ActiveFaith.us
Pastor Chuck Baldwin, who was the Constitution Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 2004, wrote a scathing column last week about today’s Christian leaders, especially ministers, and their woeful ignorance regarding political matters:
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It is as if our Christian leaders today are unable to compute any issue other than abortion or gay rights. Or could it be that rather than address the hard issues, today's Christian leaders conveniently choose to trust their politicians with these matters?
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However, do they not remember the sober warning of Thomas Jefferson, "In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution"? And if they forgot Jefferson, can they not recall how the Apostle Paul said, "Put no confidence in the flesh"?
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Our entire system of government is established on distrust. That is, the people's distrust of their political leaders. Why else did America's founders set up three "separate but equal" branches of government, except that each was designed to serve as a check and balance to the others? Why else are congressional elections held every two years? Why else are we guaranteed a free and independent press, the freedom of speech, the freedom to redress government, and the freedom to keep and bear arms?
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It is time today's Christian leaders learned an elementary truth: distrust of government is healthy. As our first and greatest President, George Washington, said, "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." Yet, why should we have to remind our esteemed Christian leaders of this truth? It is they who should be teaching the rest of us this valuable lesson. So, why aren't they?
I think the answer is simple: because they don’t know it.
Most of today’s pastors have been educated in the government (“public”) school system, which teaches the great unwashed masses one simple truth: Man is basically Good, and Government is God. Or more specifically, Man is basically God, and whatever men or women are at the top of the government heap are “they who must be obeyed.”
It doesn’t matter that the only reason we have government, and especially the form of government in this country, is because men are actually sinful and need to be restrained -- especially at the top of the heap.
R.J. Rushdoony once wrote, “It must be recognized that in any culture the source of law is the god of that society.” The majority of state-educated pastors in America have been thoroughly indoctrinated into the foundational belief that “we make our own laws.” If our laws come from Man -- and not from God and His law-word, the Bible -- then guess who our god is?
So most pastors don’t teach us that distrust of government is healthy, because most of their congregation -- and even the incorporated 501(c)(3) church organization that pays the pastor’s salary -- are dependent on that very government for most things in their lives.
There needs to be either a self-motivated “re-education” by pastors in America to restore Biblical truth about government, or else the next generation of pastors need to be raised to understand that truth. I’m betting on the latter.
William Greene is the author of Christian Political Activism: Biblical Principles for Active Faith, a “work in progress.” Read the latest chapters at ActiveFaith.us.
“Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Phil. 3:1-3).
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Original Sin
