2005 Issue 2 - The Gospel of Truth and The Nation - Counsel of Chalcedon

THE GOSPEL OF TRUTH AND THE NATION
Joe Morecraft
Psalm 2
Why are the nations in an uproar,
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand,
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the LORD and against His
Anointed [Christ]:
((Let us tear their fetters apart,
And cast away their cords from us!"
He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.
Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury:
"But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain."
"I will surely tell of the decree
of the LORD:
He said to Me, 'Thou art My Son,
Today I have begotten Thee.
Ask of Me, and I will surely give the
nations as Thy inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Thy
posseSSIOn.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron,
Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware.'"
Now therefore, 0 kings, show
discernment;
Take warning, 0 judges of the earth.
Worship the LORD with reverence,
And rejoice with trembling.
Do homage to the Son, lest He become
angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge
in Him!
Most Christians are antichristians when it comes
to politics. Their political opinions and preference
of candidates are rarely different from those of the
humanists around them. Some are conservative.
Some are liberal. Some are Republican. Some are
Democrat. Some are third party people. Some are
Christian Coalition. But most are antichristian in
the way they vote and think politically. Some think
a Christian must be religiously neutral when he
enters the political arena in this pluralistic society,
failing to understand that religious neutrality is
impossible in any field of thought and endeavor,
and that a religiously pluralistic society IS a myth
which our adversaries have duped us into believing.
Others of our brothers and sisters think that the
goal of Christian politics is prayer in public schools,
failing to realize that state-supported education is
itself destructive to Christianity and that public
schools are unsalvageable. Still others think the
goal of Christian politics is the stopping of abortion
by a constitutional amendment, which reveals a
naivete about the value this evil culture places on
the U.S. Constitution and which makes the mistake
of Christians in other eras that the basic solutions
for today's crises are ultimately political. And
still others believe that the ultimate purpose of
Christian politics is the establishment of the Ten
Commandments as the moral foundation of all civil
laws and jurisprudence, failing to realize that that
was the goal of the Phariseeism that crucified Jesus.
The Pharisees offered the people a Torah without
a Messiah; denying the fact that God's Law cannot
save a people from their guilt and the judgment their
guilt deserves. The Ten Commandments, as essential
as they are to law and justice, cannot save America
from the judgment of God.
The point is that Christian politics is CHRIST-
IAN politics! It is true that it offers people a Law
from God by which their individual lives, families,
churches, economies, nations and cultures can be
guided into prosperity, freedom and righteousness.
But it does not offer them a Law outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords,
for He alone is the Savior of the world. Without
faith in and confession of Christ and submission
to His Law a nation perishes under His judgment.
(Praise God for Roy Moore, former chief justice of
the Supreme Court of Alabama who understands
that the real issue behind the Ten Commandments
debate in the federal judiciary is our freedom and
duty to acknowledge God publicly and openly as the
sovereign source of law, liberty and justice.)
The is the point of Psalm 21. The nations and the
political establishments of the world today are in
deliberate rebellion against Jehovah and Christ,
making every effort to break free from God's moral
order and from the consequences that come from
breaking that divine order. They find the Lord and
Biblical Law restrictive and burdensome, keeping
them from reaching their humanistic and tyrannical
goals for human society. In the meanwhile He who
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 14
The GOdpeL of Truth and the Nation
sits enthroned as universal Sovereign laughs at all
their efforts to dethrone Him and to escape Him.
In fact, He scoffs at them in contempt of their evil.
Furthermore, He causes all their efforts to fail by
speaking His powerful Word to them, confusing and
terrifying them in His fury, for the Word of God is
living and active and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul
and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to
judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And
there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all
things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him
with whom we have to do, Hebrews 4: 12-13. They
drive themselves to distraction and despair trying to
suppress this truth in unrighteousness.
What has the Sovereign of all nations spoken that
is so terrifying to the rebels of this world? ((I
HAVE INSTALLED MY UNIQUE SON, JESUS
CHRIST, AS THE MEDIATORIAL KING OF
THE NATIONS. I HAVE GIVEN HIM ALL THE
WORLD'S NATIONS AS HIS OWN PERSONAL
POSSESSION. THEY ARE NOT ONLY UNDER
MY PROVIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT, THEY
AREALSO UNDER HIS MORAL GOVERNMENT,
ACCOUNTABLE TO HIM AS NATIONS WITH
ALL THEIR INSTITUTIONS. THOSE WHO
REFUSE TO RECOGNIZE HIS SUPREMACY
OVER THEM AND BOW IN SUBMISSION TO
HIM HE WILL BREAK AND SHATTER AS IF
THEY WERE CHEAP CLAY POTS."
From His throne at God's right hand, Jesus Christ
now calls upon all His servants and subjects in places
of political power:
o kingd, dhow didcernlllent/
Take warning, 0 jUdged of the earth.
Serl'e the LORD with rel'erence,
And rejoice with trembling.
Do homage to the Son, ledt He become angry,
and you peridh in the way,
For Hid wrath may doon be kindled.
How bledded are alL who take refuge in Him!
This exhortation is addressed not merely to the
kings and judges of Old Testament Israel. but to the
kings and judges of the earth, of the Babylonians,
Assyrians, Egyptians, Syrians, Americans, French,
Russian, Chinese, Sudanese, Iraqis, Peruvians, South
Africans, Polynesians, Australians. All the political
powers of all of Christ's possessions which include
all nations to the end of the earth are accountable
to Him as their King, and are called upon by Him
15 the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON
to bow in obedience before His royal scepter. It
is not simply as individual human beings that these
kings and judges are to receive His instruction,
worship Him, and pay Him homage; rather, it is in
their official capacity as kings and judges that they
are to do these things. In their executive offices,
legislative assemblies and courtrooms, they are obey
and enforce the laws and crown rights of Christ the
King. If they refuse to do so, for whatever reason,
they will be considered and treated by Him as rebels
doomed for destruction.
First, the political institutions of the world's
nations are to show discernment and take warning
by giving heed to the revealed instruction of their
Lord in His written Law by which infallible and
absolute standard they can correctly distinguish
between right and wrong and effectively administer
His justice. Without such a standard, justice is a
meaningless and arbitrarily defined word used as a
hammer by tyrants to keep the people beaten down
in slavery. Distinguishing between right and wrong
is impossible without a revelation from God; and
without such a standard people doing whatever
seems right in their own eyes become ungovernable
unless a tyrant imposes order.
Second, these political powers are to worship the
Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling as
political and judicial office-holders. They are called
upon to worship and serve the triune God through
faith in Jesus Christ, which brings to their land joy,
reverence for God, and God's blessing. Furthermore,
they are to protect the pure worship of the triune
God, forbidding the public worship of all other gods,
Deuteronomy 13: Iff.
Third, they are to do homage to the Son. The
political institutions of the world's nations are to
confess publicly their allegiance to Jesus Christ
as their ultimate Head of State and to His Law as
their Statute Book. They are hereby called upon to
confess the supremacy of Jesus Christ as the Son
of God and King of kings, to covenant before Him
that their nations will always walk before Him in
obedience, and that no law shall be enacted in their
nations contrary to His revealed Law found in Holy
Scripture. In other words, political powers are called
upon in Psalm 2 to be distinctly, comprehensively,
genuinely, legally, constitutionally, permanently
and unashamedly Christian, nationally confessing
that Jesus is Lord.
Joe Morecraft
We will consider the two great emphases of this
exhortation to kings and judges in Psalm 2. (1). The
duty of nations and their political establishments
to recognize the sovereignty of Jesus Christ over
them. (2). The duty of nations and their political
establishments to obey and enforce Biblical Law.
A. THE INVESTITURE OF CHRIST
WITH UNIVERSAL DOMINION AT HIS
RESURRECTION
As the eternal Son of God, Christ, along with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, has always been the
sovereign of creation. And at the resurrection of
Jesus from the grave on the third day, God gave
to Jesus, the divine-human Mediator of the New
Covenant, the authority to govern the human race
and the entire universe in order to accomplish all
of His purposes of redemption to the glory of God.
In His High Priestly Prayer Jesus said to God the
Father: Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son,
that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest
Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom
Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life, John
17:1-2. At His ascension when He gave the Church
the Great Commission to make the world's nations
Christ's disciples, promising them His constant and
triumphant presence, He said: All authority has
been given to Me in heaven and on earth, Matthew
28:18.
This universal authority over all mankind, as
individuals and societies, was given to Christ by
His Father at His resurrection as a reward for
His humiliation for the salvation of God's chosen
people.
And being found in appearance as a man, He
humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point
of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also
God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the
name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are
in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, Philippians
2:8-11.
When God raised Jesus from the grave, He gave
Him a title and that signified supreme and universal
sovereignty - Lord. With this investiture God gave
Jesus the promise that someday all mankind will bow
before His lordship and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father.
The apostle Paul also makes this point of Christ's
investiture with global and universal government
at His resurrection in Ephesians 1:20-23. In verses
18-19, he tells us that we believe in Christ because
of the exertion of His omnipotence into our lives
enabling us to believe. And in verses 20-23, he tells
us that this omnipotent regenerating power is the
power by which He raised Jesus from the dead and
exalted Him over all the universe.
... which He brought about in Christ when He '
raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His
right hand in the heavenly places, far above all
rule and authority and power and dominion, and
every name that is named, not only in this age, but
also in the one to come. And He put all things in
subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head
over all things to the church, which is His body, the
fulness of Him who fills all in all.
Paul's main point here is threefold. (1). When
God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at
His right hand with His ascension, He subjected
everything to His government. (2). This government
Jesus received at His resurrection is universal and
supreme and eternal. He governs all on earth and
everything in the universe now and forever. No one
is exempt from His rule. He is the ultimate governing
authority to whom all other authorities and powers
are subject. (3). God made Jesus the Head of
everything, placing everything under His feet, for
the sake and benefit of His Church whom He loves
as His Bride, and for whom He shed His precious
blood as the Mediator of the New Covenant. With
reference to this last point, William Symington gives
us the following exposition in his book, MESSIAH
THE PRINCE, p. 266
If men would only look, without prejudice, at the plain
testimony of revelation, they might be less disputing on this
point. Does not the apostle Paul speak of God having put
all things under the feet of Christ, and given Him to be Head
over all things to the church? Mark the language. It is not
only Head over ALL things; but Head over all things TO
THE CHURCH. It is for the sake of the Church that He is
invested with universal regal authority; in other words, the
END of Christ's universal Mediatorial dominion is THE
GOOD OF THE CHURCH. Thus far, all is clear and
undeniable. But THE NATIONS are among the all things
over which Christ is appointed Head. It follows, then, that
Christ is appointed HEAD OVER THE NATIONS FOR
THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH. If so, there must be
some way in which the nations are capable of subserving the
interests of the Church. Is it possible, then, to conceive that
'".'.,'
it is not the duty of the nations to promote, by every means
in their power, the good of the Church? Is it conceivable
that nations are not under obligations to advance the very
end for which they are placed in subjection to Christ?
Believe this who can. To us it appears that, although there
were not another passage on the subject in the whole Bible,
that which we have now in view should be sufficient to
prevent us from giving our assent to the proposition that the
nations have nothing to do with religion.
B. THE DOMINION OF JESUS CHRIST OVER
THE WORLD'S NATIONS
1. THE COMPREHENSIVE RULE OF
JESUS CHRIST
The rule of Jesus Christ IS not limited to the inner
life of man or to heaven or to the church. It embraces
inanimate creation and animals, Psalm 8:6-8, angels,
I Peter 3:22, demons, I John 3:8, mankind, John
17:2, and societies of human beings such as churches,
Ephesians 5:23-24, and nations, Psalm 2: 1 0, as well as
individuals, Romans 14:9-12. He rules His enemies
as well as His friends The LO RD says to my Lord:
"Sit at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a
footstool for Thy feet." The LORD will stretch forth
Thy strong scepter from Zion, saying, "Rule in the
midst of Thine enemies," Psalm 110:1-2. The dead
and the living are under His authority For not one
of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself;
for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we
die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die,
we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and
lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead
and of the living, Romans 15:7-9. All in heaven and
in hell are subject to i m ~ I was dead and behold I
am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death
and of hell ... who opens and no one will shut, and
who shuts and no one opens, Revelation 1:18, 3:7.
The prophet Daniel makes it unmistakably clear
that Christ's kingdom, given to Him when He
ascended to God's throne, has no boundaries. It is
comprehensive, global, universal and eternal.
I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with
the clouds of heaven One like Son of Man was
coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before Him. And to Him was
given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the
peoples, NATIONS, and men from every language
might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which will not pass away; and His
kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. Daniel
7:13-14
2. THE DESIGNATIONS OF JESUS CHRIST AS
RULER OF THE NATIONS
Our focus today is on the lordship of Jesus Christ
over the nations and their political institutions.
2
This is taught time and again in a variety of ways
throughout the entire Bible. As we have seen, Psalm
2 presupposes Christ's dominion over the political
structures of nations in calling them to obey Him and
do Him homage or be destroyed by Him. He is also
given various designations in the Bible that indicate
His political dominion over the world's nations. In
the messianic Psalm 22:28, speaking of Christ, it
promises that all the families of all the world's nations
will worship God in Christ, because the kingdom is
the LORD's and He rules over the nations. In Psalm
89:27, which also refers to the Messiah, we read that
God has made Him the Highest of the kings of the
earth. In the prophecy of Jeremiah 10:6-7, we hear
the prophet saying to the Lord: There is none like
Thee, 0 LORD; Thou art Great, and great is Thy
name in might. Who would not fear Thee, 0 King of
the nations? Indeed it is Thy due! For among all the
wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms,
there is none like Thee. This title belongs to the
Living God, Jehovah of Israel who is God in Christ,
John 1:14. In Revelation 1:5, Jesus, the one who
arose from the dead having washed us from our sins
by His blood, is referred to as the Ruler of the kings
of the earth. and in Revelation 19:16 and 17:14, He
is given that most splendid of all titles, King of kings
and Lord of lords. He is the King and Lord and
Ruler to whom all other rulers, kings and lords, i.e.,
political powers and institutions, are accountable.
3. THE BIBLICAL PROPHECIES THAT CHRIST
WILL BE RULER OF THE NATIONS
The Bible also contains several prophecies that speak
of Christ's mediatorial sovereignty, in addition to
His essential Divine sovereignty, over the nations of
the world. I will take time only to quote a sampling
of them.
Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand
shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's
sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's
whelp ... and as a lion, who dares rouse him up?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the
ruler's staff from between His feet, until Shiloh
comes [i.e., until he comes to whom the scepter
belongs], and to Him shall be the obedience of the
peoples, Genesis 49:8-10.
The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor ... the oracle
of him who hears the words of God, and knows the
knowledge of the Most High ... "I see Him, but
Joe Morecra/t
not now; I behold Him, but not near; a Star shall
come forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise
from Israel, and shall crush through the forehead
of Moab, and tear down all the sons of Sheth.
And Edom shall be a possession, Seir, its enemies,
also shall be a possession, while Israel performs
valiantly. One from Jacob shall have dominion,
and shall destroy the remnant from the city."
Numbers 24:15-19
Then He will speak to them in His anger. " "But
as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My
holy mountain ... I will surely give the nations as
Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as
Thy possession ... " Psalm 2:5-8
My heart overflows with a good theme; I address
my verses to the King ... Gird Thy sword on Thy
thigh, 0 Mighty One, in Thy splendor and Thy
majesty. And in Thy majesty ride on victoriously,
for the cause of truth and meekness and
righteousness ... Thine arrows are sharp; the peoples
fall under Thee; Thine arrows are in the heart of
the King's enemies. Thy throne, 0 God, is forever
and ever [Heb. 1:8]; a scepter of uprightness is the
scepter of Thy kingdom. Psalm 45:1-6
Jesus Himself claimed to have sovereignty over the
political leaders of his day.
Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium,
and summoned Jesus, and said to Him, "Are You
the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Are you
saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell
you about Me?" Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew,
am I? Your own nation and chief priests delivered
You up to me; what have You done?" Jesus
answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If
My kingdom were of this world, then My servants
would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up
to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this
realm."
Pilate therefore said to Him, "So You are a king?"
Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a
king. For this I have been born, and for this I have
come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.
Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." John
18:33-37
4. THE SPECIFICS OF CHRIST'S MEDIATORIAL
GOVERNMENT OF THE NATIONS OF THE
WORLD
First, nations and their political institutions derive
their existence from Jesus Christ, not from man.
Civil governments originate providentially and
morally with Him. They are Divine institutions.
The principles by which they are formed and
managed are laid down in Christ's Bible. They are
"the ministers of God," "the authorized viceregents
of Heaven."
God has placed the affairs of the nations of the world
in the hands of His Son as Mediator; and so God's
social order for human society has a distinct pattern:
All authority and power come from God. God has
given Christ the prerogative to administer that
authority as the exalted Mediator and Redeemer.
Christ governs through the delegated authority of
human representatives - Christ is the head of every
man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God
is the head of Christ, I Corinthians 11 :3. This means
that civil governments as moral ordinances of God
are placed under Jesus' feet along with everything
else in the universe -when He raised Him from the
dead, and seated Him at His right hand ... far above
all rule and power and dominion ... and He put all
things in subjection under His feet, Eph.l:20f. Not
only is it true that "there is no power but of God and
the powers that be are ordain.ed of God," but the
Redeemer Himself issues this proclamation:
By Me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By
Me princes rule, and nobles, all who judge rightly.
Proverbs 8:15-16.
Political officials then are not the mere servants of
men, nor the representatives of the constituency that
elected them; they are the servants, representatives,
and moral deputies of the Ruler of the kings of the
earth.
Second. Jesus Christ oversees and directs all the
affairs of state in the life of a nation. The origin,
domestic affairs, international relations, progress,
and dissolution of all nations are all ordered and
controlled by our Mediator and Redeemer, for
"the wheels of providence, in all their intricacy,
are propelled by the God-man, Mediator." -William
Symington, MESSIAH THE PRINCE, p. 217, (as
God's reward to Him for His humiliation).
In Revelation 5, Jesus Christ is the Lion from the
tribe of Judah and the Root of David, 5:5. Only He
is worthy to take the book and break its seals, 5:2,5,9,
because Thou was slain, and didst purchase for God
with Thy blood people out of every tribe and tongue
and people and nation. -- To Him who sits on the
throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and
glory and dominion forever and ever, 5:9,13. As a
Tbe GO.1peL of Trutb and tbe Nation
reward for His humiliation and redemptive work,
God gave to Jesus the responsibility of opening the
sealed book of God's purposes regarding the nations
of the world, thus carrying forward by providence
the plan of God's eternal decree, until all opposition
to His rule is put down and the kingdom of this world
become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ,
Revelation 11:15.
Third, Jesus as the King of the nations, demands
obedience to all His commands. The moral law of
God is administered by Jesus Christ. Paul spoke of
himself as not being without the law of God but under
the law of Christ, I Corinthians 9:21. Communities
and individuals are under the authority of His Law
revealed in the Bible. According to Psalm 2 He
commands nations to serve the Lord and civil officials
to promote good and restrain evil by obeying and
enforcing Bible Law for the preservation, protection
and encouragement of the Christian Church-And
kings will be your guardians, and their princesses
your nurses. They will bow down to you with their
faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet;
and you will know that I am the LORD; those who
hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame,
Isaiah 49:23.
Fourth, Christ overrules the rebellion of wicked
nations for His glory and the good of His people.
After a quotation of Psalm 2 in Acts 4 :25-26, we
read this explanation in 4 :27 -28 - For truly in this
city there were gathered together against Thy holy
servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod
and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the
peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy
purpose predestined to occur.
He makes the wrath of man to praise Him. The
nations and their rulers may refuse to serve
Him, but they cannot prevent Him from serving
Himself by them. By their counsels and treaties,
their ambitious wars and lawless transactions,
He fulfills His own sovereign purposes. Their
conspiracy against His rights He causes to issue
in the development of the weight of His arm; their
persecution of His Church, in her purification; and
the countenance they afford to His enemies, in the
chastisement and overthrow of His impenitent
foes.- Symington, p. 220.
Fifth, Christ executes the righteous judgments of
God on wicked nations and wicked politicians.
The Father has committed to Christ the authority
to execute judgment as the Son of Man - For not
even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all
judgment to the Son, in order that all may honor the
Son even as they honor the Father ... and He gave
Him authority to execute judgment, because He is
the Son of Man, John 5:22,23,27. We not only read
of the wrath of God, but also of the wrath of the
Lamb, Revelation 6: 16. National sins "draw down
the lightning of vengeance from the eternal throne."-
Symington, p. 221. Speaking of Christ, Psalm 2:9
says: Thou shalt break them [rebel nations]with a
rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware.
Political powers globally are exhorted to do homage
to the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in
the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled, Psalm
2:12. After prophesying that during the Messiah's
reign men may bring to you [the church] the wealth
of the nations, with their kings led in procession,
the prophet Isaiah declares that the nation and the
kingdom which will not serve you will perish, and
the nations will be utterly ruined, Isaiah 60:11-12.
Nations that refuse to recognize the supremacy of
Jesus Christ over them and do Him homage as their
Lord are counted as enemies of Christ and unless
they repent will be destroyed by Him, whether they
are western or eastern, capitalist or communist,
liberal or conservative.
Sixth, Christ opens the way for the global
dissemination and success of the gospel among the
nations. Because of His universal authority and His
constant presence with His Church, He guarantees
the success of the Great Commission in making the
world's nations Christ's disciples, Matthew 28:18f.
As Lord of the nations He sends His preaching
ambassadors out to disciple, baptize and teach all
nations. Jealous antichristian civil governments may
oppose them and refuse them freedom of speech, but
they have the right to enter and to preach no matter
what means earthly powers may use to keep them
out and thwart their efforts. Their ministries may be
unauthorized by man, or even declared illegal, "but
they proceed in the name of One whose authority
extends over all nations, who claims all the kings
of the earth as His subjects, and whose commands
cannot, without rebellion, be disputed. HE has said
to them, Go and teach all nations." - Symington, p.
225.
Furthermore, Christ's lordship over the nations
also opens the way and assures the success of the
preaching of the gospel to the nations of the world.
Many nations may try to place obstructions in
the path of the gospel, but He can overcome all
obstacles for it is said of Him that He has the key
of David who opens and no one will shut, and who
shuts and no one opens ... Behold I have put before
you an open door which no one can shut, Revelation
3:7-8. Because of Christ's reign all the nations will
stream to [the mountain of the House of the LORD];
Joe Morecra/t
and many peoples will come and say, "Let us go up
to the mountain of the LORD ... that He may teach
us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in
His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And
He will judge between the nations, and will render
decisions for many peoples, and they will hammer
their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against
nation, and never again will they learn war. -- For
the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea, Isaiah 2:2-4, 11:9.
Seventh, Christ governs the nations for the protection
and encouragement of the Church. Not only will
Christ make the civil governments of the world
the fatherly guardians and motherly nurses of the
Church, as we have seen, but God places all powers
and authorities in heaven and on earth under Jesus'
feet for the benefit and welfare of the church - And
He put all things in subjection under His feet, and
gave Him as head over all things TO [for the sake
of] THE CHURCH, which is His body, the fulness
of Him who fills all in all, Ephesians 1 :22-23. Many
of the nations of the world are so hostile to God that
the Church "could not continue to exist among them
uncorrupted and independent, unless protected by
One who can control, modify, and overrule all their
counsels and doings. Without this, the Church would
not long be tolerated pure and unfettered; but would
either be crushed beneath the iron rod of despotic
power, or be extirpated by the flames of persecution.
To her blessed and glorious King, who is Governor
among the nations, is she indebted for so overruling
the hearts and conduct of men in power, as to throw
around her a shield of safety."- Symington, p. 228.
Eighth, Christ, our Mediator, Redeemer and King
of the nations will ultimately bring about a complete
transformation of the character and constitution of
the nations of the world. If the prophecies of the
Bible are to be fulfilled regarding the reduction of
the world's nations to submission to Christ, such a
change is indispensable since most nations today are
in a state of hostility to God and His Christ as Psalm
2 reminds us. If the kingdoms of this earth are to
become the kingdom of the Lord and His Christ,
if kings and queens are to be the guardians of the
church, then the nations of the earth along with their
political powers will have to be very different from
what they are today. Christ will have to so change
them that they will make the Word of God the basis
of their authority and power, and the aim of their
policies the glory and honor of the triune God.
"How is this marvelous revolution to be brought
about? By the overruling providence and gracious
energy of Him who is Governor among the nations.
He will shake all nations with the thunder of His
power, till everything connected with them that
is opposed to His cause is overthrown, and they
are led to hail Himself as the Desire of all nations.
He will purge out the leaven of infidelity and
antichristianism with searching scrutiny ... The
secular tyrannies of the ... earth shall be broken
in pieces, shall become like the chaff of the
summer threshing floor ... Thus to purifY, sanctifY,
revolutionize, nay, Christianize, the nations of the
world, is what none but He could perform; and
were it not that He is Head of the nations, as well
as Head of the Church, we should have to despair
of these glorious anticipations being ever realized."-
Symington, p. 229.
C. THE DUTIES OF THE NATIONS OF THE
WORLD TO CHRIST
Since Jesus Christ has been invested with dominion
over the nations of the world, and since He actively
administers that dominion everyday, it follows
naturally and unavoidably that the world's nations
have duties which they owe to their King, our
Mediator.
First. it is the duty of nations and their political
establishments to honor their divine-human King as
faithful subjects in all their institutions and laws.
Whether we are individuals or nations, citizens or
elected officials, it remains true that in whatever we
do, we are to do all to the glory of God. It is not
enough that political institutions promote the general
welfare of the citizenry; but as moral subjects of the
King of kings, responsible to govern in His name,
they are to have as their ultimate and self-conscious
objective in the formation of their constitutions, the
establishment of their institutions, the shaping of
their foreign and domestic policies, the election and
appointment of their officials, all their legislation and
in every act of administration to honor and glorify
Him to whom they owe their being, preservation
and powers. "A devoted regard to the prince's
honor and a willingness to maintain his dignity
against every infringement, enter essentially into
the nature of loyalty." - Symington, p. 232. Because
Nebuchadnezzar failed to do this, God inflicted him
with the terrifying judgment of being driven from
human society and made to live like and live with the
beasts of the field for seven seasons. Why did the
Lord treat him in this manner? The answer is found
in Daniel 4 :32 - 0 king, this is the decree of the Most
High, which has come upon my lord the king: that
you be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling
place be with the beasts of the field, and you be given
Tbe GO.1peL of Trutb and tbe Nation
grass to eat like cattle and be drenched with the
dew of heaven; and seven periods of time will pass
over you, UNTIL YOU RECOGNIZE THAT THE
MOST HIGH IS RULER OVER THE REALM OF
MANKIND AND BESTOWS IT ON WHOMEVER
HE WISHES. It was for this same reason that God
destroyed the Babylonian king, Belshazzar: you
have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven ...
the God in whose hand are your life-breath and
your ways, YOU HAVE NOT GLORIFIED, Daniel
5:23. These verses should make all those who hold
political office pause and consider with fear and
trembling. Not only do they have the duty to do all
to the glory of the triune God; but if they neglect
or violate this duty, they expose themselves to the
terrifying judgment of God. The point is, being a
constitutional republic is not sufficient. A nation
must be a Christian republic unashamedly honoring
Christ the King in all its affairs of state.
Second, it is the duty of nations as the subjects of
the Lord Christ to make His civil laws revealed
in His Bible as the basis and source of their own
laws. Matthew 5:17f . .o. They are to have Christ as
their only Source of Law, and the Bible as their
only political statute-book, because He is the one
divine Lawgiver, Judge, King and Savior incarnate,
Isaiah 33:22. Their standard of legislation and
administration may not be human reason, national
conscience, public opInIon, expert opInIOn, or
political expediency. None of these is, nor all of
them together are competent guides in the governing
of a nation.
We contend ... that the Bible is to be our rule, not
only in matters of a purely religious nature, in
matters connected with conscience and the worship
of God, but in matters of a civil or political nature.
~ To require nations, who possess the sacred
volume, to confine themselves, in their political
affairs, to the dim light of nature, is not more absurd
than it would be to require men, when the sun is in
the heavens, to shut out its full blaze and go about
their ordinary duties by the feeble rays of a taper
[candle].
Indeed, if nations are moral subjects, they are
bound to regulate their conduct by whatever law
their moral Governor has been pleased to give them;
and as they are the subjects of the Mediator, they
must be under the law of the Mediator as contained
in the Scriptures. He has not placed His moral
subjects in ignorance of His will, nor left them to
search for it amid the obscurities and imperfections
of a law which sin has effaced and well nigh
obliterated. In the Holy Scriptures of truth, He has
given them a fairer and more complete exhibition
of the principles of immutable and eternal justice,
than that which is to be found in the law of nature.-
Symington, p. 235.
See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just
as the LORD my God commanded me, that you
should do thus in the land where you are entering
to possess it. So keep and do them, for that is
your wisdom and your understanding in the sight
of the peoples who will hear all these statutes
and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and
understanding people." For what great nation is
there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD
our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great
nation is there that has statutes and judgments
as righteous as this whole law which I am setting
before you today? Deuteronomy 4:5-8
In this text we see that the Hebrew Confederacy
and Republic was instructed by God through Moses
His mouthpiece to govern their national life by His
revealed standard and by no other. They were to
regard the possession of God's revealed laws, statutes
and judgments as their national treasure which
distinguished them from all the other nations of the
world, for which they were always to be grateful.
One step away from this perfect standard is one step
away from justice and righteousness.
The people were to obey this divinely-revealed law
AND the king was to have his own personal and
official copy so he could always have it with him to
read all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear
the LORD his God by carefully observing all the
words of this law and these statutes ... and that he may
not turn aside from the commandment, to the right
or the left ... , Deuteronomy 17:18-20. To Joshua, as
the head of state, it was said: Only be strong and
very courageous; be careful to do according to all
the law which Moses My servant commanded you;
do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that
you may have success wherever you go. This book
of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you
shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be
careful to do according to all that is written in it; for
then you will make your way prosperous, and then
you will have good success, Joshua 1:7-8. And as the
aging David charged Solomon his successor to the
throne of Israel: I am going the way of all the earth.
Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. And
keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in
His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments,
His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to
what is written in the law of Moses, that you may
succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, I
Kings 2:1-3.
Joe Morecraft
Since the rulers in Israel were under the authority
and ordination of God, Hosea 13: 11, were to avenge
God's anger, "and were obligated to deter evil as
well as promoting the good, then it must be quite
evident that they were required to follow the law of
God, for therein the ruler could find authoritative
direction from his Sovereign, the occasions of God's
wrath, the proper way of executing punishment for
social disobedience, and the criteria for good and
evil. -- Throughout Israel's history this obligation
to enforce the law of God was taken to be essential to
the function of the civil magistrate." - Greg Bahnsen,
THEONOMY IN CHRISTIAN ETHICS,
pp. 332, 334.
The civil magistrates in the non-Jewish, Gentile
nations surrounding Israel in the Old Testament
were also accountable to God in the obeying and
enforcing of His revealed Law.
Since God is the living Lord over all creation and
immutable in His character, and since all men are
His creatures and morally accountable to Him,
we are led to believe that God's law (as reflecting
the righteousness of God) applies to every man
irrespective of his position in this life, situation
in the world, nationality, or place in history.
Moreover, Romans 2:11-12 tells us that God is
no respector of persons; He will apply the same
absolute criteria of holiness to each person whom
He creates, irrespective of who, what, or where
they are. This is possible because even the Gentiles
know God's judicial ordinance that certain crimes
are worthy of death, Romans 1:32, and have the
works of the law written on their heart, Romans
2:14-15. --
Because God's Law CUTS ACROSS ALL
SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS, nobody is free from
its demands. The conclusion must be, then, that
God's law was binding upon the Gentile as well as
the Jew in the age of the Older Testament. Thus
the law itself specified that even the alien was to
be judged by the magistrate in accordance with
the standard of God's law, Deuteronomy 1:16-17.
There shall be ONE STANDARD for the stranger
as well as the native, for I am the LORD your God,
Leviticus 24 :22. -- Therefore, one should not come
to the testimony of Scripture predisposed toward
the idea that there is discontinuity between the
ethical standards governing Israel and those which
God uses to judge the nations. -- Thus the fact
that the written Law was PRIMARILY addressed
to Israel certainly cannot be used to imply a
double standard of morality between her and the
surrounding nations! What is sinful within the
borders of Canaan is not condonable outside, and
this is because the Mosaic Law does not represent
the ethic of a few Palestinian tribes but the
universal and divine standard of righteousness. --
After all, the beneftt granted to Israel of having
laws which excelled the de facto ethical standards
of the other nations, Deuteronomy 4:8, cannot be
considered something Israel was to keep itself; just
the opposite is true: Attend unto Me, 0 My people;
and give ear unto Me, 0 My nation; for a law shall
go forth from Me, and I will establish My justice for
a light of the peoples, Isaiah 51:4. -- His law has
INTERNATIONAL relevance and binding force.
-- If His Law has this absolute character (drawing
the whole world under its authority), then the
justice required in social affairs in Israel will be the
same justice required in other nations.- Bahnsen,
THEONOMY, pp. 339-342.
One of the most dramatic illustrations of the validity
of God's Law in the nations outside Israel is Leviticus
18:24-27 -Do not defile yourselves by any of these
things[mentioned in 18:1-23]; for by all these the
nations which I am casting out before you have
become defiled. For the land has become defiled,
therefore I have visited its punishment upon it, so
the land has spewed out its inhabitants. But as for
you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments,
and shall not do any of these abominations, neither
the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you
(for the men of the land who have been before you
have done all these abominations, and the land has
become defiled) ...
Here we see that the same law that was given by
Moses to Israel is the law to which the other nations
of the world were subject. "It is the same law given
through Moses which defines the defilement and
abominations of the people upon whom Israel will
bring God's temporal retribution. The striking
thing is that verse 28, following this passage, asserts
that the punishment exacted against the Canaanites
(the land vomiting them out) is precisely the
punishment that shall be enacted against Israel if
it commits the forbidden abominations. As Israel
was subject to God's law, so also were the nations
who did not receive it in written form. Otherwise
God's judgment would have been unfounded-a
thought which is precluded by the Lord's justice and
equity."- Bahnsen, THEONOMY, p. 355.
The state's responsibility to obey and enforce the
principles of justice illustrated in the civil laws of
the Bible does not change in the New Testament.
This fact is seen in three ways. (1). Matthew 5:17-
19 teaches us that all of the moral laws of the Old
Testament are still in force today; and Romans 13:1-
7 tells us that the state is to punish evil as a minister
of God using God's Law. (2). A foundational and
covenantal principle of Bible interpretation is that
"Old Testament precepts are binding until the New
Testament teaches their repeal." - Bahnsen, NO
OTHER STANDARD, p. 162. (3). The continuing
applicability of the social and civil provisions of
God's Law in the Old Testament to society is upheld
in the New Testament. Paul "applied God's law to
judges, Acts 23:3; cf. Leviticus 19: 15. He endorsed
God's prohibition of reviling rulers, Acts 23:5; cf.
Exodus 22:28. In dealing with social relationships
and conditions he appealed to the Mosaic case laws
regarding incest, I Corinthians 5: 1; cf. Leviticus
18:8, regarding homosexuality, Romans 1:27, 32;
cf. Leviticus 20:13, and regarding fair treatment of
slaves, Colossians 4:1; cf. Leviticus 25:43,53. He
endorsed the use of God's law to curb social crimes
like killing one's parents, kidnapping, homosexuality,
perjury, etc., I Timothy 1 :8-1 O. He expected the
civil sanctions of God's law to be applied, Acts
25:11, teaching that civil magistrates must pursue
their offices as 'ministers of God', Romans 13:1-
4. He indicted the emperor for his 'lawlessness,'
II Thessalonians 2:8."- Bahnsen, NO OTHER
STANDARD, p. 159.
In his great book, LEX REX, Samuel Rutherford
makes the point which is "the keystone of Calvinistic
political theory" that "only God can bind men to
guilt and punishment. .., because God alone, as
the Creator, can determine right and wrong, guilt
and punishment, it follows inexorably that, because
the civil magistrate has the sword of punishment, he
is absolutely bound to the direction of the Creator in
the way he wields that sword. The moral system that
defines guilt and transgression is God's Law. There
is a further implication which follows, not fully
developed by the author, namely, that God alone can
determine just and equitable punishment. The
magistrate, then, is bound to the Scripture in his
doctrine of crime and punishment, because judgment
belongs to the Lord. Either the magistrate must
judge according to God's Law, or he blasphemously
assumes the prerogatives of deity." - Richard
Flinn, "Samuel Rutherford and Puritan Political
Theory," THE JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN
RECONSTRUCTION, Winter, 1978-79, pp. 54,56.
As Rutherford himself wrote:
Because the prince is the minister of God for the
good of the subject; and therefore the law saith, "He
cannot pardon and free the guilty from punishment
due to him"; ... and the reason is clear: He is but
the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath
upon him that doth evil. And if the judgment be
the Lord's, not man's, as it is in deed, Deut. 1:17, II
Chron. 19:6, he cannot draw the sword against the
innocent, nor absolve the guilty, except he would
take on himself to carve and dispose of that which
is proper to his master.- Rutherford, LEX REX, p.
107 quoted by Flinn, p. 56.
To summarize the main points of Rutherford's LEX
REX: (1). Only God can infallibly and justly
distinguish between right and wrong, which He has
done in Biblical Law. If this is left to man, he will
call good evil and evil good. (2). Only God can
infallibly and justly identify criminal acts, which He
has done in Biblical Law. If left up to man, such
identifications become subjective and arbitrary.
And (3). Only God can infallibly and justly define
how crime is to be punished, which He has done in
Biblical Law. If left up to man, such definitions
become cruel and arbitrary.
Therefore obeying and enforcing God's revealed
law in the civil sphere involves "the endorsement
of the continuing validity and social justice of the
penal sanctions stipulated within the law of God."-
Bahnsen, NO OTHER, p. 211. This means that
lovers of Christ and His Biblical Law "advocate
a very limited view of the political state and the
extent of its authority. ...the state is an agency of
divinely authorized justice in the punishment of
criminals (and thus defense of citizens from attacks,
internal and external), according to a text like
Romans 13: 1-4. What should the civil magistrate
use his penal threats to restrain and correct?
the state should enforce only those aspects of the
Mosaic Law where rulers are directed to penalize
public behavior by means of a sanction. Outside
of that sphere, the sanctions of the home, church,
marketplace, business world, school or what-have-
you are the correctives available for sinful behavior
in this world. Where God's law does not direct the
state to intervene, 'wielding the sword,' the state is
by implication forbidden to intrude." - Bahnsen, NO
OTHER STANDARD, p. 213.
Third, it is the duty of nations to Christ their King to
respect and enforce the moral and religious character
required by Christ .of those who hold public office
AND of those who vote. According to the Law of
God nations are to be established as constitutional
republics, governing by representatives of the Law
of God elected by the people to administer that Law.
Samuel Rutherford's LEX REX and E.C. Wines'
THE HEBREW REPUBLIC have sufficiently
established that fact. However the Bible also asserts
that the voters must exercise their power discreetly
and wisely. They are required by God's Law to vote
only for men who possess the qualifications set by
God fitting them for office. The people are not the
judges of what these qualifications may be; God has
Joe Morecra/t
revealed in His supreme rule of direction what those
qualifications are, and what kind of character rulers
MUST have.
When you enter the land which the LORD your
God gives you, and you possess it and live in it,
and you say, "I will set a king over me like all the
nations who are around me," you shall surely set a
king over you whom the LORD your God chooses,
one from among your countrymen you shall set as
king over yourselves: you may not put a foreigner
over yourselves who is not your countryman.
Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself,
nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to
multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you,
"You shall never again return that way." Neither
shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart
turn away: nor shall he greatly increase silver and
gold for himself.
Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne
of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of
this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical
priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read
it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear
the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the
words of this law and these statutes, that his heart
may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that
he may not turn aside from the commandment, to
the right or the left ... Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Just as the magistrate may not use the power of
his office as he chooses, so the voter may not use
his voting power any way he chooses. Nor is every
individual qualified to hold office. High moral
and incorruptible integrity, self-discipline, strict
faithfulness, covenant loyalty and sincere submission
to the God of the Covenant are clearly required by
the Word of God, Exodus 18:21, II Samuel 23:3,
Proverbs 20:28,31:4,5. And, above all, he must be a
genuine and mature Christian thoroughly committed
to the Word of God - You shall select out of all the
people able men who fear God, men of truth, those
who hate dishonest gain: and you shall place these
over them, as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of
fifties, and of tens, Exodus 18:21. This is also the
point made in Deuteronomy 17 that the king must be
one from among your countrymen and not a stranger.
He must be a man loyal to the covenant bond His
Lord and Savior made with His people. In other
words, he must be a faithful believer in the Lord his
Redeemer.
The people of a nation are not at liberty to elect
anyone indiscriminately to places of political power.
They are required to vote, not only for men with good
abilities, but for men of unimpeachable character
and sound Christianity. A nation owes it to its
King, Jesus Christ, to elect men to office who have
the qualifications His Word requires and no other.
"How dishonoring to Christ thus to set up, as his
[civil] ministers, his open and avowed enemies -men
who deny His divinity, who blaspheme His name,
who deride His worship, and who openly profane
His sacred day!" - Symington, p. 246.
The question, then, to ask about a candidate, is not
can he be elected, but is he thoroughly Christian and
are his views thoroughly Biblical. The lesser of two
evils is still evil: and a Christian voter may not vote
for an evil person.
Moreover, just as not everyone is qualified to rule,
so not everyone is qualified to vote. Jesus the King
has not only set the qualifications for rulers, He has
also set the qualifications for voters. This point
is too often forgotten. The lawless, irresponsible,
ignorant, and immature were not allowed to vote in
the Hebrew Republic. A voter should be a man who
has faith in God the Redeemer, who loves his covenant
heritage and who is committed to his family and to
a future under God's Word to God's glory, willing
to take all the risks and responsibilities of freedom
and Christian maturity. Voters who themselves are
immoral and unbelieving are not likely to vote for
any but those who reflect their own characters to
represent them. A responsible voter "is bound to
subject his judgment and inclinations in this matter
[of political candidates] to the control of God's Word.
Hence the vast importance of having the public
mind deeply imbued with pure moral sentiments and
correct religious principles."- Symington, p. 248.
Civil legislators ought to be prejudiced in favor of
Christianity in the sense that, as individuals who
are each responsible to read and interpret God's
word, they should publicly promote, and in their
congressional voting apply, the moral standards for
political order which are taught in the written word
of God. Citizens ought to be prejudiced in favor of
Christianity in the sense that, as individuals who are
each responsible to read and interpret God's word,
they should publicly support, and in their voting
seek to elect, legislators who will faithfully do what
has just been described above.- Bahnsen, NO
OTHER STANDARD, p. 197.
Fovrth. nations have the duty to respect the law
of Christ that they be in respectful submission to
those who rule over them by His authority. Let
every person be in subjection to the governing
authorities. For there is no authority except from
God, and those which exist are established by God.
, j
Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the
ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will
receive condemnation upon themselves, Romans
13:1-2. This is not to imply that civil authorities
are above criticism and that they must be obeyed
regardless of what they command, even if they
command us to sin against God. Such a view is
dishonoring to Christ.
Those to whom conscientious submission is due in
I the name of Christ, should certainly possess some
measure of the qualifications which Christ Himself
has prescribed. It is absurd to suppose that nations,
who are the moral subjects of the Redeemer, are
bound, in obedience to His authority, to recognize
and approve, as His (political) ministers, those who
overlook and despise His authority, who employ
their influence in opposition to His interests,
and conduct their government on principles that
immoral.- Symington, p. 254.
Fifth. nations as the subjects of Messiah the Prince
are under 0 bligation not only to recognize His rightful
authority over them: they are to swear allegiance to
Him as their King and Redeemer. It is the duty of any
subject to swear allegiance to his lawful sovereign
whenever he is called upon to do so. So it is with
nations subject to Christ their Sovereign. Not only
are the people in a nation to enter into a covenant
and solemn league with one another to secure and
defend their valued rights and privileges, whenever
duty calls; but the civil magistrate of a nation is to
legally enact and publicly avow "its attachment to
the Lord Jesus Christ as its King and its Prince, to
recognize His legal authority, and to bind itself to
His service by an oath [and covenant]." - Symington,
p.256. Time and again in the life of Israel in the Old
Testament, that nation publicly and solemnly swore
their allegiance to the Lord their Redeemer-King,
Nehemiah 9:1-13, Deuteronomy 29:10-15, Joshua
24:25, II Kings 11:17,20, Psalm 76:11, II Kings 23:1-
3, Isaiah 44:3-5.
John Knox, (d. 1572), was a leader in the Scottish
Reformation and made distinct contributions to the
Protestant Reformation particularly in his Biblical
view of civil government as covenantal, or federal,
i.e., based on a series of covenants that define its
authority, limitations, functions, and powers.
According to Knox: (1). The civil magistrate is in
covenant with God promising to obey and enforce
God's revealed law and to oppose idolatry; (2). The
civil magistrate is in covenant with the people to
govern them righteously and for their protection
and general welfare; (3). The people are in covenant
with the civil magistrate to submit to his righteous
government; and (4). The people are in covenant
with God that they will be His faithful people. If
the civil magistrate breaks its covenants with God
and the people, the people are no longer obligated to
give it their loyalty.
One of the most notable instances of national
covenanting is found in Joshua 24: 14-27, which I
would like to read to you.
"Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in
sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which
your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt,
and serve the LORD. And if it is disagreeable
in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for
yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the
gods which your fathers served which were beyond
the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land
you are living; but as for me and my house, we will
serve the LORD."
And the people answered and said, "Far be it from
us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other
gods; for the LORD our God is He who brought us
and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from
the house of bondage, and who did these great
signs in our sight and preserved us through all the
way in which we went and among all the peoples
through whose midst we passed. And the LORD
drove out from before us all the peoples, even the
Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve
the LORD, for He is our God."
Then Joshua said to the people, "You will not be
able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God.
He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your
transgression or your sins. If you forsake the
LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn
and do you harm and consume you after He has
done good to you."
And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will
serve the LORD."
And Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses
against yourselves that you have chosen for
yourselves the LORD, to serve Him." And they
said, "We are witnesses." "Now therefore, put
away the foreign gods which are in your midst,
and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of
Israel." And the people said to Joshua, "We will
serve the LORD our God and we will obey His
voice."
In fact, the Old Testament prophesies that during
the reign of Christ, various nations of the world,
who were once enemies of the people of God, will
be converted and will make national covenants with
Joe Morecra/t
the Living God in Christ - In that day five cities III
the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of
Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of
hosts ... in the day there will be an altar to the LORD
in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to
the LORD near its border. And it will become a
sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land
of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because
of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and
a Champion, and He will deliver them. Thus the
LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the
Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They
will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and
will make a vow to the LORD and perform it.
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to
Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and
the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will
worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will
be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing
in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts
has blessed, saying, "Blessed is Egypt My people,
and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My
inheritance," Isaiah 19:18-25.
Sixth, it is the duty of nations as subjects of Christ the
King to respect. defend and encourage the Christian
religion and no other. Although the church and the
state are two separate institutions with two distinct
functions and two jurisdictions, and although all
forms of Erastianism must be rejected, as they
were soundly rej ected by the original Westminster
Confession and Catechisms,4 nevertheless both
the church and the state are united in the common
obligation, not only to obey and enforce in their
separate spheres the revealed Law of God in
the Bible, they are equally bound to defend and
encourage the Christian religion according to their
different functions, powers and jurisdictions.
It is more than obvious that a nation must not
countenance or favor false religions or public
idolatry, Deuteronomy 13: 1f. However, that is
not enough if Christ is king of the nations. It may
not remain religiously neutral, which is in fact an
impossibility. Rather its duty is to uphold the crown
rights of King Jesus by respecting, defending and
encouraging that revealed religion of the Bible He
shed His precious blood to secure for us.
The issue here is not simply whether or not the
state is to give legal protection and tolerance to
the Christian religion, but that its duty is to extend
favor, defense and encouragement to the Christian
religion alone and to the churches of Christ. The
state has NO power in and over the church to
interfere in any way with her jurisdiction and
organization; but it is given the authority and duty
by Christ its King, to frame laws, based on Biblical
Law, which respect the interests of Christianity and
which would remove whatever external and social
hindrances it has the authority to remove so as to
protect the Church's freedom in its conquest of the
nations of the world with the gospel of Christ.
5
The case that the political institutions of the
world's nations have this duty is comprised of three
points: (1). It is the necessary inference from the
duty of nations to submit to the lordship of Christ.
(2). The object of the civil magistrate's office as set
forth in the New Testament confirms and illustrates
this duty. (3). The Bible contains divinely-
approved examples of this duty.
Seventh. another of John Knox's contributions
to western Christian thought was his teaching
on the legitimacy of resistance against tyranny.
including the use of armed force if necessary.
as a last resort. by the citizenry led by a lesser
magistrate against a tyrannical and idolatrous
head of state. Christian citizens and magistrates
have the duty from God to remove tyrants from
office. As a last resort, they are to be overthrown
and executed. However, armed resistance is
justifiable only if two preconditions have been met:
"the first of which was the trying of [all] other
means, including prayer and patience. The second
condition was that armed resistance must be led by
legitimate lesser magistrates." - Richard L. Greaves,
THEOLOGY AND REVOLUTION IN THE
SCOTTISH REFORMATION, p. 175
Of crucial importance to Know was ... that
magistrates have the DUTY - not just the
right-to depose tyrants who threaten
to ruin the cause of the gospel by force.-
Greaves, p. 133
This emphasis of John Knox is the basis of our own
Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men
are created equal; that they are endowed, by their
Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; that whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of
those ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying
its foundation on such principles, and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments
long established, should not be changed for light
and transient causes; and accordingly all experience
hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they
are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses
and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same
object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such government, and to provide new
guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these
colonies; and such is now the necessity which
constrains them to alter their former systems of
government. The history of the present King
of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations, all having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these
states. -
We, therefore, the representatives of the United
States of America, in General Congress assembled,
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for
the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name,
and by the authority of the good people of these
colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free
and Independent States ... And for the support
of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honor.
These words would never have been written
without the influence of John Knox, the Scottish
Reformation, and its Scotch-Irish heirs. One can feel
the Reformed Christian blood of these Covenanters
pumping throughout these mighty words of freedom
in their total devotion to the crown rights of Christ
the King. It is a pity that most Americans today see
these words as exaggerated, irrelevant or radical,
as they have grown accustomed to their new chains.
May God give us this same devotion to the Supreme
Kingship of Christ over our nation that our godly
forefathers and mothers had so that we, like they,
will be lovers of truth and freedom who at all costs
will resist the encroachments of tyranny seeking
always to reconstruct our nation by the word of our
King. And may the state motto of Virginia be that of
all who love Christ the King: sic semper tyrannis.
Eighth. the object of the civil magistrate is defined in
Romans 13:4--the civil magistrate is to be a minister
of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil.
be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing;
for it is a minister of God. an avenger who brings
wrath upon the one who practices evil. This verse,
along with many others, gives the state a moral and
religious character and responsibility. As a minister
of God it is to represent God and to do the will of
Him who is its Origin. God in Christ is supreme
over the state, and that supremacy the state must
recognize and confess. Its power is not "legislative"
but "ministerial," or "administrative," i.e., it may not
usurp authority and enact laws that originate with
man; rather it is to obey, administer and enforce
the laws of God. Furthermore, it must be able to
distinguish carefully between good and evil as defined
by God's infallible, comprehensive and absolute law
revealed in the Bible; otherwise any true distinction
between good and evil is impossible. When political
institutions neglect or refuse the Biblical Standard
which alone identifies the practice of evil behavior,
they most frequently call evil good and good evil,
and use the power of the sword to terrorize, not the
lawless, but the good.
It should also be carefully noticed that in Romans
13:3-4, the phrases good behavior, evil, good, do
what is evil, and the one who practices evil have
no limitations or restrictions. The point is this:
Romans 13 does not limit the state's authority to the
enforcing of justice between human beings, or the
defense of human rights, or the protection of one
human party from the violence of another. It does
not limit the state's authority to the enforcing of
the second table of the Ten Commandments, which
governs man's relationship to man, and not the first
table which governs man's relationship to God. No
such limitation is introduced in Romans 131 So
that, within the civil sphere the state is to praise
and protect all good behavior, actions and practice,
and punish all evil behavior, actions and practice,
identifying as crimes only what God identifies as
crimes and punishing those crimes only in the way
God says they should be punished, without usurping
any powers or measures or jurisdiction not assigned
it by God.
We must remind him who would restrict the
province of the civil authorities to the second table
of the law, that crimes against the first table are
not only, at least, equally offensive to the God
of nations, but equally injurious to the safety of
the State. Outrages on the Majesty of Heaven,
open contempt of the mysteries and rites of [the
Christian] religion, are more to be dreaded by
society than even fraud or oppression, and will more
certainly work a nation's ruin. And, on the other
hand, the good connected with the encouragement
----=:-:
Joe Morecraft
of sound morals, and the diffusion of Christian
truth, is more valuable than any resulting from the
wisest human policy ... We do not, then, forget
that the more immediate end of civil government is
the outward order of the communiiy. But, if every
ordinance of God is bound, as it surely is, to seek
its end in connection with His glory who ordained
it, they who rule may not warrantably regard
with indifference the best, because the divinely-
appointed means of moralizing and civilizing the
human race.- Symington, p. 268-269.
We have many biblical and divinely-approved
examples of this duty of nations.
The fact that Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18, Hebrews
7: 1) was both a king and a priest shows "that there
is no such incompatibility between things civil and
sacred as to render all union of them necessarily
sinful and improper. It is utterly inconceivable that
Melchizedek was required, either, on the one hand, to
abstain from any exercise of his regal functions which
might subserve the ends of his priesthood, or, on the
other, in the discharge of his sacerdotal functions to
avoid having any regard to the civil interests of the
people over whom he ruled ... we may safely conclude
that Melchizedek, in acting in the double capacity
of king of Salem and priest of the Most High God,
felt no jarring of claims, no jealousy of interests, but
the most perfect harmony and cooperation between
the functions of his respective offices. Here, then,
we have one example, at least, of the combination of
things civil and sacred ... not only without censure,
but with obvious commendation." - Symington, pp.
270-271.
We have other examples in the civil leaders and
kings of Israel, such as Moses, Joshua, David,
Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah, who not only gave
legal protection and encouragement to the revealed
religion of Jehovah, but who also, in their capacity
as civil rulers, outlawed and punished all public
idolatry, removing all places of worship erected to
gods other than Jehovah, and with Divine approval.
Israel's kings used their political authority with
divine approval to judicially suppress blasphemy,
idolatry, and Sabbath desecration. And [king]
Asa did good and right in the sight of the LORD
his God, for he removed the foreign altars and high
places, tore down the sacred pillars, cut down the
Asherim, and commanded Judah to seek the LORD
God of their fathers, and to observe the Law and
the Commandment. He also removed the high places
and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah.
And the kingdom was undisturbed under him, II
Chronicles 14:2-5.
The Old Testament also contains examples of non-
Jewish, Gentile kings using their political power
to protect and promote the welfare of the church
of God and their revealed religion. Cyrus, king of
Persia issued a decree protecting the rebuilding of
the Temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem, and it was the
Lord Himself who stirred him to do so, Ezra 1: 1-
4. Darius another Persian king published an edict
to the same effect, Ezra 6:8-12. Artaxerxes did a
similar thing, Ezra 7: 12-20. And with reference to
these legal enactments, Ezra said: Blessed be the
LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put such a
thing as this in the king's heart, to adorn the House
of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, Ezra 7:27.
As one has said, Christianity is "the cheap defense of
nations." A nation's duty to uphold, defend and favor
Christianity and no other religion is supported by
Scripture, reason and history. Righteousness exalts
a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people, Proverbs
14: 34. A nation is safest and most prosperous when
it is the most "Christian", as under the righteous
reigns of David and Solomon. And when it betrays
its religious and covenantal obligations to God in
Christ, it becomes an abomination to Him and comes
under His judgment.
Conclusion
Understanding the difference between the First
and Second Commandments is essential to effective
Christian political action. The First Commandment
orders us to worship and serve God alone. The
Second Commandment orders us to worship and
serve God alone God's revealed way alone. So then,
in Christian political action, we must make sure our
goals are God's goals as revealed in the Bible, and
our strategies are God's strategies as revealed in the
Bible. Why will such action be effective? Because
the Lord honors those who honor Him!
We must not make the mistake of contemporary
political conservatism and think that the religious,
cultural wars of today are confined to politics, that
the basic crises of our day are political, and that
the final solutions are political. They are raging on
all fronts: church, state, education, art, economics,
jurisprudence, medicine, the media, the home and
family. An added problem we must face is that the
majority of today's Bible-believing Christians agree
that political involvement and political solutions are
central to social reform.
Christians must take the battle into the political
arena, to be sure, but we must also take the
battle into all other cultural arenas in the name of
Christ the King. Many ostensibly Bible-believing
Christians resent this Biblical emphasis that they are
responsible to stand for the crown rights of Christ
the king in politics as well as in all other social and
cultural crises outside the local church. This is why
the critics of a Reformed worldview and a Christian
Reconstruction approach to social reform erroneously
argue over and over that the hidden agenda of all our
efforts is the take-over of the civil government by a
small band of Christians who will try to impose their
agenda upon the nation by the power of the sword.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. As Gary
North has written, "it is the theology of Christian
Reconstructionism that alone in our day offers a
self-consciously Biblical rejection of humanism's
statist social theory. Christian Reconstructionists
categorically deny that politics is central to social
change. The reformation of the Church is central;
every other positive social change will flow from this
one."- TACTICS OF CHRISTIAN RESISTANCE
G
,
p. xxi. Why is this so? The book of Judges and
the Old Testament prophets tell us time and again
that the spiritual and moral condition of the Church
will determine the social, political and economic
condition of the nation in which that Church exists!
So then, let us turn to a couple of those Biblical
principles that must inform our Christian political
action.
First, tyranny. the perversion of justice and the loss
of liberty are results of the curse of God upon an
apostate church and nation. Therefore our resistance
of tyranny and our efforts to restore liberty and
justice for all must begin with repentance, "humble
submission to His will, a reverential fear of His
judgments, and a full recognition of the righteousness
of His moral government."- Louis DeBoer, TACTICS
OF CHRISTIAN RESISTANCE, p. 14. Before
the reconstruction of the nation must come the
reformation and renewal of the church. This means
that we must begin where the General Assembly of
the Church of Scotland began in the 17
th
Century
with its publication, "Causes of the Lord's Wrath
Against Scotland," which was a public confession of
sin and public call to repentance and to the renewal
of that nation's covenantal responsibilities.
Those national sins that were the causes of God's
displeasure which the Church of Scotland confessed
included the following:
1. The gross atheism and ignorance of God, and
of His word and works, that is in a great part of
the inhabitants of the land, which is such that
neither law nor gospel, nor the most common
29 theCOUNSELofCHALCEDON
and necessary points of truth are understood or
known by many thousands.
2. Horrible looseness and profanity of conversation
in all sorts, against the commandments both of the
first and second table, which hath so abounded
and increased that scarce hath any of the nations
exceeded us therein.
3. The despising and slighting of Jesus Christ offered
in the gospel (which we look on as the chief and
mother sin of this nation), and the not valuing and
improving the gospel and precious ordinances of
Christ, unto the establishing and building up of
ourselves in the lively faith of Christ and power
of godliness, but either neglecting and despising
these things altogether, or else resting upon and
idolizing outward and bare forms, without studying
to know in ourselves, or to promote in others,
the kingdom of God, which is righteousness, and
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; whereby it hath
come to pass that persons not rightly qualified have
been admitted unto, and continued in, the work
of the ministry and elderships, and that public
repentance and kirk censures have been grossly
slighted, and the sacrament of the Lord's supper
fearfully polluted by the promiscuous admitting of
many ignorant and scandalous persons thereto; and
many wilfully ignorant, and openly and continuedly
profane, have been kept in the fellowship of this
kirk, contrary to the word of God ...
4. The base love of the world, and covetousness,
which hath made not only the body of the people,
but many ministers more to mind their own
things than the things of Jesus Christ, and many
masters, rulers, magistrates, officers and soldiers
in armies, exceedingly to abuse their power unto
the exercising of intolerable oppression of all kinds
on the poor, to the grinding of their faces, and
making their lives bitter to them; which fountain
of covetousness did also produce ... the fearful
perjuries in the land in the matter of valuation and
eXCIse.
5. Deep security, impenitency, obstinacy and
incorrigibleness ... under all the dreadful strokes
of God, and tokens of his indignation against us,
because of the same; so that while he continues to
smite, we are so far from humbling ourselves and
turning to him, that we wax worse and worse, and
sin more and more.
6. Although we are not ignorant that mockers of all
sorts may take occasion by this acknowledgement
of the sins of ministers to strengthen themselves
in their prejudices at our persons and callings,
and turn this unto our reproach, and that some
may misconstrue our meaning therein, as if we
did thereby intend to render the ministry of this
church base and contemptible, which is far from
our thoughts, we knowing and being persuaded
in ourselves that there are many able, godly
and faithful ministers in the land; yet, being
convinced that we are called to humble
ourselves, and to justifY the Lord in all the
contempt that he hath poured upon us -that
they who shall know our sins may not stumble
at our judgments--we have thought it our
WILL HE BE SAVIOR. .. OR JUDGE To You
is an album by Kerry Belcher which displays a vari-
ety of musical styles, and is full of spiritual encour-
agement and praises to God.
It contains music and songs by Kerry Belcher,
Jordan Belcher, Grant Belcher, Christian Belcher,
Hugh Belcher, Judy Rogers, Becky Morecraft, Anita
and C.c. Belcher, and Ron Kendall Jr.
The CD is a 2 disk set consisting of 25 songsl 21
originals, including 5 songs written andlor per-
formed by Jordan Belcher.
There is also a book, "Jordan's Journey", about the
history of Jordan's accident, near death experiences,
and the grace of God working in Jordan and her
family's life.
duty to publish this following discovery and
acknowledgment of the corruptions and sins
of ministers, that it may appear how deep
our hand is in the transgression, and that the
ministers of Scotland have no small accession
to the drawing on of these judgments that are
upon the land.
CD-$I5
CD + Book - $25
Payment for orders can be sent to:
Kerry Belcher
p.O.BOXe
Haysi, VA 24256
These songs represent some of the pleasures and
pains I've experienced over the last five years.
They say cataclysmic times make excellent fodder
for songs. I hope "they" are right.
God bless! Kerry
scotchstrings@hotmail.com
PO Box 650 Haysi, VA 24256
for live performances write or call
276-865-5144

2005 Issue 2 - The Gospel of Truth and The Nation - Counsel of Chalcedon

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