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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.
Is America a Christian Nation?
Series The Civil Magistrate
America's rebellion against God is highlighted by the vexing debate over whether the U.S. is a Christian nation. Parties to the debate argue in terms of their own preferences, generally speaking. However it is not in the ability of man to define himself as the text in Jeremiah highlights. This is the introductory sermon for a series on The Civil Magistrate.
| Sermon ID | 417161721249 |
| Duration | 45:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Jeremiah 2:1-13 |
| Language | English |
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