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Dr. Jim Garlow is a lifelong pastor who most recently served in San Diego, California, and now leads Well Versed, a ministry dedicated to bringing biblical
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Theistic Foundations Limit Government 0:10 Well, we welcome you to chapter 33 of our walk through the book, reversed from culturally woke to biblically awake. Chapter 33, the title is The0:22 Effort to Make Christianity Illegal. Let that sink in for a moment, if you would. Now listen to this quote. We are a religious people. I'm quoting. We are a0:34 religious people whose institutions presuppose a supreme being. We guarantee the freedom to worship as 1 chooses. When the state encourages religious instruction0:46 or cooperates with religious authority, it follows the best of our traditions. Now who do you think wrote that? Some right winger? Contemporary America? No.0:58 That was written by the liberal icon himself, Justice William Douglas. The Supreme Court back in 19 52. In other words, here is a guy1:10 who's considered quote on the left, who's saying that our Christian faith is foundational to who we are as a country. We're an inherently religious people, and the values of1:22 the Christian faith are what is the foundation, of America. But what has happened over the years? The radical change from this. Now we acknowledge the fact we're not a1:33 theocracy. We are a constitutional republic, and we recognize the reality anyone can worship as they choose, or not worship at all. But there is a special what's called an1:45 accommodation, a recognition of the role of Christianity, of Judeo Christian values in the history, the founding, the institutions, and even the laws of America. Now1:57 just consider for a moment, if you would, the difference between a dictator and a country that's foundationally theistic. What's theistic? Means the belief in God. Written in the fabric of2:09 who we are is the understanding there is a God. It's written into our birth certificate as a nation, the Declaration of Independence. It acknowledges our creator and that all rights come from our creator. Now notice2:21 the difference between a dictator who sets himself up as god as opposed to a country that has a theistic, that is a god understanding or a god foundation.2:33 Across the centuries, when you look at those dictators and how they operated, millions and millions, actually hundreds of millions of people have been killed. In contrast2:45 to a theistic understanding of government, now watch this. Anytime you recognize the role of God, government, human government, is automatically limited2:57 in its scope. Now what do I mean by that? I was in Guadalajara, Mexico at a conference. It was a wonderful conference, a lot of speakers. And, we were supposed to share each 1 of us a short time. This 1 guy3:09 took off and started sharing quite a long time. And my first initial reaction was, hey. We were all supposed to share a very short time, and you're going, like, forever. However, the more he talked, the more engaged I be3:21 became. It was a brilliant philosophic overview of history of human history. And he ended finally and made this case. Anytime a person acknowledges the lordship of Christ,3:33 they believe in a limited government. I I was I was taken by how he made the case for this. Let's rewind that. If you believe in the authority and the lordship3:45 of Jesus Christ, if you believe there is a God and he is over all, by virtue of that belief, you believe the role of human government is considerably3:57 less than that role of the lordship, that Jesus is lord. Consequently, you have now limited the definition or the scope or the nature of human4:08 government. To believe in the lordship of Jesus Christ is to acknowledge your ultimate authority to him, and you automatically believe in a limited government. So if you have4:20 a government that's founded with a theistic understanding, there is in fact a God. He's God. Human government is not. You have now narrowed the scope of what human4:32 government can be. You believe in a form of limited government. Our founding fathers understood exactly that. That's 1 of the reasons why when they were trying to put our country4:44 together and they were wrestling with the issues that Benjamin Franklin, who's supposedly supposed to be the dias, we say, But he himself called for us to go to a time of prayer4:55 and shut things down and pray and ask God's wisdom and God's guidance so they could help get this country formed originally. Think again to of what we've talked about in previous videos about5:07 Thomas Jefferson, his famous letter when he was president, the letter to the Danbury Baptists in Connecticut, when they were concerned the government would intrude in the life of the church. And that's when he said, no.5:19 There's a wall of separation between the government and the church in the sense the government cannot come in and intrude the church. In fact, the role of the government was to5:31 play a role of defense, making sure the church was free to protect and operate the way that was designed to function. Now when the when our founding fathers there's somewhere5:43 between 150 and 200 founding fathers. When our founding fathers were writing statements in their early writings, and they would talk about being nonsectarian, in other words, not5:55 prefer 1 group over another, what were they referring to? Well, in the northeast, like Massachusetts, it was primarily congregationalist. If you went to Rhode Island, in the colonies now we're talking6:07 about, it was primarily, Baptists. If you went to Pennsylvania, it was primarily Quakers, but that was the 1 place where you could have plurals. We could have a lot of different denominational6:18 groupings coming in. If you went to Maryland, it was primarily Catholic. If you went to, for example, the Carolinas, it's primarily Anglican. So when they use the term6:30 nonsectarian, we're not to be a respecter of anyone religion, they were referring to congregationalists or Quaker or Catholic or Episcopalian or Baptist. That's how6:42 they met it. With the passage of time, all of these groups got lumped into 1 1 category, Christian, understandably. And then the term nonsectarian6:54 evolved to mean all religions. That'd be Islam or Buddhist or Hindu or whatever or Jewish. Now there were Jewish people here in the early, early days,7:06 but there was not much hardly any presence in terms of Islam, for example, or Hindu or Buddhist. That'd be almost non measurable in those early days. And so what was originally says,7:18 we cannot choose 1 religion over another, it meant we can't choose Baptist over Episcopalian. But it evolved into, we can't choose Christianity over7:29 Islam or Buddhism, for example. When in reality, the founding fathers had in mind that we can't choose 1 denominational grouping over another, but theNonsectarian: Christian Denominations, Not All Religions 7:41 nation was still founded on essentially Judeo Christian principles. And even today, with the radical secularism, 71 percent claim to be Christian. Now7:53 what percent say they're unaffiliated? Well, about 23 percent say they're unaffiliated. About 3 percent atheist, 4 percent agnostic, and about 6 percent of population in the8:05 US is non Christian. But what has resulted over the years is the inversion, the change, the flipping on its head, the notion of church versus state to the8:17 point that tries to make Christianity illegal or the expression of Christianity in the nation. I wanna tell you a a story. It's kinda bizarre. I lived in California for many years. I've been there for8:29 30 years now. But at 1 time, I was leaving California, which is highly secularized, as you know, our government. And I was going somewhere in the south, and I was being taken, speaking down there. They took me to a8:41 Cracker Barrel to eat. And I walked in there. As I walked in, I heard over the intercom Gaither music. The Gaithers were singing like because he lives or something.8:53 And I had a I had an involuntary reaction. Because I lived in California where kind of being a Christian is so questionable.9:05 When I walked in there and I heard that song, what went through my mind in a nanosecond was, oh my goodness. Is that legal? I mean, my brain had been so compromised with truth9:17 by living in an environment like California that when I went to that place, I think it was in Atlanta, the Cracker Barrel restaurant, and I heard a Gaither song. I had9:28 a a reaction, visceral reaction of like, oh my goodness. Are they gonna get in trouble for this? That that that's how far gone our nation isn't Christian making Christianity illegal. Now you say, Jim, that's a big9:40 stream. I I admit that is a big stream. But the point is that Christianity has been largely removed from the arena of the public square. And what's intriguing is the people who9:53 are not Christian, the people who are atheist or agnostics, or for that matter, the people who are, let's say, Islam Muslims, the those people have the right to do that10:05 in our nation because of our Christian founding and our understanding of the nature of religious conscience. By that, I mean, we as Christians understand our role is not to10:17 coerce our beliefs. You don't have to be a Christian to live in America. We don't coerce and say, you have to be at gunpoint. You have to be a Christian. We don't do that. And but what10:29 we have is a belief of the right of individual conscience to to choose religious or no religion. Where does that come from? That right to choose, that comes from our10:40 Christian foundation of not coercing actual beliefs, religious beliefs on other people. Now it's interesting that that that's modeled even in the scripture. In10:52 Joshua chapter 24 verse 15, Joshua says, I don't know about you guys, but for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. There was the whole notion of choice. I don't know who you're gonna choose, hePersonal Story and Christian Conscience 11:04 says, but for me and for my house, we're gonna choose to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is a tremendous gift of Christianity to the this11:16 experiment called America, the right of individual conscience. And the people who choose to reject Christianity are have the legal right to do so based upon the Judeo Christian11:27 values hidden in this Joshua 24 15 passage. The right of individual conscience to worship as you choose to worship. What an incredible gift11:40 it is to the American experience to have the Judeo Christian structure as as our our entire foundation. And so now we continue to move from culturally woke to biblically11:52 awake.11:54 Let us pray. Heavenly father, give generations of believers the ability to walk in faith and obedience. May we make the choice to serve the lord wholeheartedly12:06 regardless of the challenges we may face. As Joshua declared in chapter 24, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in12:17 sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And12:29 if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites12:41 in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Father, we choose to reject the gods of this world, the false religions,12:54 the temptations, the alternate lifestyles, and everything that is apart from you and serving you. Help us to follow13:05 that path, the way of the Lord in righteousness, and to learn your scriptures, to understand your truth, to walk in your way all the days of our lives that we may bePrayer and Closing 13:17 with you through all eternity. In Jesus' name, amen.13:23 We hope you enjoyed the video. Thank you so much for watching. Hey, don't forget to check out this discussion questions that are attached. Have a fun time studying, and we will see you in the next chapter.In this video 0:00 Theistic Foundations Limit Government7:32 Nonsectarian: Christian Denominations, Not All Religions11:01 Personal Story and Christian Conscience13:13 Prayer and Closing
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