Leaders have been trying to formulate a response to Bobbie Stump's letter of two weeks ago. I am led in two different directions and have decided to address the original issue. The issue was whether or not there were any Jonas Clarks leading churches, men of God and of courage. My assertion that there were none and that their organizations' status as 501(c)3 corps proved it, could have been better explained.
I hesitate to quote Bible verses because they are usually used in a narrowly pointed manner when, in fact, in context, the verse means nothing like it is being used. I tend to deal in biblical concepts like, "God, once, always, the same. There's one you can get most people to agree on, God hasn't changed. His desires for us and expectations of us haven't changed since Old Testament times. He has always known what was to be and what has been. He's outside of linear time, we all pretty much agree on that.
So, I remember in I Samuel when the Israelites wanted an earthly king, God told them that they didn't need a king, that He was their king. God reasoned with them that they had the law and the judges, they didn't need a man to call king, He wanted to be their king. We know where that went, after all, "all the rest of the other people had kings," and the Jews wanted one, too.
Fast forward 2,700 years or so, North America. Here's a group of men saying, "We will govern ourselves with God as our standard of behavior," like it or not, that is what was decided. We are given our rights as beings by God, and no man stands between us and God but the man Christ Jesus. We, the People, not "I the king," or "we the elected," we the People are the kings in this country, with, or more accurately, through the Constitution.
When you quote the verses in Romans and Luke that admonish Christ's followers to honor their kings/governments, that is The People in the United States. We, through the Constitution, are the leaders of this government. When one abrogates their responsibility as king in exchange for a little tax dodge, not only has one said "God may not provide for His ministry."
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. (Edmund Burke) I have seen millions of good men do nothing in my short life. Where was the million preacher march on Washington when abortion was made legal? Not their duty? Where was the protest from the pulpit when the Congress indemnified itself? Not the king's job to hold the hired help responsible? I don't listen to "seminaryspeak" and you shouldn't either. Apologetics should be used as a tool for spreading the Gospel, they shouldn't be practiced to defend corporations parading as churches.
