Text: I Peter 2:13-17

 

I.         It is easy to forget that the relationship between church and state that we have today did not exist when Christ entered the world

            A.        Most societies in the past were held together by a common religious loyalty

            B.        The Babylonians expected everyone in their country to bow before the idol Nebuchadnezzar had made - Daniel 3:1-7

                        1.         To not submit meant you were not loyal to the country or the king

                        2.         Which is why Nebuchadnezzar was so mad when three Jews refused - Daniel 3:13

            C.        You can see it in Ephesus. Everyone assumed that all in Ephesus worshiped Artemis - Acts 19:26-28

            D.        You can see it in the Old Testament societies

                        1.         Ammonites worshiped Molech - I Kings 11:7

                        2.         Ashtoreth belonged to the Sidonians - I Kings 11:33

                        3.         Chemosh to the Moabites

                        4.         Milcom was also of the Ammonites

            E.        Even Israel belonged to God

                        1.         When Claudias had problems, he ordered all Jews out of Rome - Acts 18:2

                        2.         This is why who you paid taxes to was seen as a thorny problem - Matthew 22:16-17

                                    a.         How can you remain loyal to your religion and pay taxes to a different community?

                        3.         Yet, Jesus separated them - Matthew 22:18-22

            F.        The intertwining of community and religion was the norm ... until Christianity came along

                        1.         In the New Testament, the state is seen as a separate entity from religion - Romans 13:3-6

                        2.         Christianity doesn’t create a culture, it influences existing cultures

                        3.         It did not fight to tear down governments, but it did argue against idolatry

                        4.         “Christians are not distinct from the rest of men in country or language or customs. For neither do they dwell anywhere in special cities of their own nor do they use a different language, nor practice a conspicuous manner of life ... But dwelling as they do in Hellenic and barbaric cities, as each man’s lot is and the following the customs of the country in dress and food and the rest of life, the manner of conduct which they display is wonderful and confessedly beyond belief. They inhabit their own fatherland, but as sojourners; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is to them a fatherland and every fatherland a foreign country ... They live on earth but their citizenship is in heaven.” [Epistle to Diognetus, V, 1-5, c. 190]

                        5.         In other words, early Christians took Jesus seriously - John 17:14-16

                        6.         Society was not monolithic to Christians. It may even divide families - Matthew 10:34-38

                                    a.         Can you imagine? In a world where “You are a Jew because you were born a Jew” this concept was unfathomable and intolerable.

II.        Roman Society

            A.        As Roman society started to decay, it ascribed its troubles to the lack of uniformity in religion

                        1.         Every adversity was seen as caused by Christians not conforming to the norm.

                        2.         If there was a drought or the rivers overflowed, then it was a sign of divine displeasure over the nonconforming Christians

                        3.         And so they were persecuted.

                        4.         Yet, Christianity quickly infiltrated all levels of society.

                        5.         “There is not a race of men on the earth among whom converts to the Christian faith cannot be found” [Justinus].

                        6.         “We came on the scene only yesterday and already we fill all your institutions, your towns, walled cities, your fortresses ... your senate and your forums.” [Tertullian]

            B.        Early Christians began to believe that things would be better if the state made Christianity its religion

                        1.         In 250, Origen wrote, “If not the entire Roman Empire should unite in the adoration of the true God, then the Lord would fight for her, ... then she would slay more enemies than Moses did in his day.” [Contra Celsum, VII, 69].

                        2.         Tertullian opposed the idea. “What does the emperor have to do with the church?”

            C.        Constantine, worried about the disintegrating empire, claimed to have a vision telling him make Christianity the state religion.

                        1.         To Constantine, it was a way to integrate his society back to a single cohesive whole.

                        2.         As one unknown writer stated “Christianity grows alien to its essence when it is made into law for those who have been merely born instead of reborn.”

                        3.         Constantine was High Priest of the Roman State religion. He did not desire to give up his power. He entered the church with the understanding that he would be the High Priest in Christendom. His sword had defended the old religion and he would now use it to defend his new religion.

            D.        By the end of the fourth century, penalties were established for the old idolatrous practices. All were required to attend catechism classes in preparation for baptism. Refusal brought harsh penalties.

            E.        Donatism arose in North Africa in protest to this integration of church and state.

                        1.         They insisted on independence from the Empire at all costs.

                        2.         The result was that troops were sent in to quell the rebellion

                        3.         It wasn’t enough to be Christian, you had to be a part of the state approved Christian religion.

            F.        Theodosius I was a Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for the empire’s version of Christianity

                        1.         It was favored because it used the word “catholic” universal, which was the state’s aim

                        2.         Theodosius ordered that “all peoples over whom our rule extends shall live in that religion which was revealed to Saint Peter ... We give orders that all these are to adopt the name ‘Catholic Christians’; the rest we shall let pass for fools and they will have to bear the reproach of being called heretics. They must come first under the wrath of God and then also under ours.”

            G.        While Donatism was wiped out, the spirit of it continued through the middle ages.

                        1.         “In the twelve centuries that went before the Reformation it has never lacked for attempts to get away from the State-Church Priests’ Church and to reinstitute the apostolic congregational structurization.” [Adolf von Harnack, Die Didache und die Waldenser, Leipzig, 1886, p. 269]

III.       The Reformation

            A.        At the beginning of the reformation, the various reformers leaned more toward the Donatist view. After all, the Roman Catholic Church was in power everywhere.

            B.        But it wasn’t long before the same mixing of church and state occurred, just on a smaller scale.

                        1.         Germans - Luthrean

                        2.         Switzerland - Calvin and Zwingli

                        3.         England - The Church of England (Anglican)

            C.        For example, Zwingli had early on said that infant baptism ought not take place, but the city council announced that all contemplated religious reforms had to be approved by the council first and Zwingli submitted.

                        1.         Others told him, “You have no business giving these decisions into the hands of the civil power.” [Leonard Verduin, The Reformers and Their Stepchildren, The Baptist Standard Bearer, p 38, 1964]

                        2.         “As correct as this step taken by Zwingli was from the point of view of the State, and however much it was calculated to give his ecclesiastical endeavors greater dignity and status, it was a bad step from an evangelical point of view, one that was certain to lead to contention and schism in the party.” [C.A. Cornelius, II, p. 18].

                        3.         “So conscious and so all-pervading was the acceptance of the identity of church and society that the Reformers, each working closely with the local magistracy and seeking to reform medieval Catholicism with as little commotion as possible, were not even aware of a problem and were able to pass off as political revolutionaries those who raised the question.” [John H. Yoder, Recovery, p. 97].

            D.        We must keep in mind that the idea of a blended church and state had been the status quo for over a thousand years. If it wasn’t for the New Testament containing the blue-prints of the original church, there would not have been efforts to restore it.

IV.      How was it justified?

            A.        Citing Luke 22:38, the claim is that Jesus intended the church to have two swords: the sword of the Spirit wielded by the clergy and the sword of steel wielded by the state.

                        1.         “Two swords belong to Peter; one is in his hand, the other is at his command whenever it is needful to draw it ... Both the spiritual and the material sword belong to the Church; and the latter sword is drawn for the Church, the former by the Church. One belongs to the priest and the other to the soldiery; but this one is drawn at the orders of the priest.” [written in A.D. 1150]

                        2.         “The State, through which earthly objectives are reached, must be subordinated to the Church; Church and State and two swords which God has given to Christendom for protection; both these swords however are by Him given to the pope and the temporal sword is then by the pope entrusted to the rulers of State.” [Thomas Aquinas]

                        3.         How quick was Jesus’ words forgotten - John 18:36

                        4.         It also put Peter in the right for cutting off the servant’s ear and Jesus in the wrong for rebuking him - Matthew 26:51-52

            B.        The Roman Catholic Church then encourage the civil rulers to enforce church decisions. If the civil rulers became too violent, the church would say they weren’t responsible.

                        1.         “If a lay person believes incorrectly, he is to be returned to the true faith by instruction. If he refuses to believe but adheres instead to his wicked error then he shall be condemned as a heretic and burned. But in that event lay justice must come to the aid of the Holy Church; for when anyone is condemned as a heretic by the examinations conducted by the Holy Church then the Holy Church must leave him to lay justice and the lay justice must then burn him, seeing that the spiritual justice ought not to put anyone to death.” [Philippe de Beaumanoir]

            C.        It carried over into the reformation.

                        1.         Urbanus Rhegius, a trusted associate of Martin Luther, said, “When heresy breaks forth ... then the magistrate must punish not with less but with greater vigor than is employed against other evil-doers, robbers, murderers, thieves, and the like.” [Quellen Hesse, pp 111f]

                        2.         John Calvin had a man burned for teaching non-conforming doctrine. The man’s death cause a great backlash. Two of Calvin’s associates wrote a rebuttal. “Just as members of the body have, in spite of their several functions, one single assignment in one body, so also in regard to the Church, to the support of which both civil power and the ecclesiastical have been divinely commissioned ... Let this then be the conclusion of this argument: those who would bar the Christian magistracy from the care of religion and especially from the punishment of heretics, condemn the plain Word of God, reject the authority of the ages, and as a consequence see the total destruction and extermination of the Church.”

                        3.         Calvin wrote, “As the magistrates have the duty of purging the Church of offences by bodily punishments and coercions so do the ministers have the duty of assisting the magistrates by reducing the number of those who offend.”

            D.        I Corinthians 12 misapplied

                        1.         In response to a man argued that the civil authorities are for punishing evil-doers outside the church and the church punishes by excommunication within the church, Calvin said, “The hand cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee.”

                        2.         Taking a passage about the role of each individual within the church, Calvin twisted it to apply societal duties since there was no perceived difference between the community and the church

V.        Opposing the blend of church and state was seen as being anti-government

            A.        Calvin further stated against his detractors, “We ought not to shut out from among us the institution of civil justice nor drive it out of the Church”

                        1.         Calvin saw church and state so intertwined that to say civil courts don’t belong in the church is to say it doesn’t belong in society at all.

                        2.         I wonder what they would do with I Corinthians 6:4

            B.        One of Calvin’s associates, Bogerman, wrote, “The service of the magistrate in the matter of the care of religion began in the New Testament times with Constantine the Great ... seeing that the proceeding rulers were heathen and hostile to the Church and that Constantine put forth proper zeal to procure for the Church outward peace and the true doctrine together with opposition for the teachings which he considered heretical.”

                        1.         He admits that the blending of church and community was not original

                        2.         But he thinks it was an improvement