You’ve probably read that Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed legislation that mandates the placing of 10 Commandment plaques in all Louisiana Public Schools. You may have also heard that the Oklahoma Superintendent of Schools, Ryan Walters, sent a memo to all Oklahoma Public Schools requiring them to teach the Historic importance of the Bible in the development of America. You may not have heard that the Governors of both Florida & Texas, are providing funds for Public Schools to hire Christian Chaplains to counsel troubled students. All of which has pushed the ACLU to cry ‘Separation of Church & State’!
Most Americans are familiar with the term, but many Americans are unaware of the degrees of separation between Church & State intended by our ‘founding fathers.’ They are also unaware of how pervasive Church and State unions have been throughout History, and the present world we live in. Over 100 nations on earth today have some form of union between Church & State.
At one extreme are nations like China and Tajikistan who put great restrictions on religious practice, not wanting it’s influence on the State, and seeing religion like Karl Marx, as ‘the opiate of the people.’ At the other extreme are 27 Muslim nations in which Church & State are so intertwined, that their governments are classified as ‘Theocracies’ (God ruling nations). In-between, are nations like Italy, Spain and Denmark, who have nationally established Churches, but with both Church & State governing themselves separately. While the European Union did not establish a Union religion, it seeks to “maintain a dialogue with churches in development of Civil/Ecclesiastical Law.”
This is the approach the ‘founding fathers’ of America took, not establishing any national church, but viewing the Christian church as an indispensable source for developing civil Law. Benjamin Franklin wrote: “I think the system of morals and His (Jesus’) religion, as He left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see.” Benjamin Rush (signer of the Declaration of Independence) once said: “The Gospel of Jesus Christ prescribes the wisest rules for just conduct in every situation of life.”
Many Americans are surprised to learn that the words ‘separation of Church & State’ do not appear in any of our nation’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, or the Constitution. It was coined by our nation’s 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, which was concerned about the State taking away their religious rights. Jefferson wrote: “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
Our 3rd president made it clear to the Baptists that they did not have to worry about government taking away their religious rights - the ‘wall’ between them being the first amendment, insuring that the Church and State be two separately governed institutions, neither of which could take the other’s rights & roles away.
Does your Bible say anything about ‘Separation of Church & State’? Is God for it or against it? Are there any Biblical examples of separations, or unions between ‘Church & State'‘?
There are 5 common components of any sovereign State in Man’s history: 1) Dominion, over a 2) People, living in a specific 3) Territory, through 4) a set of Laws and a 5) National calendar cycle.
In the beginning, God Almighty established the first earthly State, saying, to Adam & Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and SUBDUE it; have DOMINION over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (GENESIS 1:28) In this union of Church & State - God was the ‘Church’ and Man & his progeny the ‘State.’ The territory of this State was the whole earth. God, acting as the church, laid down the Law the State of Mankind should live by (eating of any tree in the Garden except the Tree of the knowledge of good & evil) (GEN.2:16,17), and the calendrical cycle the State was to revolve around: working 6 days and resting on the 7th (GEN.2:2-4).
But Adam & Eve sinned by taking of the forbidden tree, so God dissolved the union of the first Church & State: “So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” (GENESIS 3:24)
After the flood, God, acting again as ‘Church,’ established the State of Israel: “If you (Israel) will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ (EXODUS 19:5,6) Israel responded: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” (EXODUS 19:8) The territory of Israel would be all the Land of Canaan (GEN.17:8) God then laid down the Law (EX.20), and set up a calendrical worship cycle (LEV.23) to keep Church & State in sync.
For some 300 years, God was the King of Israel, working through its Judges & Elders": “Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.’ And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have told us to do is good.’ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes. Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s.” (DEUTER.1:13-17)
But after this period described in the books Joshua & Judges, the people asked the prophet Samuel for a physical king, ‘like all the nations.’ Samuel took the matter to God who answered him saying, ‘Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” (I SAMUEL 8:7) But in order to still influence the State to move in God’s direction, He instructed their kings, saying, “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.
In New Testament times, God formed a new kind of ‘Church & State’ Union: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (I PETER 2:9) In this Union, the ‘Elect’ are the ‘Church,’ and the Kingdom of Heaven is the ‘State.’ Christians have citizenship in this heavenly State (PHIL.3:20), and act as it’s Ambassadors to the world’s States (II COR.5:20). The Law is written in Church members’ hearts (HEB.8:10), and the Church revolves around the Biblical calendar (ACTS 18:21; I Cor.5:8)
The last world ruling empire is prophesied to be a ‘Church-State’ Union called the ‘Beast.’ It will have dominion over “every tribe, tongue, and nation” (REV.13:7). It will have its own ‘Times (calendar of events) and Laws (DANIEL 7:25). But it will only last 42 months, and then be destroyed by Christ at His 2nd coming in the Battle of Armageddon (REV.19:17-21)
Then an announcement will be made heard round the world: “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.” (REV.11:15) Then the union between ‘Church & State’ that God initiated in Eden will be restored and made permanent: “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. 11 “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people.” (ZECHARIAH 2:10,11) And the Law will go forth from Zion to all nations (ISAIAH 2:1-4), and all nations will begin to live by God’s sacred calendar of events - or receive no rain (ZECHARIAH 14:16-19). Animals will no longer be carnivorous, and people will not hurt nor destroy in all of God’s ‘Church & State’ kingdom (ISAIAH 11:6-9)