Opus 2025-194: Not a Theocracy

This thought pattern started by listening to a short excerpt of a presentation by Steven Greg as he talked about the biblical command not to be unequally yoked.  He started with the Old Testament law about not yoking an ox and a donkey together and carried that forward to the New Testament explaining that it meant believers are not to be joined together with unbelievers.

Marriage is obvious but he also mentioned political action or trying to influence our society on moral issues.  He called them social issues, but they’re really moral.  Things like abortion, homosexuality, genders and marriage.  He said that we should not be joining together with pagans and non-believers and trying to achieve changes in society because in that case the glory went to the cooperative organization and not to God.

He had a good point.  The cultures of the Old Testament law, and the New Testament church are totally different.  The OT law was not given for personal redemption.  It was given for national establishment.  It made Israel stand out from the surrounding nations.  It told them how to live.  It gave them experience in things like etiquette and manners and simple every day behaviors that we take for granted.

Under the old covenant Israel was to be a nation.  They were to keep themselves pure and separate from everyone around them and function as not only a religious organization, but a civil one.  There are certain similarities to what we see in Islam today where the religious aspect and the civil government aspects are not separate.  It could be that it is an old idea for old times.

The new covenant has the church being salt and light, but not being a government.  We are to remain pure within the pagan culture, but there is no command that we purify the culture.  We have a different role.  That’s under the new covenant.  We don’t have any demands for stoning adulterers, or executing children who talk back to their parents.  The change that we experience is an inner change, not a cultural change.  The cultural change comes, but it is a reflection of what’s going on inside of us.

We are not called to set up a theocracy.  The Christian life can be lived in many historic types of government.  The big exceptions would be theocracies like Islam and political-socialist cults like Marxism.  That is part of the reason why those two religions are targeting Christians.

Be salt.  Be light.  Get involved as a citizen in a free country while you still have the opportunity.  Leave the results up to God.

homo unius libri