GOD’S PLAN FOR

CHRISTIANS IN GOVERNMENT

A Call to Action

By

Gary Ray Branscome

The idea that Christians should have no say in government, or that those in power should not even consider what the Bible says, is a satanic lie! What the Bible teaches is just the opposite. It is those who reject God’s authority, those who persecute believers, those who promote murder and immorality that God wants excluded from government.

Having said that let me make it clear that as long as the nations of this world are ruled by sinful men, there will be rulers who do evil. In fact, God sometimes allows evil men to come to power as a judgment upon those who reject Him (Proverbs 29:2, Leviticus 26:15-17). However, He is fully in control. That is why He does not want us trying to overthrow those in power (Romans 13:1-5). Nor should we rebel by disobeying the law as long the law does not require us to disobey God (Acts 5:29). However, that does not mean that Christians should have no say! Nor does it mean that we should not work through every legal channel open to us to change and repeal laws that allow and promote evil. God wants us to testify openly to our faith (as did Daniel); to use our influence to stop those who would persecute us (as did Esther); and to speak out when rulers do evil (as did John the Baptist).

GOD’S PLAN FOR CHURCH AND STATE

          God set forth His plan for church and state in ancient Israel. There Moses was the head of the state, while Aaron was the head of the church. There the Ten Commandments were given to Moses as head of state (not Aaron); and they were intended to be the basis of the political law (not the religious law). As the political leader Moses was concerned with criminal behavior [which consisted of outward acts]. And, criminal behavior was to be punished. In contrast, the priests did not punish people, but instead called then to repentance while using the sacrament of animal sacrifice as a way of leading them to seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. In other words, the state was to condemn and punish wicked behavior (Romans 13:4), while the church was to teach the people God’s commandments (Leviticus 10:11), while calling on them to repent and look to God for forgiveness (Leviticus 5:18).

          God wants the church separate from the state because he does not want the church trying to force people to convert (2Corinthians 10:4), trying to force them to agree with church leaders (Matthew 7:15), or trying to force them to support the church through taxation (Mark 12:17). At the same time God does not want the state controlling what is taught in the church (Matthew 7:15), controlling who can teach or hold office in the church (1Timothy 3:2), or hindering the church as it seeks to spread the gospel (Acts 5:29). However, what He wants separated from the state is the outward visible organization, the religious institution, not Christianity or Christian influence.

          Christ warned His followers to expect persecution, and we all experience a certain amount of persecution in our lives. However, whenever the Holy Spirit of God is active in bringing an entire nation to Christ the persecution is much greater. When God brought the Roman Empire to Christ the persecution was fierce. Believers were beaten, imprisoned, robbed, enslaved, tortured and killed for their faith. And, we see the same thing happening in China today. I am not saying that everyone in the Roman Empire was born again. Far from it! But, the state that once persecuted Christians became a nation of people who were (at least nominally) Christian. Moreover, I expect the same thing to happen in China. And, the persecution Chinese Christians experience today will be a testimony to the world that it was the power of God that brought China to Christ, not western influence (Zachariah 4:6).

          At the same time, when the portion of the Roman Empire that we today refer to as North Africa and the Middle East became a hotbed of cults and heterodox sects God allowed the Muslim religion to crush them, thus preventing them from spreading their heresies to other parts of the Empire. That being the case, if this hotbed of cults we call America does not repent it may experience a similar fate.

The persecution of Christians by our government is already widespread and intense. However, because the punishments are monetary the general public tends to ignore it. If believers were beaten and jailed the public would notice, and public sympathy would begin to favor Christians. However, instead of being jailed Christian professors and teachers who openly testify to their faith, or even speak out too strongly against government condoned wickedness or the religious myth of evolution are likely to loose their jobs. At the same time, Christian legislators who try to pass legislation that will put and end to such evils as abortion can expect to be ignored, ridiculed and vilified. Those who have positions in government where they can put a stop to such persecution should try to do so. However, more often than not they are held back by a totally twisted and unbiblical doctrine of the separation of church and state.

At this point, some who are reading this are going to be saying: “Wait a minute, doesn’t the Bible teach that church and state should be separate?” And, it does. However, what is being crammed down our throat in the name of “Separation of Church and state” is not the Biblical doctrine of “Separation of Church and State,” but the Atheist doctrine of “Separation of Church and State”. Atheists in government simply call their doctrine “separation of church and state” in order to disarm Christians and impose atheist religious beliefs on the nation. It is atheists who want all Christian influence excluded from government, not God!

WHAT SHOULD CHRISTIANS DO?

          In answering this question, let me begin by saying that Christians should not use the power of government to force their beliefs upon others, nor should they pass laws with the aim of making people righteous (Romans 10:4). God instituted government to condemn and punish crime, not to prevent it from happening (1Peter 2:14). Passing laws will not prevent people from breaking them (Romans 3:19-20). Furthermore, passing too many laws just makes people resent the law, and lose respect for it. In fact, the more laws we have, the more law breakers we will have.

          Christians in government should seek to provide the nation with a government that is fair and just: a government that punishes crime while leaving its law-abiding citizens alone; a government in which those in power are not allowed to take bribes; a government which makes every effort to see that the guilty, not the innocent, are punished. [Proverbs 29:4, Deuteronomy 27:25, 1Timothy 2:2] And, if the Christians in government would do just that, then non-Christians would prefer to be governed by Christians. However, even though that is the will of God, history has rarely if ever seen it. Far too often, men who call themselves Christian are more interested in feathering their own nests than standing up for what is right. However, all that aside, I believe that Christians totally miss the mark when they pass laws aimed at making the people of a nation righteous, instead of passing laws aimed at making the rulers of a nation obey the Ten Commandments.

          We would have a much greater impact on society if our emphasis was on making rulers behave, instead of on legalistic attempts to promote works righteousness (Hebrews 11:6). What our nation direly needs today is legislation requiring rulers to follow the Ten Commandments, and specifically the second table of the law (commandments 5-10). If the entire nation was at least nominally Christian there would nothing wrong with requiring office holders to be Christian. However, as long as the nation is religiously divided that would be a very foolish thing to do, for it would only breed opposition and division. That is why we should start with the second table of the law.

We should begin by asking, “What is a tyrant other than a ruler who openly transgresses God’s Ten Commandments: a ruler who murders, rapes, falsely accuses, and robs those under his authority”. History is full of examples of such tyranny. Pharaoh’s order requiring the male babies to be put to death was tyranny. Another example of tyranny has to do with the story of Naboth. Ahab’s desire for Naboth’s vineyard was covetous, Jezebel’s plan to have Naboth falsely accused and executed involved both false witness and murder, and Ahab’s confiscation of Naboth’s vineyard was theft (1Kings 21). So in this example of tyranny four commandments were transgressed.

The Bible also tells us that David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and had her husband Uriah murdered to cover it up (2Samuel 12:9). Athaliah had the heirs to the throne murdered (2Kings 11:1). Manasseh filled Jerusalem with his murders (2Kings 21:16). And, Herod slew all of the children in Bethlehem under two years old (Matthew 2:16). Sadly, however, these examples are by no means unique. History is full of such examples. During World War 2 the Japanese and Russian armies engaged in rape, plunder and murder. The Nazis are said to have exterminated some six million Jews. The head of the Treblinka death camp (who was homosexual) kept a harem of Jewish boys that he sodomized. In this country, liberals and feminists have used their political pull to license the murder of some sixty million babies by abortion (at least six million of whom were black). And they are presently working through the government and government schools to promote homosexual perversion, while marginalizing those who condemn it.

The crimes against humanity listed above are just a sampling of the tyranny and oppression that could be eliminated if rulers were only required to follow the second table of the Ten Commandments. If you are one of those who believe that basing law on the Ten Commandments would result in tyranny, you need to think again. Our English-American system of law began with King Alfred (871-899 A.D.), whose legal code included chapters twenty through twenty-two of the Book of Exodus (which includes the Ten Commandments). Of that fact lawyer and columnist David Limbaugh once said:

“In the Book of Exodus following the Ten Commandments are further laws, sometimes collectively referred to as the Book of the Covenant.  As a lawyer I was fascinated to discover just how much of our law - torts, contracts, property and criminal law - is obviously traceable to this section of scripture."

          Therefore I am not calling for something new or unusual, but for a return to the system of law that is the foundation of free government: the system that (in every state outside the South) would not allow white citizens to enslave black citizens, the system that would never have allowed slavery, to begin with, if rulers had been required to follow it. And, the system that would not allow the murder of unborn infants, the promotion of sexual perversion, and rulings that would let sex perverts use the same restrooms as little girls if it was being followed today. 

CONCLUSION

 "Luther wanted neither autocracy nor mobocracy, but 'lawocracy' book law, a constitution. He admired the ancient republics and Switzerland. If the Emperor broke the law, he was to be fought as a common robber." (Lutheran Cyclopedia, page 598)

          Where the Ten Commandments are respected as the law of the land, rulers are not free to commit murder, nor are they free to give others (namely abortion doctors) a license to commit murder. Where the Ten Commandments are respected as the law of the land, rulers are not free to live sexually immoral lives, nor are they free to promote sexual immorality, or force Christians to accept that immorality as normal. Where the Ten Commandments are respected as the law of the land, rulers are not free to attack our religious beliefs, nor are they free to force us to finance schools where our beliefs are ridiculed, or to send our children to schools that work to undermine the faith of our children.

          To that end let us keep in mind the following words from America’s original “National Anthem”.

Our fathers’ God to Thee, author of Liberty, to Thee we sing

Long may our land be bright, with freedom’s holy light,

Protect us by Thy might, Great God our king.