Michael Bray
\nCapitol Area Christian News
\nFall, 2000<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Your Money Says in God We Trust\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s against the law to pray in school.\u201d Those were the words sung by avant-guarde Christian rock \u2019n\u2019 roller Larry Norman three decades ago. The schizophrenia continues to play itself out. We want a society which affords liberty, but we don\u2019t want the Law that liberty requires. We sing the hymn \u201cAmerica,\u201d praying: \u201cGod shed His grace on thee.\u201d And we exhort our countrymen to \u201cconfirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.\u201d <\/p>\n
It is indeed the very Law of God which provides true liberty as it supplies true justice. When the Law of God is upheld, citizens are liberated from the vomitive, highhanded sinning of sodomites, adulterers, promiscuous taxers, idol worshippers, child murderers, pedophiles, necrophiliacs, tyrants, horse thieves, etc.<\/p>\n
\tFreedom! How long, O Lord?<\/p>\n
The Lord hasn\u2019t answered my imprecatory prayers, yet.<\/p>\n
Each morning I stroll to the end of the driveway and return with the Washington Times in hand to discover the answer to the burning question which the wife will ritually ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he dead yet?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cNo. The rapist (or \u201cmurderer\u201d or \u201cliar\u201d or \u201cadulterer\u201d or \u201ctraitor\u201d depending upon the latest reports from Washington) lives and is still in the White House.\u201d <\/p>\n
So it goes, morning after morning. The national shame we bear is fitting for a nation which chooses the Abortion President, and then refuses to excrete him from the body of government when he proves himself a true liar and pervert as well as a murderer of infants. What shall we expect of a nation which not only tolerates such a sodomite pleaser but wants to have his understudy, Algore, to rule over them when his term of tyranny finally runs out?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he did evil in the sight of the Lord and did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam,\u201d is the ancient refrain from the books of the Kings. It is infused now with fresh relevance by American society \u201cslouching toward Gomorrah.\u201d <\/p>\n
National judgment is due us. And God can use the Russians or the Chinese now as handily as He used the Assyrians or the Babyonians of yore; or maybe a good old-fashioned plague would be His choice, given our national fetish for using feticidal germs. <\/p>\n
Many of us expected that Y2K might to bring a well-earned judgment. But no one knows exactly what course history will take, and yet everyone, including God\u2019s people, makes plans and preparations. (\u201cGo to the ant,\u201d says the proverb. \u201cSee how she works all day.\u201d) A modicum of speculation is prudent, but our job is to persevere in obedience to His Word. And when judgment comes \uf0be in whatever form \uf0be we know it fits the national crimes. So, whether we are coasting along by grace in Christendom or suffering under the oppression of modern, atheistic totalitarianism, we remain His servants. We bear witness to the truth. <\/p>\n
And what is that truth we declare in the civil and political arena? <\/p>\n
It is more than an oblique reference to the Scripture and those \u201cself-evident\u201d truths as in Jefferson\u2019s \u201cAll men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights.\u201d The truth we declare to the governors of the land is that all authorities were created by and belong to Christ, who reigns over them even as he indwells his people, the Church of God (Rom. 13:1-7; Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:16). <\/p>\n
Colonial Foundation for Law<\/p>\n
More specifically, we declare that the foundation of all civil laws is properly the same one each of our colonies assumed; viz., the Law of God. The \u201cChristian religion\u201d was the recognized foundation for Law affirmed by the legislatures and constitutions of the various 17th century colonies. Yes, sundry references to the writings of Moses appear in some of the very state constitutions! (One cannot even find the same in ecclesiastical \u201cposition statements\u201d re \u201ccivil affairs\u201d in contemporary American Christianity!) Of course, one cannot expect civil rulers to rise above the churches of God in their commitments to the Law of God as the foundation of the civil order. (We\u2019ve a long way to go, baby.)<\/p>\n
The heathen rage against Christ, the ruler of the nations (Psalm 2). They scoff at the claims that there is Truth from above which shines even in every heart (Romans 1:25).<\/p>\n
No! Each shall have his own path to the God of His understanding! All ways are valid! Who can judge? <\/p>\n
(He can. And will. We declare this Truth, too.) <\/p>\n
Christendom is well plundered world-wide.<\/p>\n
Yes, the heathen rage in a formerly Christian land. Sodomites can marry one another in Vermont. The devil has been hard at it to \u201cmake a difference.\u201d And what a difference! Would a legislator from that state, or any state, dare to invoke the Law of God (other than \u201cJudge not!\u201d) as the ground for any action he proposes? <\/p>\n
Even revolutionary Vermont\u2019s 1777 constitution required every member or the state house of representatives to affirm God\u2019s Law as the foundation for the civil order by swearing an oath as follows: \u201cI do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and the punisher of the wicked; and I do acknowledge the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by divine inspiration; and own and profess the Protestant religion.\u201d <\/p>\n
We\u2019ve come a long way from a time when the colonies taxed their citizens to support the established church (Congregational in New England; Anglican in the Southern colonies). Now the church is required to collect taxes for the state! The 50-year-old Indianapolis Baptist Temple has been commanded by federal court to vacate its building by 14 November so the IRS can sell it. The government wants the church to pay the taxes they have refused to collect over the years. (You know, those insidious income and Social Security withholdings.) \u201cThe IRS said the unpaid taxes, penalties and interest total nearly $6 million\u201d (AP, 28 Sept.).<\/p>\n
Yes, we\u2019ve come a long way, baby. And it may be some time yet before an Asa kicks the sodomites out of the land (1 Kings 15:12), but I have a dream. <\/p>\n
I have a dream!<\/p>\n
I see a governor issuing an executive order. I see him shutting down the abortuaries in his state and enforcing the long-standing statutes which outlaw homosexual acts. I see him calling in the national guard to enforce his order against any interference from federal marshals who might be sent by a Janet Waco Reno to enforce the Roe opinion or some inane \u201ccivil rights\u201d policy. <\/p>\n
Oh, wouldn\u2019t it be nice!<\/p>\n
But how could such a thing come to pass? Apart from a repentance-producing judgment, it will take lots of work from many churches concentrated in the targeted (any and all) municipalities to be reformed. The most effective action being taken in that direction is that of the local church-based mission of Mercy Seat Christian Church in Milwaukee. Rev. Matt Trewhella, pastor of the church, is also the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn. With his leadership, the church has developed a witness to the Law and Gospel. The missionaries have maintained an anti-abortion witness on the streets for two decades. By their good works (on the street; in the court rooms), they have also sustained confrontation and resistance to tyranny.<\/p>\n
Missionaries to the Preborn Conference<\/p>\n
We will be honored to have Rev. Trewhella address us at the conference to be held the same day as the annual White Rose Banquet (Sunday, 21 January). He will pointed us in the right direction for the long haul. We need to develop the local church witness and join with a league of churches which will proclaim as one man the same message of justice for the innocent.<\/p>\n
We proclaim the law of God (true Justice) when we praise those who have been jailed for rescuing the innocent. And we proclaim the law of God when we call for the authorities to execute the (real) murderers.<\/p>\n
This we do, corporately, as we gather each year to honor the prisoners at the White Rose Banquet. <\/p>\n
Join us this year for both the conference and The White Rose Banquet to be held the same day. All proceeds will be distributed to selected prisoners or their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michael Bray Capitol Area Christian News Fall, 2000 \u201cAnd Your Money Says in God We Trust\u201d \u201cBut it\u2019s against the law to pray in school.\u201d Those were the words sung by avant-guarde Christian rock \u2019n\u2019 roller Larry Norman three decades ago. The schizophrenia continues to play itself out. We want a society which affords liberty, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-polytheistic-statism-v-christocracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}