3.22.2005 | Ezekiel 14

So-called liberal Christians and their secularist allies often accuse evangelicals of attempting to institute a Christian theocracy in the United States. Except for those who are advocates of Dominion Theology, most Christians prefer to keep government and any particular sect apart. Not government and religion. Any particular (Christian) sect.

There is the distinction that is all important. I can't speak for other Protestants, but my sense is that the overwhelming majority of us in America want our government to respect religion, and, to the extent it can without being sectarian, reinforce the basic moral teachings of Scripture in public policy.

Some of these would be: Honor the traditional family. Do not allow "marriage" for sodomites. Freely acknowledging our Creator as a matter of public discourse. Eliminating abortion except to save the life of the mother -- and ensure that all children are loved and cared for. Things like rewarding moral behavior and discouraging immoral behavior.

No, not a theocracy. I am not a Christian Reconstructionist, and personally think it would be a disaster if any sect found itself in charge of a secular government. Non-sectarian, as in not favoring any particular sect. But no government of ours should be God-denying. Rather, our government should be God-affirming. If we, America, are, as our Puritan forefathers claimed, the New Israel, then it would be wise to recall these words from the prophet Ezekiel (chapter 14):

Jerusalem Will Not Be Spared
12 And the word of the LORD came to me: 13 "Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, 14 even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD.

As a Calvinist, I know that man's depravity is total. And this is only too evident when you take even a quick glance at what passes for popular culture in our country. Obscene is not too strong a term.

Pop music is banal or vulgar. Lyrics glorify human scum, killing, misogyny. The liberal elite rants against a public display of the Decalogue while celebrating vile God-denying terrorists. Millions of babies are killed through abortion, because the mothers are just too busy with their self-important lives to bring a child to term. We seem more concerned with political intricacies than with saving a helpless life. We think nothing of advancing the science of cloning without much apparent concern for the morality of playing with human life. Genocide continues in faraway places, but we can't seem to be bothered because there's no oil in Sudan or Rwanda. We bring hope for freedom to the Middle East, and most of our population just yawns and turns up the volume on their reality shows or "American Idol(atry)." And so it goes...

Please do not misunderstand. I know there are many, many good and kind people in America, as throughout the world. It's just that they seem to tolerate far too much depravity in the public square. Perhaps we have, as a people, become too kind, too merciful.

At the expense of justice. Which brings me back to God's justice, as exemplified in Ezekiel. Sooner or later, God's will will be done, and He will judge us all. Matthew 25:

31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.

Those who have done His will gain eternal life; those who have not, will "go away into eternal punishment."

It's in the Book. Are we to be goats? Or members of Jesus' flock?

| technorati tag | Christianity|