Matthew 5:13 reads: “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
Dennis Woods in his book “Discipling the Nations”, pg.105, comments: “Too often in pluralistic America, Christians have hidden behind the banner of “traditional values” to avoid a direct appeal to the Bible or biblical values. In the process their political/cultural vision has become blurred, and their message has been diverted from the Word of God.”
Carl Henry, theologian and author, states: “We hear much today about the need for values, but values are not absolutes—at least not necessarily. They are preferred ideals of individuals and societies. We need again to have the commandments of God emblazoned on our consciences and the redeeming grace of God throbbing in our hearts.” Carl Henry, World, Vol. 9, No.29 (December 24, 1994), pg. 28.
Because American Christians have not understood their responsibility to be salt in the government, our legal system has degenerated into an endless volume of decisions comprised by humanists who search for past precedents or traditions by which to judge their current case. This is why 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 tells us that it is a shame and a travesty of justice to allow civil authorities to judge the Christians; without holding the person accountable to God’s standards, the heathen cannot possibly restore a person back to God and society. Instead, as Isaiah 59:13-16 warns, the beast type of government continues to evolve, and the righteous continue to become prey.
Reading 2 Peter 2:6-8: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)”
Conservative and liberal political positions both seek humanistic solutions and ignore the authority of the Scriptures. Liberals focus more on state solutions, while conservatives stress the autonomy of the individual. Both continue to erode the values of God and the character of people as they replace the laws of God with the philosophies of men.
God holds both citizens and governments accountable to His Word. 1 Timothy 1:4-10 states: “Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;”
We see that Old Testament law against crimes such as murder, homosexuality, kidnapping, perjury, etc., is enforced in the New Testament. Modern governments have no godly authority to improvise the codification of the law. Law originally came from God, and governments are required by God to study His standards established in the Scriptures and pattern civil law accordingly.
God holds governments responsible for enforcing His laws, as my articles on “The Science of Judgment”, a 14-part series, explain. Democracy (the will of the people) is not Scriptural, as the majority of people rebel against God, wanting their own selfish ways at the expense of the righteous. Refer to Sodom and Gomorrah, Nineveh, the world in Noah‘s day, etc.
America was meant to be a Republic under God, not a Democracy which ends up in socialism where the majority want what others have without following God’s conditions to possess material prosperity. Finally, selfishness (democracy) is blind, and fools who have turned their backs on the truths of God come under a spirit of deceivableness, eventually accepting the leadership of a dictator as their nation deteriorates under the laws and philosophies of men. Refer to 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12.
Romans 13:1-4 reads: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”
We see here that civil government governs by delegated authority from God. The king, president, government, etc., are under God and are subject to the laws of God which they are to enforce; they are not to make up their own laws. Consequently, government should not be a social contract, as taught by Locke, Rousseau, and Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Civil authority was established by the sovereign will of God, not the consent of the governed.
During the governments of Rome, the emperor, Caesar, had a saying: “neither is there salvation in any other name than Caesar”. The apostle Paul deliberately challenged this statement and boldly corrected Caesar, telling the Roman government that they, too, were under Jesus Christ. Acts 4:10, 12: “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole...Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Leviticus chapters 17-20 makes it abundantly clear that God holds governments responsible for enforcing His laws. Leviticus 18:24-28 warns: “Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations: neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled:) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.”
In these chapters of Leviticus God warns civil government to enforce His laws concerning food, swearing, stealing, lying, profaning His name, fraud, prostitution, incest, adultery, fornication, abortion, homosexuality, beastiality, psychics, wizards, murder, etc. In both the Old and the New Testaments God’s warnings are clear that He holds human governments responsible for teaching and enforcing His commandments. Refer to Romans 1:18-32, etc.
Genesis 15:13-16 reads: “Then the Lord said to him (Abraham), Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years, But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
NOTE: God holds all nations responsible for following His laws, whether it is the Israelites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Babylonians, the Romans, or the Americans. When governments continue to fail to enforce God’s statutes, which strengthen the stability of the nation, those governments and nations self-destruct.
Deuteronomy 9:3-5 tells us: “But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly…After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness. ‘No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations…” Here the government of the Canaanites is overthrown because they would not teach and enforce the laws of God! Understand that God uses civil government as one means by which He rules His creation!
Following the conquest of Canaan, Joshua led the children of Israel into a covenant with God. Joshua 24:20-25: “If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord, And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.”
Another encouraging example demonstrating that it is never too late to establish and reaffirm a national covenant with God is 2 Kings 22:11 - 23:3. When King Josiah had heard the words of the book of the law of God, he immediately repented and led his nation into repentance, and God’s wrath was temporarily turned back while the nation was led by this godly king who enforced the commandments of God. When the godly king died and the nation forsook enforcing the laws of God, the nation suffered again (as America is doing today) until the nation was overthrown.
Psalms 67:4: “O let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon the earth, Selah.” Again, God holds all nations accountable, without exception, to His standards of values and enforcing His statutes.
Jeremiah 18:7-10 warns: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”
Jonah chapter 3 is a great example how a leader can lead his nation into repentance so that God, who is holding all nations accountable to His laws, can withhold the wrath and judgment deserved for idolatry!
What is the church’s responsibility in society? What is the Christian’s responsibility?
Dennis Woods states: “If the foundation of civil government is laid by God, it follows, therefore, that the ‘right of revolution’—the right to overthrow an existing government—rests in God, not in man. Thus, the only legal revolution is one in which duly ordained “lesser magistrates” lead the people against a tyrannical “higher magistrate” with the blessing of the clergy. Government that rejects its biblical purpose of restraining evil and administering justice becomes itself a violator of God’s law. As such, it forfeits its biblical authority to function as a minister of God in this capacity. This does not, however, provide citizens a carte-blanche excuse to flagrantly disobey government or enter into anarchical revolutionary coups. Historically, such attempts almost invariably lead to dictatorship. Witness the rise of Napoleon following the lawless and bloody French Revolution. Instead, the attitude of the people should be one of longsuffering under oppression, preparation for hardship, and prayer that God would raise up a deliverer. There should be a spirit of acquiescence to God’s rod of discipline. Such a spirit is fostered with the recognition that in Scripture God raised up foreign invaders to discipline His people for disobedience. Rather than chafing under God’s discipline, our first response should be one of repentance and a return to His law.” (Discipling the Nations, pg. 136)
Our government in America is in idolatry. It makes laws in direct opposition to the laws of God. For example, laws permitting abortion, and protecting and encouraging the lifestyle of sodomites. As Jonah warned Nineveh, so we should be sharing truth without compromise concerning God’s attitude toward people and nations who engage in such abominable acts.
Christians and churches are commanded by God in these areas to be politically incorrect when the nation they live in has hostile attitudes toward God’s commandments. Citizens are called upon in Scripture to engage in civil disobedience when the law of men and governments go against the laws of God!
This is what being “persecuted for righteousness sake” is all about. This is why the apostles, prophets and first century Christians suffered being arrested, tortured and killed. They refused to obey the civil laws concerning values and lifestyles. They refused to offer their children to the gods (abortion). They refused to engage in incest, fornication, adultery, sodomy, etc. They refused to accept that all religions are the same. Instead, they held firm that only through the name of Jesus Christ can men be saved and escape the wrath to come, thus gaining eternal life. In other words, they would be guilty of being politically incorrect. They would be charged today with crimes of hate and intolerance. We, like Jonah, are called by God to preach and teach the truth and call all men to repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ.
Let us read what Jim Rudd, Director of Christian Street Preachers Alliance in Washington D.C., states concerning homosexuality:
“Sodomy is not a light or transient crime. It is an abomination (Lev. 18:22). It is the culmination of man’s apostasy and hostility toward God and His Church (Rom. 1:18-32). For lawmakers and judges to approve of sodomy brings eternal damnation upon themselves (Rom. 13:2) and God’s righteous judgment of death on the society as a whole (Gen. 19:24, 2 Peter 2:6). Therefore, such lawmakers and judges are not only anti-Christian by approving of sodomy; they make the civil government a vile cesspool from which the abominations vomit out across the land. By displaying such a contempt for the administration of Justice, such civil officials are not only the source of defilement (Lev. 18:24-25), they are the criminals (Rom. 1:32), and a hostile enemy authorizing the destruction of the society in which we live (Jude 7). Not only should Christian men fight for the safety of their families by demanding that these civil officials repent, or resign from office immediately; Christians should be demanding the strongest laws and punishments against sodomy be put into effect so as to cleanse the pestilence from our society, (Lev. 20:13). Sodomy is an abomination (Lev. 18:22), and those who engage in sodomy are so vile that their very presence defiles the land (Lev. 18:22, 25).”
I want to clarify that we love and deeply care for the person. The homosexual or lesbian needs the love of Jesus and caring believers to help them come out of their wounded condition and find freedom, deliverance and eternal life.
Jim Rudd continues: “Through the administration of Justice, God gives the civil officials the authority to prevent society, the land, from being defiled. The civil officials swing the sword to ‘…execute wrath upon him that doeth evil’ (Rom. 13:4) and in this case sodomites. It should also be noted that because of the pro-active, intrinsic nature of God’s judgments upon any society defiled by these abominations (Lev. 18:25-30), it is impossible for Christians to passively coexist in such a vile society. Our demand that the civil officials administer Justice is based upon the concern for and protection of innocent people, and what iniquities will come upon us all should Justice not be upheld…What are you going to do about it? Are you going to be a man of God, stirred in the spirit, and call men in your church to come stand with you as you go confront those sodomites with the Word of God? Or, are you going to teach the children in your church, by example, how to passively co-exist with these vile unbelievers that bring God’s righteous judgment of death upon all who passively co-exist with them? (Jude 7) All preachers are commanded to ‘do the work of an evangelist’ (II Tim. 4:5). As the Book of Acts clearly illustrates, the primary attacks in the battle of overcoming a society’s sinful moral conditions are not to be fought by the laity (Acts 13:2), but are to be fought by the ‘men of God’ going out from behind their pulpits into the real world (Acts 13:47), and confronting sinners in their sin with the Word of God—it’s their business! (2 Tim. 3:16-4:5) There are absolutely NO substitutes for the ‘men of God’ (2 Tim. 3:17), with Bible in hand, going to the places where sinners are publicly flaunting their sin and confronting them with what God says about their sin. The sheer weight of conviction upon unbelievers being confronted by real ordained men of God cannot be substituted by the Christian butcher, baker, candlestick maker, or the mom with three kids.”
I am not negating or minimizing the importance of each believer to do the work of the ministry, as everyone is called to do. Yet, I am dogmatically stating that the governmental leaders of the church also do their part and not just send their members to the front lines of battle while they, as cowards, do not go.
I recorded a 3-hour short wave radio series called “Sodomites”. This series discusses the responsibility of the government concerning this behavior. It also goes into statistics showing how 3 percent of the population in America are homosexuals, yet eight out of ten serial killers are sodomites; how the average length of a somdomite’s life is 30 years less than a normal man; how in America we are facing a major health catastrophe over this lifestyle; yet the major news agencies and the government itself are neither alerting us to this fact nor making laws to protect the population from this plague. Proportionately the sodomite community are much more violent, and they are much less healthy; yet, we are not warning the general population in America of the dangers.
Reading 2 Peter 2:6-8 again: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)”
The Bible is clear. If we continue to listen to the propaganda which classifies homosexuality as a good, acceptable, alternate lifestyle without raising our voices in opposition, then we vex our souls and the soul of our nation. As a result, society begins to accept this rhetoric by being brainwashed with a one-sided view, then the nation and all those living in it come under the judgment of God.
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Jonathan Hansen
Founder and President
Mission: To faithfully speak to the nations of the world, proclaiming the kingdom of God; giving warning to political and church leaders, the church, and society of the signs of the return of Jesus Christ. We are "sounding the alarm" for the nations to turn from sin and to draw near to Jesus Christ.
Purpose: Our purpose is to influence and transform the nations whereby enabling peace, blessings and prosperity to come to the people. We are endeavoring to meet emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual needs through the love of Jesus Christ.
Vision: To reach 100% of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. To change the destiny of nations through reconciliation with God. To bring truth and restoration to the body of Christ and to set people free from bondage.
The Commission
The mission, purpose, and vision are being realized by the following means:
*Crusade Meetings
*Conferences
*Revival Meetings
*Television
*Website
*Radio & Short-Wave Radio
*Prayer Ministry
-Gate Breakers Prayer Team
*Intercessors
-Soldiers of the Cross
*Bible Institutes
*Benevolence
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America is in crisis! Our very foundational civil rights and freedoms are being challenged and taken away from Christians.
WorldNetDaily - April 18, 2007 - Congress debates 'jail grandma' hate speech-Warnings issued over 'most dangerous bill in America'..."Debate has been launched in Congress on a federal 'hate speech' proposal similar to a state law that already has been used to send grandmothers to jail for their 'crime' of sharing the Gospel of Jesus on a Philadelphia public sidewalk...Dacus said in comments prepared for presentation to the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security that H.R. 1592 would use the power and authority of the federal government to stifle free speech, especially religious speech...'This so-called 'hate crime' legislation begins to lay the legal foundation and framework for investigating, prosecuting, and persecuting pastors, business owners, and anyone else who actions reflect their faith-as has already been starkly demonstrated in California, Canada, Europe and Australia,' he said."
WorldNetDaily - April 11, 2007 - 'Pagan morality' on way to becoming law..."In the House Rules Committee, an amendment was offered that would have provided an exemption for Christian churches and Christian groups in the proposal to grant broad new powers to the homosexual community by designating them as members of a protected minority class. However, the amendment was rejected in favor of a plan to continue to allow homosexuals to demand Christian churches hire them when there are job openings-among other issues..."
WorldNetDaily - April 5, 2007 - Texas Senate prayer excludes Christians..."Oh, Allah, guide us to the straight path of those whom you have favored, not of those who have earned your wrath...Islam of course...teaches that Jews and Christians both have earned the wrath of Allah..."
OneNewsNow.com - April 2, 2007 - Hostage drill at NJ school features mock 'Christian terrorists...portrayed conservative Christians as terrorists
Dear Fellow Saint: Please join me in this battle we are all facing. Together we need to get the warning message throughout America. Time is running out! I need as many people as possible to help me with their prayers and financial support so I can spread the truth to as many Christians as possible. Help me recruit other believers by passing this article on to someone else. Send me names of other people that wish to become part of our team in sounding the alarm to the nations.
May God richly bless you, Jonathan Hansen
© 2007 World Ministries International