One In Jesus

As usual, Tim has posed a number of thoughtful, challenging questions. I post my answers here because he’s pushed me to address some questions I was planning on getting to in future posts. I add my answer to Guy’s post on lobbying the government at the end because of the importance of the topic.

[PS — I’ve been very impressed with quality and spirit of nearly all the comments. This has been a much better discussion than I’d ever imagined. I’m being pushed to figure out stuff every day.]

Tim wrote,

I still believe that the defensive wars of the times of the judges had to do with the Promised Land.

The examples from the Old Testament were intended to be illustrative of what God created government — all government — to do. If government doesn’t defend us from invaders and protect us from criminals, it’s not performing its God-ordained task (Rom 13:1-7).

I can’t imagine that God meant for his children to allow non-Christians to risk their lives to defend Christians. It would seem very unfair for the Christians to let others do their dirty work for them. Continue reading →

Even though he and I disagree on several things, I have to say that Guy has posted very thoughtful, very godly comments throughout these posts. I prepared a lengthy reply to a recent comment of his, and decided it would be better to post it here.

Guy wrote —

If i witnessed such an event first-person (say the Babylonian captivity), wouldn’t it appear to me that government was wicked and i needed to rise up and stop it somehow?   Yet unbeknownst to me, God had sent that wicked-appearing government to achieve some end of His.

Maybe. But in the case of the Babylonians and Assyrians, God sent his prophets to plainly tell his people what to do and what would happen if they didn’t comply. God’s people weren’t left to speculate.

Just so, Jesus gave very specific instructions for how to respond to the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans.

There are plenty of other examples where God said regarding an invading army: don’t worry; I’ll handle it.

But there are also examples of God telling his people to raise an army and handle it by force of arms. And there are all kinds of examples in between. Continue reading →

Reflect back on the first few posts where we learned that Lipscomb and Yoder point out that the Bible says governments will be placed under Jesus’ feet, arguing that in a sense all governments — good and bad — are the enemy of Jesus. Consider, for example —

(Col 2:15)  And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

(Eph 6:12)  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

The government sure seems like an enemy of Jesus!

On the other hand, the authorities are also God’s creation —

(Col 1:16)  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

And then, in Romans 13, Paul tells us to obey the government — God’s enemy! This is a truly paradoxical attitude toward the powers and authorities. Why would God make an enemy for himself and then tell his children to obey his enemy?

Now, imagine that the Christian church were finally victorious, having converted every living soul on earth. Assuming that Jesus didn’t immediately return (I’m not inviting posts on millennialism of any kind), would we still need government? Continue reading →