Life Matters, November 17, 2021
The purpose of the church is to teach all things that Christ commanded, doing so by word and example, thereby being a conscience for those who are lacking and keeping the world and itself accountable to our Creator God. (Matt 28:18-20)
Both church and civil authority have their jurisdiction given and established by God. (II Cor 5:1, 4-20; I Tim 4:12-16; Rom 13:1-7)
Both church and civil authority have their jurisdiction limited by God-established boundaries. (II Cor 1:2, 4; Gal 1:10; Luke 12:45-46)
To avoid deception and/or tyranny, both church and civil leaders are accountable to God, both directly and through the people they serve. (Deut 13:1-5; Eph 4:14; Titus 3:10; Acts 16:37, 20:29, 22:24-29, 25:16, 24:18-21)
God’s Power and Authority are Ultimate. (Is 26:4; Matt 19:26; Rev 19:6)
Therefore we pray: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:10)
We may, and all of us likely do, have many questions about the future. At the rapid rate of inventions and change in these last few decades, what will the next few decades be like? Will we reach a plateau or will inventions and change continue? And if inventions and change continue, how will they affect our lives? The lives of our children?
But the foundational and over-arching question that literally engulfs all other questions, is the question of authority. Who is—who will be—our ultimate Authority? The Christian has already answered that question. So has the Humanist. The Christian says God is Ultimate; the Humanist says man is. Between these two polar opposites are many “floaters,” who by life, beliefs, or both, reveal confusion about this question of all questions. Adding to the cauldron of confusion are those attempting to pull those polar opposites together onto a middle ground of compromise. Be not deceived. There is no compromise. While the devil, through Humanism, or anything in the “floating” realm, may appear to compromise, he is not actually compromising; for his goal is, and always has been, to draw God’s children into his own realm of authority. His goal is deception. (Matt 4:1; John 8:44) God’s goal is Reality. And because God lives in Reality, He is Truth itself. He cannot deny Himself. (II Tim 2:13) There is no compromise. There is no middle ground.
Compromise and middle ground ideas do sound appealing to the natural mind and have their place at times in natural and political negotiations, but on this question of Ultimate Authority there can be no compromise—for Truth is not open to question. There is no point in talking about compromise to a burning house or an activated time bomb. The best we can hope for is to take action and thereby to lessen or avoid the damage. Only a fool denies and ignores the presence of a time bomb. Only a fool denies a burning house. Only a fool denies and ignores the Ultimate Authority of God. For eternity will reveal God being the Ultimate Authority. Authority that shows itself even now in His creation and in the way He upholds it. Authority that shows itself even now through the Holy Spirit, convicting us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. An Authority that shows itself even now through the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, that has come.
From Divine Response, Chapter 18