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brain sizes: Einstein's and women's

John Knight jwknight at polbox.com
Sun Sep 1 19:03:02 EST 2002






DOES GOD BELONG IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT?
A Biblical Perspective
By: Charles P. Beall

This essay is not an attempt to convince non-believers that God's Word,
the Bible, is the ultimate source of truth and righteous power by which
all legitimate government authority on earth has been established. My
purpose here is two-fold: I intend to illuminate the irrefutable fact
that America's history is a Providential history. And, that it was God's
Word that most inspired America's founders in their vigilant quest for
freedom over 225 years ago.
America's founders clearly understood and accepted God's design and
purpose for civil government, and were willing to sacrifice everything to
live free in their own country. They established a Constitutional
Republic that recognized the unalienable rights of all men to their
lives, their liberty and their property, with minimal government
interference. Thus, America was conceived as a magnificent experiment in
freedom that was unique in the annals of human history. And while the
journey was tumultuous at times, the freedom won by our forefathers was
ultimately extended to all citizens regardless of race, color, religion
or national origin---a testament to who we are as Americans, and what we
truly stand for, as "One Nation, Under God".
So, it is with the firm conviction that God's Word is complete and
without error, that I humbly offer the following words for the
consideration of those Americans who revere the truth, and who have the
capacity and inclination to do their own thinking:
"..There is no authority except that which God has established. The
authorities that exist have been established by God. For rulers are not a
terror to good works, but to evil. For he is God's servant to do you
good. ..For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute God's wrath on
him who practices evil, so be afraid.for he does not bear the sword in
vain. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are
God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.".
Romans 13: 1-6

According to His-story, the Bible, all authority on earth, including
government authority, flows directly from God. He established civil
government to be His servant and His minister of justice. He gave the
civil authorities the sword, so they might serve and protect His people.
God cannot be separated from His creation. Therefore, any claim of
authority by the government, the church or any other earthly institution,
must conform to His Word, or it is counterfeit and void. The question we
must ask ourselves as Americans is this: does our nation's government
today conform to God's design and purpose?
God's Word gives us a blueprint of the proper structure and function of
every earthly institution, including marriage, family, church and
government. This biblical blueprint represents His plan for mankind's
existence on earth. According to His plan, there are limits to the
jurisdiction of each institution established under His ultimate
authority. For instance, God's word teaches us that we are to render "to
Caesar (the State), the things that are Caesar's, and to God, the things
that are God's" (Matt. 22: 17-21). The Bible instructs that one thing
that belongs to the State and not the Church is the use of the sword to
protect the citizenry. Likewise, there are certain things that belong to
God and not the State such our worship of God (the Church), our children,
and our own consciences and lives. In these matters, the State has no
authority and should not interfere. God teaches us that lawful taxation
by "His servant and minister of justice" (the State), is "to do us good",
and is a proper function of civil government. He also teaches us to try
to settle disputes before going to court, and that we must resist the
tyranny of unjust rulers.
What kind of government do we have in America today? Is it a government
that functions as God's servant and minister of justice "to do us good",
or is it a government that has attempted to separate God from His
creation by removing Him from our schools, our government institutions,
our courts, and our daily lives? Does our federal government function
according to God's design and purpose, or according to the will of men?
Do our federal, state and local government officials defend and protect
the most vulnerable among us from evil and injustice, or do they conspire
to expand their power and deny the American people of their rightful
liberties? Are the majority of our highest elected officials and
government leaders in Washington honest, honorable and loyal Americans
who can be trusted to protect and defend our Constitution, or have most
of them betrayed their oaths to God and Country? Is our income tax system
the creation and instrument of God's "servants and ministers of justice",
or of power hungry politicians and irresponsible bureaucrats who squander
the fruits of our labor and arrogantly refuse to be accountable to the
American people? Do our judges acknowledge God's ultimate authority over
our nation and our nation's laws, or do they kneel at a different altar?
Just who are we as Americans? What are the underlying values and moral
principles that constitute the foundation of our common identity? From
what source do we derive our concepts of truth, justice and equality? Do
our laws and government policies in America reflect a common
understanding of moral truth-as given to us by our Creator--or do they
reflect the flawed reasoning of imperfect men? Have we become so
dumbed-down by our government schools, mass media and religious
"leaders", that we no longer care if our "public servants" lie, cheat,
steal and betrays our trust? Our nation's founders believed that "all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness". Do we still hold these truths to be self-evident?
In America today there are essentially three views of the Church-State
relationship. They are represented by the following diagrams:**
(A)
PAGAN VIEW
State State
Man Church
Here, the state is sovereign over man and the church, and dictates in
civil and religious matters. This relationship structure represents the
secular humanistic and socialist world-view.
(B)
MODERN "CHRISTIAN" VIEW
God State
Church Man

Modern Christians have unwittingly enabled and facilitated "secondary"
control of the Church by the State. In this model, the State freely
sidesteps the influence of God, while maintaining its unnatural dominion
over Man.
Additionally, in this model, man can "access" God only through the
Church.
This is the worst of all situations: Men perceive their only contact with
God can be through a formal Church that is tangentially controlled by the
State. The primary influence and control the State enjoys over Man keeps
him distracted and separated both from his Church and his God. Man
"attends" the Church but ultimately, does NOT control it. The true
illusion here is that God is the sole influence over the Church. No
wonder the institutions of State produce non-God-like effects.

Many Christians today acknowledge that God is Sovereign over the
(spiritual) church, but do not believe He has anything to do with the
state. They believe that God is separated by an impregnable wall from
civil government.

(C)
BIBLICAL VIEW
God
Man Man Man
Home Church State
God is sovereign over man. Through man, He exercises authority over the
government (the state), the church and the home. Each has separate
jurisdiction and must be kept separate.
This is the natural hierarchy of the universe. Church and State, as
institutions of Man, are created and used as separate instruments of
Creation.
The Biblical View of the Church-State relationship represents God's plan
for the structure and order of human society. Listen to God's Word on the
subject:
"Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with
you: Stand before God for the People, so that you may bring the
difficulties to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws,
and show them the way in which they must walk and the work that they must
do. Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear
God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such men over them to
be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers
of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that
every great matter they shall bring to you (Moses), but every small
matter they themselves shall judge..so Moses heeded the voice of his
father-in-law and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out
of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands,
rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. So they judged
the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they
judged every small case themselves". Exodus 18: 19-26 (note: The above
Scripture outlines the role of civil government as God's servant and
minister of justice on earth. According to His design and plan, we are to
appoint able men who fear God, men of truth, men who hate dishonest gain
as our earthly rulers. Do we follow this standard in selecting our
government leaders in America today?)
"God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven
and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped
with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all
life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation
of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their
preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings". Acts 17: 24-26
"Do you not know that the Christians will one day judge and govern the
world? And if the world be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the
smallest matters? Do you know that we shall judge angels? How much more
things that pertain to this life? (the Apostle Paul then rebukes the
Christians for their apathy and irresponsibility that allowed
non-Christians to be in control): "If then you have law courts dealing
with matters of this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by
the Church to judge? I say this to your shame." I Corinthians 6: 2-5
This "shameful" situation has become a reality in America today. The
battle for God's earth is being lost mainly because Christians have
forgotten, or ignored, God's perfect design and purpose for every earthly
institution, including government and church. The neglect of duty by
Christians in America has devastated our beloved nation, and directly
precipitated an almost irreversible fall into moral decay and government
tyranny.
The Reverend Charles G. Finney wrote: "The church must take right ground
in regard to politics..the time has come that Christians must vote for
honest men, and take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will
curse them. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we
love and pray for, unless the church will take right ground. Politics are
a part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do
their duty to the Country, as part of their duty to God..He will bless or
curse this nation, according to the course they (Christians) take".
Historian Jonathan Trumbull wrote that during the 50 years leading up to
the American Revolution, "colonial pastors used every opportunity
possible to educate the people in the principles of liberty".
Historian Alice Baldwin said, "the Constitutional Convention and the
written Constitution were the children of the pulpit".
Before and during the time of the Revolution, hundreds of colonial
pastors were courageous, resolute defenders of God's sovereign authority
over civil government. John Witherspoon was a minister and President of
Princeton College. He trained James Madison, the chief architect of the
Constitution. Rev. Witherspoon had this to say: "God grant that in
America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable".
James Madison wrote: "To preserve the Republic, it is in the hands of the
people. We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon
the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of
our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for
self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern
ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the
Ten Commandments".
John Adams wrote: "The Constitution was made only for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any
other".
In a Christian nation, the people make the laws, but the Church makes the
people. When the Church fails to bring the necessary moral influence, the
"letter" of the law will not work.
Samuel Adams, one of our country's greatest patriots and the "Father of
the American Revolution", in his widely circulated letter to the
Colonists in 1772 wrote: "The Supreme Power (British Parliament) cannot
justly take from any man any part of his property, without his consent.
The natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life;
Second, a right to liberty; Third, to property; together with the right
to support and defend them in the best manner they can. The rights of the
Colonist as Christians may be best understood by reading and carefully
studying the institutes of the Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian
Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New
Testament".
Samuel Adams and the overwhelming majority of America's Founders were
guided by deep faith in Divine Providence. And, it was their
understanding of Biblical truth and justice that shaped the development
of their concepts regarding the proper structure and function of civil
government. This is America's true heritage, and God's blessing to our
nation and our people, if we choose to keep it.
In 1952, Justice William O. Douglas wrote for the Supreme Court that "we
find no constitutional requirement.for government to be hostile to
religion and to throw its weight against efforts to widen the effective
scope of religious influence".
In 1984, the Supreme Court surprisingly stated in Lynch v. Donnelly:
"The Constitution does not require complete separation of church and
state; it affirmatively mandates accommodation, not mere tolerance, of
all religions, and forbids hostility toward any.anything less would
require the 'callous indifference' we have said was never intended by the
Establishment Clause.Indeed, we have observed such hostility would bring
us into war with our national tradition as embodied in the First
Amendment's guarantee of the free exercise of religion."

Patrick Henry stated:
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation
was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions but
on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other
faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship
here."
The Christian faith, Christian virtues, and a Biblical world-view are the
"Spirit of the Constitution"---the power behind our form of government in
America.
Do you believe that our nation was established with God's blessing, and
that "all authority in heaven and on earth" belongs to Him? Do you
believe that our Constitution is a sacred document written by godly men
with noble intentions? Do you believe that every American citizen is
entitled to the unalienable rights of life, liberty and property? Do you
believe that the federal government should be accountable to the people
and made to comply with the United States Constitution? Do you believe
that America has lost its moral compass, and drifted far from our
founding principles of liberty and justice? Do you believe that our
government has the moral authority to prosecute wars against nations that
represent no legitimate threat to our Country?
Unlike the majority of politicians--who never fight the wars they
start--those of us who have honorably served our nation in uniform have a
special obligation to protect America's future generations against the
deception and political exploitation of false patriots in our government.
There is no honor in the slaughter of innocent, helpless civilians for
any political end. Our forefathers intended America to serve as an
example of strength, justice and liberty to the world. We must recognize
that the global political and economic forces that have dragged our
nation into war after senseless war over the past 50 years, have betrayed
the ideals, the honor and the values of our forefathers, and have
compromised the sovereignty and independence of our great nation. Their
perfidious conduct is repugnant to our Constitution and the principles
upon which we stand as Americans. For over 225 years, America has stood
as a beacon of light and hope to the world. People of all nations, creeds
and religions have come to our shores yearning to be free. The cause of
personal freedom belongs to all Americans, not just Christians. And,
never before in our history has it been more important that Americans
stand together, as one nation under God.
Please read the attached letter entitled "Why Have Our Churches Been
Silenced" and share it with pastors and religious leaders across our
nation. Also, please visit the web site www.givemeliberty.org for
information on We The People Congress and how you can help restore
America's Constitution and Bill of Rights.
* * Selected text from America's Providential History, by Mark A. Beliles
and
Stephen K. McDowell, Providence Foundation, Charlottesville, Virginia
Charles P. Beall
GiveMeLiberty at Mindspring.com





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