Lincoln Cathedral viewed from Lincoln Castle, Authored by DrMoschi, on Wikimedia Commons
It bothers me that there’s no real separation of church and state in the USA, like our founding fathers (and mothers) intended. Ironically, the separation of church and state is Biblical. Mark 12:17 reads “Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they marveled at him.” There’s more scriptures from where that came from, but the life of Jesus Christ also confirms this.
Abortion, for example, was never Caesar’s business, and it should not be the business of the US government either. I know it’s a sensitive issue but Jesus and nationalism don’t mix, same as water and oil. Maybe you could get away with nationalism using Old Testament teachings, but not the New. In today’s America, religion is mostly being used to sway political agenda and foster allegiance to a political party.
Another example is marriage, a religious institution, a covenant outlined in the Bible and consecrated by God through the church. It is a religious ceremony yet it was highjacked by government to determine how you pay taxes, who gets health insurance through employment, who is eligible for government benefits, etc. Of course gay marriage became political, because a religious covenant became a state institution. If the barrier between church and state had not been broken, then gay marriage would have never become an issue for Americans, because it would have never become relevant in the business of government or law. Christians could practice and teach their belief that homosexuality was a sin (or not) and others could practice what they believe about love and sex, both in a free country.
The real issue, the golden calf behind the politics, the merging of state and religion is about money. The USA doesn’t bow to God, they bow to the printer of money, the Federal Reserve, the privatization of America that occurred in 1917, the central bankers, and the almighty U.S. dollar which is backed by the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government. Wait, “faith” is a word we use in Christianity for what we have in God! It’s about believing without seeing. And credit comes from lenders, primarily banks. In other words, it’s the government’s ability to print and borrow without limit, and you are to have “faith” in that process…faith that the lenders will never stop lending. Ironically credit is usually only given to people and entities that can pay it back with interest. The U.S. government will never be able to pay its debt, nor will it ever be able to raise interest rates again.
The Bible is clear on this issue also. Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon is wealth, materialism and worldly gain. It is now driven by fiat money, not by supply and demand and not by production. This is going to be a real problem soon when the supply of dollars vastly outnumbers the production and extraction of real tangible goods that we need. And that’s when people will have their wake up to Jesus moment. I find it interesting that neither the church nor the state talk about this problem. And believe me, debt is a really big problem.
Rejecting religious nationalism, as a Christian, doesn’t make you any less of a Christian, and it certainly doesn’t make you a hypocrite or sinner. Don’t be misled. Rejecting Christian nationalism only means you value a God-given right: free will. It means that you see it as the Church’s role to soften people’s hearts and help them make better decisions through a relationship with Christ, rather than the government’s role to impose law over heart issues, when there are so many different factors for so many different people that come into play. The church has stepped down in its role to serve God and government has stepped up to become God, and they’re both becoming one.
Didn’t Jesus come into the world to put the law in people’s hearts because it wasn’t working through imposition? Isn’t softening and opening people’s hearts supposed to be the role of the church? Or is it all about the checkbook? I learned what I know from the New Testament and from Jesus’s teachings, not from the church. The church is not a government, nor is it a marketplace to enrich people who get chummy with billionaire politicians; it is God’s house for his work, which is love. As we all know, love cannot be imposed on the human heart… it is a choice, a decision, for everyone to make. Even if the church were a government, it’s not the United States of America.
If you feel it’s the government’s role to impose Christian beliefs then a Christian monarch with a king is a better fit for you. A monarch is subject to no earthly authority, as he derives his right to rule directly from the will of God. I’d rather have a country that moves people’s hearts and transforms their lives through the power of Christ, and his love, rather than the power of monarchy. Sadly, Christian nationalism, the push for a monarch to enrich certain people at the top, has turned many ordinary people away from Christ who might have otherwise followed his teachings. This is a real shame—not the character of Jesus Christ, but rather the craftiness of what the Bible calls a false prophet.
“Outstanding, sophisticated, and mesmerizing…a spiritual intrigue similar to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.” —ForeWord Reviews