April 2018

Over the past couple of weeks I have attempted to address the issue of authority and subjection from a biblical perspective.  So far, we have seen how authority is set in place for the purpose of function not importance.  Anyone who finds himself in a position of authority is not to think more highly of himself than those he is leading.

We also looked at how submission to authority is not a negative thing but something that is good.  This is because even Jesus lived a life of full submission to His Father.  In fact, the degree to which I submit to the authority God places over me determines how Christlike I am becoming.

Since God establishes authority which, in turn, requires submission to authority, why is there such a problem with all of this throughout civilization?  All one has to do is look at what is going on in governments around the world or in everyday life to see that there is constant resistance, rejection and even rebellion to any and all forms of authority.  The answer to this dilemma is two-fold.

First, we must understand that because of the Fall, the flesh never wants to submit to any authority.  The flesh wants to be completely autonomous.  This is what led to sin in the first place.  Adam rejected God’s authority in his life and chose to do what he thought to be best.  Sinful man’s condition can be summed up in the phrase that is found throughout the book of Judges.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.        Judges 17:6

No one wants a king in his life.  I believe that is why people will continue to believe in evolution when everything in the universe shouts of a creator.  If man admits that there is a supernatural being who created everything, then man must also admit that he is accountable to Him.

The second reason why I believe that just about all institutions of authority are being rejected has to do with how people exercise their authority.  This is true in the family, church, education, government and society in general.  The Bible speaks a great deal of how important it is for people to submit to authority.  However, many Christians don’t give much heed to what the Bible says about how one is to exercise his/her authority.

Over the past few years, I have given a great deal of thought into a very familiar passage of Scripture.  I have found this verse to have significant meaning on just about every aspect of my life.  I am sure you probably have memorized this verse and quoted it at one time or another.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Galatians 6:7

Too often, we apply this to what happens when we commit sin.  If we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption.  However, I have been convicted lately about the fact that this verse applies to every aspect of my life.  Being a teacher and a coach, I always wanted my students to pay attention to what I was presenting in a lesson or trying to execute in a practice.  I would get frustrated and sometimes angry if students weren’t paying attention or not putting forth the expected effort.

Then I was confronted with how I was paying attention or putting forth effort when listening to the preaching of God’s Word in a church service or sitting in a lecture or some staff development training in my job.  I had to admit that many times I didn’t pay attention the way I should have.  This was especially true when I found myself thinking that what someone else was saying wasn’t what I thought was all that important.  The thought hit me that when my students didn’t pay attention to me was I simply reaping what I had sown when I was in the role of being a student?

So it is with the exercise of one’s authority.  I will reap the consequences of what I sown in how I exercise any authority that God gives me.  If I “lord it over” those I am to lead, then I will reap anger and resistance from them.  If I am always “threatening” others, I will reap a challenging spirit from those I am trying to lead.

God taught me a very valuable lesson related to how He expects us to exercise authority that He gives us.  I was teaching a Bible ethics class at a Christian school.  We were studying a series of biblical principles that were to guide us in making decisions.  Everything was going fine until we got to the principles of authority and submission/obedience.  As soon as I announced the topic the students reacted negatively.  Their mindset was that is all they ever hear — obey, obey, obey!

I knew that they needed to understand authority and submission/obedience if they were going to go out and live successful lives.  I took them to two passages of Scripture and asked them a question related to each verse.  These two verses were:

…ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Colossians 3:21

Here are the two questions that I asked them.

1. What does your authority [parents] do that causes wrath in your life?
2. What does your authority [parents] do that brings discouragement in your life?

Their answers were convicting.  They told me that when someone in authority is dictatorial or authoritarian in how he/she exercises their authority, it created anger and wrath in their lives.  The attitude that says I am the boss, do what I say, because I say so resulted in angry reactions from these students.

Then they told me that what caused discouragement in their lives was when people in authority were too lenient.  This answer was surprising so I asked them to explain it.  Students explained when people in authority were not willing to set clear boundaries and hold them accountable to staying within those boundaries, they believed that their authority didn’t care about them.  They got the sense that their authority, many times their parents, wanted to be “liked” by them and were more interested in their own comfort rather than the good of the child.

Both of their responses dealt with “how” one exercises his/her authority — not with the fact that they “had” authority over them.  There are several passages of Scripture that gives us guidance in how we are to exercise authority over those we are to lead.  It would be good if we studied these passages and lived them out in our daily interactions with others.  I have listed some of the passages I have found helpful.

• Matthew 5:3-11 – the Beatitudes which I see as “the attitudes it takes to be something in God’s kingdom.”
• Ephesians 6:9
• 1 Peter 5:1-3
• Mark 10:36-45
• Colossians 4:1

What do these verses tell you about how you are to exercise your authority?  What other verses have you found helpful in being a servant leader?  Leave your comments below.

I don’t ever remember when American culture was more divided.  It seems that when topics such as government, public spending, regulations, social welfare, individual rights, and race or gender are discussed, there are two polarizing sides each claiming to be right.  Even more disconcerting is the fact that each side claims that the other side is endangering our freedom and liberty.  The two sides even claim that they are trying their best to “defend the US Constitution”.

There are the “conservatives” who argue that the Constitution doesn’t change and must be interpreted by the original meaning of the writers of the document.  Then, there are the “progressives” who contend that the Constitution is a “living document” that must be interpreted in light of modern day circumstances and a more knowledgeable populace.

So the two sides face off.  One opposes all gun control efforts as threatening the 2nd Amendment that they say is foundational to our freedom and liberty.  The other side is marching in the streets demanding “reasonable” gun control laws so that our freedom and liberty can be protected.  How can one document be used to support two opposing arguments related to not only this debate but every other issue in life?  The reality is both sides are making their arguments from the wrong starting point.  They are starting with the Constitution being the foundation stone for freedom and liberty.

The reality is that the US Constitution is only the product that was drafted and ratified because of the Founders’ belief in two major foundation stones that guarantee individual and corporate liberty.  Just going back to the Constitution does not allow us to know what is right when it comes to the protection of one’s liberty.

If we are ever going to understand the truth that should guide us in all areas of our life, we must go back to the very foundation of the country and the Constitution.  Without doing that, the battle will simply increase and society will be completely polarized.  It is then when the winner will simply be the most powerful and true liberty will disappear.  What was at the foundation of the country and resulted in the ratification of the US Constitution?  To find this out we need to look at some of the writings of the very people who came to the New World.

In the name of God, Amen.  We whose names are underwritten…having undertaken, for the glorie of God, and advancement of the Christian faith… a voyage to plant the first colony.  Mayflower Compact 1620

Some of the very first settlers in the New World were driven by a desire to glorify God and advance the Christian faith.  If we proceed to when the country’s leaders were formulating the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, we would find the foundation stones necessary for true liberty and freedom.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to  political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.  George Washington

Statesmen…may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.  John Adams

The only foundation for…a republic is to be laid in Religion.  Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.  Benjamin Rush

Here we find two foundation stones upon which the Founders believed all true liberty must stand — Religion and Morality.  Some say that it would be wrong to say that the Founders of the country were all Christians and, therefore, they weren’t necessarily referring to Christianity.  However, we need only go on and read further what these men believed.  They didn’t want to be misinterpreted or misunderstood.  They were very clear on what they believed had to be at the foundation of a nation that would guarantee freedom and liberty (emphasis mine),

…no truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian Religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.  Noah Webster

The only foundation for…a republic is to be laid in Religion…Christianity is the only true and perfect religion; and that in proportion as mankind adopt its principles and obey its precepts they will be wise and happy.  Benjamin Rush

Without morals, a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion…are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.  Charles Carroll

…the moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures  ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws…All the mysteries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression,salvery, and war, proceed from the despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.  Noah Webster.

Daniel Webster seemed to put all of these thoughts into a succinct understanding of the foundation for freedom and liberty when he wrote,

To preserve the government we must also preserve morals.   Morality rests on religion; if you destroy the foundation, the superstructure must fall.  When the public mind becomes vitiated and corrupt, laws are a nullity and constitutions are waste paper.

The reality is that there must be morality in order to have liberty.  However, morality must be based on a standard.  The only right standard for morality that will guarantee liberty is religion.  It cannot be any religion because we have clearly seen that there is no liberty in many countries who were or are run on the teachings of false religions.  The only “religion” that sets an absolute standard for morality is Christianity.  The standard for morality found in Christianity is given to man in God’s Word — the Bible.  Here is what this would look like in a model.

Unfortunately, these two cornerstones of liberty have been purged from our educational institutions today, from preschool through graduate school.  Of course, this had to happen when Americans said that education must be secular and there had to be separation of church and state at all levels of public life, especially schooling.  In last week’s blog, I showed how secular education may not directly attack God and/or the Bible.  Instead, secular education simply says it is removing any “religious” bias or reasoning from learning.  That is because secularists believe that religious/spiritual things are personal and subjective.  There is no place for them in the public arena that is concerned only with “neutral” facts and knowledge.

So, we are left with fighting for what each side believes to be key to us sustaining our liberty by trying to justify their position on their interpretation of the Constitution.  Neither side can win the debate because the only true interpretation of this magnificent document can be found when looking at it through the lens of a biblical worldview.  We must give our children and youth a biblical worldview education — our liberty is hanging in the balance!  What are your thoughts?

I asked some questions in this week’s email blast.  If you are reading this, you probably tried to answer these questions and want to know how you did.  The three questions (along with the answers) I asked in my email were:

1. On what two cities were the first atomic bombs dropped?  Answer:  Hiroshima and Nagasaki
2. Which city was not the primary target?  Answer: Nagasaki
3. What was the primary target for the second atomic bomb?  Answer: Kokura — specifically the arms factory in Kokura

How did you do?  If you got the right answer for all three questions, you seem to know your history.  Let me ask some other questions.  Why didn’t the US drop the second atomic bomb on the primary target?  This question is probably more difficult to answer.  To understand the answer consider the following first-hand report about the dropping of the second atomic bomb.

The American bomber was a B-29 named Bock’s Car, and it was supposed to drop the world’s first plutonium bomb on Kokura.  Three times, Bock’s Car passed over Kokura, bomb bays open, a hum in the cockpit signaling that the bomb was ready for release, the crew wearing the special goggles that were supposed to protect them from the flash of the atomic explosion.

But although the radar scope was locked on to Kokura, the orders were to drop the bomb only on visual identification of the huge arms factory that was the target.

A young man named Kermit Beahan peered through the rubber eyepiece of the bombsight, and he could see some of the buildings of Kokura and the river that ran by the arms factory.  But the complex itself was blocked by a cloud.  So Bock’s Car gave up on Kokura and went on to its secondary target, Nagasaki.  Clouds also partly obscured Nagasaki, but not quite enough of it. 

Wow, one cloud over an arms factory caused the crew to bypass the primary target and move on to the secondary target of Nagasaki.  One reporter wrote, the cloud that blocked Mr. Yoshio’s view that morning was the best thing that ever happened to the city of Kokura — and the worst that ever happened to nearby Nagasaki.

Okay, let me ask you some more questions about another battle at another time in history and see if you know the answers. This battle was the Egyptians’ effort to overtake and recapture the Israelites.

1. Why did Israel go around the land of the Philistines and on to the Red Sea?  Hint: Exodus 13:17-18
2. How did Israel know where and when to go?  Hint: Exodus 13:21-22
3. Why didn’t the Egyptian army overtake Israel when they were so close?  Hint: Exodus 14:19-20
4. What caused the waters of the Red Sea to divide and how long did this take?  Hint: Exodus 14:21
5. What happened to the Egyptian chariots when they entered the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites?  Hint: Exodus 14:24-25
6. What caused the waters of the Red Sea to return to its normal state?  Hint: Exodus 14:26-28

I hope you knew the answers to these questions or followed the “hints” to find the answers.  Here are the correct answers.

1. God led the Israelites around the land of the Philistines because He did not want them to get discouraged and turn back if they faced war.
2. The Lord led them by a pillar of cloud during the day and by a pillar of fire at night.
3. God moved the pillar of cloud in between the Egyptian army and the Israelites so the army could not come near them.
4. The Lord caused the the waters to go back by sending a strong east wind.  It took all night for the waters to divide.
5. God caused the Egyptian chariots wheels to be uncontrollable and the army couldn’t maneuver them.
6. God directed Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea and He caused the waters to return to their normal state.

Well, how did you do on this quiz?  So, what is the point I am trying to make by asking you questions about these two battles that took place in history?  To understand my intention behind this exercise, I have to ask you one more question.  What is the major difference in the sets of answers to the two series of questions?

I hope everyone got this question right.  After all, it is the most important question asked in this blog post.  The correct answer to this question is God was left out of all the answers to the questions related to the dropping of the atomic bombs but He WAS the ANSWER to each of the questions in the second battle.

By asking you questions related to these two battles, I have attempted to illustrate how most Christians operate from a dualistic worldview.  The answers and explanation given about the dropping of the atomic bombs during World War II are completely secular responses.  It is true that the answers and the explanations were “factually correct” but they weren’t “truthful”.  Consider the following statements by Albert Mohler and John Piper.

…an educational system based upon non-Christian or much less anti-Christian presupposition cannot know true truth.  It may know facts, but it can never know truth.  It may know a great deal of statistics and it may conduct studies and release its findings, but it cannot know those fundamental and the most important, most preeminent truths of all human existence and all transcendent reality.  Albert Mohler

Modern people suppose that if they have the facts about a given thing, person, or event, they have the truth.  They forget that facts are not meaningless or value free, and that if we do not associate the meaning of the fact, we do not have the truth.  John Piper

Some Christians falsely believe that studying history as presented in the WW II example above is neutral.  However, the reality of so-called “neutral” education is that it is probably the most dangerous form of education.  It is far from being spiritually neutral because it teaches that God is irrelevant to history (or any other subject where He is ignored).  The result from this type of dualistic thinking and teaching is that young people end up believing that Christianity does not provide answers to life’s big questions.  Ken Ham in his book, Already Gone, discovered this dilemma when he talked with young adults who left the church soon after high school graduation.  These young adults said,

We went to church for Bible STORIES; we went to school for FACTS! (emphasis mine)

I wonder how many of you thought that the questions related to dropping of the atomic bombs explained “history” while the second event was merely a “Bible story”.  Secular education must be avoided at all cost!  What do you think?  Leave a comment below.