Citizens of Heaven Under Governments of Men—Three Principles to Live By Christians are to be in the world, but not of the world, balancing their primary allegiance to God with their secondary allegiance to their national government.
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eligions today are very conflicted regarding their role vis-à-vis national governments. Some espouse extreme positions. For some, their religion is the state government. Others encourage their members to isolate themselves as distantly as possible from any relationship with the state. Most, though, fall somewhere in the middle, integrating to some degree their religion with their politics. But with upheaval inherent in governments around the world, this often leads to sad stories of
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DISCERN
churches split apart and members alienated by politics. What’s wrong with that picture? Jesus and His apostles operated from a very different perspective. They lived in the ultra challenging position of being under two governments—the domination of pagan Rome and the ecclesiastical rule that Rome allowed the Jewish rulers, who claimed to represent God’s government. So which government did Jesus support? Only one— the Kingdom of God. In fact, He turned the focus of His
March/April 2021
