Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Wednesday, November 08, 2006 8:23:24 PM
[T]the majority of progressives...rejected the traditional Christian emphasis on individual salvation, arguing instead for collective redemption through the state: "God works through the State in carrying out His purposes more universally than through any other institution." –from Jonah Goldberg article @ following link
//www.townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2006/11/08/religion_digs_in_its_heels
These words encapsulate the greatest error ever made by fallen man.
Why did the Jewish leadership reject Jesus Christ? They expected a Messiah that would restore the Mosaic theocracy. When Christ came to fulfill the types and shadows given in the Old Testament, they preferred those things that were passing away rather than the spiritual reality that stood before them. They could not understand that His kingdom is of the Spirit, and entered into by being born again of the Spirit. These things are of the New Covenant, and seen only by faith.
This error comes in many flavors, but always with the same ingredient: denial or perversion of Christ’s teaching on the kingdom of God.
In every age there are those who would build a Christian theocracy, wanting to establish the kingdom of God on earth through the state. This is not the teaching of Christ, but it is understandable that Christians are accused of this, since some believers hold to this view.
The Founders understood from post Reformation history that a free church is vital to a free state. A free church is independent of the state; however a free state is dependent on the free exercise of the church. They understood that God is sovereign in all things, but that the church is the only institution ordained by God to bring redemption to men through the preaching of the revealed Word of God.
‘Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her’…He has all authority ‘to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all…I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it’ [Ephesians 1:22; 5:25; Matthew 16:18].
Even so this is the great error of the ‘progressives’ today. They are right to not want a Mosaic type theocracy, but they deceive themselves. They think that salvation is found in a state that is independent of the church. Their religion is based on autonomous reason not revelation. The god they worship is made in their own image. They did not learn the lessons from the Renaissance nor from the Stalinists, and are doomed to repeat the same errors.
The best system of government is derived from the reformed view of men and government as demonstrated in the history of freedom in America. Absence a consensus derived from this view, socialism is busy paving the way to serfdom.
As we saw yesterday in the midterms, to hope in politics is to hope in men. Our hope rests in the promises of God given to Christ…
‘They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the Gentiles will seek him, and his place of rest will be glorious’ [Isaiah 11].
We hope for a revival of the gospel, not unlike the Great Awakening when men loved the Bible, and it led them to the ‘knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness’ [Titus 1:1].