Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - - Politics, Government, and Biblical Authority Part 1

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Voddie Baucham - - Politics, Government, and Biblical Authority Part 1 · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We find ourselves in Romans chapter 13. And here in
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Romans chapter 13, we find what is one of the
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  Speaker 1: most well-known passages in the Bible, in a way. People
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: know about Romans chapter 13. People....
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: May not know where Romans 13 is.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: But you will hear quickly from Christians and non-Christians alike
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  Speaker 1: that Christians are obligated to obey.
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  Speaker 2: The government, the authority, the law.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: You will hear that from Christians and non-Christians alike, usually
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: in moments of convenience for either of those sides. However,
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  Speaker 1: the question comes, what does that mean?
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  Speaker 2: And there are ways that we look at this.
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  Speaker 1: Some people look at it in the divine right of
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  Speaker 1: kings sort of way. And that means anyone in any
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  Speaker 1: position of any authority is to be obeyed in any
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  Speaker 1: and everything that they say. Others take the other extreme
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  Speaker 1: and say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's
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  Speaker 1: a strict test for anyone who claims to be in authority.
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  Speaker 1: And if they don't pass every level of that strict test,
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  Speaker 1: you don't obey anything that they say. What is Paul
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  Speaker 1: teaching us here in Romans chapter 13? Here in this
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  Speaker 1: last portion of the book of Romans, as we have
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  Speaker 1: come through the indicative portions or these doctrinal portions that
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: tell us who we are in Christ, what Christ has
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  Speaker 1: accomplished on our behalf, what justification means, what sanctification means,
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  Speaker 1: what righteousness means.
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  Speaker 2: And we come to the therefore.
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  Speaker 1: Clause in chapter 12 and begin to apply these things
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  Speaker 1: with the imperatives. What does this particular imperative mean in
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Romans chapter 13? Well, I'm not going to answer that
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  Speaker 1: question in full today.
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  Speaker 2: I cannot.
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  Speaker 1: My desire today, quite simply, is to orient us to
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  Speaker 1: this text.
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  Speaker 2: Because I believe.
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  Speaker 1: that we misapply and misuse this text because we are disoriented,
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  Speaker 1: as it were.
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  Speaker 2: We have no idea how.
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  Speaker 1: To talk about government, politics, authority from a biblical perspective
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  Speaker 1: because we've never been taught that. how to talk about government, power, authority,
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  Speaker 1: politics from a biblical perspective. We've only been taught these
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  Speaker 1: things from a political perspective. And then because of a
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  Speaker 1: misapplication of Romans 13, we're taught, we're not only not
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  Speaker 1: taught how to think about it from a biblical perspective,
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  Speaker 1: but we're taught that we shouldn't be thinking about it
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  Speaker 1: at all and just shutting our mouths and obeying whatever
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  Speaker 1: is said by whoever has a position of authority.
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  Speaker 2: Because that's not our ground. That's not our turf. We're
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  Speaker 2: the church. That's the government.
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  Speaker 1: G-U-B-M-I-N-T. That's how you spell that, by the way. It
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  Speaker 1: is a convenient and controversial text. It's extremely convenient and
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  Speaker 1: has been used for convenience sake. This text, for example,
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  Speaker 1: was used with regularity in Nazi Germany in order to
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  Speaker 1: tell the Lutherans to just shut up and let Hitler
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  Speaker 1: do what he wanted.
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  Speaker 2: Which they did. Why? Pray tell.
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  Speaker 1: Because Hitler was a duly elected official who had been
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  Speaker 1: placed in authority by the will.
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  Speaker 2: Of the people.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore, according to Romans chapter 13, he was to
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  Speaker 1: be obeyed. By the way, why did they agree to
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  Speaker 1: elect a man like Hitler? Because their economy got so
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  Speaker 1: bad that they said things like, don't worry about all
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  Speaker 1: those social issues. We just need to get our economy
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  Speaker 1: back on track. Does that sound familiar to anyone?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: As though economics are somehow divorced from theology and morality.
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  Speaker 1: But Hitler's Nazi Germany pushed hard on Romans chapter 13.
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  Speaker 1: You Lutherans, you got your Bible, you believe your Bible,
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  Speaker 1: you're all a soul of scripture people, says right there, obey, submit.
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  Speaker 1: Hitler's the authority, Hitler's the law, obey and submit. And
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  Speaker 1: by the time Christians in Germany woke up from their fog,
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  Speaker 1: millions were dead at the hands.
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  Speaker 2: Of a duly elected political official.
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  Speaker 1: And ironically, when trials started happening, some of the same
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  Speaker 1: Christians who were screaming, Romans 13, Romans 13. were mocking
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  Speaker 1: military officials who said the same thing at their trials
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  Speaker 1: at Nuremberg.
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  Speaker 2: I was just obeying orders.
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  Speaker 1: And some of the same people, by the way, here
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  Speaker 1: in America during that same time, you know, we kind
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  Speaker 1: of whitewash history. Here in America during that same time,
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  Speaker 1: there wasn't this outcry when Hitler came to power. And
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  Speaker 1: Christians on this side of the pond too. Romans 13,
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  Speaker 1: Romans 13. Millions are murdered. Nazi officials go on trial
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  Speaker 1: for the murder of those millions and their defense. Romans 13,
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  Speaker 1: Romans 13. And again, some of those same folks who
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  Speaker 1: were screaming Romans 13 were looking at those people and saying, no, no, no, no, no.
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  Speaker 1: You should have known not to obey those orders.
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  Speaker 2: Really, why?
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  Speaker 1: Where's the lines? Well, I mean, we all know where
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  Speaker 1: the line is, right? No, actually we don't. And if
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  Speaker 1: we don't talk about it and think about it and
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  Speaker 1: teach about it, we'll never know.
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  Speaker 2: We'll never know.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, it's not just Nazi Germany. Today in Zimbabwe,
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  Speaker 1: for those of you who don't know, Robert Mugabe, the
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  Speaker 1: president of Zimbabwe, the leader of Zimbabwe, has crushed that
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  Speaker 1: country under the weight of his dictatorial rule. Zimbabwe used
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  Speaker 1: to be a flourishing country with a flourishing economy. Now
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  Speaker 1: you can't even go and find the exchange rate for
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  Speaker 1: Zimbabwean dollars to U.S. dollars because it just, it got
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  Speaker 1: too out of control. Their currency is no longer recognized.
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  Speaker 1: They have trillion dollar notes. People in Zimbabwe now have
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  Speaker 1: to use other people's currencies because you used to have
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  Speaker 1: to carry your Zimbabwean currency like this to go to
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  Speaker 1: the store and do your grocery shopping. Just to have
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  Speaker 1: enough Zimbabwean dollars with you. People are literally dying in
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  Speaker 1: the streets in Zimbabwe under Mugabe's rule. But listen to
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: this from Zim Online. A newly elected Zimbabwean member of
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  Speaker 1: parliament says President Robert Mugabe was godsent and should not
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  Speaker 1: be challenged in next year's watershed polls. He's destroyed the country.
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  Speaker 1: And this man is saying you guys shouldn't even run
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  Speaker 1: against him.
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  Speaker 2: Why? Do I have to say?
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  Speaker 1: Quoting Romans 13 in the Bible that encourages people to
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  Speaker 1: subject themselves to the governing authorities, the retired army brigadier
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  Speaker 1: general said, only those involved in illegal activities were opposed
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  Speaker 1: to Mugabe's rule.
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  Speaker 2: There is no authority except from God.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore, he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed,
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  Speaker 1: and those who resist will incur judgment, for rulers are
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  Speaker 1: not a terror to good conduct but to bad, he said.
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  Speaker 1: in his maiden speech in parliament yesterday? Don't even run
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  Speaker 1: against this man. Because Romans 13 says, obey. So if
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  Speaker 1: the existing president says, vote for me, obey. Because he's
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  Speaker 1: the authority and God put him there.
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  Speaker 2: Obey. Obey. Obey.
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  Speaker 1: Now, again, we hear this and we say, no, come on.
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  Speaker 1: That crosses the line.
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  Speaker 2: Really?
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  Speaker 1: But where's the line? Because we are called to obey.
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  Speaker 1: We are called to submit. This is a familiar and
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  Speaker 1: a popular text. And what I want to orient us
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  Speaker 1: toward today is the way we read and think about
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  Speaker 1: this text. We're going to spend several weeks here. First,
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  Speaker 1: there are four popular pulpit approaches to this issue. Role
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  Speaker 1: and relationship between the pulpit and politics. Governing the way
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  Speaker 1: we read and understand Romans 13. First, there is the
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  Speaker 1: separation of pulpit and politics. That's sort of the pietistic approach. Listen, folks,
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  Speaker 1: we're about the gospel. We're not about politics. We got
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  Speaker 1: no business running over into the political realm.
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  Speaker 2: That's the first approach.
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  Speaker 1: The second approach is the, not the separation, but the
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  Speaker 1: equation of the pulpit and politics.
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  Speaker 2: That's Rome. Vatican City, a political empire.
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  Speaker 1: Where the Pope rules and reigns so that he does
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  Speaker 1: not have to submit to anyone else's authority. Vatican City
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  Speaker 1: is its own country so that the Pope has no
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  Speaker 1: authority above him on planet Earth. Thirdly, there's the integration
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  Speaker 1: of pulpit and politics. We see this in the moral majority,
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  Speaker 1: in the religious right. that Christianity and Christians in America
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  Speaker 1: are viewed as merely a political entity to be mobilized
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  Speaker 1: in order to change the culture with our large, powerful
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  Speaker 1: voice to make our land righteous by enacting the right
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  Speaker 1: laws and electing.
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  Speaker 2: The right leaders.
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  Speaker 1: Fourthly, there is the proclamation of politics from the pulpit.
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  Speaker 1: That's the position that I advocate. Not the pietistic position.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no. This is church. We don't
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  Speaker 2: talk about politics here. That's foolishness.
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  Speaker 1: Not the equation of pulpit and politics. We're not looking
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  Speaker 1: to establish an empire.
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  Speaker 2: Amen?
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  Speaker 1: Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords,
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  Speaker 1: but his kingdom is not of this earth. Not looking
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  Speaker 1: to establish an empire. Or not looking to use Christians
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  Speaker 1: in America as.
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  Speaker 2: A voting block.
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  Speaker 1: However, we must, we must, we must establish proclaim politics
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  Speaker 1: from the pulpit. Now, I'm going to explain that statement,
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  Speaker 1: but for now, I just want you to be uncomfortable
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  Speaker 1: with it. Because you are, and I know you are,
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  Speaker 1: because I know what you've been taught, and I know
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  Speaker 1: what you've heard.
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  Speaker 2: Again and again and again.
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  Speaker 1: Now, as I say that, we must proclaim politics from
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  Speaker 1: the pulpit. Remember the context. Just like we have to
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  Speaker 1: put Scripture in context, put my statement in context. I'm
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  Speaker 1: standing here saying we must proclaim politics from the pulpit,
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  Speaker 1: but this is a church that does not and will
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  Speaker 1: not have a Fourth of July service.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because we worship God in this place, not America. We
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  Speaker 1: do not and we will not pledge allegiance to anybody's
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  Speaker 1: flag in our worship services. Why?
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because our allegiance is to Christ, and this is His place.
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  Speaker 1: We did not have a special September 11th memorial service
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  Speaker 1: on our Sunday morning.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because we worship Christ, and the only memorial we have
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  Speaker 1: is the Lord's Supper.
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  Speaker 2: That's why.
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  Speaker 1: So remember that context when I say we proclaim politics
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  Speaker 1: from the pulpit, unashamedly and unapologetically so.
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  Speaker 2: Okay?
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  Speaker 1: Okay?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, but what does that mean? Are you getting ready
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  Speaker 2: to start a campaign?
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  Speaker 1: No, I'm not running for anything. But before I tell
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  Speaker 1: you what it means, let me tell you why you're uncomfortable.
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  Speaker 1: You're uncomfortable because of this long-standing myth of the separation
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  Speaker 1: of church and state. That longstanding myth of the separation
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  Speaker 1: of church and state is a myth that has led
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  Speaker 1: us to believe that it is always and everywhere inappropriate
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  Speaker 1: for pastors to talk about religious and political topics. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there are a couple of things that I want you
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  Speaker 1: to know and hear about this. One thing I want
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  Speaker 1: you to know and hear about this is that you've
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  Speaker 1: been misinformed. You've been miseducated. You don't know what the
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  Speaker 1: truth is as it relates to the separation of church
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  Speaker 1: and state. And I got some documents here. I don't
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  Speaker 1: usually bring this much stuff up here. But I have
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  Speaker 1: some documents here that I want to read for you.
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  Speaker 1: We're afraid because of past and present abuses. We've seen
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  Speaker 1: them and they're bad. We're afraid because of misinformation and
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  Speaker 1: because of miseducation. All that stuff is bad. One of
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  Speaker 1: the things that you've been taught is this, that in America,
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  Speaker 1: there's always been this wall of separation between church and state,
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  Speaker 1: and that that's a good thing. By the way, if
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  Speaker 1: you understand that historically and accurately, I stand up and
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  Speaker 1: I say, amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord, I am with you. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: wall of separation between church and state.
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  Speaker 2: Why? Because I know where that statement comes from.
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  Speaker 1: That statement comes from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote
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  Speaker 1: to the Danbury Baptist Association. Now, why was he writing
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  Speaker 1: to the Danbury Baptist Association? Because they wrote to him.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't even in the country at the time. I
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  Speaker 1: believe he was in France. They wrote to him. Why
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  Speaker 1: did the Danbury Baptist Association write to Thomas Jefferson?
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  Speaker 2: Because they were worried about something. What were they worried about?
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  Speaker 1: That the Congregational Church was going to be made the
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  Speaker 1: official church of the United States of America. And the
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  Speaker 1: Baptist said, no.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: So Thomas Jefferson writes back to the Danbury Baptist Association
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  Speaker 1: in order to assuage their fears and let them know
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  Speaker 1: that the United States of America will have no official
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  Speaker 1: state church, not least of which the Congregational Church. That's
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  Speaker 1: where he uses this phrase, there is a wall of
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  Speaker 1: separation between.
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  Speaker 2: Church and state.
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  Speaker 1: What he meant was that the federal government was not
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  Speaker 1: going to enact any laws that would establish a state
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  Speaker 1: church in the United States of America. What he didn't
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  Speaker 1: mean was that religion and politics can't and shouldn't mix. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I say that's what he didn't mean, but can I
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  Speaker 1: prove it? Actually, I can.
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  Speaker 2: And I will. I'll prove it in a number of ways.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, what ended up being written for the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution of the United States? And again, this is not about,
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  Speaker 1: you know, let's just get....
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  Speaker 2: Constitutional lesson, where's the word of God.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to understand why you have a hard
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  Speaker 1: time with Romans chapter 13. I want you to understand
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  Speaker 1: how you've been miseducated on this issue of the separation
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  Speaker 1: in church and state, okay? That's why this is important. So,
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  Speaker 1: First Amendment to the United States. Here's the clause that's important.
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  Speaker 1: Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,
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  Speaker 1: nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
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  Speaker 2: There it is. That's it. That's all, folks. Congress shall
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  Speaker 2: make no law.
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  Speaker 1: Respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
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  Speaker 1: That proves that Thomas Jefferson did not mean that religion
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  Speaker 1: and politics could not and should not mix. Because if
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  Speaker 1: he believed that, why is there a statement about religion
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  Speaker 1: in the Constitution? And what is the statement, by the way?
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  Speaker 1: Pastors shall not speak about political issues from the pulpit.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, if you believe that, then you have
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  Speaker 1: no idea what politics means. I'll tell you what it
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  Speaker 1: means later. There are very few things that we can
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  Speaker 1: talk about that are not political, okay? Congress shall make
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  Speaker 1: no law. Now, one of the reasons that we are
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  Speaker 1: so uptight is because of the way that this has
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  Speaker 1: been misused and misapplied. Valedictorian, you get the highest grade
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: point average in the school.
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  Speaker 2: That means you get to make a speech. Outstanding.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I cannot wait. Hey, can I
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  Speaker 1: quote Gandhi? Yes, you can quote Gandhi. Can I quote
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  Speaker 1: the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi? Yes, you can quote whoever that
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  Speaker 1: person is, you know. Can I quote Oprah?
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Be in touch with your spirit. You know what I mean? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: you can quote all spirits. Can I quote Jesus?
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  Speaker 2: No. Separation of church and state. Really?
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  Speaker 1: Because those other people are religious and spiritual people. And
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: it's okay if I quote them, but not Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Separation of church and state. Well, first of all, it's
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  Speaker 1: not in the Constitution. But what is in the Constitution
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  Speaker 1: is Congress shall make no law.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not Congress. I'm a valedictorian. now that ought to
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: be common sense right but it's not.
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  Speaker 1: Because you've been lied to and that's why you're uncomfortable
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  Speaker 1: somebody stands up here and says something about politics because
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  Speaker 1: that kind of foolishness is so normal to you that
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: when somebody stands up here and says politics, you go, oh, oh, oh,
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  Speaker 1: we can't do this. Certainly we can. Not only can we,
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  Speaker 1: but we must.
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  Speaker 2: We must. We have no choice. Secondly, I can demonstrate.
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  Speaker 1: That Jefferson did not believe such a thing by going
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  Speaker 1: back before him way before him and during his time.
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  Speaker 1: When we go back way before him, we find things
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: like this. Agreement of the settlers at Exeter in New Hampshire, July.
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  Speaker 2: 5th, 1639. 1639, okay? Everybody knows about 1776 and so, okay. No, 1639.
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  Speaker 1: So in 1639, they get together in New Hampshire, hey?
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  Speaker 1: Early settlements here, early America here. This is our political heritage,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: by the way. So in 1639, they get together and
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: they write out their laws. Now, we're going to talk
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  Speaker 1: about some of these things next week and the week after.
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you how we're going to break this passage down.
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  Speaker 1: But for now, what we're doing is we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: whether or not it's appropriate for us to even discuss
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  Speaker 1: this because of this myth.
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  Speaker 2: Of separation in church and state.
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  Speaker 1: So in 1639, these people get together and they're going
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  Speaker 1: to have a government here. They're going to have laws here.
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  Speaker 1: Capital laws and then criminal laws. Now capital laws, that's
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: the stuff that you can be put to death for.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Let's look at the capital laws again. This is our
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: political heritage that bleeds over into what we understand about
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: common law and our founding and all this other stuff.
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  Speaker 2: One, idolatry.
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  Speaker 1: Wonder where that one came from. In fact, you don't
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: have to wonder because there's an annotation at the end
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  Speaker 1: of the statement of the statute, Exodus 22.10, Deuteronomy 13.6.
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  Speaker 1: We have a long heritage of the separation of Exodus 22,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, 22.20 and Deuteronomy 13.6.
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  Speaker 2: Blasphemy. That's another capital crime. How about this one? Witchcraft. Buggery.
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  Speaker 2: That's homosexuality, by the way.
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  Speaker 1: False witness. Man stealing. Again, straight out of the scriptures.
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  Speaker 1: Cursing parents. You can be put to death in New
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  Speaker 1: Hampshire in the 1630s for cursing your parents. A rebellious son.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, the steps to dealing with a rebellious son,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: they get right out of the Bible. What about the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: criminal laws? Adultery, fornication, swearing. By the way, under swearing,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: listen to this. It is ordered by this assembly and
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the authority thereof, That if any person within this province
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: shall swear rashly or vainly by the holy name of God.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Long history of separation of, help you if you believe that. Okay.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: And I'll just do one more.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Profaning the Lord's day. This is the civil law of
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire. The first civil law of New Hampshire. Okay. Yeah, well,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: that's just early on. Certainly, we became more enlightened by
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the time we got to our Declaration of Independence. And
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: certainly because, you know, we didn't have an official state
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: church that there's this wonderful big wall of separation. Let
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: me help you on that real quickly before we get
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: back into this text. Again, we want to orient ourselves, right?
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Listen to this statement. about pastors. This is from 1778,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: by the way. That he is determined by God's grace
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: out of the Holy Scriptures to instruct the people committed
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: to his charge and to teach nothing as required of
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: necessity to eternal salvation, but that which he shall be
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: persuaded may be concluded and proved from the Scriptures. That
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: he will use both public and private admonitions as well
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: to the sick as to the whole within his cure.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: as need shall require and occasion shall be given, and
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: that he will be diligent in prayers and in reading
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: of the same. that he will be diligent to frame
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: and fashion his own self and his family according to
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the doctrine of Christ, and to make both himself and them,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: as much as in him lieth, wholesome examples and patterns
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: to the flock of Christ, that he will maintain and
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: set forward as much as he can, quietness, peace, love
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: among all people, and especially among those that are or
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: shall be committed to his charge. By the way, that
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: doesn't come from an early denominational statement. That comes from
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the Constitution of the state of South Carolina.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: That's 1778.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: That's during the life and times of Jefferson. And we're
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: supposed to believe that all these guys got together. By
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the way, the majority of the states that founded this
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: country had official religions of their state. The First Amendment
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: does not mean that religion has no place in politics.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: The First Amendment means that South Carolina can have an
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: official religion, but the United States of America can't have
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: one that overrides South Carolina or New Hampshire or Delaware
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: or whoever when they declare what their state religion is
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: going to be. That's what it means. Because none of
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: these things were undone by our Constitution. Again, you've been misled.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: You've been miseducated. By the way, here's another thing. Let
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: me give you just one more. One more, because I
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: want you to just get this out in the open
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: so we can talk about this, okay?
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: This is from 1780. This, by the way, is Massachusetts.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: You know where the venerable Adams family, okay?
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: John and John Quincy and those guys come from.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: We become our president's Massachusetts in 1780.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Have you ever wondered what the phrase, the pursuit of
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: happiness means?
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: You know, those things that we're, you know, those inalienable
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: rights from our creator, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. And
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: people wonder, why didn't they say life, liberty, and property?
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Because that's the way usually you see it, life, liberty,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and property. But they went life, liberty, and the pursuit
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: of happiness. And sometimes you hear people saying, you know,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: they didn't guarantee that you could, you know, find happiness
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: or be happy, but that you could pursue happiness, meaning happy, happy, right? Well,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: this document is within a few years of that document,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and it talks about the pursuit of happiness.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: By the way, this is Massachusetts.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Massachusetts, who gave us gay marriage in the United States,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: first state, and Massachusetts, who gave us this whole, you know,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: socialist health care plan that now our president is pushing
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: on the whole country, that came from Massachusetts, okay? So
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: that state, Massachusetts, way out there, from that state of Massachusetts,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: they can help us understand what the pursuit of happiness
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: means if we go to their founding documents. Constitution of
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1780. as the happiness of a
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: people and the good order and preservation of civil government
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality, and as these
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: cannot be generally diffused through a community, but by the
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: institution of the public worship of God. and of public
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: instruction in piety, religion, and morality. Therefore, to promote their
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: happiness and to secure the good order and preservation of
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: their government, the people of this Commonwealth have a right
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: and the legislature shall from time to time authorize and require,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic or
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: religious societies to make suitable provision at their own expense
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: for the institution of the public worship of God, and
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: and morality in all cases where such provision shall not
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: be made voluntarily. We have a long history of the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: separation of.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: That's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie. Not only.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Do we need to understand that in order to be
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: comfortable about this discussion, but we also need to understand
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the very definition of politics.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: You know, you look at a modern dictionary, politics.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Activities associated with government, political life, power relationships in a
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: given field. But if you look at older dictionaries, Webster's 1828,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: for example, I bet y'all surprised that I pulled that
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: one out, right? Politics, the science of government, that part
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: of ethics which consists in the regulation and government of
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: a nation or state for the preservation of its safety, peace,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and prosperity, comprehending the defense of its existence and rights
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: against foreign control or conquest, the augmentation of its strength
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: and resources, and the protection of its citizens in their
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: rights with the preservation and improvement of their morals, politics
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: as a science or an art, is a subject of vast.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Extent and importance.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: If we don't talk about politics, then whom do we
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: believe is better equipped than us? Politics and morality. We're
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: told you cannot legislate morality. That is only true in
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: the sense that legislation can't make people moral. Unfortunately, that's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: not the way we understand it. What we mean is
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: you can't enact legislation that has to do with morality.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: By the way, that phrase, that phrase means what it says.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: You can't legislate morality. You can't, through your legislation, make
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: people moral. But the other part of it can't be true.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Because all legislation is moral. You can't legislate anything other
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: than morality. Every piece of legislation is legislating some type
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: of morality. So again, here's the irony. You can't legislate morality.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Our culture takes that to mean you religious people close
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: your mouth because you have morals and we don't. That
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: means we can govern and you can't. And we go, okay,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: I guess that is Romans 13. And then what do
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: they write laws about? Marriage.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Marriage.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: You can't legislate morality, Christian, so you be quiet and
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: you get out of this because you have morals and
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: we don't. By the way, we need to have marriage
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: between homosexuals. And do they say because of a political— no.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: They say because it's.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Only right and fair, i.e., moral. Moral. You can't legislate morality.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Abortion is between a woman and her doctor. What's between
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: a woman and her doctor? That choice, which is what
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: kind of choice? Moral.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but see, that's the social issues you're talking about. Okay, property. Property.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: How about our laws concerning property? Property. Burglary, trespassing, squatting rights.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: What do those have to do with?
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: The immoral usurpation of another person's property.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: In other words, it's morality. When you go to buy a.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Piece of property, the person has to prove to you
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: that they own the property. They have to prove to
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: you where the boundaries of the property are.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Right? Why?
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Because if they don't, they would be making an immoral
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: sale of something that belongs to another person.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Folks, there is nothing that we do politically that is
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: not moral. Are the cobwebs clearing?
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Because the fact of the matter is, probably a good
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: number of people right here sitting in this room, even
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: if you don't make these arguments, Truth be told, you
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: don't have an answer for them. But you do know
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Romans 13, so what's the default position?
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Well, I guess you're right, Romans 13. You can't legislate morality.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess you're right, Romans 13. We'll just go
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: out there and preach. Well, no, not on the streets
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: because that would be a political statement. So we'll preach
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: in our churches to the people who are not in
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: our churches so that as we preach in our churches,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: the people who are not in our churches will somehow
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: understand What? Pastors must preach politics and morals.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: We must.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Why? Because government is about authority. And the Bible speaks
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: clearly to it. Matthew 28, 18. Jesus came and said
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: been given to me. We read it earlier this morning.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Colossians 1, 15 to 17.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: He is the image of the.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: and invisible, whether thrones or dominions.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Or rulers or authorities.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: All things were created through him and for him. And
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: he is before all things, and in him all things
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: hold together. 1 Peter 2, 13 to 17. Be subject
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: for the Lord's sake to every human institution. By the way,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: here's the irony. Preacher, don't preach politics. So what do
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I do with 1 Peter 2? Well, tell your people
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: to obey authority.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: What authority? Political authority. Wait a minute. I thought I
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: couldn't preach politics.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no. You can preach politics enough to
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: tell your people to not be involved in politics unless
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: they're just shutting their mouths and doing what they're told.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: Whether it be the emperor as supreme.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Or governors as sent by him to punish those who
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: do evil and to praise those who do good, for
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: this is the will of God, that by doing good,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: you should put to silence the ignorant and foolish people.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Live as people who are free, not using your freedom
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: And again, That brings us to our text. Politics has
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: no place in the pulpit. Paul disagrees. Peter disagrees. Jesus disagreed.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: there is no authority except from God. And those that
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, because it's from
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: God and instituted by God and for God. Therefore, whoever
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: resists the authorities resists the will of God. Excuse me,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: resists what God has appointed. And those who resist will
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: but to bad. Would you have no fear of the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: one who is in authority? Then do what is good,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: and you will receive his approval. for he is God's
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: for he does not bear the sword in vain, for
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath, God's wrath,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. Can't
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: separate those two. For because of this, you also pay taxes.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: For the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: very thing.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Pay to all what is owed to them.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: is owed, respect to whom respect is.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: Owed, honor to whom honor is owed. There's the passage.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: We cannot preach through this without talking about politics. We cannot.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: We cannot.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Most pastors preach only one side of politics that tells
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Christians to obey authorities and avoid the side of politics
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: that defines and restrains authority. Must we tell wives and
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: children to submit to their husbands and fathers but avoid
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: telling fathers the purpose and limits of their authority? Must
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: we tell church members to submit to pastors, elders, but
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: not remind elders of the qualifications and limits of their authority?
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: How foolish is it then for people to insist that
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Christian churches stay.
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: Out of politics? It's ridiculous.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: God's word talks about submission and authority. It would be criminal.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: for a pastor to merely talk about a wife's command
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: to submit to her husband and not say anything to
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the husband about where his authority comes from and where
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: its limits are. But we are supposed to do that
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: with politics. How horrible would it be to say to
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: children merely that they are to be in subjection to
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: their parents but not explain to children how parents derive
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: their authority, why parents have that authority, and what the
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: limits are to that authority. That would be criminal. But
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: we're supposed to do that with politics, right? How criminal
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: is it to just talk about our obedience to To
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: pastors and church authorities, but not talk about the other
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: side of that.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: We have to. We must.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: And Romans 13 gives us an example of the same thing.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Peter does it and Paul does it. He doesn't just
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: say submit and obey. He tells you where the authority
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: comes from, why the authority exists, and what the limits.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Of the authority are.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: He tells you how to practice the authority as well
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: as how to relate to the authority.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: And all of that is important.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: But because we've been miseducated on politics, amen, and because
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: that miseducation has led to us being bullied and cowed,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: we've been okay for a very long time with the
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: idea that somehow We can talk about submitting to authority,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: but we can't speak truth to authority. And we can't
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: call authority to repent before the God who gave the authority.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: And we can't teach how to exercise that authority. Hear this,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to talk about this more next week,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: but listen to me. There is a man in the
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: White House right now who is a radical believer Godless neo-Marxist.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: His worldview is godless. It's a radical worldview.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: By the way, I wrote about this man's worldview a
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: year before he became the president.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Blogged about it.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: What he would do because of his radical worldview. Now,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: we're going to get to that in a while, okay?
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: But here's what I want you to see. For 20 years,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: he sat under the teaching of Jeremiah Wright who's a radical, heretical,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: neo-Marxist who teaches black liberation theology, wealth redistribution, and the like.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: So what happened?
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: A pastor discipled a man in his church, shaped that
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: man's worldview, And now that man is in the political
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: realm living out that worldview that he learned from his church.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: And if the Marxists are the only ones who are
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: supposed to be talking about politics and teaching those things,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: then guess who are the only ones who are going
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: to be living out their theology in positions of power?
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: You guys be quiet because your religion has no place
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: in politics. The man who's our president has said as
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: much and every decision that he has made has been
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: birthed from his theology. But because he too has been
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: sold that same lie about this dichotomy, he thinks that
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: his politics and his theology are two different things. Nothing
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: could be further from the truth. So, Romans 13 and
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: how we think about politics. First of all, we're going
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: to deal with the issue of authority and submission. We
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: had a whole weekend conference on this. And we'll refer
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: back to some of those things. But this goes to
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the heart of what we believe about authority and submission.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: And for example, the question of jurisdiction.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: Again, we'll say more about this when we get to it,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: but here's another irony, okay, when it comes to jurisdiction.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: God has given us the home, the church, and the government,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: a political.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: Sphere, all right?
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Now, we believe that these places have jurisdictions and that
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: they are to be checked when they move beyond their jurisdictions, right? No,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: actually we don't. Let me explain to you. The husband
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: is here and he has authority in his home. Now,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: when the husband is abusing that authority, we believe that,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: you know, that man's a member of the church and
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: he's abusing his wife or he's abusing his children. God
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: has given us the church to discipline that man. And
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: if he's not a member of the church, God has
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: given us the civil magistrate to discipline that man because
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: of what he's doing to his family, right? Because his
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: jurisdiction is not a limitless jurisdiction.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: We get that, right?
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, now we have the church and God has given
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: the church jurisdiction, right? But the church cannot come over
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: beyond its jurisdiction. I cannot look at a man in
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: our church, for example, who has a business and say, listen,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: as a pastor, here's how I'm telling you to market
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: your business.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: It's beyond my jurisdictional authority. I have no right to
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: do it. And we all recognize that. And we would
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: all see that and go, oh, no, sir, you're outside
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: of your jurisdictional authority.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: That's wrong. You can't do that, okay? But watch this.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Because of what we've been taught about Romans 13, we
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: don't apply that to the government. So when the government
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: usurps its jurisdiction, we say, uh-uh, Romans 13, respect authority.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Whoa, whoa, whoa. The father's got authority. He gets checked.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: The church has authority. It gets checked.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: But the government has authority, and I can't check the
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: government because of Romans 13?
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: What are you thinking? What are you thinking? Do you
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: see this, folks? And so, here's what happens.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Government's unchecked in its authority over here. It belongs in
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: this realm. Okay, here's a pulpit over here. Here's a
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: government over here. Government's unchecked in its authority. And so,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: the government decides it wants to expand its authority. And
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: over here, we're going, ah, Romans 13, respect the government.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: That's their authority. Don't get political. Well, what happens when
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: the government comes all the way over here? And for example,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: redefines marriage. You're not supposed to be talking about politics
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: from the pulpit. See, actually, marriage is our territory, not theirs.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: They can't come over into our territory, claim it as
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: their own, and then make us stop talking about stuff
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: we've been talking about for thousands of years just because
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: they decide they want it. It's like the church coming
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: into your home saying, actually, your kids are mine.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Churches do that. But you know what I'm saying.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: That's usurpation, okay?
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: And what I want you to see as we walk
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: into Romans chapter 13 is that if we don't have
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: a proper understanding of these things, we end up walking
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: through life and living in a way that just won't work.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: We can't function. We're all bound up, okay? Are we
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: called to submit to authority?
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, we are. and to exercise authority. Yes, we are.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: But in order for us to do that, we've got
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: to understand what God says about authority. So what are
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: we going to do? We're going to talk about submission
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: to authority next week, those first couple of verses. Then
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the exercise of authority in
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: the following week, okay? The exercise of authority. And by
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: the exercise of authority, I don't just mean what they
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: are doing, okay? You know, one of the great problems
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: that we have, again, because about Romans 13, and this
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: goes to the abuse in our government as well. You know,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: the job of the president wasn't ever really considered all
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: that big, right? I don't know if you recognize that
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: or not. It wasn't ever considered all that big. Now,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: we think the presidency is everything. Can I tell you
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: that who your sheriff is is more important than who
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: the president is? And most of you don't know who
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: your sheriff is, nor.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: Do you care.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: Repent.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: Repent. Repent.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: So when we talk about the exercise of authority, we're
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: not just going to talk about in theory what government
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: officials are supposed to do, but we're going to talk
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: about in our context as Americans how you have to
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: exercise your authority. you live in a constitutional representative republic
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: this is the way you're supposed to act biblically we're
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: going to talk about that and then we're going to
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: talk about the support of authorities okay Before we close,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: one of the things that governs this whole thing and
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: the way we approach this issue is our eschatology. And
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: I don't think we recognize that sufficiently. For example, the
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: predominant eschatology of our day is dispensational premillennialism, okay?
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: That's the.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Eschatology that dominates especially modern American thinking. It's premillennial dispensationalism.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: And there's a number of reasons for that. There's this
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: whole series of events that brought dispensational premillennialism to the forefront, okay?
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: So here in the 1800s, it's developed. It's not old, folks.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Dispensational premillennialism is not old. So it's developed in the 1800s.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Early 1900s, there are all these prophecy conferences that are
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: happening that The Schofield Study Bible is published with its
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: study notes, and it is a dispensational premillennial study Bible.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: It's the first and most popular study Bible out there.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: So now they've got the field, all right? And then
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: in 1948, Israel becomes a nation, and that's the validation
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: for them of the their eschatology, all these things come
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: together and snowball. And the end result is dispensational premillennialism
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: is the most dominant.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: Eschatological view in our culture.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: And most people don't even, they think they don't have
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: an eschatology, but they're waiting for the Antichrist to be
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: revealed and for the tribulation to start and for the
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: rapture and all that. Okay, these terms, dispensational premillennialism. I
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: don't have a theology, but when the rapture comes, okay,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: You have an eschatology. You just don't know it. And
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: because dispensational premillennialism is so dominant, that's the eschatology that
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: most people have. Now, dispensational premillennialism believes that ultimately the
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: world is moving toward Armageddon. Things are going to get
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: worse and worse and worse. Then there's going to be
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: a big clash, and Jesus is going to come back,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: and bam.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: We're gone. Now, if you take that to its logical conclusion.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: And think about politics— Number one, you don't think about
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: politics long term because it's all going to burn, man.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: Things are not going to get better. They're going to
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: get worse.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Number two, you have an extremely pro-Israel, pro-Zionist eschatology. American
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: foreign policy is dominated by dispensationalism today. Do I think
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: we ought to hate Israel? No.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: No. Do I think we ought to love them because
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: they're Israel? No.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Because I believe that the church is the true, real,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: new Israel, Jew and Gentile alike. And that those people
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: over there and that piece of land over there, they
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: don't have eschatological significance to me. But only democracy in
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: that part of the world exists. They like us. They're
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: our friends.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: Anything jumps off over there, I want them on our side.
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: I love them.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: But currently, our country's position toward Israel is not driven
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: by that kind of understanding, but by the dominant role
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: that dispensational premillennialism plays.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: In our theology.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: And so what it does is it downplays our role
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: in politics in our everyday life, and elevates our foreign
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: policy as it relates to Israel, which is ironic and hypocritical. Secondly,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: post-millennial optimism. Ultimately, what we're going to do is usher
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: in the millennial reign of Christ by everything getting progressively
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: better and better and better until, you know, here and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: now we experience the millennial reign of Christ because of
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: our advance. So we've got to take over the government
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: for our eschatological purposes, okay? That creates a political optimism,
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: but again, different kind of strategy. amillennialism's already not yet approach.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: That can go either way. You have amillennialists who are
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: very negative and pessimistic. You have amillennialists who are very optimistic, okay?
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: But there tends to be this view of two kingdoms
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: and the role that we play in both of those kingdoms. Now,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: some only play up the importance of the role that
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: we play in one of those kingdoms and not the other,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: and vice versa. But I believe that we are citizens
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: of two kingdoms. And my optimistic amillennialism won't let me
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: make little of politics. It's too important. But it also
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: won't let me make much of politics because it's not
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: our hope.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: Our hope is Christ.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: That's our hope. That's our only hope. And so, do
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: we engage in the political realm? Folks, you have no choice.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: You woke up this morning and you turned on your lights.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: The rate you pay for your electricity is political. You
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: turned on your water. Whom you pay for your water.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: And how much? Political. Political.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: You took some vitamins or some medicine. The people who
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: said that those things were okay for you to take,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: the FDA.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: Political. You ate some food. FDA again. Political.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: You drove over here in a car that had to
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: pass some tests. Guess where they came from?
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: Political. You put your seatbelt on.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: Because you're scared to fly through the windshield? No. Political. Political.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: You drove the speed limit or you watched for police
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: as you didn't.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: Why? Political. Political. You put gas in your car. Most
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: of what you paid for it. Political. Political.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: You cannot get away from politics. So stop buying that lie.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: That says you have to as a Christian.
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: You cannot.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: And here's the last question I want to leave you with.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: If not us, then who? If we are not going
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: to be salt and light in that regard, then what
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: are we saying? Politics is for those people who really
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: don't love, trust, or obey the God from whom the
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: authority comes.
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: Really? I hope you don't believe that. And if you
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: don't believe it, let's stop thinking like it. Let's pray.