UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES
The Newsletter of Contend for the Faith, Inc
1 Chronicles 12:32

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2004

Two Down, One to Go

As the months of Fall begin, many people are going back to school, including me.

I have finished two years of the Doctor of Ministry program at Southern Evangelical Seminary. I begin my third and final year in September.

I have a major ministry project to complete and two other classes to take as well. If all goes as planned, I will receive my degree next May.

Please pray that everything will fall into place for me over these next eight months and that I will be able to complete all the assigned tasks well. It is a lot of work, but in the end it should be worth it.

I have a great desire to equip the church to contend for the faith, and this program is helping me to do just that. There are good answers to the good questions people have concerning Christianity, and believers need to provide those answers.

Pray for Chinese Student

A perfect example of this: I had a wonderful opportunity to witness recently to a student at UNC Charlotte who is from China.

A mutual friend named Holly invited me to come up to the campus to talk to this student named William, a very intelligent young man who was born and raised in China. He has been in this country for only about seven years, yet he speaks excellent English and he has already earned a degree from UNCC. He plans to go to graduate school here as well before he returns to China.

Holly had been sharing her faith with William, but he had some questions for which she was not sure of the answers.

William had some excellent queries about Christianity: If God made everything, who made God? How could people be forgiven before Jesus came? Why is Jesus the only savior? Can you go to hell after you have trusted Christ? What about Christians who commit sins – are they really Christians?

We had a wonderful conversation that lasted almost two hours. I was able to provide answers to questions which had always puzzled William, and Holly had provided an example of how a godly person should live.

While he did not receive Christ at our meeting, we were excited to hear William say, “I think before long I will become a Christian.”

Please pray for William that the Lord would help him to receive and embrace Jesus as his Savior. It would be wonderful if he could return to his homeland of China not only an educated man but also an ambassador for Christ.

Dr. James Dobson in Charlotte

Dr. James Dobson will be in Charlotte for the Stand for the Family Rally on Labor Day, September 6 th at 6:30 pm.

Dr. Dobson will be joined at Cricket Arena on Independence Boulevard by Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, and Wellington Boone.

Tickets are $7 for individual or $3 each for groups of 25. For more info: www.focusaction.org.

SPEAKING SCHEDULE 2004

September 26

Evening Service, Sardis Baptist Church, 6:00 pm, God and Government

www.sardisbaptist.com

October 8-9

Young Defenders Boot Camp, Denver, CO

October 24

Gay Rites: Right or Wrong?, Part One, Sunday School Class, Southern Evangelical Church, Charlotte, 11:00 am

www.SouthernEvangelicalChurch.org

October 31

Gay Rites: Right or Wrong?, Part Two, Sunday School Class, Southern Evangelical Church, Charlotte, 11:00 am

www.SouthernEvangelicalChurch.org

November 12-13

National Conference on Apologetics, Central Church of God, Charlotte

www.ses.edu

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

UNDERSTANDING GOD & GOVERNMENT: PART ONE

There are many battles going on in the cultural war being waged in our society. One of the most prominent is the battle over church and state, faith and politics, God and government.

Especially since this is an election season in this country, it is good for Christians to understand whether and how our faith should relate to political activity. In this series we will briefly examine the proper relationship between God and government in three areas: biblical foundations, historical roots, and Christian living.

BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS

Former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor is currently a Federal judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to this special appointment to this position by President Bush in February 2004, the nomination of Judge Pryor was vigorously opposed by several groups including Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU).

One of the reasons that AU opposed Senate confirmation of Pryor to this court is that he “has aggressively opposed separation of church and state.” As an example of Judge Pryor’s offenses, AU quotes from a high school graduation speech he gave in 1997:

“The American experiment is not a theocracy and does not establish an official religion, but the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are rooted in a Christian perspective of the nature of government and the nature of man. The challenge of the next millennium will be to preserve the American experiment by restoring its Christian perspective.”
SOURCE: [1] http://www.au.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_nominations_pryor.

Is the claim that the Founders of America based their actions in a Christian perspective so subversive that it should be enough to disqualify a man from being a federal circuit court judge?

The Bible has much to say about government.

There are three institutions which God directly established among mankind: the family (Gen. 2:24), the church (Gen. 4:4), and the government (Gen. 9:5-6). Government is necessary for the preservation of order among sinful human beings.

The source of human government is God, and there are several purposes for government. Dr. H Wayne House writes, “God ordains human government to uphold social order by promoting social justice and freedom.”

Romans 13:1-7 is one of the primary passages of the New Testament on government. From this and other passages at least three specific purposes can be delineated. Governments are instituted for protection since societies need restraint and rules to protect citizens from each other (see Acts 21:27-37). They are to prevent anarchy and chaos by punishing those who practice evil, and they are to promote what is good for society and individuals, thereby providing for good social order (1 Peter 2:13-14).

The purpose of government can be summarized as keeping the peace, restraining evil, upholding justice, and promoting public good and political freedom.

In this country, our Founders described in the Declaration of Independence their philosophy for creating a new nation, believing rights come from God, not government:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

It is interesting to note that the Bible does not specify the form of government that a nation must have, and historically there have been monarchies, oligarchies, democracies, and republics.

The authority of government comes from God, as Jesus affirmed to Pilate when He was being judged: “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:10-11). In the same way, Paul recognized that government had the legitimate authority to put him to death, but he argued correctly that he had done nothing worthy of that penalty (Acts 25:11).

The scope of the government should be strictly limited. Its authority is not absolute but subordinate to God. So legitimate areas of governmental authority are criminal justice, military defense, and promoting freedom, order, and justice. It is illegitimate, however, for a government to take the place of God by requiring ultimate allegiance to it rather than to Him.

Jesus expressed a distinction of spiritual and civil responsibilities when he told His followers, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Luke 20:25). Believers therefore owe separate duties to God and to government, and neither entity should be ignored.

All governments, then, should recognize their place as being under God, not in place of God.