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.

Consistent Interpretation of Prophesy

It really bothers me how easy it is for folks to look at a prophetic passage and admit that the first part has been literally fulfilled, but then say that the next part of the prophesy will be fulfilled spiritually. Let's please be consistent. If we are consistent, we can see that ALL Bible prophesy that has been fulfilled, has been fulfilled literally. As Dr. Paul Benware summarized in the his excellent Understanding End Times Prophesy:

"Prophesies that have been fulfilled completely have been fulfilled literally, and that gives us confidence to expect that those prophetic utterances that are not yet fulfilled (or completely fulfilled) will also end up being fulfilled literally. We believe that Jesus Christ will literally return to this earth and reign at His second coming because He literally came to this earth the first time, being born of the virgin Mary at Bethlehem."

If we interpret consistently, Biblical prophesy is really not all that confusing, and the major disagreements people have over the covenants and the relationship of Israel to the Church all fade away.

Children's Church

I will be leading Children's Church this Sunday and I am quite excited. I was going through Judges (one of my most favorite books) and read the story of my favorite judge, Ehud. After that I sent my pastor an email telling him that if there was a day that they needed a sub for Children's church, I would be happy to fill in and teach the children this wonderful story. He was excited and then they asked me if I could do it this Sunday... OK! Hannah will be visiting her mother's church so I will not have anything to worry about (small, high-maintenance children!) except my lesson.

In NTM Boot Camp, we had a guest speaker one night who spoke on the book of Judges. He went briefly through all the judges in the entire book and at the end explained how God is all-powerful, and just as he gave the judges in Israel exactly what they needed to accomplish His will for them, He will give us today all that we need to accomplish His will for our lives. That lesson stuck deep in me and since then I have always enjoyed that book.

But as for application, I am not sure yet where I will go. I am trying to decide between:

1) Explaining that just as God gave the judges exactly what they needed to accomplish His will for them, He will give you all that you need to accomplish what He wants you to do.

or

2) Present Ehud as a temporary deliverer (a miniature Christ), and then go right into the gospel and explain how Jesus is our eternal deliverer.

I am leaning toward the second option.

I am very excited. Now I must end this and continue work on my props :-).

Random

I was looking through my email at work and came across some numbers that interested me.

First email sent: 10/19/05
Total emails sent: 3748

I started work at Walkers in June of 2005. I was initially at the Warehouse, but in August I was moved to the Shop. Once in the Shop, I worked in Electronics until October. In October I began working primarily with inventory and was assigned a computer to use. I can assume that the first day I used my computer was October 19, 2005. So I have been working at this computer for over four years. I have been working at Walkers for longer than I was in High School. I have worked at Walkers only six months longer than I have been married. In June, I will have worked here for five years. In the four years that we have been married

-Hannah and I have lived in two different apartments, and with her mother.
-We have driven from PA to Texas and back
-We have driven down to Florida and back multiple times
-We have flown down to Florida twice and flown back once.

Totally random, but it was what was currently in my head.

Thoughts on Mark 1

I have been reading through the gospel of Matthew and have really enjoyed myself. But I finished it yesterday and was quite disappointed. It is so majestic and is written in the same way as the wonderful books of the Old Testament. I would go so far to say that it should be the 67th book of the Old Testament. But after finishing it, I was disappointed to have to move into simple little Mark. But, I put my biases aside and in faith began Mark this morning to see what the Spirit would teach me through it.

Now after having read the first chapter in Mark for the first time in a long while, I have to say that my initial attitude toward the book was ABSOLUTELY WRONG! While Matthew is deep and somewhat dark at times, Mark is refreshingly simple. Matthew was written to the Jews and it is all about the future kingdom of Israel, but Mark is about the gospel for me! Right from the start, Mark sets the stage. Rather than presenting Jesus going around explaining OT prophesy, it starts withe Jesus "proclaiming the gospel of God." This is the gospel for gentiles! It is quite simply about Jesus and what he did for us.

Simple and beautiful.

I also love the wilderness imagery. John was the imperfect crier in the wilderness, Jesus became the perfect crier in the wilderness of the world, and now in the power of the Holy Spirit we are left as criers in this wilderness of a fallen world.

I'm very excited to read the rest of the book... it's been far too long :-).