Revised: One Cannot Serve Two Masters, Man & God

Revised: Does the Christian Church Have an Obligation to Confront the Messianic State?

Revised":

How could Paul’s writing in Romans 13, that there is no authority other than that given by God apply to our messianic state?

Well yesterday, I discovered an answer and I have to refute what I have written about confronting the messianic state.

I will expand after the end of the main body of my original post.

Original Main Body of the Post:

Does the Christian Church Have an Obligation to Confront the Messianic State?

Far be it that I would tell the church what to do. I appeal to conscience.

What is the church in relation to government?
Jesus Christ commissioned both church and government. Both exist side by side working on God’s team in different positions as it were. They have the same shared goal but with different responsibilities. The church is in effect, Christ’s body in the world being inseparable from Him. Government exists solely to suppress evil. Both together find unity in Jesus Christ by virtue of His nature as both God (the church) and man (government).

What is a messianic state?
A messianic state is a state (A political community and loosely, government) that seeks to supplant God in the minds of the people and sets itself up to rule in God’s place. I.e., one that makes itself the arbiter of all truth and of all morality and will not admit of any authority above its own.
In “One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, the movie, one prisoner asks, in response to 1PM having been made “noon” by government decree (paraphrasing): “You mean the Soviet government can even tell God what to do?”
Totalitarian (messianic) states eventually destroy themselves at great human cost.

Do we live in a messianic state?
Yes. Our state system demonstrates its intent to supplant God in the hearts of the people and to foster their dependence on it for everything. It colonizes a presence in every sphere of our lives. It exhibits an aggressive jealousy towards the influence that Christ has over Christians. White Christian men are styled to be the “real domestic terrorists”.

What cause is there for churches to confront the messianic state?
Exodus 20: 3 (You shall have no other gods before me) and Exodus 20:4 (forbids idol worship) by virtue of the state’s commission by Jesus Christ enjoins it from aspiring to take God’s place and the people from worshiping

the state. In cases where government defaults on its Christ assigned duties or exceeds its God given mandate, the church has a duty to intervene for Christ’s sake.
The church is the only institution that can stand up to the messianic state.

Is our Christian church doing anything?
Not to actively intercede against but rather to accommodate the messianic state.
As a body, the church is concerning itself with exhortation, mission work, Christian education, Bible teaching, discipleship, community service, sports, outreach, etc. I suppose that it would argue that its getting into government matters is not what the Lord wants it to do.
But that would apply when the state leaves those things of God to God and to His church and not when it affects to be God on earth.

What precedents are there for churches dealing with the messianic state?
The Catholic Church under John Paul II undermining the moral authority of communism in Eastern Europe would be the best one I can think of. But of course, that was different in that John Paul II wasn’t living behind the Iron Curtain at the time.

The Barman Declaration in 1934 was an attempt at it. That was the work of German churches who stressed the lordship of Jesus Christ over the lordship of Adolf Hitler. The Barman Declaration was their church declaration of independence from Hitler.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote his “Ethik” work and wrote - “The Church and the Jewish Question” outlining mandated resistance.

What should the Christian church do?
Normally, the church maintains its credibility by not involving itself in the works and in the workings of government so it can maintain focus on the Gospel.
But, besides Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is probably the best guide to confronting the messianic state. Bonhoeffer wrote that first, the church questions, (after comparing the character that the state has assumed by virtue of its innovation with that character of the state as commissioned by Jesus Christ), the state (whether the state is legitimate before God or not).

Second, minister to the victims of the state’s transgressions whether within the Christian community or without it.
Third, not just to bind up the wounds of the people under the “wheel” (state) but to “seize the wheel itself”. (One assumes that means - “…it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” - Our Declaration of Independence).

What benefits accrue?

The glorification of God.

Civil war and revolution are very destructive to things and people and of course, messianic states also are destructive to things and people. To avoid having to choose among bad alternatives, the church’s taking the lead leaves open the possibility of obviating destruction while restoring God’s order, such being the power of the Lord.

Since not correcting a messianic state must lead to its eventual self-destruction at great human cost, bringing about positive change ahead of that self-destruction benefits humanity.
The church demonstrates to itself its power in the Lord which strengthens its faith and leaves an appetite for more fellowship with the Lord that comes from its working alongside Him.
By shrinking from getting involved, the church risks accomplishing the opposite to that which it professes it wants to accomplish.

End of the Main Body of My Original Post:

Gist of Refutation:

God originally created us for His glory through fellowship in the form of a personal, and intimate love relationship with us.

We acquired a sin nature through the fall of Adam and Eve.

God could either have managed our sin nature by wiping us all out or He could manage our sin nature through stratagems using one evil in opposition to another evil. He has chosen the latter.

One such stratagem of His is using evil regimes to impose needed external restraints upon people who lack necessary internal restraints against their doing evil to themselves and to each other.

Contemporary messianic state America is is consistent with thi

s.

As Mattias Desmet has written, totalitarianism is characteristic of the masses.

Additionally, since all sovereignty is vested in the people by our constitution, we are the ultimate source of evil in our country, our being ultimately in control.

Evil in high places is the branch. Evil in the masses is the tree.

Changing regimes is not the answer. “Changing” the people is. That’s how slavery in the Roman Empire was ended.

Yes, we must watch what God is doing as believers and work alongside of Him.

But what is God doing now? All day on January 7, 2021 I was telling myself, about the day before, that it was undeniable that God had rebuked us.

He is presiding over the decline which is necessary to accommodate our weaknesses.

Therefore, I now believe what I’ve written in the post above as far as it is inconsistent with what I’ve written in this refutation isn’t right.

The church’s task is to get out the Gospel – to change us so we can sustain freedom and godly government.

Freedom, is the branch and serving God according to His will is the tree.

The only way out for us that is not futile is to serve God according to His will.