"The greatest rebellion in history occurred under perfect government."
Have you ever heard someone say it just like that? So many people get flustered with the church of their choice, then justify it by saying something to the effect of, "I cannot support an organization that does not live by godly principles." Or, "Our family is not impressed with the lack of brotherly love." Or, "We are hurt and insulted at the choice words our minister used (or did not use)." These are age-old excuses and principles people have used to leave the church, be it the Catholic church, the First Baptist church, or the Sabbath day keeping Church of God. Granted, there's the whole idea of proper doctrine that deciphers whether or not one attends what organization. But if a church is established with proper doctrine and such excuses are made, then they essentially say that it's the ministers' fault and further leave the church, I simply don't understand why.
You know, we've heard for a very long time that government is important in the church. But why? I mean, there are so many excuses not to care about government -- perhaps there are organzations who are 'better' at uplifting sermons on Sabbath or are 'better' at organzing and hosting social gatherings or whose ministers seem more fair and just. And we occassionally hear the response, "Because God does not want another Lucifer on His hands." Does government matter? Since the greatest rebellion in history, i.e. the falling away of Lucifer & the 1/3 of the angels, happened under God's watch, how can one say that obedience to proper government does not matter?
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Yes, mi amiga. Yes. Very good point.
absolutely! Good post
REG
You don't understand why anyone would rebel against God's government, even if administered perfectly? Actually, I'm betting that you do deep down -- it's just that the answer is hard to wrap the mind around.
First, there is that little thing called free moral agency. God has made us largely "self-programming", with the capability either to come to trust Him implicitly or else to take to ourselves the prerogative to decide what is good and evil. He insists that created beings take one path or the other, and of their own free will. The only other option is to make them robots (or intelligent animals at best).
That's why (second) "God's government" is a two-way street -- a covenantal relationship that involves so very much more than God's authority and God's law, as right as those things are. One of the several other things it involves is mutual trust.
I think more apropos to your paragraph are these thoughts:
1) One of the hardest things for people to understand about God is that God works with and through human beings despite themselves, if necessary. So what if humans make mistakes or are unfaithful? Does their unfaithfulness make God unfaithful?
2) What makes a true Church of God is not perfect understanding of doctrine (it's never had that, no, not even Philadephia) but submission to God's government in principle (it's always had that, yes, even Sardis and Laodicea).
3) One thing that sets apart the eras is that each era is stronger at submitting to some principles of God's government than to others -- and each era has different strengths and weaknesses in this area. Thus, each has different prophetic fruits.
I hope I can demonstrate this in a format the whole Church can read (such as the LCN) in due time! Meanwhile you might find this online essay profitable:
http://www.rakkav.com/qahal/pages/7principles.htm
Post a Comment