Wednesday, March 04, 2009

 

Beyond "Submit to the Authorities"

Dear Courteous Reader,

May you rejoice today in the grace given you freely by the Lord Jesus Christ!

Please consider this word I offer you in love.

As Christians, we are ultimately citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, not of any earthly country. While we live this earthly life, however, we are indeed citizens of our earthly countries, which in my case is the United States of America. As part of our discipleship, then, we must act rightly toward our government and our fellow citizens.

The Bible's basic commandment in this regard is to be found in Romans chapter 13, among other places, and it is that we are to submit to the government, rendering both taxes and honor to those government officials to whom it is due. We must never forget this basic principle, nor fail to live by it.

HOWEVER, we must not allow this one principle to be our whole understanding of the Lord's teaching on government and citizenship, either. There is much more to learn from the Bible about Christian duty, about good citizenship.

Please join me as I inquire into the Bible's teachings on this matter. At the same time, please join me in praying for our government officials, for each other, our fellow Christian citizens, and for me as a pastor/teacher.

If you find anything I write helpful, you are most welcome to send it around in whatever way seems best to you. Please feel free to contact me personally for more information.

In the thoughts I offer here, I will be leaning heavily on the text of the Bible, of course, but also a book of old sermons. It is available to read free of charge on Google Books, and is available for purchase on Amazon, and I suppose from other book sellers as well. The title is The Pulpit of the American Revolution, or The Political Sermons of the Period of 1776. The editor is John Wingate Thornton. It was published in 1860, and there is a recent new printing as well.

Click here to view on Google books.


Love in Christ,

Jeff

P.S. I am including here at the bottom of this article a few key words, so that those who are searching for information on these topics can find their way here. By seeing these words together, you may also be able to guess where I am headed with this teaching.

Barack Obama, president, usurper, usurpation, constitution, natural-born citizen, Declaration of Independence, despotism, tyranny

Comments:
Okay, Brother Jeff, lets get started. I am very curious as to where you are going with this.

Eagerly awaiting your next blog,
Sleepy Disciple
 
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