The Intersection of Church and Secular Politics Part 3

IV. Scripture speaks of various forms of human government. A. There are three basic dispensations of God’s dealing with mankind: Adam to Moses; Moses to Christ; Christ to Consummation (the Church age). ROM 5:14; GAL 3:19; EPH 3:21. 1. The influence of true religion in world affairs was reduced to virtually nothing by the time of Noah. 2PE 2:5. 2. Such was the end of a completely secularized society that still had dredges/remnants of basic social order. MAT 24:37-39. B. The first and foundational form is that of marriage and family, with the man being the head. 1CO 11:8-10 c/w 1TI 2:12-13; EPH 5:23. 1. From the beginning, this social structure recognized the existence and worship of God according to revelation. GEN 4:3-4 c/w LUK 11:50-51. 2. This system demonstrated that temporal power would struggle to recognize spiritual power. a. Cain was the firstborn and the beginning of Adam’s strength, and therefore had the preeminence. GEN 4:7 c/w GEN 49:3. b. Mind that Cain (temporal power) knew God but could not endure the spiritual power’s (Abel’s) accepted religion. This is the essence of the struggle of the ages between carnal religion and spiritual religion, between State force and believer’s duty. c. Curiously, Cain’s slaying of Abel opened the door for the first State- ordered marriage. GEN 4:17. d. Cain also initiated the concept of “city.” GEN 4:17. C. Post-Flood, family government descended from Noah to the development of political entities like cities, kingdoms and nations with defined borders. GEN 10:9-12, 19, 32; 11:4. 1. The concentration of political power was not in the best interests of God or man, so God broke them apart. GEN 11:9; ACT 17:26-27. 2. The bounds of nations were established with a view to God’s planned covenant nation of Israel. DEU 32:7-8. a. Mind that God knows the value of a multi-national mankind. The potential for men to seek God is enhanced by competing political entities, per ACT 17:26-27. b. God has throughout history used one nation to punish another for their wickedness and even made political powers to be sanctuary for the true worshippers of God. ISA 10:5-6; JER 29:7; REV 12:15-16. c. Beast-government designs to remove the bounds of the people. ISA 10:13. 3. It is noteworthy that the concept of kings and kingdoms is only mentioned after the Flood. This concurred with the division of men from Babel. a. It was not uncommon for a kingdom to be a city, as were the well-blessed Sodom and Gomorrah. GEN 13:10; 14:1-2. b. Sodom and Gomorrah (and their outlying city-kingdoms) decided to abandon righteousness for the “benefits” of a socio-political order that magnified sexual deviancy, and they were thus destroyed by God. JUDE 1:7. c. “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.” (State Motto of Hawaii). c/w PRO 14:34. d. There are four fundamental elements that make for a favored land: good soil, good water, good natural resources (DEU 8:9) and a favorable climate. That which turns such lands into hell-holes is not men, but wickedness. Modern day Israel/Palestine was not always a dust-bowl. DEU 11:10-12. 4. Basic distinctions set old Israel apart from other nations. a. They were monotheistic (DEU 6:4): their values had one Divine Authority. Polytheism opens the door for a principle-free existence except for one overarching principle: “There are no principles.” b. They had the written revelation of God (ROM 3:1-2) which emphasized righteousness, morality, self-restraint, love of neighbor, life and one standard of law. DEU 1:17. c. Their system of polity graduated from a patriarchal/tribal one to a more centralized form of government with one king to prepare them for Messiah.