How can we say we trust in God, and yet rely on the state for our salvation?
There are many Christians out there who seem to want it both ways. We want to keep God and Government in separate realms. Over here; we want to have our faith, and live our lives according to that faith ( as long as we don't offend anyone ), but over there, we want to let the civil government have their way, whether it's right or wrong. In spite of this; we often complain when the civil government steps on our God-given liberties. Some of us don't seem to care, having seemingly given themselves over to an attitude of 'que sera, sera'; like the realm of civil government doesn't have anything to do with our Christian faith. Speaking of attitude, we often take the same stance towards wicked civil government ( often not very 'civil' ) as we sometimes have toward young men; 'boys will be boys': you might well say, 'bad government will be bad government', so we might as well vote for the lesser of two evils, right? Wrong! Many Christians seem to have forgotten the fact that God has called us to bring every thought ( word and deed ) into subjection to Him, and when we try to separate these realms into religious and secular ( 'and never the twain shall meet' ); we tend to forget, as well, that there is no such thing as two separate realms; Jesus removed the separation, and if we would still posit that the separation is firmly in place, then maybe we need to rethink our own position!
Words have meaning, and religion, or religious, put simply, means to live according to what we believe. Everyone, if they're honest with themselves, is religious! Politics is another area that has been abused thusly. Politics, put simply, is the unified decision of a certain group of people, to do one thing, or another.
A question that needs to be addressed is, 'in what God ( or god ) do we trust? Americans, many of them, like to keep God in their back pocket, in the pages of a book, so to speak, but if this is the 'God' you serve, if this 'God' allows you to throw your allegiance to other gods ( the state, etc. ) as well; is this truly the jealous God ( Who does not change ), the Almighty Creator of the universe, the Sovereign Lord of all? If your religion is 'behind the eyes and between the ears' where it won't offend anyone, even other Christians; is it a true religion? If your 'God' is content to rest his laurels between the covers of a book, or within the safe confines of four walls, behind prison bars, so to speak, and your active Gospel is not offending someone, then perhaps you are truly not religious, and your 'Gospel', your 'God' is not the true one!
True religious faith is an active faith, and if we are actively supporting, through varied means, whether by omission or commission, the wicked and apostate government of this nation, or this state, rather than being the watchmen we are commanded to be, if we are not actively speaking out and engaging the enemy; how will our fellow servants know how to fight them ( even who )? More importantly, though; if we do not religiously enter into the body politic, and make decisions for the good of the Body, and not selfishly for the individual, the Body is going to suffer; indeed, history has shown us many examples of how the Body has suffered, and lost her political freedoms; her freedom to make the right choice, the choice to follow God's Law, rather than man's!
It is not too late! What we need to do is to repent of our lackadaisical ( dead', as James put it so well ) faith, our 'faith' that resides 'behind our eyes and between our ears'! If we repent of a faith that agrees with those politicians that say 'I have a deep personal faith in Jesus Christ, but I will in no way allow this to affect my policy-making decisions', and adopt a true religious faith. a faith that involves us in the politics of governance, a governance that begins with ourselves, works its way out through our families into the Church, and from there into the civil realm ( city, state, and nation ); then our Creator God with whom we are in Covenant will bless those efforts, and this nation will yet again be the Christian nation that our fore-fathers set out to found!
Waking up, by His good grace,
Charles Haddon Shank
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