Michael Bray
\n21 August, 2004<\/p>\n
On 19 August, three more Saudi sodomites were relieved of their heads by \u00a0rather unmodern means. The last time we heard of such a triple header was as recent as http:\/\/www.streetpreach.com\/Bray\/commentary03.htm 1 January, 2002.\u00a0 Same jurisdiction, crime, and punishment for three other nefarious natives of the Arabian Peninsula.\u00a0 I am wondering where Presidential candidate Michael Peroutka stands on the issue. We know he opposes baby killing and sodomy, but what sanctions does he propose against these crimes?\u00a0 Surely a statute must provide for punishment for violations of law.\u00a0 Not an \u201cissue,\u201d you say?\u00a0 And neither are the platforms set forth by Peroutka: U.S. membership in the U.N. and abolition of the IRS for examples, if the present parties set the agenda.\u00a0 (Who says what the issues are?)<\/p>\n
My brethren \u2013 rabid anti-abortionists and -sodomites \u2013 wonder at my call for them to lift up their countenances and smile upon George Bush this November.\u00a0 A list of grievances lunges forth: taxes, deficit spending, lack of action re abortion, war in Iraq, and making nice with liberals and fags. Peroutka is offered as an alternative.\u00a0 Another political party is necessary since the standard two are too far gone.\u00a0 There is no distinguishing Bush from Kerry, they say; while there is a great difference between Bush and Peroutka.<\/p>\n
Not necessarily. But there would also be a great chasm dividing a Jesus Administration and a Peroutka Administration (and this decadent electorate will elect neither). \u00a0Imagine that ideal government: Jesus of Nazareth, President; Paul of Taursus, Vice President; Moses, son of\u00a0 Levi Attorney General; David, son of Jesse, Secretary of Defense, etc. \u00a0And like a mother hen trying to gather her chicks to herself, so such a President would succor and woo the people to do right and come under his care and protection: O America, America, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her!\u00a0 How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! (cf. Luke 13:34-35).<\/p>\n
Jesus, as Savior, came as the Lamb, swordless, to die; not to administer justice to the nations. But, now, as King of kings, this Lion of Judah is the Ruler of the nations (Ps. 2; Is. 9:7; Rev. 5:5, 12). \u00a0\u00a0And that rule, justice, is advanced by His Spirit through His Church as it propounds the Truth by word and deed.<\/p>\n
That Truth is not just the Gospel, but the Law; i.e. justice.\u00a0 \u00a0The church is to propound justice in the earth and it takes its understanding of justice from the Scriptures.\u00a0 All of this world\u2019s magistrates are answerable to God as His servants (Rom. 13). And where are they to gain their understanding of justice but from the church, the \u201cpillar of truth\u201d (1 Tim. 3:15)?<\/p>\n
We churchmen cannot expect magistrates (Christian or otherwise) to rule at a standard higher than that which the churches of God are willing to propound publicly.<\/p>\n
Imagine churches speaking very specifically about matters of Law and Justice.\u00a0 Take sodomy and child slaughter, for example.\u00a0 What if two churches, not members speaking as Christian citizens, butchurches<\/em> represented by pastors in every city, propounded this standard of justice: death penalty for murderers (including abortionists) and sodomites?<\/p>\n Now, this, of course, is way too radical a position \u2013 politically speaking – for Mr. Peroutka to embrace, but it is the Truth and Justice which is part of the church\u2019s duty to proclaim. And were the churches to proclaim the standard, four results would follow: 1) shake up of the rest of the churches in town and the addition of new churches making the same truth claims; 2) an association of such churches would be formed to strengthen their proclamation; 3) statesmen could reference the churches\u2019 declarations (even if only for private edification and confidence) as they advocate laws, albeit imperfect, more consistent with the Laws of God; i.e. the positions of politicians would be bump-shifted \u201cto the right\u201d so to speak; 4) energy and vision for the development of alternative political parties would be engendered; parties, such as the Constitution Party or the Creator\u2019s Rights Party, would emerge and develop precincts in each state.<\/p>\n All things considered, George Bush is a great president, keeping the damage brought to Americans by the federal government to a minimum.\u00a0 He hasn\u2019t called for the punishment of abortionists yet, but neither have churches excommunicated heretical and unrepentant \u201cpro-choicers\u201d from their memberships. Consider those kings of Judah whose administrations are praised.\u00a0 Take Asa as an example.\u00a0 He was rebuked by the prophet Hanani for initiating and trusting in an alliance with the pagan King of the Syrians and responded by jailing the prophet (2 Chron. 16:7,10).\u00a0 But the summary judgment of his rule is that it was a righteous one (1 Kings 15:11).<\/p>\n Similarly, the succeeding King Jehoshaphat is called righteous (2 Chron. 21:32) even though he, too, was rebuked by the prophets, Jehu and Eliezar, for allying himself with the apostate King Ahab and his successor, Ahaziah (2 Chron. 20:35).\u00a0 The sin of the nation did not reside in the king alone, but in the people he ruled.\u00a0 The Scriptures declare that the \u201chigh places,\u201d where improper worship was conducted, were not removed by the king.\u00a0 But adjacent to this declaration, the Scriptures say, \u201cthe people had not yet directed their hearts to the God of their fathers<.\u201d\n\nIndeed, the Almightly does ordain governments among mankind; and with due justice, seems to give people the governors they deserve!\u00a0 The morality of rulers is not always too far from that of the population.\u00a0 Some rulers tend toward the wicked end (a la Clinton, an avid and unabashed promoter of childslaughter and sodomy); others tend toward the righteous end (a la Reagan and Bush, who made efforts to resist the slide into deeper national debauchery).\n\nGeorge Washington deferred the slave question while fighting Revolutionary War; yet he was a great man; Robert E. Lee preferred to stand for the sovereignty of Virginia against the imposition of unconstitutional authority by the federal government, even though the Union was bringing justice for negroes; and he, too, was a great man. \u00a0Lincoln freed the slaves, but violated the Constitutional rights of Southern American in waging war against his own countrymen; and he, too, was a great man.\u00a0\u00a0 George Bush was barely elected over an abortophilic Al Gore. \u00a0He has been mightily obstructed by Congress and Supreme Court and is opposed by a powerful news media, and he is a great man.\n\nLess excusable, perhaps, is the behavior of churches and their \u201cpeople of light.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0The popular Purpose Driven American Christian fancies himself to have more important tasks than to resist the holocaust in his neighborhood.\u00a0 Those higher priorities, like \u00a0preaching and worshiping, have driven Christians to silence and impotence.\u00a0 We have preferred our hot, power-point-illustrated worship songs to cold prison floors.\u00a0 And God says, \u201cI hate\u201d such worship.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLearn to do good, seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan\u201d (Is. 1:14-17).\n\nAmerican Christians function at a level of morality no greater than their President.\u00a0 We are not excused for tolerating child-slaughter in our neighborhoods as we complain that Bush hasn\u2019t done enough.\n\nLet the churches repent, damn their tax-exemption status, and call for justice for the unborn.\u00a0 Justice is two-edged: protection for the innocent and punishment for the guilty.\u00a0 Let the Pillars of Truth, the churches of God, find their purpose in lighting the way for the magistrates.\n\nOnce Churches speak a clear word to the President, then we can call him to account and proceed to either reform the GOP or abandon it for alternative parties.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michael Bray 21 August, 2004 On 19 August, three more Saudi sodomites were relieved of their heads by \u00a0rather unmodern means. The last time we heard of such a triple header was as recent as http:\/\/www.streetpreach.com\/Bray\/commentary03.htm 1 January, 2002.\u00a0 Same jurisdiction, crime, and punishment for three other nefarious natives of the Arabian Peninsula.\u00a0 I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-ministry-of-the-churches-of-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","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=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}