Foundational Truth: The Separation of Church and State

"Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,
and to God the things that are God's."
Luke 20.25

These are the immortal words of Jesus Christ given in the Gospel of Luke. In this simple verse, Jesus makes a clear distinction between God and Caesar, or what we would consider Church and State. Each has distinct responsibilities from God and have been given authority to fulfill those responsibilities.

Throughout history, we have seen this distinction blurred and the results were always disastrous. In the Middle Ages, we saw the Catholic church take on the responsibilities of civil government (the state) and the world saw bloody crusades, oppression, widespread poverty, and total abandonment of the proper functions of the Church. On the other hand, we have seen governments attempt to control the church for political means and especially in recent history have seen government claim responsibilities that are rightfully left to the church. These have caused corruption, poverty, persecution and pointless bloodshed. If each party had respected the other and each fulfilled its proper functions, many of history's greatest disasters could have been avoided. So what are their respective responsibilities?

Let us start with the church, or the Christian religion in general. In Matthew 28.19-20, Jesus lays out three responsibilities: (1) Discipleship (2) Baptism (3) Teaching. Also, James 1.27 says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." So those are some basic, biblical responsibilities of the Church. Now what are the responsibilities of civil government? Romans 13.4 tells us that God has given civil government authority to be "an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer." So, to put it in a nutshell, civil government has been given the responsibility of protecting good people by punishing evildoers.

We must always make a proper distinction between the Church and the State. They each have been given authority to fulfill certain responsibilities, and in any case where one attempts to usurp the authority of the other there is nothing but trouble and pain. We must hold fast to the wisdom of Jesus and render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. That is truth.

Reading, Studying, Talking

I was excited to start Bible studying with my carpool buddy, Dan, today. The plan is that when he is driving (every other day), I will lead as we read, study, and talk about the Scriptures. We decided to start in Genesis and work our way through. We will move relatively quickly through the Bible without much commentary, just presenting the Word with limited interruption except for short comments to aid in understanding. I started in Genesis a while back and am in Psalms now, so it is especially fun to go back and start over after having only recently been there. And it also helps in preparing notes for our study :-). So this morning we started in Genesis 1 and worked through the end of chapter 3. The plan is to finish chapter 5 by the time we get home tonight. I am very excited about how God is going to use this extra study time in our lives.

I am at a point in my life where I absolutely can not get enough of the Scriptures. In Bible college, I read and studied all the same things, yet it was like there was a cloud over my eyes and I could hardly even read the Bible. My eyes would dart all over the pages and I would read the same paragraphs over and over again. It was so incredibly frustrating that after leaving school I did ZERO reading (not just the Bible) for two years! But a couple of months ago, God unlocked something in my brain and for the first time in my life I can not just read, but I can actually absorb the Scriptures and other books on the Bible. The exact same books that I physically/mentally COULD NOT read a few years ago, I am now able to absorb quickly and recall easily.

THANK YOU!!!

What's In The Bible?

This is an exciting new series from Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales. I bought the first DVD in the series today and am very impressed. I am excited to see the rest.