Christians are not called to make the government the church (or make the church the government).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember how that ‘worked’ for the Holy Roman Empire.
Seemed great at first—the growth of the church—until it took over the government—until “the church” leaders used authority (power) of the government to kill anyone who disagreed with them, even Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christians are called to be “a peculiar people” that don’t fit well in this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus did not fit well in this world, and He explained why.
“My kingdom is not of this world.”
“The world will hate you, because it hated me first.”
“Do not love the world or the things in the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christians are called to make a difference for good in this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.”
“Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
“Go, and do likewise.” (like the Good Samaritan)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christians are called by Jesus from day one to be “salt” and “light”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is impossible for salt and light to not affect everything, influence everything around it (unless salt stays in the salt shaker) (unless light doesn’t have the light switch turned on).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christians are called to tell everyone the good news of forgiveness for our sin because Jesus paid the penalty for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This good news also sets people, and nations, free from all kinds of evil.
Christians make a world of difference in this world—involved in the government and in the culture, to
promote the best policies for all citizens, and to help those who are suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2010 – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christians–
— Citizens of heaven, forever
— Citizens of a nation, for this time<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS ?
— Yes !
— Worshipping God above all !
— Committed to making our nation better !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christians are not called to make the government the church (or make the church the government). Remember how that ‘worked’ for the Holy Roman Empire.Seemed great at first—the growth of the church—until it took over the government—until “the church” leaders used authority (power) of the government to kill anyone who disagreed with them, even Christians. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,4,7,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-financial","category-inspire_lifter","category-political-cultural","category-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8077"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8078,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8077\/revisions\/8078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}