in The Patriot sermons what you will find in The
1:02:37
Patriot sermons is philosophy but when you find the loyalist Ser sermons you find men who were struggling with Romans 13 and I want to deal with this for a
1:02:49
little bit because it never goes out of style people have danced around Romans 13 for 13 for generations and I can't do it but I want
1:03:01
to show you how it was done in the
1:03:13
era they similar I didn't even
1:03:34
yeah you look at that he must have those wooden dentures that George Washington supposedly wore um okay so um they're smiling now well that's an interesting observation I didn't actually compare the two photos so Romans 13 um we we're
1:03:48
running out of time so I think we got to we got to get to this passage because in ter terms of Paul's writing you know this is kind of
1:03:59
the epicenter um but I will say compare Paul to Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2 okay or chapter 3 um they're on the same page and in fact Peter is
1:04:11
even more emphatic than Paul but he says this let every person be subjection to the governing the governing authorities for there is no Authority except from God and those which exist
1:04:22
are established by God now look at verse too this bothered many Colonial preachers it should bother many modern
1:04:33
preachers therefore he who resists Authority has opposed the ordinance of God and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon
1:04:44
themselves now however you interpret that can you not admit that it's a it at least slows you down
1:04:55
as you're considering an act of government that you consider to be illegitimate and therefore you're considering both resistance and even
1:05:07
Rebellion does Paul allow you to do
1:05:19
that does he is there any caveat here is is there any flexibility in what he's saying here doesn't doesn't appear to be but the
1:05:29
Patriotic pulpits needed to find some wiggle room and they found it in two words in the subsequent passage let me read on
1:05:40
for rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior but for evil do you want to have no fear of authority do what is good and you will have praise from the same verse four for it is a minister of
1:05:52
God to you for good all right so this is the
1:06:11
first now what the Patriotic Pulpit did was to take that word good and instead of making it an objective authority answerable to God it
1:06:23
made it as a subjective judgment on the actual governance of the magistrate what they said was not that he was a minister of God for good but
1:06:33
rather he's a minister of God if he does good you see the slight of hand there if he does good he's God's Minister if he does not he's not and therefore can be
1:06:46
overthrown or overthrown or rebelled that's not what Paul says okay now Paul is not pretending that all governors in this
1:06:58
world are good it is very likely that the Roman Emperor at the time Paul wrote this was
1:07:09
Nero not the best Emperor okay not the best example of a good Governor okay so Paul Paul was he was under the high priesthood of Annas
1:07:20
and of Caiaphas they actually called one of them a whitewashed too do okay so I mean he he he understood the idea of bad governance that wasn't the point he
1:07:32
wasn't making an absolute statement that if you do good the government will take care of you no he was saying if you do bad the government
1:07:42
will kill will kill you if if you keep your nose clean the idea is and again it's a proverb not necessarily A promise if you keep your
1:07:53
nose clean nose clean now I have TSA pre-check remarkable stroke of Genius by the US government to get its citizens
1:08:04
actually pay them to have a set of your fingerprints but I don't care okay you got everything else about
1:08:15
me you know it's like I don't plan on robbing a bank I don't I don't plan on shooting anybody in anything other than self-defense or in War I guess we'll talk about that
1:08:26
next week I have nothing to fear because the government has my fingerprints I actually fear the line at TSA more than
1:08:36
I fear the government having my fingerprints okay so you know I don't want to get undressed here have
1:08:50
them now that's me and and you don't have to agree with me I that's that's that's me I'm just saying I think that's what what Paul's saying that if you keep your nose clean if you drive the speed limit you have more to fear from the
1:09:00
other drivers than you do the police they're going to kill you but the police won't pull you over okay if you're obeying the law is what is Paul
1:09:10
saying you have nothing to fear from the government now he's also not saying that the government will not persecute you for your faith that's a different topic he's just talking about your Civil Life
1:09:21
your life in civil Society the government is there to maintain order and he doesn't give any caveats as to your opinion even collectively as to
1:09:35
whether the government's doing a good job good has to do with good or bad in a civil setting obeying the law breaking
1:09:46
the law it doesn't have to do with some subjective good as in godliness so that we are free to rebel against ungodly
1:09:57
government but that's what the Patriotic Pulpit had to do is take this word and say okay there's a loophole George is not good I I want to read an exra I'm not
1:10:07
going through the way I wanted to because and you'll see it in the notes but one one of the problems well the major problem let me cut to the chase the two primary casualties of a
1:10:20
political Pulpit are love and truth okay because one of the things that we do when we politicize the pulpit on either side is we
1:10:31
demonize the demonize the opponent and we deny them any element of Grace now as far as we can tell from
1:10:41
History George History George III was remarkably faithful as a husband there is I don't know of any allegations of his infidel
1:10:54
it and yet the American pulpits and their printing presses called him a hormonger now I want to read a section
1:11:05
this wasn't a sermon I have to I have to caveat that this was not a sermon it was just so funny and it's only an excerpt but it's so much like CS Lewis's screw
1:11:16
tape letters the whole document is a dialogue between the devil and King George III the devil says Rebellion breaks out
1:11:26
with new kindled rage in the southern provinces like the Flames of Etna mountet now French and Rebels because the French are in there obviously they're Demonite and Rebels combined by
1:11:38
Links of adamant against you and inspired by all the lion passions bester yourself George or predition will catch you George the rebels have no forces to
1:11:50
make any figure in the field this year Lord cordwall will Sweep All Before him and the southern provinces will fall like leaves in Autumn and then for a trip and a twitch at Old Massachusetts
1:12:02
that ancient seed of rebellion I have fire and brimstone this is George III and wrath and Vengeance laid up for those venomous cockatrice sons of rebellion I'll make the smoke of their
1:12:14
torment rise torment rise 770 cubits High my soul Burns to be Adam adamses and hancocks will be sweet fuel for my friend furn I'll fill the Old
1:12:25
South Church in Boston full of the chief Rebels with 500 barrels of tar and brimstone this configration will serve to illuminate the town and the Glorious
1:12:35
restoration of my Royal government and all the Tories will say Amen old time make haste and bring the Blazing day devil you have a satanic heart I wish
1:12:46
your head was equal to it I warn you again to look out for the French and Rebels or they'll give you an Irish hoist
1:12:59
airong demonizing I mean that's what we do is we demonize okay uh and I've mentioned this before but I remember being being told I was pretty much incredulous that this was said by uh somebody a Christian a
1:13:12
professing Christian basically saying well she said I will never pray for President Obama what
1:13:24
Obama what what' you just say I we're commanded to pray for those in Authority pray for the king Peter says only oh not women okay okay there you go
1:13:37
you solve that problem we are we are to pray for those in Authority we're to pray for the king Peter says that explicitly we we're not given the right or the Liberty to choose whom nor are we
1:13:50
given the right to say that they are are illegitimate they may prove to be illegitimate in God's eyes as the calans did but nonetheless they are still
1:14:01
providentially God's providentially God's Minister they're God's government even in a in even in a republic I mean the the lot is cast into
1:14:12
the lap but it is God who directs all decisions we say we vote do we actually when God wakes up on Wednesday
1:14:24
he goes he goes wow I think God can call the election before Fox News you know do we do we deny God's sovereignty in our elections
1:14:36
because we have a republic there's a house on the way out to NG I don't think it's associated with NG I hope it's not but since ever since
1:14:48
I've been going out there they have this sign that they change and it's always talk about oh B's terrible well this week is Biden God is calling I'm just Biden God is calling he must
1:15:02
have fallen down again that day um I mean what we say from the pulpits what we say as Christians when we enter
1:15:19
politics frequently lacks love and truth in the colonial era there's another I I won't be able to find it right away but uh well I'd like to um no I can summarize
1:15:34
it in 2005 Category 5 Hurricane Katrina just missed New Orleans we were told confidently from many American pulpits and
1:15:47
televangelist that it was divine punishment for the homosexuality of New Orleans
1:15:58
I I find it hard to believe that everybody who suffered complete loss of property and some loss of life were homosexuals I also wondered why the hurricane didn't hit San
1:16:09
Francisco or North Maine for that matter but we we know why God's doing things we're being told now why things are happening in the Middle East okay
1:16:21
pulpits are now telling us why what God's doing um well back then after the tax on tea the pulpits were resounding
1:16:33
against women because they were the primary tea Drinkers and at their tea parties there was nothing but backbiting and gossip now how the men would know that I don't
1:16:44
know hiding behind the curtains maybe um but it was amazing to read and then they were told the women were told that they drinking tea would harm the development
1:16:57
of their children in the womb that's not true and and we have to be careful that when we speak about things even
1:17:07
scientific things and you'll find this throughout the history of the pulpit is that we will adopt the the conventional knowledge about
1:17:17
knowledge about something only for that to be proven wrong I mean the most famous example of course is the relative position of the Earth and the Sun but to say that tea is
1:17:28
dangerous for pregnant women this is not true so we we we abandon love and we abandon truth we also we
1:17:38
exaggerate um this is this is another example again this is a bit of a case study but after the battles of Lexington and conquered every year on the nearest Sunday there was a commemorative sermon
1:17:51
for a number of years afterwards even after the revolution had ended and I want to read some excerpts see if I can find um I want to read some excerpts of
1:18:02
of one of them and and show that this is not an isolated tendency now this sermon was later um
1:18:14
later um published it was preached at Lexington April 20th 1778 which is three years after the battle okay the published version of the sermon was
1:18:25
titled Divine judgments upon tyrants and compassion to the oppressed and the subtitle was in commemoration of the murderous war and rapine inhumanly
1:18:37
perpetrated by two brigades of British troops troops in that town and neighborhood on the 19th of April 1775 it remembers was the opening Salvo
1:18:47
of the war the shot her around the world as it had become known this pastor's name is um Cushing speaks of murderous War rap pain and Devastation of that day
1:18:59
well the recorded history of the running battles fought on April 19th 1775 lists an American contingent armed of 3,960 men arrayed in towns of
1:19:11
Lexington and conquered and all along the route back to Boston 3,960 against 1500 British troops who were charged with either
1:19:21
seizing or destroying the icious Armament stored in around those towns general Gage had ordered his Lieutenant Colonel to go out and seize what he had heard was ammunition gunpowder and
1:19:33
weapons cannon in Lexington and conquered and as the royal governor of the colony of Massachusetts he ordered those to be brought either destroyed or
1:19:44
brought down to Boston to be added to the British um Arsenal now here's the rapine here's the uh Devastation of that
1:19:57
day American losses total 49 killed 39 wounded and five missing or
1:20:11
captured British losses were 73 killed 174 wounded and 53 missing or captured the overall casualties for the combined forces came to 6% of the forces
1:20:24
engaged with the largest loss on the side further other than the armaments that the British did destroy there was no other loss of American Property due
1:20:35
to over actions by the British troops now that's not to say that the the war did not furnish examples of murder rap pain and Devastation I'm not
1:20:45
saying that there was war is horrible there was on both sides what I'm saying is the battles of Lexington and Conquer were a
1:20:56
skirmish and it was one that the Americans won if you count the number of wounded killed and missing captured the Americans clearly won the engagement and
1:21:10
yet from the pulpits on the anniversary year after year the magnitude of the devastation of what the British troops did allegedly grew exponentially
1:21:24
that's not that's not truth that's rewriting history according to a preset agenda they go on to
1:21:34
say the design of this anniversary this is the same sermon which is to keep in mind a solemn remembrance of the origin of the present murderous war and more
1:21:44
especially of the innocent blood wanly shed around this sacred Temple Lexington and conquered has now
1:21:55
become a sacred Temple and the subsequent Slaughter and desolation by British troops on that memorable day maybe the slaughter and desolation of
1:22:06
British troops I mean they were cut down as they tried to March as fast as they could back to Boston they were being shut down on the road the whole way back
1:22:22
okay the subsequent Slaughter and desolation by British troops on that memorable day April 19th
1:22:32
1775 a day religiously to be regarded by all professed all professed Christians see that's where we're crossing the line we are sacralizing events that are part of this
1:22:43
age that is passing
1:22:54
themselves I'm not saying that there is no such thing as a just War I will say that there has never been a war that has been waged justly in its
1:23:08
entirety but I do think for example that the battle against the Germans in World War II was just I'm not sure I could say the same
1:23:20
thing about the battle against the Germans in World War War one I'm not sure where Justice could be found in that war the war against Mexico in 1848 was
1:23:33
it the war against Spain in 1898 were those just
1:23:44
and expansion well you know the irony is I'm not sure that it's ours to judge that see this is where you don't necessarily kneejerk into
1:23:54
kneejerk into pacifism the world has its system and sometimes the the wheels of this age work in a way that lead to
1:24:06
prosperity and we benefit from it which I think we have from the revolution for example but does the revolution justify Revolution was the French Revolution
1:24:19
Justified well it was no less justif ified than the American Revolution and in fact the French people had a whole lot more to complain about than the colonists did how about the bolic
1:24:30
revolution in revolution in 1917 do we simply say that all Revolution is good because ours was good no we no we don't and there's a certain amount of
1:24:43
hypocrisy there but from okay we look at it we can look at it with that dual citizenship again from the standpoint of my being a
1:24:54
citizen of the United States that is my Earthly citizenship the American Revolution is something that I can say I'm glad it happened from the standpoint of the
1:25:05
citizenship that I have from Jesus Christ I can look at the history of the American Revolution and say I don't think it was
1:25:16
biblical I don't think that the American colonists had a biblical right to
1:25:33
Rebel comments any Revolution yes and yet
1:25:54
do but what do Christians do when the government shuts them down because the government is shutting down Christians in this world
1:26:05
today okay but we didn't obey and what would have happened if if our if we happened to have been in Canada or in California for example what would have happened well Mark and I would have gone to
1:26:23
right no because Peter Peter and John established another Principle as I started out which sovereignty is primary which sovereignty is primary I must obey God rather than
1:26:34
man right but you phras it with that one verse which
1:26:48
verse well I'm having trouble because I don't have a lot of time okay um what else in Romans 13 would justify the American Revolution I'm not sure I'm not saying I'm just saying generally it
1:27:01
seems to me that the government can have things that are against God oh it does it all the time right so we can't take that one verse
1:27:12
and say okay we should no that verse support all things the government has to put in front of us there's a difference between obedience and support first of all and there's a
1:27:23
difference between opposition and Rebellion I do not have to agree with the government I do not in our in our situation I do not have to vote for that government I can try to vote for another
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government the government there's a difference between the government legalizing abortion and the govering government making my wife or daughter have an have an abortion one is part of the Civil
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sphere the other is part of my other sovereignty this one one I cannot oppose God will deal with that this one I
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cannot obey they do that in schools today they teach they teach very reverse things in schools and some people my children aren't in those schools because of that
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some have to no I don't agree that they have to be I really don't I I mean I've homeschooled all my children and my grandchildren I do not agree that they
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have to be in fact would say they have not to not to be and they have us figure out a way see we have to be because we want things the
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way we have them but maybe we can't have the things so if a church is prescribed by the government Christians must still worship they might have to do it
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underground they might have to do it in hiding but they must do it we are to raise up our children the honor and admin of the Lord right if the
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government says we must put our children in Godless Public Schools where they will be raised in the honor and admonition of man we must say no even at
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the cost of our freedom and our lives that is the testimony that we bear to the truth the problem is we fight our
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battles well before they should be fought okay I'm not saying we never oppose the oppose the government but we oppos the government
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like Martyrs have opposed governments throughout history both Jewish looking at Daniel and his friends okay looking at the
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at the mccabes they looking at Peter and John saying they were rejoicing that they had been granted the right and privilege to suffer for Christ but they said we must obey man rather than God so when those
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sovereignties conflict now the problem is we say they're conflicting but we're saying they're conflicting in a general sense abortion is to me horrible it to
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me it's a it's an a Lous test I personally cannot vote for anybody who supports abortion that's my choice sorry uh in terms of who I vote for okay but
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there's a difference between the policy in the United States that legalizes an abortion and the policy in China that mandates it is
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there on in the instance of saying are sovereign I
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don't does the church still play a role of profit to that is what I'm getting to I I appreciate you mentioning that when the church brings politics into the pit it inevitably and historically loses
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its prophetic its prophetic voice and I I mentioned already in a previous study that the that it is ours is a prophetic religion I am not saying
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that we stay quiet the church must never be quiet and many times it will suffer for not being quiet okay so don't think that I'm
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saying we're we're just going to be Lambs led to the slaughter I'm just saying our weapons of our Warfare are not carnal that doesn't mean we don't have weapons I mean Paul's very clear
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that we do in fact our weapons are the power of God the power of Christ for tearing down strongholds and taking thoughts captive to The Obedience of Jesus Christ those are our weapons and
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we have the ultimate nuclear weapon the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation so what I'm trying to drive at here is that when the politics enters
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the pulpit love and truth are forsaken and and there's just too much actual written history sermons I think to deny that and there's too much being said in
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our pulpits today that is said with vitriol and vitriol and hatred instead of Grace and love we cannot yield love to the
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pope okay so that and when when the politics enters the pulpit the pulpits prophetic voice is silenced so I understand that what I'm
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saying it frankly it makes people nervous because it sounds like it's very unamerican sometimes it sounds communist or pacifist or liberal I don't know which of those words is worse okay but
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actually I'm I'm incredibly patriotic I have shelves and shelves and shelves of American history books okay and other history books I think there's
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much to be learned from history but when I'm reading history I'm reading the path of the age that is passing away when I read scripture I'm reading
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the path of the age that is to come and is now already the new creation we live as citizens of both of those
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worlds when they exist we let the world go as the world and we speak to
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the world the prophetic Voice of Truth when those Worlds Collide one must dominate the other and
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that's where Civil Disobedience even to the point of death is demanded of the believer okay I don't believe that I am in any way obligated to oppose the
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government for what's happening for example in California I'm not really obligated to oppose the government for anything that does not
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impact me and force me to disobey God but when it does then I must rather obey God than man let's close in
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prayer father we do pray that you would give us insight and wisdom in these matters that our testimony might be true and pure that our
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prophetic voice would not be lost to the political voice and father I pray that you would give us wisdom to know how to
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walk with this dual citizenship that we have to be lights and salt leaven both as Believers and as a
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church and that you would challenge us not to be silent but to speak truth as truth is in Jesus Christ for it is in
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his name we pray and for his glory amen