Tag: political power

The Words of Amos to the Faithful Remnant of God’s People in the US Today?

The pairing of the church and state is not a wedding made in heaven

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Mountain fortress overlooking a stone bridge and river gorge at twilight

I have been reading Embrace the Tension by Tommy Nixon. He has resonated deeply with me, especially in this time. Christians in the United States seem to be living in a golden moment with a president openly engaging Christians and a popular segment of the church celebrating a symbiotic relationship with the president and his administration.

We don’t have to look too closely, however, to be concerned. Many prophetic voices have distanced themselves from this expression of Christianity. They stand outside the structure of this church and state power duo sounding an alarm. The foundation of this relationship is power and influence, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit is missing,

Satan tempted Jesus by offering him all the power of the kingdoms of the world, and Jesus flatly turned him down. When Jesus’ own followers attempted to seize him by force and make him king, he escaped into the hills. When Pilate confronted Jesus about the confusing things he was hearing – Was Jesus really king of the Jews? – Jesus told him that his kingdom is not of this world.

Jesus explained to Pilate that his power was given to him by God. If Jesus had come to take over, his followers would have risen up and seized control, but that isn’t why he came. He came to good news to the poor and to die on a cross. He came to introduce people to the Kingdom of God that is here now – growing in the midst of the kingdoms of this world – though the reign of the Righteous King is not yet.

Jesus will not reign as king until he comes again at the end of the age. In the meantime, he was clear that his followers are to be salt and light in the world. The church has no mandate to take over the kingdoms of the world. The church is commissioned to make disciples – followers of Jesus. 

Tommy Nixon recalls in his book the church at Antioch. They were diverse, but not for diversity’s sake. They were diverse because Jesus loves and came to save the world. They were unified, but not for unity’s sake. They were unified in Christ and in his purposes. They had power, but not for power’s sake. The power they wielded was found in taking up a cross and following Jesus. They experience the joy of the Holy Spirit, but not for joy’s sake. They experienced the joy of the Holy Spirit in the midst of a world that was orientated against what God was doing.

A dramatic change in the church took place when Constantine became king and issued the Edict of Milan, proclaiming religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire, followed by the Edict of Thessalonica, in which Christianity was made the state religion. This is how Tommy Nixon characterizes the change:

“What seemed like a triumph for the church was the beginning of a dangerous compromise. The same empire that once persecuted followers of Christ now embraced Christianity as its own. The gradual fusion of the church with the state followed, leading to the kingdom becoming the empire. Political power and cultural dominance diluted the gospel message. It was no longer good news to the margins; it was a tool to maintain control.

Embrace the Tension: Choosing the Radical Middle Instead of Picking a Side by Tommy Nixon, page 142

If we make an honest comparison of the church before the 5th century and the church after the first century, we can see the influence that state power had on the church. Before the church had any power it was persecuted and marginalized, but it revolutionized the Roman world in the love of neighbor and the love of God. The church was subversive in the best possible ways, led by people authentically walking the path of its suffering Savior, preaching good news to the poor – as Jesus did.

From the 6th century on, the became wedded to state power and than more deeply embedded in state power. Church and state became inseparable, and the corruption of the Church ensued. We call those years the Dark Ages for good reason.

Not everything was dark, of course. God was still at work in His church and in the world, despite the evil and corruption that litter the annals of this period of the history of the Church. The Crusades and the Inquisition are among the rotten fruit that grew in the name of Christ, though God always preserves a remnant in every age.

Tommy Nixon is nothing if not brutally honest and authentic:

“We see the effects of this today. In the United States, the surge of Christian nationalism and the conflation of faith with political ideology reveal how deeply the empire has shaped our perception of what it means to be a follower of Christ.”

Embrace the Tension, page 142

Once again, a segment of the Church flirts with the power and influence of Empire. In this context, Tommy Nixon refers to the Book of Amos. Amos was a prophet in Israel in the 8th Century BC. He warned Israel, that was once the oppressed living in slavery, that it had become the oppressor. Idolatry and injustice were rampant, and God was giving them an opportunity to repent and turn from their waywardness.

They didn’t listen, of course. Within 30 years of the ministry of Amos, the northern kingdom was exiled to Babylon.

Though Amos spoke at a low point in the history of God’s people, he ended with a message of hope. He spoke of a day when God would “restore David’s fallen shelter,” and “repair its broken walls,” “restore its ruins,” and “rebuild it as it used to be.” Amos 9:11-12

I don’t think that God intended to restore the nation of Israel exactly as it was; God intended to restore Israel as He designed it to be. Amos says God would do this so that his people would “possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name.” God’s blessing and promise to Abraham was always to extend to all the nations.

We see the reality of this, of course, in Jesus. He came first to the lost sheep of Israel, but his ministry extended far beyond the remnant of Israel. It extended to all of us and to all of time.

God’s ways are not our ways. He sent his only Son into the world that all who call upon his name will be saved – in Israel, Judah, Samaria, and all the world: the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, El Salvador, China, and to all the islands of the world.

Tommy Nixon concludes his assessment of the church in America by saying. “It doesn’t have to be this way.” We don’t need to devolve into the corruption of state power. “We can continue to be the rebels, but we have to be honest about the rebellion. The church needs a lot of work, but you and I are the church. It is time to be brave and own our hypocrisy and do something about it.”

Tommy Nixon speaks truth when he says, “The church is the problem,” but our hope is in the fact that “the church is also the solution.”

It’s time for the church to be the church, to repent, and to get back to what it means to be followers of Christ, fellow cross bearers, suffering servants in the way of Jesus, who live out the kingdom of God in our daily lives, preaching good news to the poor, suffering with those who suffer, mourning with those who mourn, and sharing the good news of the kingdom of God to anyone who will hear.

Jesus could have taken over the kingdoms of the Earth, but he knew who it was who had the present authority over the kingdoms of the world. The will of God was to introduce His kingdom on Earth and to raise up an army of suffering servants who would pray and live into the reality of the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven.

We are tempted by the same things that tempted Jesus, and we should reject them the same way Jesus rejected them. His kingdom is not of this world. We have missed the mark in our attempt to protect the power and influence we have gained in this world at the expense of being like Jesus – the ambassadors of his kingdom.

Just as Amos prophesied it is not too late. It is not too late for the remnant of God’s people in this age – the church – to be the body of Christ, representatives of Jesus in this world. We do not need earthly power and influence. As a matter of fact, earthly power and influence will corrupt the whole thing. It always has, and it always will until the day Jesus comes again. As God told Amos, God will do what He says. We only need to be faithful.

Jesus Shunned the Authority of the Kingdoms of the World

The temptation of power and influence

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Modern-dressed man and robed figure overlooking an ancient city at sunset

“And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.’

And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, ”You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.””

Luke 4:5-6, 8 ESV

From this passage it seems clear that Satan has authority over the kingdoms of this world. Satan has the authority to grant authority and the glory that goes with it to whomever he wishes. That the kingdoms of the world have been delivered to the devil. is a jolting statement.

In this passage, Jesus does not deny what Satan says, but he refuses to be tempted by Satan’s offering. He rejects the idea that he should take the authority that has been given to Satan over the kingdoms of the world, saying that a person should worship the Lord God and serve only Him.

This is one of the four temptations of Jesus with which the devil confronted him in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. All of those temptations are instructive for us, but I think this one in particular is instructive for us in this political moment of the United States.

As Jesus was about to go into his public ministry, he certainly knew that he could usurp all the authority of the kingdoms of the Earth. Jesus also knew that all the authority over the nations of the Earth came from God, but that authority had been given to Satan for the present time.

I believe this is why Jesus did not deny that authority existed, and he did not deny that the devil had been given that authority to hand out as he desired. Jesus did not deny any of that, but he rejected the idea that he should take the authority the devil had to give. (Matthew 4:8-10)

To be clear, the offer was “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” in exchange for worshipping the devil. The fact that the devil has the power and authority to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world does not necessarily mean that someone who is in a position of power achieved it by worshiping the devil. I don’t want to leave any impression that I think that.

On the other hand, we should not be unaware that the authority over the kingdoms of the world is the province of the devil, given to the devil by God until Christ comes again.

This was the last attempt by the devil to tempt Jesus – a last ditch effort. I think this underscores the seductiveness of power and political influence. Power and influence is almost always accompanied with the accumulation of wealth. If the love of money is the root of all evil, the power and influence is its twin brothers.

In practical reality, there seems to be little separation between money and influence. People who have great influence nearly always amass wealth. Just look at the net worth of people in politics, especially at the national level.

Of course, money (itself) is not evil. It’s the love of money that is the problem. Jesus handled money, and it did not corrupt him. At the same time, the one man who handled the money for Jesus is the man who betrayed him.

Jesus warned his followers of the seductive influence of money when he said it is harder for a wealthy man to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Given the correlation between money and power/influence, we should be just as wary.

Christians should not rush to gain influence any more than Christians should seek wealth. We cannot serve two masters. If we love one, we hate the other. This is true of literally anything we seek, exalt, focus on, depend on, etc., more than God.

When Jesus talked about love and hate in these ways, he wasn’t talking about emotions. He was talking about priorities. When he said that a person who follows him must hate his mother, father, sister, and brother, Jesus wasn’t actually telling us to hate them. He was telling us to prioritize them below our love of God.

And so it is with God and money. To love money is to prioritize money above our love of God. To prioritize influence and power above our love for God is to hate God in comparison.

To focus on governmental authority or to focus on money is a dangerous endeavor for a Christian. If Jesus could be tempted by power and influence, how much more are we tempted by those things? How much more susceptible are we to giving into that temptation?

I am going to be frank here. I think we have seen the disordering of Christian priorities in our country. As Jesus has plainly told us, there are many who will say, “Lord, Lord.” There are many who will say the right things, who will speak of God and of Jesus, but their hearts belong somewhere else. And Jesus said we would know them by their fruit. If anyone has gained power and wealth, but they have not love – the primary fruit of the Spirit – they are like clanging gongs and cymbals.

We overcomplicate what love is. Paul tells us plainly that love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy or boast. Love is not arrogant or rude. (1 Corinthians 13:4-5)

Power and wealth corrupt. It warps our priorities. It twists our character. We begin to think that black is white and white is black. We begin to think of power and influence as a blessing from God, rather than a burden that threatens our very souls.

Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted.

Notice that the devil did not tempt Jesus with any of those things! None of those things would be a temptation, would they? Yet, Jesus tells us plainly that people who experience those things are blessed. None of these things are desirable in the world, but they lead to the great treasure of eternal life and relationship with God.

Power and wealth are highly desirable in this world, but none of it will matter in the next. They are a stumbling block in this world. The attachment to power and influence hangs like a dead weight on the backs of human beings who have not shunned it like Jesus did.

Jesus did not preach that a wealthy man cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, but it’s harder than you might think. It’s like a camel squeezing through the eye of a needle. However you understand that metaphor, you should not miss the point that wealth is a very heavy burden when it comes to entering the Kingdom of God – and power/influence is the cousin of wealth.

I think we should take notice that the devil did not tempt Jesus with money. He tempted Jesus with the power of the kingdoms of the world. Perhaps, that is because wealth naturally flows from having power. If it’s difficult for a wealthy man to get into the kingdom of heaven, how much more difficult is it for a powerful (and wealthy) man to get into the kingdom of God?

I think we should be sober and alert to the devil’s schemes. If Jesus shunned the power that is the devil’s to give power, how much more should we shun it? Do we have more willpower than Jesus?

That attitude, of course, will not get us anywhere in the world. It looks utterly foolish for us to shun power and influence, but that is the foolishness of the cross. It is the foolishness of God’s wisdom, and I think we would do well to reclaim some of that foolishness.

When the Church Loses Its Prophetic Voice

Biblical Authority, Political Power, and the Temptations of Influence

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The failure of the German Protestant church to mount a decisive resistance to Nazism has long troubled western Christian conscience. Historians rightly warn against simplistic explanations, but one conclusion has proven difficult to escape: long before Hitler rose to power, the church’s theological confidence had already been weakened. When the state demanded ultimate loyalty, many pastors and congregations lacked the moral clarity and will to refuse.

The nineteenth-century Tübingen School of theology did not cause Nazism. Its scholars were not proto-fascists, nor did they anticipate racial ideology or totalitarian politics. Yet their historical-critical approach to Scripture unintentionally contributed to a Protestant culture in which the Bible increasingly functioned as an object of study rather than a source of commanding authority. When political myth replaced moral truth, the church was unprepared to stand against it because the church had long ago lost its biblical, moral footing.

History does not repeat itself mechanically. The present American situation is not Weimar Germany, and the MAGA movement is not Nazism. Still, history can illuminate how the happenings within the church influence how the church interacts with political culture. That raises a difficult but necessary question for American evangelicals today: what weaknesses in our own theology and habits of thought have made many of us susceptible to the distortions of political power?

The answer is not that evangelicalism has repeated the errors of liberal Protestantism. In many ways, we have made opposite mistakes. But the result—a diminished capacity for prophetic resistance—bears an unsettling resemblance.

Authority Dissolved: The Tübingen Lesson

The Tübingen School, led by Ferdinand Christian Baur in the mid-nineteenth century, treated Scripture primarily as a historical artifact shaped by competing early Christian communities. Biblical texts were analyzed as records of theological conflict rather than as a unified witness to divine revelation. The command and authority of Scripture was diminished, and the sacred became profane. The trajectory of the academy spilled into and watered down the vitality of Christian impact in Protestant Germany.

Clergy trained in historical criticism often hesitated to proclaim Scripture normatively. The Bible remained important, but its authority was qualified, softened, and translated into general ethical ideals compatible with modern culture. Christianity became morally earnest but theologically cautious and politically unimportant.

By the early twentieth century, much of German Protestantism lacked the confidence to say an unambiguous “No” to the state. The problem was not simply fear or cowardice. It was uncertainty—whether God had spoken definitively enough to authorize resistance when power spoke with confidence and force.

Karl Barth saw this clearly. In 1933, as the German church accommodated itself to the Nazi regime, Barth insisted that the church exists only under the authority of God’s self-revelation. Where that authority is weakened, the church becomes vulnerable to captivity by the state.

The lesson is sobering: when Scripture no longer stands above culture, culture will soon stand above the church. Today we can say of Nazi Germany and the church alike, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8) But, the impact was devastating on Germany, Jews, Europe, and the world at that time, and its effects rumble into the present time.

I do not want to suggest that we can equate Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s to the United States of America in the 2010’s and 2020’s. Still, there are parallels between the exercise of State power in the vacuum left by weakened theology that bear some attention.

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Of Powers and Principalities and Following Christ in the Midst of the Fray

The post-Christian right and post-Christian left battle for our allegiance

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I have listened to all 30 episodes of Season 1 of the podcast, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God, by Justin Brierley. I have listened to dozens of podcasts, and I think this is one among the best, most well-produced podcasts I have found. The first episode of Season 2 inspires my writing today.

In this episode, Justin Brierley poses the question, “Whether the seeming rebirth of belief in God is right wing?” A return to Christian values seems to coincide with a resurgence in conservative politics, but, let’s look closer.

Is Christianity right wing? The African American church would beg to differ. Does Christianity have a right wing and a left wing? Or is Christianity another bird entirely?

At about the 45 minute mark in the podcast, Glen Scrivener identifies three strains of culture in the current western world. One strain is “blasting off into progressive liberalism.” Another strain is “snapping back to the worship of the strong”, a return to the world of Nietzsche. A third strain involves the “surprising rebirth of belief in God”, as Brierley puts it, where a trickle my become a flood, and Christian revival happens.

Scrivener is hopeful that the signs of Christian renewal in the west foreshadow revival, but he observes that these different strains of culture are moving forward at the same time, albeit in conflict with each other. They each have a trajectory that will continue into the future, and, “It will be a mess,” says Scrivener.

He believes Christian revival will happen, but he believes that progressive liberalism will also continue on its trajectory, divorcing itself more completely than it already has from nature and the Christian story. He believes that a devolution into what he calls “the default nature of the flesh” will continue as well, where might makes right.

Indeed, these things are happening now. Will they continue on the same trajectory into the future? Time will tell, but I think he is right: that there is a “post-Christian right” and a “post-Christian left” that are presently locked in a battle for the minds of the people of the western world.

I would add that the world, generally, is and will continue to be the devil’s playground until Jesus returns. At least, that is what the Bible says (millennium variations aside).

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A Tale of Two Processions, Two Kingdoms, and the Triumph of God

Two processions, two kingdoms clashing, and God’s triumph in the death of God incarnate on the cross

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Episode 124 – Statement of Triumph – from the BEMA Podcast, with Marty Solomon and Brent Billings, inspires my writing today. It was the subject of discussion for the Saturday morning Bible study I have attended off and on with an exceptional group of men for several years.

The subject was Matthew 21:1-11. The chapter heading in the NIV translation (which would not have appeared in the original text, because there were no chapter headings in the original text) is “Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King.”

This is usually how we read it: a “triumphal” entry. We celebrate Jesus entering Jerusalem as a king. It was triumphal, but not perhaps in the way we tend to think about it. Certainly, not in the way the fledgling followers of Jesus perceived it when they witnessed it.

Marty Solomon sets the stage in the podcast. He emphasizes that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. It was during the week of Passover, an unusually tense time in this region of the Roman world. The uneasy tension existed at that time in that region because it was home to the only group of people in the Roman Empire who refused to worship the Emperor.

The Jewish people were stubbornly true to their God. Even so, Rome allowed the Jews to have their own ruler, Herod the Great. Herod was powerful in his own right, but he was happy to rule alongside the Romans, and the Romans accommodated him to maintain stability in the region.

Even so, this small piece of real estate was problematic for Rome. It sat at the crossroads of the earth. The Hebrew people long inhabited it, but they were a headache for Rome because of their entrenched religious traditions and unabated worship of their God.

When Herod the Great died, three of his sons took over different areas of the land Herod ruled as a vassal of the Romans. Herod Philip ruled the north (Caesarea Philippi). Herod Antipas ruled the middle region, and Herod Archelaus ruled in the south (Judea).

Archelaus only lasted two years, so Rome brought in its own ruler, Pontius Pilate (the Roman Bulldog), to maintain Rome’s control over the region. Pilate didn’t live in the sacred City, Jerusalem. Pilate lived in Caesarea Maritime (Caesarea, By the Sea), a city built by Herod to honor Caesar.

The week of Passover would have been a particularly tense time in Jerusalem because Jews from all over gathered there to celebrate the feast that remembered their great deliverance and triumph over the superpower of an earlier time, Egypt. The last thing Rome wanted was for this celebration to become a rally for rebel Jews fueled up with wine and the legend of their former deliverance.

If there was any holiday that might make the Romans nervous in Judea, it was Passover. Zealots were always stirring up trouble, and Passover would be an opportune time for a Jewish revolt against the Roman rule of this territory that the Jews long held out as their own. After all, the Jews still believed this land was to be theirs again based on their understanding of prophecies about a military coup to be led by a messiah (savior) in the line of their once great King, David.

Every year at this time Pontius Pilate would head south from Caesarea down the coastal road to Joppa. He would head east from Joppa to make his way into Jerusalem. Pilate would enter Jerusalem from the west. He traveled with great pomp and a show of force, with an army of soldiers, trumpeters, heralds, banners, and pronouncements. Pilate would lead the way on a white stallion symbolizing Roman conquest and rule.

This show of power, of course, was intentional.The article, In Through the Back Door, September 24, 2022, by Terry Gau describes these yearly processions made by Pilate into Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover week. John Dominic Crossen and Marcus Borg, memorializes the historical context in their book, Last Week, setting the stage for the final chapter of Jesus’ ministry on earth. The procession is described this way:

“Traditionally, Pilate paraded into Jerusalem on the first day of Passover Week, entering the west gate – the front gate – with legions of chariots, horses, and foot soldiers, dressed for battle and armed with swords and spears.  Rome’s authority would not be questioned.  The majesty with which Pilate enters the front door of the city was meant to inspire awe and fear, respect and obedience.”

Marty Solomon imagines it this way:

“You could have heard him coming from miles away. The message he wanted to send to the Jews was clear. ‘Don’t even think about it! Keep everything under control, or Rome will crush you!’”

BEMA Podcast, Episode 124

Pilate would stay in Herod’s palace in Jerusalem for the week until the festivities ended. Then he would go back to Caesarea. He wasn’t there to celebrate, though. He was there to ensure things didn’t get out of control and to keep the peace.

During one Passover week under the rule of Pontius Pilate in Judea another procession took place. It may have even happened on the same day at the same time that Pilate was entering the City from the west. This procession took place on the east side of Jerusalem where Jesus, riding on a lowly, young donkey with a small, rag tag bunch of unarmed disciples entered through the east gate – the back door to Jerusalem.

“This parade was just as carefully staged as Pilate’s entry into Jerusalem. It was a counter-procession, a different vision of what a Kingdom should be, a subversive action against the powers that ruled Jerusalem. Jesus’ humble, yet triumphal, entry into Jerusalem stood in contrast to the magnificence and brutality on display at the opposite end of the city. Jesus brings peace, while Pilate brings a sword.”

In Through the Back Door

This was the backdrop for episode 124 of the BEMA Podcast and of our discussion. I sit writing at a temporary table with one chair left in my house that is all but cleaned out and being readied for sale. My future is uncertain as I recount one of the most pivotal times in human history and the dealings of God with man and its meaning for us, today.

Continue reading “A Tale of Two Processions, Two Kingdoms, and the Triumph of God” →