Secular or Theocratic

We see many who desire to omit every possible reference in our society of the name of God or Jesus Christ by insisting on forbidding the teaching of creation, by opposing anyone leading public school children in prayer and opposing the public display of the ten commandments on our court house walls.

We see on the other hand some that do desire and some are accused of desiring a theocratic government.

So….which way is right? Is there not a compromise somewhere in the middle?

I will examine the two extremes and possibilities. First of all if we succeed in eliminating God out of our society without any public recognition, the children unless they are raised in strong bible believing homes will have no fear of God. In fact we see that today in our society now. Sooner or later, there will come a day when the value of life will decrease.

Already we have abortion that is legal in the United States and it is considered evil or “right wing” to oppose abortion. It is even legal to kill the baby right up until birth. There have been some isolated cases where an abortion doctor has killed an infant that survived the abortion and was born live. Since I first wrote this article a few years ago, two states in the United States have legally allowed a baby that is born alive to be left to die if the mother agrees and no longer want the child. Also it is been discovered that there are some clinics that use the baby body parts for medical experiments, vaccines or transplants. In other words life has become with any value.

Some states have legalized doctor-assisted suicide and there are groups pushing for legalized euthanasia. Our value of life is already declining. If evolution is taught without any opposing viewpoints, we then do not think of ourselves as created in the image of a loving God but think ourselves as an accident of nature. The survival of the fittest enters into our mindsets. 

Now we have left the divine order of marriage and recognize marriages of the same gender, there also is an increased divorce rate among Christians and many other signs we see show us that we already have a lack of any fear of God and a total disregard to the word of God. Also since writing this article years ago, we have gender confusion. For a time there were some advocating gender identify bathrooms. Our poor young people that grew up without the word of God is into drugs, confusion, and their lives consist of video games, cell phones and sex without any restraint.

If we throw out any reference to the word of God or the bible, we really are throwing out any possible guide to what is right and what it wrong. The bible is the source from which many of our laws are based. The result of ignoring God completely will sooner or later lead to anarchy. Lack of proper law and order will surely lead to anarchy as we saw in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. We need law but law based on what???? Without the bible, which tells us it is wrong to steal or wrong to kill, where are we going to get any basis to form a good government? Through Jesus Christ and the gospel, we have an authority of right and wrong. Without God, we lose any authority that is based on good.

ON OTHER HAND………………………………..

To my dear fellow believers in Jesus Christ who hold to the Kingdom now theology or Dominion theology I must say this: “BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.”

There have been some religious groups in the past and even some presently who have tried to set up theocratic governments have failed miserably. Someone gets hurt. Those with opposing opinions end up being persecuted and put to death just for disagreeing with the majority opinion. This can happen also with socialist non religious governments.

Many have already proven themselves incapable of running a fair and sound government by establishing a theocracy.

There is only one man that ever lived upon the earth that would be capable of that type of government and that man is Jesus Christ. Until Jesus Christ returns as He promised years ago, we cannot set up a government that is totally theocratic whether its Christian or any other religion dominating in a certain area of the globe. The only one who could do that has to be the resurrected Jesus at His literal coming and not someone merely representing Him or claiming to be Him.

Until He visibly comes Himself, we cannot have a fair and balanced theocratic government. I wish we could but we have already tried and failed many times. We see present day theocratic governments all over the world and they persecute and kill their opponents. We saw the Roman Catholic Church during the middle ages burn at the stake even those who merely wanted to translate the bible into a language all could understand. We saw John Calvin set up this kind of government in Geneva Switzerland where a few descendants were put to death for disagreeing with the Calvinistic viewpoint. The puritans in American also set up a government that became intolerant of a few who dared to disagree. The persecution was not widespread but a few were either driven out of their homes or punished severely. There were some put to death. (In writing all that, I do realize that we are at the mercy of historians and not all the above may be 100% accurate but that is what is written in some church history books and articles.)

We can read Foxes Book of Martyrs for more accounts of persecution.

The flesh is weak. We are supposed to love, be kind and instruct heretics in the spirit of meekness but many have failed in that task. We are too easily angered when faced with opposition. We cannot love to the extent that Jesus Christ is able to love. We get it wrong too many times. We cannot have a theocratic government before the visible return of Jesus.

Jesus Himself said to go into the entire world and preach the gospel baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. He did not say to go into all the world and force baptism. He did not say go into the entire world and set up theocratic governments. He did not say to persecute those that oppose us. We are to be harmless as doves. We are to love our enemies, do good to them that persecute us and pray for them that despitefully persecute us. God is the one who is capable of bring fair judgment and vengeance upon those that are persecute innocent people that  preach the gospel and He will do that in His own time but He never once gave the church permission to persecute any dissenters much less put someone to death, take their property or expel them out of the nation. We cannot set up a theocracy before His literal coming. The persecuted church became the persecutors when they took over the governments after the fall of the Roman Empire. That is what would happen again.

Following the left wing anti-god policies will lead to anarchy, rape, and murder of the innocent and setting up theocracies will lead to anarchy, rape and the murder of the innocent. Democratic governments are the best but only if we exercise restraint and do not shut God completely out of our society. There is a place for Him. We must have a free marketplace of ideas and not shut out or persecute anyone who sees things in a different light. Either extreme is wrong in this present day and age. Jesus will return and set up the perfect government but we must wait for Him to have it. For now we can influence, preach the gospel and share our ideas but using force, threats or taking over the government is not that thing to do.

The founding fathers in the United States came the closest to the best government in the history of mankind. They believed in God and did not keep Him out yet they did not set up a theocracy. The only fault I find in their government was not with the constitution but the fact that they did not practice entirely what they believed. The black slaves and the Indians were left out of the equation some how. I put that down to ignorance. Too bad it took a war that cost the lives of many to start us on the road out of the evil of slavery.

We have yet to see a perfect government. A constitutional republic that we have is great and will work but only if we apply the constitution to all. Having a monarchy, totalitarianism, a theocracy, an oligarchy, communism, socialism, have failed. A constitutional republic will work but only if it has good representation and moral restraint by the will of the people. One side must respect the ideas of the other. If we fail in this, our government will not work.

Theocracy might have worked if they would have retained love and compassion. It is not the word of God taken in context that failed, it is those that forsook the word and substituted their own commandments, rituals, and traditions that failed. Straying from the scriptures or taking a few verses to extremes out of context, is what may cause us to get into error. When studying the precious word of God, we have to consider who is speaking, who is being spoken to, was it under the law given through Moses or the spirit of the law given through Jesus to take effect after His death, burial and resurrection. We have to understand all the word in the right context and not just use a few pet scriptures. Yet until Jesus comes we cannot rule the government.

We can influence it by our ideas and votes but we can't take over. I hope none of us have that faulty goal in mind. Let us return to preaching the gospel and let Jesus take care of the rest. That must be the real Jesus and not just someone claiming to be Him or represent Him. So let us stand for the truth contained in the word of God but with compassion and genuine love. It cannot be forced. Only God can make a true convert.  Its called being "born again" by the Spirit of God.

So please. Throwing God out and making the gospel unconstitutional will only open the door to Satan. The one who is out to steal, kill and destroy. Yet we need to teach, preach in love. Forced religion, or a forced socialist anti God government will only oppress and destroy any society. Jesus who came in the name of His Father, said that if He is rejected, the one who comes in his own name will be received. He may arrive on the scene shortly and many will be deceived. He appears just before the coming of Jesus Christ to set up His eternal kingdom. His short reign will be destroyed by the coming of Christ but before that the earth will be almost destroyed. We need God now. Seek true knowledge, think for yourself.

Dorna