Saturday, June 20, 2009

Part 2: Christian's ignorance on political matters and secular ideas is Biblically unacceptable

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Introduction:
This is Part 2 in a three part series of my thoughts on the Church and it's fear of getting involved in political matters and controversial secular ideas like global warming to name one. Why should they get involved with topics seemingly irrelevant to the Christian religion? Because these ideas and the policies that go with them threaten our Freedoms and Liberties. The Freedoms and Liberties our Founders built into our government came from principles in the Bible. If the Church will not defend these Freedoms and Liberties from the basis of the Bible, who will? The Church must engage in the public discussion of controversial secular ideas. This article got so long that I decided to divide it up into three parts that I will post everyday for three days.
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The principles of the Bible guided our Founders when they formed our government. Principles of Freedom, Liberty, individual responsibility, and the Ten Commandments(the rule of law). Their Christian faith was not confined to church activities, it drove their public service and guided their hands as they designed our form government.

“It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” -Patrick Henry, May 1765 Speech to the House of Burgesses

Noah Webster understood well that a government that protects freedom long term can only come from Christian principles:

Let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God [Exodus 18:21]. . . . If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted . . . If our government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws. [Noah Webster, The History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie and Peck, 1832), pp. 336-337, 49]

“All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.” [Noah Webster. History. p. 339]

It is the responsibility Christians not to be ignorant in matters of government or secular ideas. Christians should be the experts. Christians are the protectors of freedom and liberty, because the freedom and liberty of America came from the principles of Christianity. If Christians aren't on the front lines in Washington DC, the state Capitols, school boards, and universities, who do they think is going to protect and defend the principles of Christianity that birthed the freedom and liberty they enjoy? There seems to be a wall of separation in Christian's minds that the Christian life and political awareness and involvement are separate matters. I believe that being educated and involved in public matters is a Biblical responsibility second only to spreading the Gospel, supporting your local Church, and personal spiritual growth. It's because Christians have not been involved enough in public places of authority and influence that we have an out of control government, and public schools and academia that are hostile to the Judeo-Christian worldview. These systems, with the help of the media, have created a populace ignorant of our real history and hostile to anything Judeo-Christian.

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -John Adams, October 11, 1798

Sources:
http://www.eadshome.com/QuotesoftheFounders.htm
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca

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