God and Government

I have been advised on numerous occasions to never openly speak about religion or politics with another.  However, when considering the Lord’s deep enjoyment in partnership with humanity, I have inevitably changed my heart to a bold confidence in the earnest expectation of God’s eternal inheritance in us and vice versa.  I pray that my political perspectives do not damper anyone’s faith – but rather exhort us all to hope in the eternal reward through Jesus Christ.

GOD AND GOVERNMENT

God has forever intertwined government and intimacy.  Contrary to popular opinion today, I believe government cannot exist outside of communion with God.  My rationale is contextually simple and is thus summed in one sentence.  There is absolutely no good within man apart from God.  Humanity is inherently depraved and overtly sinful, decaying every succeeding generation and even their own land (Ps 16:2, Isa 54:6).  Despite countless, successive attempts, there can never be one, social institution with any sense of perfection in harmony (Justice) by removing sovereign God for the promotion of an imperfect man.  This helps to explain why God has historically wrestled to consecrate Israel (and all the other nations) as a prophetic kingdom and not a man-appointing political administration.  It’s not that God despises kings (1 Tim 6:15, Isa 33:22, Zec 14:9); He hates rebellion against Himself through ordained authority.

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, ‘…Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.’ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you; for they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.’ ” (1 Samuel 8:4-7)

At the beginning of Creation, the first assignment God gave Adam in the garden constituted the choice of how to rule the earth – whether by communion with God (intimacy through intercession) or by the consideration of knowledge (personal judgment of propriety).  With perfect leadership, God commanded all blessing and liberty while still presenting us a free alternative in how to exercise our ordained dominion, inasmuch as His decree decided not which choice we should make but that we should be permitted to make it.

“Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ ” (Genesis 2:15-17)

In all humility, it is my conviction that “we the people” have poorly judged to remove God by severing Church and State.  Six thousand years of humanity’s testimony showcases that all our labors apart from God is cursed with toil and fruitlessness.  Even today, claims are brought spitefully before national councils against our present values and future of dependency in the Lord.  When briefly examining our forefathers and the Anglican Church, I sincerely agree that the English citizens were wrongfully oppressed into bondage through the Church.  That is no dispute.  Any lawful infliction in the name of the Spirit of God will utterly destroy men’s hearts and fail social infrastructure because it voids God’s eternal decree of decision (Gal 2:3-5).  However, I more boldly assert that intimate fellowship, flowing from the place of encounter with Jesus and His law will produce loving, governmental justice in a corporate people.  We must cast off oppressive restraint and implement the law of fascination for the Son of God to the forefront of executive decision (Mt 22:27-40; Isa 11:3-5; Hag 2:7).  Until then, our cheapened humanitarian ideologies of freedom, excellence, and peace will contagiously stray an arising generation of young adults from Him who is Wonderful.

THE END OF THE STORY

As we witness the ever-increasing declination of morality, we each grievously question in our lives, “What man’s leadership is actually capable of accomplishing the feat of true, universal justice?” (Rev 5:4)  Yet from before the foundations of the world, God predestined in Himself the redemptive purpose for corrupted government.  God determined to become a Man.  With unrelenting desire, Jesus Christ marched valiantly unto the depths of the crossbeam and is now resurrected at the right hand of the Almighty, chiefly that His  beloved and redeemed might parade into the heights of kingship with Him from His eternal city Jerusalem.  The government of God is coming down to the earth in unhindered, manifold demonstration.  Every sphere of life both visible and invisible will be brought together as one in Him for all generations, as He is the embodiment of the centerpiece of human destiny (Isa 9:7, Mt. 6:10, Eph 1:8-9, Jn 1:51).

“And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth,’ ” Revelation 5:9-10