“The Reason, Structure, and Spirit of Government”

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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Should churches teach concerning government? The real question is: What does the Bible say about civil government? Because if something is in the Bible, we who are the teachers in the Body of Christ are under God’s call to teach it. We must declare “the whole counsel of God”. (Acts 20:27) So let’s look at what the Bible teaches concerning the reason for, and the structure and spirit of, civil government.

God’s reason for creating civil government is stated very plainly in 1 Peter 2:13-14,

“Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.”

God created civil government for “the punishment of evildoers”. God knew that once we rebelled against Him in the Garden of Eden, the selfishness that entered mankind would move one man to take away the rights of another man. Thus, civil government is God’s minister to punish the one who would take away another’s “life, liberty, or [property]”. This is the only way to slow down the selfishness in man and Continue reading →

“Will You Rule Through Voting?”

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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We are coming up on the most important election Kentucky has ever had. Our state governments are our last line of defense against this socialist Washington government. We must elect statesmen instead of politicians in our state governments! Let’s consider why our one vote is so very important: Because of sin, the root of selfishness came into mankind in the Garden of Eden. Thus, God established civil government to control that selfishness in man. But because that root is in all men we need for civil government to control not only the ruled but the rulers as well! James Madison, who wrote most of our U.S. Constitution, stated,

“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

(Madison, James. James Madison, The Federalist No. 51, The Federalist Papers, Clinton Rossiter, ed., (N.Y: Mentor Books, 1961), p. 322. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution – The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987, 6th printing 1993), p 102.)

In other words, law must be equally binding on those who rule as well as those who are ruled—because all of us are inherently selfish!! Thus, there are only two types of civil government: There is government from God through men or Continue reading →

“Teach Voting”

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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In America’s early education system one of the things that was constantly taught was the Biblical understanding of government. Children were taught to govern themselves by internal choices. They were taught to reason every choice back to its root; that is, “What God says in the Bible about what I am facing”. This was education God’s way. That education system created a moral people. Noah Webster, in his original American dictionary defined “moral” as:

“The conformity of an act to the divine law.”

Thus a people developed in this nation who had stable emotions. That created persistence in what they set out to accomplish.

This way of thinking would be the foundation for the greatest civil government the world has ever known. Their children were taught to let that internal self-government grow to the external civil government. It was the natural outflow of a life committed to living out the Bible in this present world. And while America’s Founding generations were certainly not perfect, they did succeed Continue reading →

“Reasons Which Impelled Them to the Separation-Part 3”

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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I’m sometimes asked the question: “At what point do we do what America’s Founders did in creating a new national government? When do we create a new government? For now, let me avoid this question by pointing out that, as long as we have the right to vote—and the votes are counted fairly honestly—we have the means to create new government at every election! But 75 million of us, who say we believe we ought to live by the Bible, are not even voting, when 18 million would turn any election we have! So the revolution we need to fight is to get Christians to the polls to vote!

America’s Founders had good reasons for creating a new national government. They listed 27 of those reasons in The Declaration of Independence. Let’s look at some more of them in this message. Reason number 5 stated:

“He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.”

The King had repeatedly, in the 10 years before The Declaration of Independence was written, shut down their Colonial Legislatures. And once the King dissolved their Legislatures, he would wait long periods before restoring them. This was why they stated in reason number 6: Continue reading →

“Reasons Which Impelled Them to the Separation-Part 2”

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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Is there any good reason that we should study history? Do documents like The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution hold any significance for us today? They most certainly do! Number one, God tells us in the Bible to “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations…” (Deuteronomy 32:7) He wants us to understand that history is “His-Story”. What He taught a previous generation He wants us to bring into our generation. That with which satan enslaved a previous generation, God wants us to get free of. But if we don’t know history, how can we keep the good and remove the bad? Since all of us start life in this world with a sin-root in our thinking (Romans 5:12), we will tend to move toward satan’s enslavement in our society unless we know what God taught previous generations. This is why God taught the Jews that their education system must be the channel through which the parents teach their children His ways. This is what President Woodrow Wilson reminded us when he stated:

“A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do….”

History is for our instruction; let us not be so arrogant as to dismiss it Continue reading →

“Reasons Which Impelled Them to the Separation-Part 1”

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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Should Christians always obey civil law? The Apostles’ reply to the civil authorities of their day established the answer to that question. They stated,

“We ought to obey God rather than men.”

(Acts 5:29)

We must obey civil law only if it agrees with the Scripture. Building from this principle, when America’s Founders wrote The Declaration of Independence they actually listed 27 reasons why they should declare their independence from England, because the King had broken “the laws of nature and of nature’s God”, and had violated the citizen’s rights of “life, liberty, and [property]”. Let us consider these violations in the next several messages.

The first violation Jefferson listed stated:

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

In the 1760’s, the colonies had passed laws to accommodate their rapidly growing population and economy. The King disallowed these, causing the colonists Continue reading →

“Cautiously Resist Disordered Government”

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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In the late 1700’s, there were those in France who dreamed of establishing a much better government in their nation. Their battle cry was, “Liberty, equality, and fraternity”, meaning “brotherhood”. Their dream was good; for God puts these desires in the heart of all men. However, they attempted to work what they called a “revolution”, without depending on the God of heaven. This was much different from America’s Founding Fathers, who worked a true revolution by publicly acknowledging in our Declaration of Independence, “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence…” In America the greatest amount of liberty was established for the greatest number of citizens of any nation in history. The high ideals in France ended in a bloodbath by a dictatorial government. In our present trend of a growing dictatorial national government, we can learn much from these two different attempts at establishing liberty.

In a previous message, we listed several Biblical examples where people disobeyed bad civil law with the blessing of God. There is a time for this. But how do we know when that time is? Continue reading →

“Defending Religious Liberty”

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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Kim Davis stuck by her conviction that marriage is between a man and a woman only, all the way to jail. And God has honored her stand by moving the judge to release her. Praise God! He has heard and answered the prayers of His people for her. So, did Kim Davis do the right thing by standing for her religious liberty—liberty that says the U.S. Supreme Court is wrong in their decision to “redefine” marriage? Is it Biblical to resist civil government, or should we always obey the civil law? The Bible does teach us to be respectful of governmental authority because God created government. And often we hear, “We are to obey the laws of the land.” This is generally taken from 1 Peter 2:13, which says,

“Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him [that is, by God] for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.”

But, does this tell us to “submit” to law that does not agree with the Bible? Absolutely not! This sentence teaches us that government law is for the purpose Continue reading →

“Numbers Make the Difference”

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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On August 22nd, 2015, more than 6,000 people gathered on the grounds of Kentucky’s State Capitol to say to Kentucky’s Governor and Legislators: “Protect the religious liberty of County Clerks!” This Rally was planned in order to support courageous County Clerks in three counties who have said they will not issue marriage license to homosexual couples. Their reason: Their religious convictions disagree with homosexuality. Therefore, to issue a marriage license to those who are breaking God’s Commandments would place the clerk on the side against God. They would rather be in line with God and His Word than to be in line with government edicts that are out of line with God and His Word.

This has been a long protected freedom in America. Religious liberty is the reason the Pilgrims came here in 1620. When our Founders wrote our Constitution the very First Amendment they made to it stated Continue reading →

“Removing Planned Parenthood!”

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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The recent exposure of Planned Parenthood’s gristly practices of dismembering babies removed from the womb, and selling their body parts, has awakened many a person across this land. This is a good thing, and I might add, long overdue. This organization has masqueraded behind the front of being an organization that helps families. But the reality is, and has been, that this group has done as much as anyone in this nation to destroy the American family. Margaret Sanger, the Founder of Planned Parenthood, was a part of the socialist movement from the early 1900’s. She believed in forced sterilization of those she considered unfit to bear and rear children. This group included the black population along with any others who didn’t fit her socialist agenda. That would include, of course, those who thought according to what the Bible teaches about government. And, while I’m glad many people are being awakened to what Planned Parenthood really is, I am amazed that the average person hasn’t known this before. Our inability to reason from the Bible has stolen from us the true perspective on what is happening around us, and allowed those who want to stop the flow of the Gospel in public to operate freely in this nation.