November 1, 2020
God’s Government Setup
Yes, you read that right. Go back to history and study government
structures. Jillian’s history book is doing that now. The levels go:
self-government, family government, civil government, and God’s government. Of
course, God’s government is perfect as He is, but all others are flawed as man
is flawed.
But God set them all up.
Everyone knows that God setup self-government. He gave us free will.
God establishes family government when he makes man and woman.
Civil government came after the flood. You see, in Genesis 6 there was no
civil government. God saw that man’s heart consistently did evil. That’s a lot
of violence and immorality – so much so that God felt super sad that He made
mankind and wiped mankind off the Earth along with all of creation. His judgment
required that. His mercy allowed Noah’s family and the animals on the ark to be
saved. Yet the hearts of men were still unchanged. (Noah’s actions after
the floodwaters receded, anyone?) Genesis 8:21 has God smelling a sweet
savor (offering from Noah) and He says, “…the imagination of
man’s heart is evil from his youth…” In Genesis 9:5 and 6 we see the
basis for civil government – the standard most ancient civil governments start
with: “whomever sheds man’s blood, shall by man his blood be shed.”
Capital punishment. Kill a member of mankind (that Hebrew word
translated man means mankind like
man once meant mankind in
English) and you will be killed by mankind. This is called in the Bible
“the sword” of the law. This sword is to make people fear the law and
deter violence.
The Code of Hammurabi is considered by scholars to be one of the oldest if
not the oldest written code of laws and it is considered Draconian because of
it’s “eye for an eye” punishments. It includes capital punishment and
builds further.
But who gave civil authorities the right to inflict punishments to deter
evil hearts? God.
We are to be under the law and its authority unless it violates God’s law.
In Romans 13:3 basically is interpreted as “don’t want to fear authority?
Do good.” God tells us to “keep our behaviors excellent amont the
Gentiles so that in the thing which they slander you as evildoers, they may
because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of
visitation.”
I heard a preacher say once this regarding voting:
If we are fortunate enough to live in a country where we can vote, then it
is our responsibility to vote as God says. How do we choose the best pick?
Well, we can’t legislate hearts, all candidates are not Jesus instead they are
all flawed men, and our first priority in our whole life is to share the
gospel. Because of these truths, we should always vote for the candidate who
will protect our God given right to share our faith. Freedom of religion. That
is our first priority in voting if we live where we have the privilege of
voting.
Remember when you vote that our one goal as Christians is to share our faith
in love; we can only do that legally as long as there is freedom of religion.
Use that to choose your candidates at local, state, regional, and federal
levels. Verify that the judges you elect are going to uphold the Constitution
and keep our religious liberty so we can honor the law while preaching Jesus’
love!
I encourage you to vote. We have the option of making our voice heard in our
country and should let our leaders know we value liberty. As long as we have
the option, we should exercise it.
In Rome in 70AD they didn’t have a choice or voice in whom was their
appointed leader. God still told them to honor their leaders as much as
possible as a witness of God. Vote. Choose religious liberty at all levels.
Show love to everyone regardless of the outcome or their political views.
This is my conviction. See you at the polls tomorrow!
~Nancy Tart