Encore Post: The Church and State have always had an interesting relationship at least here in the U.S.A. And if we look across the pond to Europe, the history is even more blurry because for the longest time the Church and the State were essentially working together. The Holy Roman Empire, for instance, was given that name because of its connections to the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The Pope actually was the one who crowned the emperor. Hence, Luther and the Lutheran Confessions dealt with both the Emperor and the Pope during the time of the Reformation. The Church and State went hand in hand, so it seemed.
However, that is not necessarily always a good thing. St. Paul tells us that the Church and the State serve two distinctly different purposes. The State was given to curb evil and violence. The State wields the sword. You could say that they help people follow and enforce the first use of the Law. The State (government) keeps its citizens from committing rampant sin against other civilians and even themselves.
The Church has the purpose of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world. The Church has no use for the sword in this endeavor. Rather, the Church’s weapon of choice is her pastors’ voices proclaiming the Word of God to sinful men and women in the world. That means the Church is to inform the people, even the leaders of the State, of their sin and proclaim to them forgiveness of their sins in and through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
This post begins a series about the State and Church relationship and we will explore a bit more how we as Christians can and should pray and inform the policies of the State as well as when the State makes us Christians do things that are against our deeply held beliefs and conscience.
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Interesting post.
Thanks for reading! May I ask, what did you find interesting about the post?
I appreciate this post.✝️
Thank you for taking time to read the blog post! I am glad you found it helpful and edifying. The Lord’s blessings!
I look forward to reading this!
Thank you, Tom! I think there is at least one more in line with this post that has been published previously. There is much to say about this topic, but I have yet to get those ideas in proper form for publication. This summer has become quite busy with NYG and Convention trips looming. Unfortunately, I have not had a lot of time to straighten out those ideas. Lord willing, I will have something soon to add to this conversation.
Please elaborate on what the Chirch’s responsibility are when evil overtakes the state by way of policies and laws and actions that violate God’s precept and commands. (For instance, Hitler. The churches mostly stayed silent as he advanced his evil doings). Also please emphasize the importance of the individual Christian’s duty to vote in our civil elections.
Thank you for reading the blog post. Obviously, we should obey God rather than men in instances of evil. We should be a voice of reason in the midst of evil, calling it what it is, making our voice heard even at the ballot box. We also need to remember that Paul and Peter write that we should pray for the emperor. They were writing about Nero, the man who would eventually oversee so many martyrdoms. In a democratic republic, which has consistently leaned more and more into straight democracy (from my own perspective on things) the onus of governance obviously falls on the citizen to participate in the process of nominating and electing upstanding candidates. So Christians have the duty to make informed decisions based upon the biblical worldview they are being built up in through the Word and Sacraments. We should not only encourage good men to enter the seminary, but also we need Christian men to go and take up office in local affairs. We also must remember the fact that God Himself is over the election of our officials. We may just very well be receiving judgment along the lines of Old Testament Israel with horrific kings, etc. We should never rule that out. This country of ours, like so many others before it, will go away at some point. Go to the polls in repentance faith, trusting in the Lord’s mercy. Perhaps its not seen in the election, but remember we should not put our trust in princes, but in the Lord God who has told us repeatedly that this world and its ways are wasting away. I pray this helps.