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.