Again, let's stand for the reading of God's Word, and it's Jeremiah 2, verses 1-13. Well, let's hear the Word of the Lord. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee with the kindness of thy youth and the love of thy marriage, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was as a thing hallowed unto the Lord, and its firstfruits, and all they eat it, shall offend. Evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? For they said not, where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a desert, and wasteland, through a dry land, and by the shadow of death, by a land that no man passeth through, and where no man dwelleth? And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof, and the commodities of the same. But when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. The priests said not, Where is the Lord? And they that should minister the law knew me not. The pastors also offended against me, and the prophets prophesied in veil, and went after things that do not profit. Wherefore, I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and I will plead with your children's children, For go ye to the isles of Chittim, and behold, and send unto Kedar, and take diligent heed, and see whether there be any such thing. Hath a nation changed their gods which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. O ye heavens, be astonished at this, be afraid and utterly confounded, saith the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to dig them pits, even broken pits, that can hold no water. And that ends the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Father, we pray that we might understand the text and make use of it in our own circumstances and our own day. Be with us in that, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. And please be seated. Well, in our treatment of the doctrines of the Confession of Faith, we come to what is the final segment or the final series in this thing, and that is those doctrines of Scripture relative to civil polity, as they are described in chapter 23 of the Confession of Faith. And that chapter is entitled, The Civil Magistrate. Now, in treating this topic, we're reminded, then, of the Apostle's words when he wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 to 17. And that's, I think, a good place to begin. For the whole Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable to teach, to convince, to correct, and to instruct in righteousness, that the man of God may be absolute, being made perfect unto all good works." And that's what Scripture says about itself, that all Scripture is profitable for all things. And to that we can add the words of E.C. Wines from his work, and it was book two of the Organic Law of the Hebrew State. And Wines said this, it corresponds with the goodness of God in other respects that he should make a special revelation on this subject. I hold it to have been an important part of the legislation of the Most High as the Lawgiver of Israel, to show how civil authority among men should be created, and how it should be administered so as best to promote the welfare and happiness of a nation, and also how the relations between the rulers and ruled should be adjusted and regulated. Now, what Paul says to Timothy and what Wines claims for the Old Testament is a simple thing. It's simply that the Bible speaks to the question of civil authority. That God in His Word makes a revelation about nations, about the structure of nations, about how power is to be regulated among men, about the objects and ends of civil polity. All of this is material from the Word of God. All of this is central to what God did in revealing Himself and revealing the history of His own people for us to read. And it's not in a roundabout way, or as an afterthought, but it's with a direct intention, deliberately, that he reveals the issues related to civil quality in his words. Now the claim is that God then has made a revelation about civil government. And men who would be free must pay attention to that revelation. Well, the question we want to ask today is a simple one. So what? Okay, we find ourselves as the off-scouring and butt of the modern American state. In other words, I say God has made revelation about civil polity, and you say, yes, but I'm just a Christian in the United States of America. I'm a Christian, and we are under the heel of the pagans. I'm a Christian, and America has rejected God. And we're the off-scouring, and we're nothing. And we have nothing left of any Christian hope or Christian society. So what if God's revelation speaks about civil authority? If I lived in a nation that paid attention to the Bible, its revelation might be important to me, but what difference does it make that the Bible speaks when no one listens? Okay? Now I'm trying to put that in as poignant terms as I can to show you what the problem is that we're dealing with and how Christians are in the straits that they are in. But the answer to that question might surprise you. It is not of primary importance what the pagan element in America does. The Church of Jesus Christ produces history in terms of its own obedience or disobedience. Okay, is that surprising? Let's look at Psalm 81. Psalm 81, beginning at verse 8. Here, O my people, and I will protest unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me. and will have no strange God in thee, neither worship any strange God. For I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hear my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto the hardness of their heart, and they have walked in their own counsels. O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways, I would soon have humbled their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have been subject unto Him, and their time should have endured forever. And God would have fed them with the fat of wheat, and with honey out of the rock would I have sufficed thee." Now you see, that's a text. that says to the Christian church, if you love Me and obey Me, I will humble My enemies before you. If you love Me and obey Me, the pagan element doesn't matter. I will subdue them under you. I say, well, that might have been the Old Testament. That's certainly not the New Testament. And turn to 2 Corinthians 10. Nevertheless, though we walk in the flesh, yet we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God that cast down holes, casting down the imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having ready the vengeance against all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." looking on things after the outward appearance. Now, you see the situation here? This same promise is repeated to the New Testament church in 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3-6. God says to the New Testament church, when your obedience is fulfilled, I will pass down all of your enemies. I'm ready with a vengeance against all disobedience when you obey. And that is the circumstance of our day of the Christian church in the New Testament as well as it was the Christian church in Israel in the Old Testament. The difference being that the promise there was restricted to one nation. The promise here is for the whole world. So the lesson of this thing, in the first place, is a very simple one. It's the lesson of 2 Chronicles 7.14, which is printed on the front of our church bulletin and has been there for 15 or so years. If my people, among whom my name is called upon, do humble themselves and pray and seek my presence and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear in heaven and be merciful to their sin and will heal their land." See, the problem we face in the world is not that the pagans dominate the world. It's not the ascendancy of the enemies of Christ. That is emblematic of the problem, but that's not the problem. The problem is the Christian Church and the rebellion and disobedience of the Christian Church. The problem is that the Christian Church is filled with heresies, that they've resurrected, that they've regurgitated the ancient heresies from the first five centuries of the Church, and that they do this in the name of reform. The problem is that they've turned from their own confessions and from the truth of the Reformation. The problem is they've never been reformed in the first place. And they still worship the Queen of Heaven, who is Stella Maris or some other Our Lady of something, who's appeared somewhere with some phony miracles, like the foxly rood with the cables in it to make the eye wink. The problem is the Christian church. And the dominance of enemies, the enemies of Christ, in America, in our day, is related to the rebellion and disobedience of the Christian church. That's the beginning point that we need to make here. And so it is, in fact, of vital importance that we understand what the Bible says about civil government and civil politics. It's of vital importance because what the church believes, what the church confesses, how the church acts in terms of the Word of God is what produces history. You see? And so even though we are under the foot of the enemies, that's only temporary if the church repents. And again, so that's important to us as we go along. I could have turned into the curses of Deuteronomy 28. Verses 15-44, I don't think I will for the sake of time, but you understand that we are experiencing those curses. It's for our own disobedience and rebellion. It's for what goes on in the Christian church in the world that we have been given into the hands of strangers who get high up above us, and they are the dominant factor of our society. Well, in setting forth the introductory material for this study, we can begin with another simple question. And that's a fun question to ask. Is America a Christian nation? That is to say, is it legitimate for me to apply the curses of Deuteronomy to us? Can I legitimately claim, as I do, that the problem is the church? and that our situation has to do with church faithfulness and not otherwise? Is that a legitimate claim? And that's where we can begin on this. Now, generally speaking, when men answer the question, in other words, if you ask the question, out in the world, is America a Christian nation? They're going to answer this question in terms of what they prefer. Okay? For example, if you Google the question, There's a huge debate over this issue. Is America a Christian nation? The pagans say no. And why do they say no? Because they hate Christ themselves, and that's their commitment in this thing. And so they don't want to say anything about a Christian history. They don't want to know anything about a Christian history. They're pleased simply to say, well, there's no religious test for office, and the Constitution doesn't mention Christ, and there was a treaty of Tripoli, and so that's all we need to say no. And again, it's their personal commitment that they're trying to to make writ large, you know, read out there in the society. Then on the other hand, the Christians say yes, because that's their commitment, and they're there making the argument that, well, you know, yeah, but the Constitution in the end said, in the year of our Lord, You know, and so there was a testimony that Christ was Lord with the date. And then the pagans say, well, you know, that that was added later on. That wasn't part of what the convention voted on. And so back and forth, the argument goes, is America a Christian nation? Now, again, I say you can Google this and it's fun if you want to if you want to read some of this stuff. But I did. I wanted to give you a sample of what I'm saying here. And so there's a posting on CNN, some kind of a blog or website that CNN operates, that gives you the concept of a variety of answers on this question. And they introduce it this way, they say, the scholars below have spent years reflecting on the intersection of American religion and nationalism. Their answers to the question invite us to examine the motivations behind the controversy. Why do so many people think the country's Christian history is so important? And that's how they introduce this thing. And so then you have a survey of these teachers, professors, who have written books, and what they say. Amanda Porterfield is a professor of religion at Florida State University. Her most recent book is, Conceived in Doubt, Religion and Politics in the New American Nation. And so here's what she says, if we're talking about 13 colonies belonging to the British Empire, whose king presided over an imperial church, then yes, British citizens residing in these colonies lived under Christian rule. Those colonies were founded as outposts of a Christian nation. With American independence, however, the British monarchy lost control over its American subjects. Champions of American liberty then celebrated their religious, as well as political, independence. In the popular pamphlet, some historians credit with overcoming American hesitance about severing ties with Britain, Common Sense, Thomas Paine sheared freedom from the degradation and lessening of ourselves under British rule, proclaiming monarchy in every instance to be the potpourri of government. Hostile to the political theology of both the Catholic Church and Protestant Kings, Paine celebrated a vision for America that reflected the democratic God of nature and reason. Paine was more outspoken and less diplomatic in his religious skepticism than others. Most notably, Thomas Jefferson sought common ground with Baptists who resented government establishment of religion. And Jefferson contributed voluntarily to his local parish after Virginia law no longer required him to do so, even though his own philosophic views were closer to atheism than Paine's. Jefferson explained his support for religious freedom in practical terms. It does me no injury for my neighbor to believe in twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. Now, in any of these quotes, I have dots. That's not the end of the quote, but I've heard enough from Amanda Porterfield at this point. But you understand the kind of argumentation that you're going to get. On the one hand, we accept the fact, or we have to do something with the fact, that English monarchs were head of the church. And that the whole colonization effort was the effort of Christianity coming to a new world. We have to do something with that fact, and we have to interpret the vision for America in terms of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson in order to make our concept of things stick. Stephen K. Green teaches law and history at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He is author of a recent book, Inventing a Myth of Christian America, The Myth of Religious Founding. If, by the question one is asking, whether the Founding Fathers relied on Protestant Christian principles in drafting the essential documents and in organizing the new governments, then the answer is a resounding no. The writings of the period, 1765 to 1790, including speeches, debates, letters, pamphlets, and even sermons, reflect the overwhelming influence of Enlightenment, Whig, and classical Republican theories. Okay? Dot, dot, dot. Stephen Green's a liar. Okay? That's the simple answer to what he has to say. And he knows better. But it's a faith commitment, and again, this is what I'm trying to illustrate to you. The answer that men give reflects more upon themselves and their own commitment than it does the reality or the understanding of what the circumstances of our founding are. Kevin M. Krauss, professor of history at Princeton University, is author of the recent book, One Nation Under God, How Corporate America Invented Christian America. Princeton. Demographically speaking, America certainly resembled a nation of Christians at the time of its founding, and has ever since. But it's a rather different proposition to claim that the Founders established the new American government as a Christian nation. Clearly they did not. To be sure, the Declaration of Independence appealed to the laws of nature and nature's God, and asserted that all men had basic rights, quote, endowed by their creator, unquote. But the Constitution, the document that actually enumerated and enshrined those rights, lacked even those vaguely drawn references to a deity. The closest approximation came in its date, which was presented in the standard style of the 18th century in the year of our Lord. Even that lone mention was a late addition as the draft voted on at the Constitutional Convention lacked any reference to the Lord. Meanwhile, in the text of the Constitution, religion was deliberately kept at arm's length from the state. In radical departures from the heiress norms, there would be no religious test for federal office holders, no establishment of any national religion, and no congressional interference with the individual citizens' free exercise of their own faith. This was no accident. Despite their respect for religion and their belief in the divine origins of human rights, many of the Founding Fathers worried that religion would corrupt the state and conversely that the state would corrupt religion. In his longest rumination on the topic in the Federalist Papers, for instance, James Madison challenged the idea that religion and politics would lead men to cooperate for their common good, and asserted instead that it would make them vex and oppress each other. Accordingly, Madison praised the new Constitution for keeping faith out of the federal office holding. which would welcome individuals of every description, whether native or adoptive, whether young or old, and without regard to poverty or wealth, or to any particular profession of religious faith. If the founders had not made their stance on this Christian nation issue clear enough in the Constitution and Federalist Papers, they certainly did in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli. So again, men find what they set out to find. John Fee teaches history at Messiah's College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction. And again, Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania. Such a question is inevitably asking a historian to take a debate which did not reach any degree of intensity until the 1980s, and superimpose it on the 18th century world of men who built the American Republic. The Founding Fathers lived in a world that was fundamentally different from our own. It was a world in which there was largely only one religious game in town, Christianity. Yes, there were some tiny Jewish communities located in seaport towns, and it is likely that a form of Islam was practiced among African slaves. But much of the culture was defined by the powerful influence of Christianity, especially Protestant Christianity. The founders also had very different views about the relationship between Christianity and the nation they were forging. As I tell my students, we need to stop treating them as a monolithic whole. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were strong advocates for the complete separation of church and state. John Adams and George Washington believed that religion was essential to the cultivation of a virtuous citizenry, an essential trait of any successful republic. It is true that the founders, by virtue of the fact that they signed the Declaration of Independence, probably believed in a God who presided over nature and was the author of human rights, would one day judge the dead and govern the world by his providence. Those who signed the United States Constitution endorsed the idea that there should be no religious test, Christian or otherwise, required to hold federal office. Those responsible for the First Amendment also championed the free exercise of religion and rejected a government-sponsored church. Yet anyone who wants to use the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to argue against the importance of religion in American founding must reckon with all those state constitutions. such as those of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and South Carolina, that require office holders to affirm the inspiration of the Old and New Testaments, obey the Christian Sabbath, or contribute money to support a state church. It is clear that some of the founders wanted only Christians to be running their state governments. Other founders rejected the idea of the separation of church and state. Virginia rejected all testos and religious establishments. History is complex. It does not conform easily to the kinds of yes or no answers that most Americans ask or most Americans want when they ask the question, you see. And so you get an idea then of what the situation is when you ask the question, is America a Christian nation? The raging debate, and as this author points out, that really came to the forefront in the 80s, the raging debate is more a litmus test on the person. And this is true of Christians. Christians answer based on their own commitments, but it's more a test of the person than it is an answer in terms of the reality of America's founding and institutions and so on and so forth. That's what we're going to take up this morning, the question, is America a Christian nation? And our text today furnishes a solution to what is otherwise a vexing debate. Now, if you'll notice then, in Jeremiah 2, the prophet is called to declare God's word to what is an apostate generation in which he lives. Verse 1 is his commission. You know, and again, moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying, and then two, go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem saying. So Jeremiah is called by God to go to this people. And then we can note the historical setting or situation of this call. Now in the first place, Jeremiah is a prophet to the southern kingdom, and he has prophecy in the time of Josiah, and then the sons of Josiah that reign, Jehoiakim, and ultimately Zedekiah. And so that's the time. It's the time of an apostasy. It's the time when people are going into captivity, when the government is about to fall. And then notice the historical situation as it's related in verses 2-3. Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee with the kindness of thy youth and the love of thy marriage, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was as a thing hallowed unto the Lord, and his firstfruits, all they that eat it shall offend. evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord. And so the argument here is that in the beginning of your nation, God was the God of Israel. Now their present apostasy, verses 4 to 8, is in contrast to their beginning. And again, hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob. And all the families of the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? For they said not, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a desert, and a wasteland, through a dry land, and by the shadow of death, by a land that no man pass through, and where no man dwell? And I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof, and the commodities of the same. But when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. The priests said not, Where is the Lord? And they that should minister the law knew me not. The pastors also offended against me, and the prophets prophesied in vail, and went after things that did not profit." Now you understand the situation. They've corrupted themselves. They've taken the prosperity of the land and used it for themselves. They've turned from God. They've erected false gods. They've erected veil worship. The priests are in it for their own profit. They're not doing anything that God gave them the land in order to do. I mean, think of the contrast, you know, if you want a contrast, think of the contrast between Abraham and Ahab in the Northern Kingdom. Or think of the contrast between Abraham and Jehoiakim, who, when Jeremiah scrolled, the Word of God came to him, he cut it with a knife and threw it in the fire. Did Abraham do those things? It's hard to believe that Jehoiakim is the descendant of Abraham. That's how corrupt this people are. And so evil... And strange is this apostasy that God reasons with them. Look at verses 10 and 11 here. Go to the isles of Chittim and behold and send on the Kedar and take diligent heed and see whether there be such things. Hath any nation changed their gods which are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit." And so you can go to the pagan nations, and they still worship the false gods, but they've always worshipped. And idolatry and wickedness and lies and stupidity are never questioned by men. And yet this people, given the revelation of the living and true God, has turned from it and cast it aside from themselves. Pagan nations are steadfast with gods which are no gods. What's up with you? That's the argument. Now the point is clear here. Israel had rejected Jehovah. That much is clear in our text. Israel had rejected Jehovah. But now let's ask the question. Were they then therefore Jehovah's nation or not? Look at verse 11. Has any nation changed their gods which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory. My people, God says. And then in verse 9, Wherefore, I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and I will plead with your children's children. You see, this Jewish nation is God's people. until God Himself repudiates them. One generation, several generations of apostates cannot change the thing. You can have your Jehoiachins that reign on the throne and throw God's Word into the fire. You can have your Ahabs that set up Baal worship You can have your Judas king that closed down the temple and set up the altars in the high places and worshiped foreign deities. You can have your Ahaz that brings an altar from Damascus and sets it in the temple to replace the one that was given God by revelation. You can have all these things. But you're still God's people until God repudiates you. You're still God's people until God says, I'm done, and you're no longer My people. And of course, if we understand then, the times of Jeremiah, God says here, I'm yet going to plead with your children's children. God puts two more generations out there. Now the reality of this thing is, turn to Matthew 21 and verse 43. The reality of this thing is that God did, through the captivity, turn men back to Himself. And He did not repudiate this people, though they had repudiated Him. Matthew 21 and verse 43, Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation which shall bring forth the fruits thereof. Now you see, this is... 500 years, more than 500 years after Jeremiah, when Jesus Christ finally says, I'm taking the Kingdom of God from you. So God did not repudiate the nation. God said, I will speak to your children's children. You see, though you've rejected Me, though you've prophesied and veiled, though you've corrupted yourselves and done all these things, you're still My people until I say you're not My people. And in God's providence, he turned a generation later, and it went another 500 years until he said, now I'm done with you. Now I'm taking the kingdom from you and giving it to another nation. Now the same thing is true about the American nation we call the United States. It is the heir of Protestant Christianity from the European continent. The problematics it dealt with in its founding and organization were Christian. They were dealing with the problems of Christianity in the nations of the old world. They were dealing with the problems of piratical Christian kings. They were dealing with the divine right of kings. They were dealing with sacero-papism that came out of the Protestant Reformation. You see, the problematics, the issues that they were dealing with were the issues of a Christian nation. You see? And regardless of the nature of what the Christians set up as a solution, and of course that's what we ultimately want to understand. We want to understand whether the solution they set up is biblical. We want to understand whether they, in trying to solve the problems of the old world, went to the Scripture and gave a biblical solution or not. So we're going to turn there and study that and say, okay, now what did they come up with? Is this biblical? That's what we want to understand. But you can't escape the fact that that's what they were dealing with. This nation was the heir of Protestant Christianity. That the problematics were Christian problematics. That the issues, divine right of kings, that was a Christian argument by Christian tyrants of the Stuart monarchy. That satyropapism, that was the tutors. That was Henry saying, I am the head of the church. And that's what the English were dealing with when they came here. Charles Bancroft says, John Calvin was the founder of America. Book one of his twelve volume series on the history of the United States and its founding. So again, regardless of the nature of what the Christians set up as the answer to the problems of state, It is a Christian nation. Our history reflects how the Christian church has treated the revelation of God with respect to civil polity. It reflects what the Christians did, how they understood the Word of God, how they answered the problems of church state in adjustment in the new world that they were given. And that, incidentally, was a developing answer. It's not just that the problems of the old world were static, they had already occurred, and now we started colonies, and now we're going to answer the questions. It was dynamic. The history was going on at the same time. Jamestown in 1607. Plymouth in 1620. Well, the English Civil War wasn't for another 25 years. You see, in the glorious revolution with 1688, the colonies were already flourishing here on these shores as England was working out the problems of the state. Men actually left Virginia colonies to go and fight on the side of the king. You see? And so this is the circumstance we're dealing with. America's history is tied up with England from the beginning, and we have never had a really separate independence. We have never been able to separate ourselves from the problems of the English nation that came to the forefront with the Protestant Reformation. This is a Christian nation whether they like it or not. This is a Christian nation whether Christians like it or not, whether pagans like it or not. The reality is this is the background and you can't understand anything about where we are in our world unless you understand that's the background, that's what we're dealing with. Now, the fact that our nation is a Christian nation doesn't mean that our institutions are biblical. Okay, and that's another point that has to be emphasized. You know, men defend, and you get this in this debate back and forth, men defend the Christian history of the nation with a blind assumption. They assume that the Christian part is the part that's right, and they will say, we were Christians, but men have turned away from that. And it is the fact that men are apostates now that's the problem. Okay? Now, I challenge you, find me one, just find me one writing from some Christian organization that's taking up these issues that doesn't plead that situation. I guarantee you, you'll not find it. Everywhere we turn, we say, well, we were founded as a Christian nation. We were founded on the principles of God. We were founded on these things, and we have turned from the principles upon which we are founded, and that explains our problem. There was faith back here, and men have turned from the faith, and that explains the problem that we're in. And I'm telling you something entirely different than that. As a matter of fact, the problems we have now are related to the founding. Just like the problem is the Christian church, not the pagans. The pagans dominate the Christian church because of the Christian church's obedience. Well, in the same way, the problems we have now are related to the errors of the Christian Church in the founding of our institutions, and this is the natural outworking of the errors that were made there because they were unbiblical things. Because the Christians did not understand and did not properly interpret the Scripture, did not apply it correctly, and now you just have the scourge developing over 200 years or more. We suffer under the error of what Christians erected. And what we have is the outworking of Christian errors. What Christians did that was not biblical, but I'm getting ahead of myself. That's what we'll be exploring in the series as we continue. Let's pray. And Father, we do ask that you would bless us in this study, that we would have patience in our understanding and with ourselves that with the idea that this is worthy for our study as Christians. We pray that you would impress upon us the use of the scripture in these things, its sufficiency, and your mercy in revealing to us the issues of civil polity. And we pray also that we would be given wisdom and diligence in attending to these things. that you would enlighten our minds and open our understanding and bless us as we study. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.