\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload Audio\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: I Peter 2:13-17<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI. It is easy to forget that the relationship between church and state that we have today did\nnot exist when Christ entered the world\n
A. Most societies in the past were held together by a common religious loyalty<\/p>\n B. The Babylonians expected everyone in their country to bow before the idol\nNebuchadnezzar had made – Daniel 3:1-7\n
1. To not submit meant you were not loyal to the country or the king<\/p>\n 2. Which is why Nebuchadnezzar was so mad when three Jews refused –\nDaniel 3:13\n C. You can see it in Ephesus. Everyone assumed that all in Ephesus worshiped\nArtemis – Acts 19:26-28\n
D. You can see it in the Old Testament societies<\/p>\n
1. Ammonites worshiped Molech – I Kings 11:7<\/p>\n
2. Ashtoreth belonged to the Sidonians – I Kings 11:33<\/p>\n
3. Chemosh to the Moabites<\/p>\n
4. Milcom was also of the Ammonites<\/p>\n
E. Even Israel belonged to God<\/p>\n
1. When Claudias had problems, he ordered all Jews out of Rome – Acts 18:2<\/p>\n 2. This is why who you paid taxes to was seen as a thorny problem –\nMatthew 22:16-17\n a. How can you remain loyal to your religion and pay taxes to a\ndifferent community?\n
3. Yet, Jesus separated them – Matthew 22:18-22<\/p>\n F. The intertwining of community and religion was the norm … until Christianity\ncame along\n 1. In the New Testament, the state is seen as a separate entity from religion –\nRomans 13:3-6\n
2. Christianity doesn’t create a culture, it influences existing cultures<\/p>\n
3. It did not fight to tear down governments, but it did argue against idolatry<\/p>\n 4. “Christians are not distinct from the rest of men in country or language or\ncustoms. For neither do they dwell anywhere in special cities of their own\nnor do they use a different language, nor practice a conspicuous manner of\nlife … But dwelling as they do in Hellenic and barbaric cities, as each\nman’s lot is and the following the customs of the country in dress and food\nand the rest of life, the manner of conduct which they display is wonderful\nand confessedly beyond belief. They inhabit their own fatherland, but as\nsojourners; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure\neverything as foreigners. Every foreign country is to them a fatherland and\nevery fatherland a foreign country … They live on earth but their\ncitizenship is in heaven.” [Epistle to Diognetus<\/i>, V, 1-5, c. 190]\n
5. In other words, early Christians took Jesus seriously – John 17:14-16<\/p>\n 6. Society was not monolithic to Christians. It may even divide families –\nMatthew 10:34-38\n a. Can you imagine? In a world where “You are a Jew because you\nwere born a Jew” this concept was unfathomable and intolerable.\n
II. Roman Society<\/p>\n A. As Roman society started to decay, it ascribed its troubles to the lack of\nuniformity in religion\n 1. Every adversity was seen as caused by Christians not conforming to the\nnorm.\n 2. If there was a drought or the rivers overflowed, then it was a sign of divine\ndispleasure over the nonconforming Christians\n
3. And so they were persecuted.<\/p>\n
4. Yet, Christianity quickly infiltrated all levels of society.<\/p>\n 5. “There is not a race of men on the earth among whom converts to the\nChristian faith cannot be found” [Justinus].\n 6. “We came on the scene only yesterday and already we fill all your\ninstitutions, your towns, walled cities, your fortresses … your senate and\nyour forums.” [Tertullian]\n B. Early Christians began to believe that things would be better if the state made\nChristianity its religion\n 1. In 250, Origen wrote, “If not the entire Roman Empire should unite in the\nadoration of the true God, then the Lord would fight for her, … then she\nwould slay more enemies than Moses did in his day.” [Contra Celsum<\/i>,\nVII, 69].\n 2. Tertullian opposed the idea. “What does the emperor have to do with the\nchurch?”\n C. Constantine, worried about the disintegrating empire, claimed to have a vision\ntelling him make Christianity the state religion.\n 1. To Constantine, it was a way to integrate his society back to a single\ncohesive whole.\n 2. As one unknown writer stated “Christianity grows alien to its essence\nwhen it is made into law for those who have been merely born instead of\nreborn.”\n 3. Constantine was High Priest of the Roman State religion. He did not desire\nto give up his power. He entered the church with the understanding that he\nwould be the High Priest in Christendom. His sword had defended the old\nreligion and he would now use it to defend his new religion.\n D. By the end of the fourth century, penalties were established for the old idolatrous\npractices. All were required to attend catechism classes in preparation for baptism.\nRefusal brought harsh penalties.\n
E. Donatism arose in North Africa in protest to this integration of church and state.<\/p>\n
1. They insisted on independence from the Empire at all costs.<\/p>\n
2. The result was that troops were sent in to quell the rebellion<\/p>\n 3. It wasn’t enough to be Christian, you had to be a part of the state approved\nChristian religion.\n F. Theodosius I was a Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He was instrumental in\nestablishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for the empire’s version of\nChristianity\n 1. It was favored because it used the word “catholic” universal, which was\nthe state’s aim\n 2. Theodosius ordered that “all peoples over whom our rule extends shall live\nin that religion which was revealed to Saint Peter … We give orders that all\nthese are to adopt the name ‘Catholic Christians’; the rest we shall let pass\nfor fools and they will have to bear the reproach of being called heretics.\nThey must come first under the wrath of God and then also under ours.”\n
G. While Donatism was wiped out, the spirit of it continued through the middle ages.<\/p>\n 1. “In the twelve centuries that went before the Reformation it has never\nlacked for attempts to get away from the State-Church Priests’ Church and\nto reinstitute the apostolic congregational structurization.” [Adolf von\nHarnack, Die Didache und die Waldenser<\/i>, Leipzig, 1886, p. 269]\n
III. The Reformation<\/p>\n A. At the beginning of the reformation, the various reformers leaned more toward the\nDonatist view. After all, the Roman Catholic Church was in power everywhere.\n B. But it wasn’t long before the same mixing of church and state occurred, just on a\nsmaller scale.\n
1. Germans – Luthrean<\/p>\n
2. Switzerland – Calvin and Zwingli<\/p>\n
3. England – The Church of England (Anglican)<\/p>\n C. For example, Zwingli had early on said that infant baptism ought not take place,\nbut the city council announced that all contemplated religious reforms had to be\napproved by the council first and Zwingli submitted.\n 1. Others told him, “You have no business giving these decisions into the\nhands of the civil power.” [Leonard Verduin, The Reformers and Their\nStepchildren<\/i>, The Baptist Standard Bearer, p 38, 1964]\n 2. “As correct as this step taken by Zwingli was from the point of view of the\nState, and however much it was calculated to give his ecclesiastical\nendeavors greater dignity and status, it was a bad step from an evangelical\npoint of view, one that was certain to lead to contention and schism in the\nparty.” [C.A. Cornelius, II, p. 18].\n 3. “So conscious and so all-pervading was the acceptance of the identity of\nchurch and society that the Reformers, each working closely with the local\nmagistracy and seeking to reform medieval Catholicism with as little\ncommotion as possible, were not even aware of a problem and were able\nto pass off as political revolutionaries those who raised the question.”\n[John H. Yoder, Recovery<\/i>, p. 97].\n D. We must keep in mind that the idea of a blended church and state had been the\nstatus quo for over a thousand years. If it wasn’t for the New Testament\ncontaining the blue-prints of the original church, there would not have been efforts\nto restore it.\n
IV. How was it justified?<\/p>\n A. Citing Luke 22:38, the claim is that Jesus intended the church to have two swords:\nthe sword of the Spirit wielded by the clergy and the sword of steel wielded by the\nstate.\n 1. “Two swords belong to Peter; one is in his hand, the other is at his\ncommand whenever it is needful to draw it … Both the spiritual and the\nmaterial sword belong to the Church; and the latter sword is drawn for the\nChurch, the former by the Church. One belongs to the priest and the other\nto the soldiery; but this one is drawn at the orders of the priest.” [written in\nA.D. 1150]\n 2. “The State, through which earthly objectives are reached, must be\nsubordinated to the Church; Church and State and two swords which God\nhas given to Christendom for protection; both these swords however are by\nHim given to the pope and the temporal sword is then by the pope\nentrusted to the rulers of State.” [Thomas Aquinas]\n
3. How quick was Jesus’ words forgotten – John 18:36<\/p>\n 4. It also put Peter in the right for cutting off the servant’s ear and Jesus in\nthe wrong for rebuking him – Matthew 26:51-52\n B. The Roman Catholic Church then encourage the civil rulers to enforce church\ndecisions. If the civil rulers became too violent, the church would say they weren’t\nresponsible.\n 1. “If a lay person believes incorrectly, he is to be returned to the true faith by\ninstruction. If he refuses to believe but adheres instead to his wicked error\nthen he shall be condemned as a heretic and burned. But in that event lay\njustice must come to the aid of the Holy Church; for when anyone is\ncondemned as a heretic by the examinations conducted by the Holy\nChurch then the Holy Church must leave him to lay justice and the lay\njustice must then burn him, seeing that the spiritual justice ought not to put\nanyone to death.” [Philippe de Beaumanoir]\n
C. It carried over into the reformation. <\/p>\n 1. Urbanus Rhegius, a trusted associate of Martin Luther, said, “When heresy\nbreaks forth … then the magistrate must punish not with less but with\ngreater vigor than is employed against other evil-doers, robbers,\nmurderers, thieves, and the like.” [Quellen Hesse<\/i>, pp 111f]\n 2. John Calvin had a man burned for teaching non-conforming doctrine. The\nman’s death cause a great backlash. Two of Calvin’s associates wrote a\nrebuttal. “Just as members of the body have, in spite of their several\nfunctions, one single assignment in one body, so also in regard to the\nChurch, to the support of which both civil power and the ecclesiastical\nhave been divinely commissioned … Let this then be the conclusion of this\nargument: those who would bar the Christian magistracy from the care of\nreligion and especially from the punishment of heretics, condemn the plain\nWord of God, reject the authority of the ages, and as a consequence see the\ntotal destruction and extermination of the Church.”\n 3. Calvin wrote, “As the magistrates have the duty of purging the Church of\noffences by bodily punishments and coercions so do the ministers have the\nduty of assisting the magistrates by reducing the number of those who\noffend.” \n
D. I Corinthians 12 misapplied<\/p>\n 1. In response to a man argued that the civil authorities are for punishing\nevil-doers outside the church and the church punishes by\nexcommunication within the church, Calvin said, “The hand cannot say to\nthe foot, I have no need of thee.”\n 2. Taking a passage about the role of each individual within the church,\nCalvin twisted it to apply societal duties since there was no perceived\ndifference between the community and the church\n
V. Opposing the blend of church and state was seen as being anti-government<\/p>\n A. Calvin further stated against his detractors, “We ought not to shut out from among\nus the institution of civil justice nor drive it out of the Church”\n 1. Calvin saw church and state so intertwined that to say civil courts don’t\nbelong in the church is to say it doesn’t belong in society at all.\n
2. I wonder what they would do with I Corinthians 6:4<\/p>\n B. One of Calvin’s associates, Bogerman, wrote, “The service of the magistrate in\nthe matter of the care of religion began in the New Testament times with\nConstantine the Great … seeing that the proceeding rulers were heathen and\nhostile to the Church and that Constantine put forth proper zeal to procure for the\nChurch outward peace and the true doctrine together with opposition for the\nteachings which he considered heretical.”\n
1. He admits that the blending of church and community was not original<\/p>\n
2. But he thinks it was an improvement<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChurch and State\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Download Audio by Jeffrey W. Hamilton 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[448,310,667],"class_list":["post-68811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-church","tag-government","tag-organization-of-the-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68815,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/church-and-state\/","url_meta":{"origin":68811,"position":0},"title":"Church and State","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton The Problem Enforcement of Religion Worldliness Rituals","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30327,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/origins-of-denominations\/","url_meta":{"origin":68811,"position":1},"title":"Origins of Denominations","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Over the years, I've done lessons that look at various issues that caused the rise of the various denominations that we see today. Rather than leaving them scattered, I'm gathering them up on a single page so that they will be more easily found. 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