Forgetting the Past
It is regularly stated that
forgetting the past condemns us to repeat it. This probably is never
more true than in seeing those of GOD's kingdom interact with the
kingdom of this world.
Now, most of the time, I
use the history of Israel and GOD from the scriptures in an effort to
show how we are repeating the same pattern in the Christian churches
today. However, there is a more current history that aught to shine
as a beacon of truth for those who would have the church influencing
the government and courts in ways that bully smaller groups of
people.
A friend of mine, a number
of years back, went to Belgium for a conference/synod to discuss his
doctoral thesis. He came back with this story;
One Sunday he and a group
of preachers were out looking for a church to attend. What they found
was a few churches with chains and padlocks on the doors. So, they
began to discuss amongst themselves that they could just start
preaching in the street. As this discussion began, they noticed a
newspaper vending machine. On the front of the paper in it was a
story of a preacher who got arrested for preaching in the street.
If you have any
understanding of the government of this nation, then you know that
just a couple hundred years ago the government was the church. Not
only did the government pass laws to control the masses, but if you
had any question about doctrines or Bible interpretations, you took
it to the parliament.
The lesson here seems
obvious. The Church is not supposed to be passing laws and
interfering in the affairs of the world. We have laws from GOD that
are for HIS people. We cannot force those laws on a world and a
kingdom that they are not intended for. In the end, the world will
rebel and Christians will loose the freedoms they once had.
This will happen in
America. This will come to pass. We Christians have established the
very real fact that we need to be silenced. It is not too far away
from now that there will be laws that say where we can and cannot preach the
gospel or share the message. After all, it is not an infringement on
our religious rights to limit where we can preach. We will still have
the right to believe as we choose and teach and preach in our
buildings.
This will not be an
infringement on our freedom of speech. After all, we are not being
told what we can and cannot say, just where we say it.
This is the legacy that we
have established for our children and their children by not learning
the lessons of the past. This is the foundation upon which the world
will shut up those annoying Christians. We will only have ourselves
to blame as we have abused our position and power in this nation and
throughout the world.
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