New Hot Topic...
Ok... In keeping with the Social and Political discussion which the youth group has been entertaining lately, I've got to ask you to answer this:
"Can a follower of Christ and a citizen of his Kingdom, pledge allegiance to an earthly nation?"
yes or no?
posted by Russ @ 4:31 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
got this from: http://christiancommunity.multiply.com/tag/elections
Obviously, the first place to look would be the Bible. Does the Bible direct us to pledge our allegiance to our country? Does it say anything about it at all? Does it tell us to flee to the hills and forego all bonds to country?
"No," "Yes," and "No," are the conclusions that I have come to for the above questions.
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,..." (Philippians 3:20) Despite the fact that in terms of voting, ... and ... we are considered to be citizens of this country, our true and enduring citizenship is in heaven. As Paul says to the Ephesians (2:19), "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,..."
I think that for many of us, its hard to envision what this looks like. Its easy to say that I'm a citizen of heaven, but what does that really mean in terms of how I approach life? I can understand it best when I consider a foreigner living in the United States.
Though citizens of heaven, Christians still live on this earth and receive both the positives and negatives in living here. We are also required to obey the laws and obligations of citizenship in heaven and residency on earth. The laws of heaven are the Ten Commandments and the other laws listed in the Pentateuch. But as the Jews helpfully modeled for us in the rest of the Old Testament, the laws are impossible to keep fully. So Jesus (the King of heaven -- John 18:36-37) fulfilled those legal obligations for us, although the fruits of our citizenship should still be visible for others to see. (Woa! What do I mean by that? Well, though we won't be imprisoned for disobeying the law, since Jesus has "washed our sins away," we're still expected to behave as upstanding citizens of the country, heaven. Its not our "upstanding actions" that give us the right to be citizens of heaven, its Jesus' actions that have provided that right. But that doesn't change the fact that once we're citizens, we can be reputable citizens or we can be shabby citizens. In other words, our faith will be shown in works and not vice versa.)
Passages such as Hebrews 13:14, John 16:33, 1 John 2:15-17, as well as others, lead me to believe that we are not only legally citizens of God's Kingdom, but that we are called to long for that kingdom as well. It is easy to get so blinded by the day to day living on earth that we forget about our true homeland. And yet, it is remembering our true identity that helps us to live as citizens of heaven, with all the difficult decisions that may require and the positive fruit that it should produce.
the rest of mine...
National Duty
I think our national duty is fairly clear. Just as Isobel still had to obey the laws of America, so we still have to obey the laws of America (Matthew 22:17-22 - give unto Caesar what is Caesar's - as well as Romans 13:1-7 and others) as well as the laws appropriate to whatever state we live in, whatever country we live in, perhaps even whatever subgroup we live in. (A subgroup could be something like involvement in an online discussion group. One of the rules is not to spam the members. This might not be a national law, nor a local law, but its still a rule that should be followed if you want to be an upstanding member of that group.)
There are still hazy areas to this civic obedience, of course. If the US goes to war, should we, as Christians, go and kill others in order to be obedient? Or should we look to the laws of heaven which might lead us to conclude that it would be better to run off to Canada than to take the life of another person? I definitely know people that would fall pretty soundly on either side of this argument, and yet I believe that those on both sides are Christians.
Certainly God's law supersedes national laws. And yet, I believe that these laws disagree so rarely, that I certainly don't want to make a huge issue of it. I do think, however, that whatever side we might choose to follow in these gray areas, we should be sure to think through our decisions (and its ramifications) carefully.
to see the rest visit the link at the top of the other post.
Well, this goes along with my other comment i made on the other post
Our allegiance, as Christians, is to God and God alone...We do what God tells us to do..We go where God tells us to go...
Back in midieval(however you spell that word) times...a knight would do anything for his King...Anything and everything his King told him to do, he pursued that command with every ounce of effort he had in his body...he would even lay down his own life for his King...Knights knew what it meant to serve their King...
Well, Christ is our King...In comparison with the knights of that time period, how much more impressive are they in serving their King than we are in serving ours? and they're just serving an earthly king..not the eternal King as we are...just a random thought on what serving our King truly means....
but anyways...Christ is our King..and we are directed in the Bible to follow the law of the land and to submit to the government authorities...NOT OUT OF ALLEGIANCE TO A COUNTRY TO PLEASE them..BUT OUT OF ALLEGIANCE TO CHRIST OUR KING TO PLEASE HIM...it's so very important that we live in peace with our government and as much as possible not bump heads with them...
Every second of every minute of every hour of every morning of every day of every night, our hearts and minds are to be focused on serving our King and doing what pleases him...We've grown up in a country where the influence is extremely strong..we're persuaded day in and day out that serving "our country" should be a top priority...This idea develops a dangerous sense of loyalty to this country that blinds us from the reality of why we are to be submissive to the governement int he first place...this influence is made even stronger when our parents and grandparents show more concern for serving America than serving Christ...
NEVER forget that our citizenship is in heaven...Every move we make, we make for Jesus and his Kingdom..to please him....not a country
we are the body of Christ...not the body of America
the church and the state are separate..and should remain separate
"yes" or "no" people....
lol
it's not really a yes or no type of question tho..By saying our allegiance is to God, the answer is "no"..but our allegiance to God calls us to be submissive and servants to "all" people..that includes the government officials..so in a sense maybe a yes...well no..THE ANSWER IS NO..Our supreme allegiance is to God
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