Nancy Pearcey in her remarkable book, "Total Truth," had some important words on this. She cited a historian of religion named Martin Marty who once said, "Every religion serves two functions. First, it is a message of personal salvation, telling us how to get right with God, and second, it is a lens for interpreting the world. Historically, evangelicals have been very good at the first function at saving souls. But they have not been nearly as good at helping people interpret the world around them, as providing a set of interrelated concepts that function as a lens to give a biblical view of the areas like science, politics, economics, or bioethics."

Nancy Pearcey went on to cite Marty by saying, "Evangelicals have typically {quote} "accented personal piety and individual salvation, leaving them to their own devices to interpret the world around them."" {End Quote} In fact, "Many no longer think it's even the function of Christianity to provide an interpretation of the world," She said. Marty calls this, 'The modern schism' and he says, {Quote} "We are living in the first time in history where Christianity has been boxed into the private sphere and has largely stopped speaking to the public sphere." {Unquote}.

That statement is so important, I want to read it to you again, Martin Marty said, {Quote} "We are living in the first time in history where Christianity has been boxed into the private sphere and has largely stopped speaking to the public sphere." {Unquote}. Is that true? Is this maybe how we have found ourselves with over 50 million missing American citizens, who were aborted before they had a chance to make their mark on the world? Is it because too many Christians felt somehow it wasn't their job to speak on the morality of the issues? Mind you, this is not just about Christian preachers, it is not about me, it's about all of us!

Nancy Pearcey has a chapter in her book titled, 'When America met Christianity, Guess who Won?' What she concluded was, that the new national ethos had more effect on Christianity than Christianity had on the nation. An example, well coming down to the present day, what about one of the large old mainstream denominations, ordaining a practicing homosexual as a bishop, it happened a few years ago.

Now this is the social norm, not the Christian norm. I mean, we are into a time of diversity, we are supposed to be accepting of people and so the social norms says that you should have a homosexual as a bishop. Mind you this is a man who left his wife and children to live with another man. Had he left his wife and children to live with another woman, could he have been ordained? Well, maybe nowadays, he would have, but only because society wants it in the name of diversity.

Now here's my question. People who say they want to live their life by biblical standards and by biblical norms, why on earth should we worry our heads over what society wants? Society is decadent! Society is wrong! Society is sinful! Why should our churches be governed by their standards?

Biologically, it makes no sense at all, that we who follow Jesus, should stay silent and out of the public square. The Constitution, not only does not require it, it demands that we be allowed to speak.

John the Baptist

Well as Matthew told the story beginning in Matthew 14 verse 3, "Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife, for John said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her!" Now what business did John have in criticizing Herod's private life? Note, he wasn't criticizing Herod's governing policy, but his personal life. What was the basis for that?

Well, frankly, the character, example, and the leadership of any man are part of his qualification for public office, and we have every right as citizens to demand that he measure up to them, and if he doesn't, we have every right to throw him out.

John flew in the face of convention. He spoke truth to power and went to jail for it. The stories has long been told. Finally, his head was delivered on a platter {Matthew 14:8} to Herod's stepdaughter, who really amused him with a dance that she did.

Note well. John engaged in no violence, he just used words to criticize Herod’s conduct!

Jesus said, "Among those born of women, there has not risen a greater than John" {Matthew 11:11}. I consider this an endorsement of John's actions and his policy. He had done nothing wrong. He had done his duty.

Governance Of Judea

The governance of Judea in the days of John the Baptist was somewhat layered. Judea was occupied by Roman forces, but the Jews still governed locally. It is plain enough in the arrest and condemnation of Jesus, if you don't see it anywhere else. It's plain enough right there.

The Romans were not much of an issue. Their sole concern was maintaining order, according to Roman law and collecting taxes. The world was enjoying what is sometimes called the 'Pax Romana,' the Roman peace. You could travel all over the Empire, most of the time without having to worry about bands of marauders,

Paul describes the relationship of a Christian to Rome in his letter to the Roman Christians. You can read Romans chapter 13 for more information.

But Jesus was often at odds, and was quite critical of the establishment in Judea, the indigenous governors of the Jewish people in Judea.

So we really can't turn to the New Testament for an excuse, for not publicly and vigorously opposing immorality in our own government. Jesus did so, and endorsed John, who did so. Now there are those in the opposition who make a pretense at being concerned that some Christians want to establish a theocracy here. I said a pretense, because they know better.

In point of fact, the world has only known a theocracy once in all of its history, as far as I can see. There have been religious hierarchies headed by men, and those were to be feared. A true theocracy is one where God is ruler, not this or that priest.

The one theocracy the world has known was in the period of the judges in Israelite history. The time between the conquest of the land of Israel, and the establishing of the monarchy is described in the book of Judges. The Israelites in that period enjoyed the freest society man has ever known. It's a fact not generally noticed. God was King, but under God the people were self governing. Let me make myself clear here. God was King. It was a theocracy, but, ‘Under God,’ that phrase we hope to keep in our Pledge of Allegiance, the people were self-governing. Tribal elders, judges and magistrates handled the limited roles of governing. They had a constitution based on the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses. It was utterly simple, completely fair and totally just. It left the people maximum freedom to grow crops, to grow families, to build a just society.

Now why did Israel decide to forsake all this freedom and ask for a human king? It was nothing complicated. In two words. It was fear and laziness. When they asked for a king, Samuel resisted at first, but God said, "No, give them what they want, but I want you to tell them first, what life will be like for them under a king." Now if you want to read the story and you want to hear what Samuel told them they were getting into, just start reading in first Samuel chapter 8 and read forward. It's all there, and it's kind of uncanny, almost eerie in fact, that a lot of the things we have since experienced in our own government are described right there on the page, because we have decided we would go the same way they went.

The history of Israel up to this time was a sequence of prosperity, then they forgot God, then they were oppressed by their enemies, then they called out to God and then they were delivered by a judge that God sent. They began to rebuild prosperity and they then started the cycle all over again. They forgot God and went right on through the same thing. It didn't happen once or twice, it happened again and again and again in the years that followed.

In this period of time, going into the monarchy, Israel was governed by a series of kings, some good, some bad, some worse than bad. There also followed a series of prophets, whose job it was to criticize the government and the morals of the people. Why anyone would expect it to be otherwise, is beyond me. The archetype of all prophets was a hairy man named Elijah, who customarily wore leather. In fact, Ahab and Israel probably thought of him in some similar terms with what we would apply to the Hell's Angels. Elijah didn't say a lot but he punctuated what he said with a 3 1/2 year drought which really got people's attention. Did he criticize the government? Oh yes! He had a long-running verbal battle with a king named Ahab.

Ahab had the misfortune of being caught in a bind between his wife Jezebel on one side and Elijah on the other. He was afraid of both of them and he found himself in an unenviable situation. In the course of time, he wanted a vineyard, and it was right by the wall of his palace. It was a beautiful thing and he wanted it. This story is found in 1 Kings 21. Ahab tried to buy it from a man named Naboth. He went out and offered money for it. Naboth said, "No, I am not going to sell my vineyard. This has been in my family for years and generations. I am not about to let that out of the family," And he turned Ahab down. Ahab went to bed in a pout, a fury, a real snit, a royal snit, I guess you can call it. So his wife Jezebel decided to give Ahab a Valentine. He had gone to bed and wouldn't eat. The Valentine was the accusation of blasphemy on Naboth and having him stoned to death. She then told Abab, "Get up and go take that vineyard you wanted." About this time, the word of the LORD came to Elijah, and said, "Go down and meet Ahab. the King of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth's vineyard where he has gone to take possession of it. Say to him, "This is what the LORD says, "Have you not murdered a man and seized his property," then say to him, "This is what the LORD says, "In the place where the dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood. Yes yours."" So Elijah went, not with a message of salvation for a wicked sinner, not with the message of personal piety, but with a clear denunciation of what Ahab and Jezebel had done. Although Jezebel arranged the murder, he was responsible. As Elijah walked up toward Ahab to deliver this message, Ahab said, "So, have you found me my enemy?" "I have found you," Elijah answered, "because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, I'm going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab, every last male in Israel, slave or free."

So Old Testament, New Testament, men of God criticized governors freely. It was their duty, even though it made a lot of people very uncomfortable.

In The Early Years Of Christianity

Now it's really easy to see what's going on here because the crowds are going to become bigger and bigger and worrisome to the establishment.

Apostles Jailed

Do you begin to see something of a pattern here? The people who are teaching things contrary to what the government wants them to do and the people are believing them and the government leadership is beginning to be afraid of them. Having brought the apostles to them, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest, who said, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." "Well", Peter replied, "We have to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him to his right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit of God that is given to those who obey Him." Well when they heard this, they were furious and they wanted to put Peter to death. They would like to have taken Peter out and hanged him.

Now I'm not trying to start a movement. I just want to help Christian folk realize that we are people and this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Therefore, as follows, God is going to hold Christian people responsible for the failures of this country, of this generation, and of this government, because we the people put them there. You may want to have a bumper sticker on your car that says, "Don't blame me, I voted for somebody else." I don't think that's going to help. We have a responsibility here.

Any attempt to shut Christians up or to inhibit our expression is a violation of our First Amendment rights, and we should not stand for it. There is one important, but overlooked right that all Americans have, it is the right not to listen, and it is that right not to listen that supports the right of freedom of speech. Everybody can say what they want. Everybody doesn’t have to listen if they don't want to. That's the way it ought to be.

Nancy Pearcey argues that in evangelism our task is to bring people face-to-face with the contradiction between what a person says he believes and what his whole life is telling him. The gospel then becomes ‘good news’ indeed. The doctrine that we are created in the image of God {Genesis 1:27} gives a solid foundation for human freedom and moral significance. She said and I Quote, "We have to insist on presenting Christianity as a comprehensive unified world view that addresses all of life and reality. It is not just religious truth, but Total Truth." Close quotation.

You know, I could say, that I'm sorry to make some listeners uncomfortable by criticizing our government, but that would be dishonest. I am not sorry in the least. Sometimes we have to be made uncomfortable before we will actually see the truth. We don't need a new version of the moral majority of years past. In fact, whenever we create a coalition to make ourselves public that way, we make ourselves vulnerable. It needs to be something that's going on at the grass-roots level all over the place, all of the time.

Now go out there and do your duty.

Until the next time, I'm Ronald Dart.

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