Is the Christian church asleep, or is it just afraid of losing its free ride of payola or a bribe in the form of a tax free status.
By de Andréa
Many times in the past I have addressed this issue of Christian activism or the lack thereof, and the excuses that Christians use for not getting politically involved. News is coming out now however (which may be in the face of a direct violation of Gods will) that at least some in the church may have awakened from their slumber.
By de Andréa
Many times in the past I have addressed this issue of Christian activism or the lack thereof, and the excuses that Christians use for not getting politically involved. News is coming out now however (which may be in the face of a direct violation of Gods will) that at least some in the church may have awakened from their slumber.
Catholic leaders for example have threatened to challenge the Obama administration over a provision of the new health care law that would require all employers, including religious institutions, to pay for and provide birth control. . . Catholic leaders are ‘furious’ and are determined, to harness the voting power of the nation’s 70 million Catholic voters to stop a provision of President Barack Obama’s new heath care reform bill that will force Catholic schools, hospitals, and charities to buy and provide birth control pills, abortion-producing drugs like the morning after pill, and sterilization coverage for their employees.
If religious institutions and congregations give into this, they won’t be able to stop this regime, or future dictator regimes, in eventually silencing and neutralizing the church completely.
One of the objections I have received over the years was, Christians shouldn’t be involved politically because our “Citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).
Or we can’t speak out politically because it’s against the rules of a 501(c)(3).
Adolf Hitler loved hearing such nonsense from church leaders because he knew that with the church out of the way, he could do most anything.
As I pointed out so many times, it was the apostle Paul who wrote that “our citizenship is in heaven” but used his Roman citizenship to avoid being beaten (Acts 22:25–30) and made a formal appeal to Caesar for adjudication of the charges leveled against him (25:11–12).
Another excuse I hear is … Well… God is in control, so we shouldn’t interfere with God’s plan. God may have allowed 9/11 to happen, but you can rest assured my friend, it wasn’t part of God’s plan.
Hitler, as perverted as it was, also believed in an exclusive heavenly citizenship- Christianity. “I will protect the German people,” Hitler shouted at Martin Niemöller a decorated submarine commander in World War I and a minister of the gospel. “You take care of the church. You pastors should worry about getting people to heaven and leave this world to me.”
Niemöller became an ardent critic of Hitler and his policies, protesting against the anti-Christian agenda of the regime, denouncing the government’s anti-Semitism and demanding an end to the state’s interference in the churches. Does this sound familiar?
Hermann Rauschning, an early Hitler confidant, relates what he heard Hitler say about the clergy:
“You can do anything you like to them (Christians and Jews) — they will submit. They’re used to cares and worries. . . . They are insignificant little people, submissive as dogs, and they sweat with embarrassment when you talk to them.”
For many church-going Germans, they thought their heavenly citizenship obligated them - blindly’ to accept the prevailing civil requirements of citizenship and to remain silent in the face of opposition no matter what atrocities might be committed. Unlike Paul, they would have taken the beating and liked it. In no other country except with the exception of Czarist Russia did the clergy become by tradition so completely servile to the political authority of the State, and you know what was down that road.
Niemöller tried in vain to awaken the church against Hitler’s plans: “We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of the authorities than had the Apostles of old. No more are we ready to keep silent at man’s behest when God commands us to speak. For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man.”
A Christian’s heavenly citizenship, Niemöller concluded: “Must have an impact in the world in which he lives”. It is no less true today. Richard Land and
Louis Moore writes, “We Christians are citizens of two realms–the earthly and spiritual. Such dual citizenship includes rights and responsibilities in both spheres.”
THE BOTTOM LINE: I believe the church at large will go through an immense separation period; this… may just be the beginning. God sometimes allows things to happen, just to force us to take a stand, hopefully with Him, and separate our selves from those who don’t.
What side of the fence will you be left standing on…
de Andréa
If religious institutions and congregations give into this, they won’t be able to stop this regime, or future dictator regimes, in eventually silencing and neutralizing the church completely.
One of the objections I have received over the years was, Christians shouldn’t be involved politically because our “Citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).
Or we can’t speak out politically because it’s against the rules of a 501(c)(3).
Adolf Hitler loved hearing such nonsense from church leaders because he knew that with the church out of the way, he could do most anything.
As I pointed out so many times, it was the apostle Paul who wrote that “our citizenship is in heaven” but used his Roman citizenship to avoid being beaten (Acts 22:25–30) and made a formal appeal to Caesar for adjudication of the charges leveled against him (25:11–12).
Another excuse I hear is … Well… God is in control, so we shouldn’t interfere with God’s plan. God may have allowed 9/11 to happen, but you can rest assured my friend, it wasn’t part of God’s plan.
Hitler, as perverted as it was, also believed in an exclusive heavenly citizenship- Christianity. “I will protect the German people,” Hitler shouted at Martin Niemöller a decorated submarine commander in World War I and a minister of the gospel. “You take care of the church. You pastors should worry about getting people to heaven and leave this world to me.”
Niemöller became an ardent critic of Hitler and his policies, protesting against the anti-Christian agenda of the regime, denouncing the government’s anti-Semitism and demanding an end to the state’s interference in the churches. Does this sound familiar?
Hermann Rauschning, an early Hitler confidant, relates what he heard Hitler say about the clergy:
“You can do anything you like to them (Christians and Jews) — they will submit. They’re used to cares and worries. . . . They are insignificant little people, submissive as dogs, and they sweat with embarrassment when you talk to them.”
For many church-going Germans, they thought their heavenly citizenship obligated them - blindly’ to accept the prevailing civil requirements of citizenship and to remain silent in the face of opposition no matter what atrocities might be committed. Unlike Paul, they would have taken the beating and liked it. In no other country except with the exception of Czarist Russia did the clergy become by tradition so completely servile to the political authority of the State, and you know what was down that road.
Niemöller tried in vain to awaken the church against Hitler’s plans: “We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of the authorities than had the Apostles of old. No more are we ready to keep silent at man’s behest when God commands us to speak. For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man.”
A Christian’s heavenly citizenship, Niemöller concluded: “Must have an impact in the world in which he lives”. It is no less true today. Richard Land and
Louis Moore writes, “We Christians are citizens of two realms–the earthly and spiritual. Such dual citizenship includes rights and responsibilities in both spheres.”
THE BOTTOM LINE: I believe the church at large will go through an immense separation period; this… may just be the beginning. God sometimes allows things to happen, just to force us to take a stand, hopefully with Him, and separate our selves from those who don’t.
What side of the fence will you be left standing on…
de Andréa
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