I want to be as sure as possible that nobody gets the wrong idea about what I advocate, and what being a Christian Nationalist means to me in practice.... but I really wish I had someone like-minded to talk me through some of this and help me flesh out these ideas... Some of this gets really complicated, and I have to walk my mind through from scratch to my conclusions over and over in order that I don't forget why I believe these things.
In this post, I'm going to walk through one such train-of-thought. This is, real-time, me confusing myself and then reminding myself about why I believe what I believe.
When I talk about Biblical civil laws and their penalties, I recognize that in large part, for any person or group in America to enforce those penalties would be to violate U.S. Law.
The question is not whether we ought to have a Christian government with laws that directly conform with scripture. By any imminent definition of "ought", we ought to. In fact, we are in an awkward position because there is no such Christian government on earth. There is no civil authority to execute justice justly.
As I've written before, we do have the church government, which is structurally similar (if not identical in some churches) to the Biblical civil government, and in many ways the church government is functionally identical to the system of judges in the OT. However, consider this: as I've established in prior posts, we are not to file lawsuits against our brothers and sisters in Christ according to the normal civil means. However, no such injunction exists for the "foreigner" (with respect to covenant Israel, the foreigner is the nonbeliever), and the law says multiple times, "you shall have the same law for the foreigner as for the native born" (Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 19:34, 24:22; Numbers 15:29; Deuteronomy 10:19).
We have so carefully impressed in our minds a difference between the role of church and the role of state. This difference is indeed Biblical inasmuch as the judicial government in Scripture was distinguished from the priesthood. But what does it mean, then, that the priesthood is fulfilled in Christ? Biblically speaking, what is the church if not the full body of believing people, physically indistinguishable from the people themselves? And if that is the case, can a government be anything if not composed of people? Doesn't it mean that the NT "church" is not the "priesthood" in that sense, and so the distinction is moot in the New Covenant?
Suppose we decide that the church government is suddenly the in-force civil government for Christians. Wouldn't the consequence be that we thereafter go to the church for civil issues regarding the foreigners living among us? After all, if Jesus is King over earth right now, (and he is, Matthew 28:18), then it is not us who live as foreigners among them, in their land, but they who live among us, in Christ's land. And then what? Penalize ignorant strangers for crimes against God's law according to God's civil penalties, and thereby start a war with the secular government of the land we're living in? No way! We would make ourselves seem no better than radical Muslims!
No, the NT church in the days of the apostles was surrounded by Roman lawlessness, and they conducted no such violent action in the name of justice -- neither should we. Thus, there is something seriously and dangerously wrong with the above chain of reasoning.
Why didn't the apostles immediately establish a community executing just laws? It's because they had a higher priority task, as do we. They were sent to make disciples of all nations, teaching and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Given the injunction to not file civil suit against your brother in Christ, how could they even practice such a government among Christians alone?
So we suppose that working to establish an independent or sovereign state with its own civil system in the midst of a secular nation is not high enough on the Christian priority list to fight for it. However, given the option to establish either a just law or an unjust law, we are compelled to choose the just in accordance with God's statutes. And, given the option to formulate our own system of government, we may only choose the best, which is God's government.
What then do we make of the commandment to rescue those going to slaughter? And when do zealous, active forms of civil disobedience become justified?
Guys, I have no idea. For lack of an independent and sovereign Christian Nation, I don't see true justice succeeding in the law of the land. Only, I'm talking to an empty room! There's nobody else like me as far as I can tell! Even apologia now seeks rather to "restore america to the Constitution" somehow as if that is similar to restoring America to the Bible directly. And even if I had a following, there's no available land in the world! Where can we establish ourselves? Antarctica? I'm certain God would bless his faithful with abundance even there... but the means by which such a Christian nation would be established are so overwhelmingly wild in my mind, and my heart so discouraged by the apparent lack of people interested in God's standards of justice, that I struggle to see how any such place could come into existence.
Wait wait wait... let's examine that commandment given to the apostles again: "Go and make disciples of all nations." What if the progress of the Christian church is not just to make disciples of groups of people, but to take secular nations and establish such a large group of believers there that they conform to God's law because of the people's desire to submit to God? After all, any true believer will acknowledge that God is just, and so isn't it natural that Christians will love God's law and seek to conform our civil laws to its statutes?
The conclusion is, in fact, that we are already at war with the rulers and authorities -- the government -- of the land we live in, but it isn't a war with flesh and blood, and we fight not with weapons of this world. On the contrary, our weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once our obedience is complete. (Ephesians 6:10-16; 2 Corinthians 10:4-6)
That path to achieving civil justice feels much further out of my reach, because my life is surely too short to see so many people converted and a nation become established in that way... it's much more easy to imagine the Christian Nation coming into existence slowly.
Then again, in scripture we regularly see God accomplishing the impossible by means of the unexpected:
God promises to make Abraham a great nation, and fulfills it by giving him a single son in his old age; God saves many nations by making an imprisoned slave into a king overnight; God rescues a trapped Israel by putting a tornado of fire behind them and parting the sea in front of them; God brings down the high court of the philistines by strengthening a slave whose eyes had been gouged out; God saves exiled Israel from genocide by revealing that the queen of Persia herself came from Israel; God brings the Messiah into a cursed royal bloodline by means of a virgin birth;
God infuriates all Israel by healing their sick; God wins the battle by dying; God proves his ultimate supremacy by simply being alive.
Perhaps God will establish justice in our land during my lifetime.... How I hope and long for it.
"Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Friday, April 12, 2019
Alright! Time to talk about blasphemy and free speech. In my previous blog we looked at the nature of Treason, and what little activity can instigate accusations of treason in the United States. Today, I first want to briefly tack on to my previous post some information about freedom of speech in the U.S., then I will say a little about the Christian worldview background for this post, and then I'll dig into some passages from scripture.
Lots of people like to complain that we're losing our right to free speech in the U.S.. While it's true that police enforcement sometimes either ignores or is ignorant of the nature of our rights (link), the fact is, the Supreme court still recognizes that the speech which needs protecting most is the speech we hate (another link). Unfortunately, that's not how universities in the U.S. seem to see things (another link). I can only imagine that the establishment of "free speech zones" and "safe spaces" are a result of popular opinions about hate speech.
Last thing before I get into the verses, let me give some Biblical worldview-background for the topic:
Christians believe that there is a fate much worse than anything that can happen while we are alive in the flesh, and much worse than any death we may experience thereof. The worst possible thing that can ever happen to anyone is that they be sent to hell. Hell being real, and the Kingdom of God being the nation to which believers first owe allegiance, we find ourselves in a literal war against all false gods. If someone leads a man away from Christianity, then that man is a casualty of the worst kind. It is better for a man to die a martyr than for him to leave Christianity, because those who die apart from Christ get hell. (Point of order: Christians can't martyr other Christians.)
That shouldn't be shocking to anyone. It's no secret that this is what Christians believe, and Christians still make up more than 1/3 of the population of the U.S. (indeed, nearly 1/3 of the population of the whole world is Christian). Side note: Bernie Sanders made a hilarious fool of himself when he pretended that Christianity was un-American (the video).
So, on to the Biblical laws themselves. There are four kinds of speech against which God imposes civil law; all others are ignored by the law (and, by extension, all others are protected from civil sanction). As we get into this, ask yourself, "Do I really believe what the Bible says about hell and our war with the devil?" and "Is God just?"
The first civil law is about bearing false witness in court; I mention it here only to complete the list of laws about speech. If someone is falsely accused in court, then the false witness receives the penalty that the defendant would have received if he was found guilty (Deut 19:16-19). We try to do something similar with our laws about lying under oath; only the penalty isn't anywhere near as scary.
The other three laws are about blasphemy, proselytizing for false gods, and false prophesy, which I argue are the spiritual equivalents to our laws about treason. Treason is to aid the enemies of America; blasphemy and proselytizing for false gods aids the enemies of humanity and of the Kingdom of God. Christians, remember that you are first citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Blasphemy is discussed in Matthew 12:31, Mark 3:28-29, Luke 12:10, and Leviticus 24. Leviticus is the only one of these verses which talks about the civil implications of the law, and the penalty is death. The rule is straight-forward; anyone who blasphemes the Name (YHWH) is put to death. It makes sense, given that Christians are defined by their love for God; this is almost identical to proselytizing for false gods.
Proselytizing is discussed in Deuteronomy 13:6-18, and again, the penalty is death. Note, though, that there are two specific cases given here. The first is where an Israelite calls people to go after other gods, and the second is where an entire town rejects God.
In the first case, if an Israelite calls people after other gods, then it can only mean that he was an Israelite at the time when he called them after other gods. That is to say, since we know that Israel is composed of the children of the promise (Romans 9:6-9), this is a citizen of God's kingdom who performs the proselytizing for other gods. There is no law restricting foreigners (non-believers) from proselytizing, unless they are very successful. In the same way, America doesn't execute emissaries from their enemies as soon as they set-foot on American soil.
However, in the second case, it only says "if you hear that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led people of their town astray, saying 'let us go and worship other gods' (gods you have not known)". The troublemakers are not identified as either Israelite or non-Israelite. Thus, this law applies if foreigners are the troublemakers, but it only applies if the town follows after them. The town is viewed as an invasive force or a cessation from the Union. America rolled tanks over Waco when they tried to declare independence, and that's pretty much exactly what the Bible is calling for. Once a town identifies as Christian, it is a part of the Kingdom, and the law enforces that it should remain Christian. That said, I don't see any injunction in here to hunt down people who flee the city prior to this siege; I imagine that a good Israelite would flee the town as soon as they saw it begin to turn away from God in a big way.
The last law pertains to false prophets. Relevant passages can be found in Deut 12, Jer 23, Jer 29, and Ezek 13. Again, this is a straight-forward law. The prophet comes, claiming to be an Israelite, but calling Israel after false gods. The civil penalty is death.
Laws against treason protect the lives of American citizens, and they protect the American nation from falling apart due to internal division and disunity. The laws against blasphemy and proselytizing after false gods protect the eternal souls of Christians, and they protect the Christian nation from falling apart due to internal division (on non-adiaphoral issues mind you) and disunity.
That's it!
"That book doesn't describe anything."
Lots of people like to complain that we're losing our right to free speech in the U.S.. While it's true that police enforcement sometimes either ignores or is ignorant of the nature of our rights (link), the fact is, the Supreme court still recognizes that the speech which needs protecting most is the speech we hate (another link). Unfortunately, that's not how universities in the U.S. seem to see things (another link). I can only imagine that the establishment of "free speech zones" and "safe spaces" are a result of popular opinions about hate speech.
Last thing before I get into the verses, let me give some Biblical worldview-background for the topic:
Christians believe that there is a fate much worse than anything that can happen while we are alive in the flesh, and much worse than any death we may experience thereof. The worst possible thing that can ever happen to anyone is that they be sent to hell. Hell being real, and the Kingdom of God being the nation to which believers first owe allegiance, we find ourselves in a literal war against all false gods. If someone leads a man away from Christianity, then that man is a casualty of the worst kind. It is better for a man to die a martyr than for him to leave Christianity, because those who die apart from Christ get hell. (Point of order: Christians can't martyr other Christians.)
That shouldn't be shocking to anyone. It's no secret that this is what Christians believe, and Christians still make up more than 1/3 of the population of the U.S. (indeed, nearly 1/3 of the population of the whole world is Christian). Side note: Bernie Sanders made a hilarious fool of himself when he pretended that Christianity was un-American (the video).
So, on to the Biblical laws themselves. There are four kinds of speech against which God imposes civil law; all others are ignored by the law (and, by extension, all others are protected from civil sanction). As we get into this, ask yourself, "Do I really believe what the Bible says about hell and our war with the devil?" and "Is God just?"
The first civil law is about bearing false witness in court; I mention it here only to complete the list of laws about speech. If someone is falsely accused in court, then the false witness receives the penalty that the defendant would have received if he was found guilty (Deut 19:16-19). We try to do something similar with our laws about lying under oath; only the penalty isn't anywhere near as scary.
The other three laws are about blasphemy, proselytizing for false gods, and false prophesy, which I argue are the spiritual equivalents to our laws about treason. Treason is to aid the enemies of America; blasphemy and proselytizing for false gods aids the enemies of humanity and of the Kingdom of God. Christians, remember that you are first citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Blasphemy is discussed in Matthew 12:31, Mark 3:28-29, Luke 12:10, and Leviticus 24. Leviticus is the only one of these verses which talks about the civil implications of the law, and the penalty is death. The rule is straight-forward; anyone who blasphemes the Name (YHWH) is put to death. It makes sense, given that Christians are defined by their love for God; this is almost identical to proselytizing for false gods.
Proselytizing is discussed in Deuteronomy 13:6-18, and again, the penalty is death. Note, though, that there are two specific cases given here. The first is where an Israelite calls people to go after other gods, and the second is where an entire town rejects God.
In the first case, if an Israelite calls people after other gods, then it can only mean that he was an Israelite at the time when he called them after other gods. That is to say, since we know that Israel is composed of the children of the promise (Romans 9:6-9), this is a citizen of God's kingdom who performs the proselytizing for other gods. There is no law restricting foreigners (non-believers) from proselytizing, unless they are very successful. In the same way, America doesn't execute emissaries from their enemies as soon as they set-foot on American soil.
However, in the second case, it only says "if you hear that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led people of their town astray, saying 'let us go and worship other gods' (gods you have not known)". The troublemakers are not identified as either Israelite or non-Israelite. Thus, this law applies if foreigners are the troublemakers, but it only applies if the town follows after them. The town is viewed as an invasive force or a cessation from the Union. America rolled tanks over Waco when they tried to declare independence, and that's pretty much exactly what the Bible is calling for. Once a town identifies as Christian, it is a part of the Kingdom, and the law enforces that it should remain Christian. That said, I don't see any injunction in here to hunt down people who flee the city prior to this siege; I imagine that a good Israelite would flee the town as soon as they saw it begin to turn away from God in a big way.
The last law pertains to false prophets. Relevant passages can be found in Deut 12, Jer 23, Jer 29, and Ezek 13. Again, this is a straight-forward law. The prophet comes, claiming to be an Israelite, but calling Israel after false gods. The civil penalty is death.
Laws against treason protect the lives of American citizens, and they protect the American nation from falling apart due to internal division and disunity. The laws against blasphemy and proselytizing after false gods protect the eternal souls of Christians, and they protect the Christian nation from falling apart due to internal division (on non-adiaphoral issues mind you) and disunity.
That's it!
"That book doesn't describe anything."
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