Mixing Politics and Religion | Part 2 | Separation of Church and State
This morning we are going to continue through our series “Mixing Politics and Religion”. I’m doing this series because we’re getting ready to go into this election season. This series is not about the candidates or endorsing anybody or anything like that. But since we’ve got politics on our mind, I thought it’d be good to study this topic out. And I actually do this once every 4 years on election year. I will preach a political type series. I thought it’d be good for us to learn about Government and what the Bible teaches about Government.
Last week I preached a sermon entitled “I pledge allegiance”. And we learned about the fact that the Bible teaches that our allegiance should be to God completely. Our soul, heart, body. Everything we have belongs to God. Our affection can be given to our countrymen and there is limited authority that has been given to Government. We’ll talk more about that next week. Today I’m preaching on the subject of “Separation of Church and State”. And I think probably everyone in this room has heard that phrase of “separation of church and state” before.
I want to begin by showing you this verse. Psalm 89:15 “15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound:”. Notice what the Bible says “they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.”. When you see that phrase “the people”, it’s a reference to the nation. Even in our Governmental Documents, it will refer to the country as “We the people”. And here he says “15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.”. The Bible teaches that a people are blessed based on their attachment and connection to God. So this idea of separation of church and state is something that just from that verse we can see goes against God. Because the doctrine of separation of church and state says that we must separate Government and our country from religion and from church and from God. But the Bible says “15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.”. So the people should walk in the light of God, not separate from God.
Let me just give you some kind of introductory statements. 1st of all, I want to explain to you and kind of give you some context in regards to religious liberty in the United States of America. And specifically when we refer to religious liberty, we are referring generally to the 1st Amendment. Now in the Constitution, it was given 10 initial Amendments and then more Amendments after that. They were meant to state the rights of the people and really to limit Government from what it can’t do. And the 1st Amendment says this “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the right of the people to peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.
And you know, when you read that 1st Amendment it almost seems like there’s all these random things put into there. The interesting thing, and I’m not teaching on the Constitution this morning although we’re going to refer to it a lot. The interesting thing is that the 1st Amendment is honestly all about religion. Because if you think about it, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech”. That’s something that we do as Bible believing Christians. We preach the Word of God. “the right of the people or of the press” – That’s something that’s usually applied to newspapers and media but we use the press. We use media. We use YouTube. We use those things.
“The right of the people to peaceably assemble”. That’s what we’re doing right now. “and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. That’s something we’ll talk about next week which is something that we are biblically supposed to do. And again, I’m not preaching on that. I just thought that was interesting. As you look at all those things, they might seem random but they’re all actually connected to what we do as Christians. But the 1st part of the 1st Amendment is what’s often referred to as the religious liberty aspect.
I want you to understand this because I’m going to get to the Bible here in a minute. I want you to understand the context of where we’re heading. The religious liberty aspect of the 1st Amendment is divided into two clauses. One is referred to as the establishment clause. The other one is referred to as the free exercise clause. So if you read the 1st Amendment, the 1st part of that religious liberty part says “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. That’s the establishment clause. What that means is that the federal Government was not allowed to establish a national religion or a national denomination. They are prohibited from establishing a religion. That’s the establishment clause.
Then the 2nd part says “prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. That is the free exercise clause meaning that they can’t stop people from exercising their religion. So they can’t establish religion at a federal level. That’s the establishment clause. And they can’t stop people which is the free exercise clause. They can’t stop people from exercising their religion. Again, this is not the Bible. This is the 1st Amendment. This is the Constitution. I realize that most churches get those things mixed up but they’re actually different. The Bible and the documents of our founding nation are not the same thing.
Now why do I bring this up? You say “I thought you were preaching about the separation of church and state?”. The reason that I bring up the 1st Amendment and the religious liberty clauses of the establishment clause and the free exercise clause is because this phrase of separation of church and state has been closely tied in to the religious liberty clause or aspects of the 1st Amendment. Let me just read to you a tiny article from Wikipedia. This is just to show you kind of the current view in regards to this phrase “the separation of church and state”. Here’s how they explain it.
“Separation of churches and state is paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson and used by others”. And we’re going to get into separation of state and where that phrase came from. But this is how they explain it. They say it’s paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson and used by others in expressing and understanding of the intent and function of the establishment and free exercise clause of the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution. And it reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.
So here’s what I want to understand. When the founding fathers gave us the Constitution and when the Amendments were created, they wrote in what we refer to today as the establishment clause or the free exercise clause. They wrote that the Federal Government was prohibited from establishing a national religion and they couldn’t prohibit the practice of religion. Today people refer to this as
“separation of church and state”. They’ll say “Well, that explains the 1st Amendment. That explains the establishment clause and the free exercise clause.”. So if you ask a judge today at the federal level or the supreme court what is “separation of church and state”, they’ll say it’s the application of the 1st Amendment of the religious liberty clauses.
With that in mind, let me teach you this idea of “separation of church and state”. Number one in regards to separation of church and state. Separation of church and state is not a concept found in scripture. Now I know saying that hurts all of those patriotic “God bless America” Christians. However, if you’re going to be a Bible-believing Christian, if you’re going to be a Baptist then you need to be a Biblicist. That means the Bible is our final authority. You have to be able to come to grips with the fact that there are some things that we believe as Americans, that we’ve been taught as patriots, that are not found in the Bible. And religious liberty is one of them. “Separation of church and state” is not a concept found in scripture. I know people get this idea that everything the founding fathers wrote was based off scripture but that is not true. You say how can that be? Let me give you some examples.
Exodus is scripture but it is also law. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, that is the law of God. It’s not called the law just because it’s kind of a fancy spiritual term. It’s called the law because these were actually the law of the land for the nation of Israel. See, when God established a nation, people get this idea that it was just like America. But the problem with that is that God established the Nation of Israel, not America. It’s not something that we have to theoretically think about and say “If God established a nation…”. All we have to do is open up the Old Testament to see what God would do if he established a nation.
Exodus 20. God is giving the 10 commandments, the initial 10 laws or the most important laws for them. There are more laws but this is just to get them started. They just came out of Egypt and he’s establishing a new nation. And he says just to get you started, let me give you the 1st 10 commandments. These are not spiritual commands necessarily. They are spiritual but this was the law of the land. This is what the nation of Israel was to follow. So let me ask you this question. When we look at the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution which says that you can’t establish a religion, you can’t keep people from exercising whatever religion they want, is that what the Bible teaches? Well, let’s look at the 10 commandments.
Exodus 20:3 “3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”. Does that sound like religious liberty to you? The 1st Amendment which says you can worship whatever God you want vs. the 1st commandment which says that you can’t worship any God other than the God of the Bible. “3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”. Let’s look at the 2nd commandment. “4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”. That is the 1st part of the 2nd Commandment. The 2nd part is found in verse 5 “5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;”. These were 2 commandments, the federal law, that God is giving the newly established nation of Israel and they’re both religious. They’re not freedom of religion. They’re “thou shalt not have any other Gods before me”. And by the way, you can’t make any graven images or bow down to them.
Let’s look at the 3rd Commandment. “7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”. This is like saying “Oh my ___”. By the way, let me just say this. Christians shouldn’t walk around saying “Oh my ___” because you stubbed your toe. That’s taking the name of the Lord thy God in vain. We are only to use the name of God when talking about God or referring to God. We’re not to use his name as a curse word. And he says “7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”. That sounds like a pretty religious law.
Verse 8. “8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”. And again, that was a religious observance that they held in the Old Testament of keeping the Sabbath. Here’s what’s interesting. You’ve got 10 commandments. The 1st four are religious and they’re not religious freedom. If anything, they are anti-religious freedom. He’s saying you can’t worship whatever God you want. You can’t worship whatever idol you want. You can’t just take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. You’re required to remember the Sabbath. All I’m trying to explain to you and help you to understand is that the concept of religious liberty isn’t biblical. You say “Pastor, you’re a Baptist preacher. Are you really preaching against religious liberty?”. Excuse me for preaching the Bible. I’m not preaching against religious liberty or saying that we need to get rid of it. Look, there’s lots of things that need to be done in the United States of America before we get back to the Bible. But please understand this. Just acknowledge and admit that the religious liberty is not a concept found in the Bible. God did not tell the children of Israel that they have the freedom to worship whatever God they want. The 1st commandment says you don’t have the freedom to worship whatever God you want. And you say “Well I don’t know. I mean the ten commandments. Maybe that’s more symbolic.”.
The Bible does not teach “separation of church and state”. God didn’t say “Hey, I’m going to give you the 10 Commandments but I’m not going to mention myself because I believe that Governments should be separate from God.”. No, the 1st four commandments are all about God. “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. That shall not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.”. He doesn’t believe in separating God from Government and the Bible does not teach religious liberty.
Deuteronomy 13:6 “6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;”. Now wait a minute, why is he enticing secretly? Don’t you have freedom of religion? And the answer is no. In the nation of Israel there was no freedom of religion. “thou shalt have no other Gods before me.”. And then God says “Let me just spell it out for you. If someone tries to entice thee secretly”. Look at verse 7. “7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; 8 Thou shalt not consent unto him,” That means give permission or agree. “nor hearken unto him;”. That means listen to him. “neither shall thine eye pity him,”. You shouldn’t feel sorry for him. “neither shalt thou spare,”. You should not make any exceptions for him. “neither shalt thou conceal him:”. You should not hide him. You should not help him.
Verse 9 “9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.”. You say but what about religious liberty? It’s not taught in the Bible. The Bible does give the death penalty for some things including worshipping false gods. Look, I’m not saying that we live under the rules of the nation of Israel. The law is the nation of Israel. And if you’re confused by that then come back next week. We’re going to talk about how we as Christians should live in a Government that is non-Christian. We’re going to look at that. And I’m not saying that it’s our job to uphold the laws of the Old Testament. But if God were to establish a nation, these would be his laws because this is the law he put in place when he established a nation.
Deuteronomy 13:9-10 “9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.”. You say, how does God feel about it? Well let’s see in verse 10. “10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.”.
Look at verse 5. “5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.”. And please understand me. I’m just going to say this although it doesn’t matter how many times I say this because people take my sermons out of context to push agendas. I am not standing up here telling you that we need to enforce the laws of God in a Government that doesn’t hold to the laws of God. Jesus didn’t believe that. Paul didn’t believe that. I’m going to prove that to you from the Bible next week. I’m going to show you as Christians living under a non-Christian Government that we are to obey the laws. There are responsibilities that God gave to the government. This was one of them. In the federal law of the nation of Israel, you’re not allowed to worship a false god. The punishment was death. And I’m showing this to you just to show you that the concept of religious liberty is not found in the Bible. The Bible does not teach separation of church of state. The Bible does not teach religious liberty.
Today you listen to patriotic Pastors and Christians and they make statements like this. “Well I don’t like what you have to say but I’ll die for you”. Is that what the Bible teaches? Does the Bible say “I don’t like what you teach but I’ll send my kids across the ocean to die to give you the right to say.”? I don’t know where you got that from. You didn’t get it from the Bible. “I don’t like the God you worship but I’ll die to give you the freedom to worship that God.”. Excuse me. I’m not sending my kids across the ocean to die for a Hindu or Muslim. You say “You’re anti-military.”. I’m a veteran. Maybe that gives me the right to say this. I’m not sending my kids across an ocean to give a Hindu the right to worship his idol. I missed the part of the Bible where I’m supposed to send my kids off to die to give a Muslim the right to worship his false god or to give the Hindu the right to worship his false god or to give an atheist the right to worship no god. You didn’t get that from the Bible. Religious liberty is not a concept found in scripture. You can say it’s Constitutional or patriotic. You can have a piece of apple pie and say God Bless America but you didn’t get it from the Bible. Separation of church and state is not a concept found in scripture. The Bible does not teach separation of church and state. The Bible does not teach religious liberty.
Some people are already offended. That’s fine. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Separation of church and state is not only not a concept found in scripture; point number one. Here’s point number two. “Separation of church and state” is not even a concept found in our Constitution. Separation of church and state is not even something, the way that it’s applied today, is not even a concept that was meant to be applied the way it is. Now let’s just talk. Let me give you a little bit of a history lesson. Where did the phrase “separation of church and state come from?”. Many Americans, and we won’t take a survey this morning, but if you were to ask the average American where are these words “separation of church and state” written, the average American would say “The Constitution”. Most people when surveyed think the phrase “separation of church and state” is found in the Constitution. It’s not. Or they’ll say “the Declaration of Independence”. They think it’s found somewhere in our founding documents. It’s not. You say where does that phrase come from of “Separation of church and state”?.
Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter when he was President responding to the Danbury Baptist Association. The Danbury Baptist Association in the early 1800s had written the new President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Their concerns were that Thomas Jefferson was going to lead or allow for a development of a national denomination similar to what England had with the Anglican Church. What we call the Anglican Church, they called the Church of England. And they had some concerns about that. So they wrote the newly appointed president asking if he would protect them from having a national denomination imposed upon us by the Government. Here’s what Thomas Jefferson wrote back in a personal letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.
He said “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”. See that phrase “separation of church and state”? This was not and is not found in the Constitution. Not found in the declaration of independence. Not found in any other founding document of this country. It’s from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist saying “You don’t have to worry about us establishing a federal denomination. He’s referring to the 1st Amendment. He says “The 1st Amendment does not allow us to establish a federal religion.”. And he uses the phrase “thus building a wall of separation between church and state”.
Now you say, “Well it sounds then like separation of church and state is connected to religious liberty.”. And here’s what I want you to understand. First of all. Where that phrase came from was not a founding document but from a personal letter written by the President Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association. But let me help you understand how the 1st Amendment was originally intended to be interpreted. And again, I’m not a “God Bless America Patriot.”. I love America as the nation I live in. I love Americans and I don’t want them to die and go to hell. But my allegiance is to God. I preached that sermon last week. I’m not going to re-preach it again. But I think it’s wise for us to try to understand this. When the founders gave us these documents, how did they originally intend for those documents to be interpreted? The founders, and please understand this, the founders defined the words church and religion as a specific denomination not generally speaking about God or Christianity in general.
I’m going to read to you some quotes from a book called “Original Intent” written by David Barton. Here’s what it says. “The records are succinct. They clearly document that the founder’s purpose for the 1st Amendment is not compatible with the interpretation given by contemporary courts. The founders intended only to prevent the establishment of a single national denomination not to restrain public religious expression.”. So please understand this. Today, starting at about the 1960’s, the federal Government, the supreme court decided that the religious liberty clauses of the establishment clause and the free exercise clause meant that we’re not allowed to have God in any sort of public arena. They determined that there can be no mention of God, there can be no mention of the Bible, there can be no mention of Christianity in Government at all. And they point back and say “separation of church and state”. The problem with that is that when you read the records from the founding era, it’s extremely clear that the 1st Amendment is not compatible with the interpretation given it by contemporary courts. The founders intended only to prevent establishment of a single denomination as opposed to not to restrain public religious expression.
Again, I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with that. I’m just telling you that’s what the founders meant by the religious liberty wording in the 1st Amendment. And by the way, this is why for the first 159 years of our nation’s existence, there was public acknowledgement of God and Christianity allowed and even promoted all over the place. I mean the United States supreme court has the ten commandments written in a stone on a wall. But today we’re told, you can’t have anything that’s biblical. You can’t have the founding fathers. They say “Separation of Church and State”. We’re not supposed to have anything that has anything to do with God in a public arena. That is not what was originally intended. Now I’m not even agreeing that what was originally intended came from the Bible. Do you understand that? But I’m definitely stating that what they’ve turned it into today is not even what they originally intended. The original intent when the founding fathers spoke the word church or religion, what they were referring to was a denomination. We’re not going to make the Presbyterian church the church of the United States of America. They wanted to restrain a national denomination, not restrain God or Christianity in general.
Here’s another quote from the book. “The separation idiom appeared in only two cases in the supreme court’s 1st 150 years.” So understand this. For the first 150 years of laws being passed and cases being brought to the supreme court, the supreme court referenced Thomas Jefferson’s separation of church and state. The separation appeared in only two cases in the supreme court’s 1st 150 years. Yet over the past 50 years, it has been cited in seemingly countless number of court decisions.
So there’s a problem here with how the original intent and the application of that phrase is today. Go to Psalms 33 if you would. I’m kind of giving you three thoughts to consider. Number one. “separation of church and state” is not a concept found in scripture. The Bible does not teach separation of church and state. The Bible does not teach religious liberty. Now look. You can like that or not like that or whatever. You can say “Well that’s the law that needs to be brought in the land and if we could vote on it then I would.”. Let me tell you something. If we could vote in the laws of God, I would vote in all of them. The law of the Lord is perfect. And by the way, let me just explain this to you. If you plan on being saved and being part of the millennial reign, guess what? The laws the land are going to be the laws of God. Goodbye to the 1st Amendment. It’s not going to be there. And if that offends you then the Bible offends you. The Bible does not teach separation of church and state. The Bible does not teach religious liberty. The concept of separation of church and state is not even a concept that’s found in the Constitution. It’s a phrase that came out of a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote and it’s not how America interpreted that phrase or interpreted the 1st Amendment for the 1st 150 years of our existence.
Number three. Separation of church and state is not only not a concept found in scripture, not only is it not a concept found in the Constitution, separation of church and state is number three, not a concept practiced by our Government. Not only is it not found in the Constitution, it’s not even practiced by our Government. Psalm 33:12 “12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord;”. The Bible doesn’t say blessed is the nation that separates itself from God. “12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”. Separation of church and state, that concept is not practiced by our Government. They misused that concept. “Separation of state”, by not allowing religious activity, Christian activity, God-centered activity. But the problem with that is that for the 1st 150 years, almost 200 years from 1776 to 1962, expressing God via prayer in the public school and all of those things were fine. It was Constitutional. No problem at all. And then in the 1960s, which if you know anything about the 1960s was not a good time for our country, a wicked time for our country in the 1960s, the supreme court made up of 9 unelected governing officials decided that now we’re going to make the 1st Amendment to mean something different. They decided that we’re going to interpret it different and all sorts of stupid rulings and concepts that came forth since that time.
I’m going to read to you a list of these. And this is from the original intent book. I’m going to read to you some of the rulings that have been given since 1960 in regards to this. A verbal prayer offered in a school is unconstitutional even if that prayer is both voluntary and denominationally neutral. That was ruled at Engel versus Vitali in 1962. Abington versus Kemp in 1963. Commissioner of education versus school committee of laden 1971. Here’s another example. Freedom of speech and press are guaranteed to students and teachers unless the topic is religious at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional. That was the ruling “Stein versus oshinski in 1965. Collins versus Chandler unified school district in 1981. Bishop versus Aroni in 1991. Duran versus Nichi in 1991.
Here’s another example. It is unconstitutional for students to see the ten commandments since they might read, meditate upon, respect or obey them. That was the ruling stone versus graham 1980 ring versus grand forks public school district 1980 Lanner versus Wimmer 1981. If a student prays over his lunch it is unconstitutional for him to pray aloud. Reid vs Van Hoven in 1965. A school song was struck down because it promoted values such as honesty, truth, courage, and faith in the form of a prayer. Interestingly, the song occurred as a part of voluntary extracurricular study student activities. Doe versus Aldine, Independent school district 1982. It is unconstitutional for a War Memorial to be erected in the shape of a cross. Low versus City of Eugene 1969. The ten commandments, despite the fact that they are the basis of civil law and are depicted in engraved stone in the US Supreme Court, may not be displayed at a public courthouse. Harvey versus cobb county 1993. When a student addresses an assembly of his peers, he effectively becomes a Government representative. It is therefore unconstitutional for that student to engage in prayer.
Harris versus joint school district 1994. It is unconstitutional for a public cemetery to have a planter in the shape of a cross for if someone were to view that cross, it could cause emotional distress and thus Constitute an injury. Warsha versus Takapi 1990. Even though the wording may be Constitutionally acceptable, a bill becomes unconstitutional if the legislator who introduced the bill had a religious activity in his mind when it was authored. Wallace versus Jefferies 1985. Now they’re wanting to legislate what you think it is, unconstitutional for a classroom library to contain books which deal with Christianity or for a teacher to be seen with a personal copy of the Bible at school. Robert versus Madigan 1990. It is unconstitutional for a board of education to use or refer to the word God in any of its official writings. Ohio versus Wisner 1976. In a city seal composed of numerous symbols representing various aspects of the community. It is unconstitutional for school officials to be publicly praised or recognized in an open community meeting if that meeting is sponsored by a religious group. Jane Doe versus Santa Fe, independent school district 1995. Artwork may not be displayed in schools if it depicts something religious even if that artwork is considered an historical classic.
Gliesek versus Bloomingdale public school 1993. It is unconstitutional for a kindergarten class to ask whose birthday is celebrated by Christmas. Do you really think that’s what the founding fathers thought when they added the 1st Amendment? That kindergartners shouldn’t be able to ask what is Christmas about? It is unconstitutional for a school graduation ceremony to contain an opening or closing prayer. It is unconstitutional for a nativity scene to be displayed on public property. And I’m not necessarily for nativity scenes. I’m just reading what it says.
I’m not going to continue to bore you with this. The point is this. The idea of separation of church and state was not something that was practiced by our Government. Praying in schools, reading your Bible in public, acknowledging God were all things that were allowed. And I’m not saying that they got that from the Bible because the Bible doesn’t even teach religious liberty. But I will tell you this. Our country was a much better country back then. They misused the concept of separation of church and state by not allowing religious activity. That allows for almost 200 years of our nation’s history.
So I said number one. It is not a concept found in scripture. Number two. It is not a concept found in the Constitution. Number three. It is not a concept even practiced by our Government. It wasn’t practiced by our Government for the 1st 150, 180, 190 years of our nation’s history. And since the 1960’s, it’s been twisted and interpreted to say no God at any time ever. You can’t acknowledge God. You can’t post the ten commandments at a courthouse because they’re afraid they’re afraid that if the jury were to walk by a monument that had the ten commandments, they might read the words “thou shalt not kill” and that would influence them. That’s the country you and I live in. So excuse me if I’m not that into your patriotic celebration of “separation of church and state”. It is not a concept practiced by our Government.
But let me say this. It’s not a concept that was practiced at the beginning of our Government. It’s been misused and mistreated and misinterpreted to do something much different than the original intent. But let me just explain something to you. It’s not a concept practiced by our Government today. Our Government does not separate itself from church, religion, God or state. You say “Well how can that be?”. I mean they don’t allow us to pray in public. They don’t allow us to read scripture in public. They don’t allow us to reach into Government. The funny thing is that when Thomas Jefferson wrote the word “separation of church and state”, the Constitution builds a wall between separating the church and state. Here’s what he meant. He meant that wall does not allow Government to reach into church but church through its influence of the people can reach into Government. Today they have interpreted it like this “That wall does not allow Bible-believing Christians to reach into Government but the Government can reach all day into church.”. See, if they want to say “Let’s have separation”, then it wouldn’t restrict us. But the Government does not practice separation. They reach into church and the Bible and my beliefs all the time. You say how can that be? When they create legislation on the definition of marriage they are reaching into my religious liberty. They are reaching into my religious beliefs when they create legislation on abortion. They reach into my religious beliefs when they create legislation on vaccines. They reach into my religious beliefs when they create legislation on homeschooling. They reach into my religious beliefs when they create legislation against disciplining your children and spanking your children. They reach into my religious belief when they create legislation like they just did earlier this month in the state of California to make pedophilia legal. They reach into my religious beliefs when they sue churches for assembling.
So here’s a problem with separation of church and state and here’s the problem with the religious liberty. They can reach into us all day, every day, anytime they want. But we can’t reach into them. No, I’m not signing up for that. Keep your pledge of allegiance. I’ll just have allegiance to God. If they actually meant separation of church and state then I might sign up for that. But they don’t follow it.
When our nation was founded, they allowed Christians to worship God in public and it’s not practiced today. When they fight Christians and they create laws, they have full time paid people to create laws, which is why we have a million laws today. When you make somebody’s job to create laws, they’re going to create laws. Let them create whatever laws they want about the speed limit. Let them create whatever laws they want about roads and let them create whatever laws they want about bridges. I don’t care about that. But don’t reach into what I believe and start creating laws about my family, start creating laws about our church, start creating laws about other things. You say well Pastor, you can’t sit there and try to make it sound like God’s not for freedom of speech. Let me tell you something. God in the Bible, God wasn’t for freedom of speech. Certain things you said put you to death. You say Pastor, you can’t say that because they’re going to use that against us. News flash. They’re using it against us. They’re already using it against us. There already is no freedom of speech. Anybody can say anything they want as long as you don’t say what the Bible says. Well forget that. I’m not for your freedom of speech. I’m going to say what the Bible says whether you like it or not. And I don’t get my rights from your Constitution. I get it from God. Here is my Constitution, the Word of God. I don’t need permission from you. I don’t need help from you. I don’t need you to acknowledge it. I don’t need you to like it. I have my allegiance given to God period. That’s going to make freedom of speech go away. Freedom of speech is gone friend. That’s going to make religious liberty go away. Religious liberty is on its way out. You say well what do we do? Come back next week and I’ll explain it to you.
I’ll give you a sneak peek at next week’s sermon. Our job as Christians is to disobey unbiblical laws. Now this means that we need to understand Government’s true limited authority and it means that we need to obey Government when it’s exercising its true Government authority. Now the problem is that some people hear me preach like this and they think “Okay. So we’re anti-Government all the time. Let’s burn our masks.”. Wait a minute. God gave limited authority to Government. You say “When do we obey or disobey?”. Well you don’t get to just make that decision. God explains that to us. And what you and I as Christians need to understand is what is the limited authority that God has given Government so that we can obey that limited authority and so that we can know when we should obey Government. The Bible actually uses that phrase “to obey the powers that be”. But there are other times when we say no. We’re going to obey God rather than men. When do we do that? When do we cross that line? We’ll learn that next week. I’ll be preaching a sermon called “Christian Civil Disobedience”. This means that you and I need to understand Government’s limited authority and when we are to obey and when we are not to obey and we’ll talk about that next week.
But let me just go ahead and say this. Our job, and the 1st Amendment actually says this too, our job as Christians is not only to know when we should and we should not obey Government. Our job as Christians is not only to know when we should and when we should not get involved in the laws of the land. We’ll talk about that next week. Our job as Christians is to rebuke Government. We as Christians need to open people’s eyes to the truth.
This is during the Millennial Reign. I’m showing you God established government. Micah 4:3 “3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”. And of course the Communists have taken that phrase and tried to use it to push their communist agenda. But this is the millennial reign. When you read the Old Testament Prophets of Isaiah and Ezekiel, you know what you find chapter after chapter? The prophets are just rebuking nation after nation. Have you noticed that? We’ll talk about it next week when to step in and when to not step in. When to obey and when to not obey. And I’ll explain that to you next week.
You say, “I don’t like this study Pastor. It doesn’t make me feel patriotic.”. Here’s the thing. It’s our job as Christians to rebuke Governments, rebuke kings, rebuke kingdoms when they overstep and overreach. It’s our job when they overstep in areas they have no authority. At that time, we disobey and rebuke. Notice what I didn’t say. I didn’t say we take up arms. You didn’t get that from the Bible either. I didn’t save to shave your head and create a militia. You didn’t get that from the Bible. Show me that in the Bible. I missed that chapter. Jesus said the opposite. “When are you going to establish your kingdom?”. He says not to worry about it. That’s called the Millennial Reign. What do we do as Christians? We need to know when to obey and we need to know when to not obey. We need to know when to engage and we need to know when not to engage. And we need to know when to rebuke.
And let me tell you something. Today Christians are failing at the rebuke part. Conservative Christian people, in their hatred for the democrats and Joe Biden, they’re giving the republicans and Donald Trump a free pass. And let me tell you something, that’s wrong. It’s not of God. It’s never right for us to do wrong. In fact, Paul said is it right for you to do wrong that good may come of it? It’s never right to sin period. And today people are like “Well yeah but I mean Joe Biden is so bad.”. So is Donald Trump. And the democratic party is wicked as hell but you know what? So is the republican party.
The Bible says that we should not put our trust in princes. We should not put our trust in politicians. We should not put our trust in man. We should put our trust in God. And we take the Bible and we say “Okay. Well how does God want me to live in this country?”. And we’ll look at it. Here’s the beautiful thing. Jesus lived under the roman empire. Jesus did not live under the laws of Moses. And Jesus actually taught us how to live in a Government that is wicked and not following the laws of God. So we’ll look at that next week. I encourage you to come back as we continue this series mixing politics and religions.
Let’s pray.