Christians in a Secular World continued....
ATTITUDES TO GOVERNMENT
In Old Testament days, the nation of Israel (the
pre-Christian people of God) were a unit living together in the same country.
They had the same language, culture, tradition and religion. All their laws
were given to them by God, therefore 'Church' and state were one and the same.
There was no dichotomy between their civil and ethical responsibilities. They
lived under theocratic rule,
The Christian Church today however is in a completely
different situation. It is an international body of believers (possibly the
greatest international body in the world). Its members live in almost every
country under differing kinds of government with their own languages and
cultures etc.
Holy Scripture is very clear about the Christian's attitude
to government. It maintains that even if the Authorities are secular, they are
Divinely instituted. This does not mean that God approves of wicked rulers, but
that He does approve of government as a principle per se, without which of
course society would descend into chaos and anarchy. 'The powers-that-be'
therefore (eg judges, magistrates and the police etc) are ordained of God. Jesus also
inferred this when He instructed that we should 'render to Caesar (the state)
the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's' Everyone then
is expected to obey civil law.
There is an exception clause to the above for Christians
when the civil law demands obedience which clashes with Christian ethics and
conscience. When the Apostle Peter was commanded to stop preaching the Gospel
of Christ he flatly refused on the grounds that 'we must obey God rather than
men'. It
should be added of course that when we disobey the civil law even for
conscience sake, we must expect punishment for which the 'offender' must be
prepared.
The Church at all times must pray for our secular rulers.
When the writer visited Russia in 1985, President Gorbachev had recently come
to power, and it was interesting and surprising to hear from the Church leaders
there that they never engaged in prayer for the previous dictators, but we
reminded them that the Bible instructs us to pray for all in authority whatever their
moral or spiritual state may be.
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