The Separation of Church and State

God is not against government. God established government, but he didn't establish it to compete with him. Our Constitution says the government can't institute religion, but Dr. Tony Evans says that doesn't mean the two can't cooperate. The goal of government is to act on God's behalf in promoting good and limiting evil. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. The world keeps trying to convince Christians that religion ought to be so private that it doesn't show up in public or even have any influence there. Today, Dr. Evans will take a look at the other side of that debate. Let's join him.

We've all grown up saying it over and over and over and over and over again. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. The question that we want to raise today or speak to today is not the question of do religion and politics mix. That's not the question.

The question is how do they mix? Now, you know something is wrong when the Church of Jesus Christ is divided along political lines. If the Church of Jesus Christ allows politics to bring about a division, and it has, and that's why 11 o'clock on Sunday morning is probably still the most segregated hour in America, because political expediency often overrides the kingdom of God. Ezekiel is addressing a problem, and that is the departure of the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord has taken flight. God's presence was no longer being experienced in the society. God had distanced himself from his people. In chapter 43, the glory of the Lord is about to return, and Ezekiel, in his vision, is reciting the return of the glory of the Lord, but in reciting the return of the glory of the Lord, he also recites why the glory of the Lord left. And in reciting the glory of the Lord leaving the temple, which meant leaving the culture, he makes a very interesting statement in verses 7 through 9. He said to me, Son of Man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever, and the house of Israel will not again defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by their corpses of their kings when they die.

How did they do this? Verse 8, by setting their threshold by my threshold, and their doorpost beside my doorpost, with only the wall between me and them, and they have defiled my holy name by the abominations which they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger. God says that the human kings, which was the government in biblical days, the human kings were allowed to put their throne next to his throne. In other words, government was allowed to intrude on the rule of God. Government was allowed to get so close to God that there were two thrones in God's house. There was the throne of the government, and there was the throne of God in God's house.

So you got two kings in my house. You got human kings, human government, and you got me, and you're treating us like we equals. You have allowed politics, if you will, government to intrude, and when government came in, the kings, it says they brought their abominations with them.

So when the government came in, it came in and it brought its view of things, which was not my view of things. He calls it holotry here, which was a form of idolatry, a mixing of a relationship that was illegitimate, an illegitimate relationship between church and state, between government and God. The temple was God's throne. Well, what do you do on a throne?

You rule. A throne is where somebody rules. He says, in this house, it's my throne.

I run the show in this house. Don't be bringing kings up in this house. Who will challenge, contradict, or invalidate my throne? Don't let them bring their throne to mess with my throne. At the heart of the doctrine of the separation of the church and state is to never be a separation between God and government, as long as you know that God says, in this house, my throne rules. The temple was God's residence, but the kings had defiled God's name by bringing civil religion into the church.

Now, I am a consummate American. The Bible says honor the king and honor the country. And so it is very valid to honor where you live and where God has placed you. But there are limitations when these two thrones are made equal. He calls it an abomination to bring in your politics and allow them to contradict the throne of God.

Now, please don't misunderstand me, as I'm going to show you in a moment. God is not against government. In fact, you're going to see in a second, God established government, but he didn't establish it to compete with him. He established it to serve him.

And he certainly didn't establish it to compete with him in his house, which in this case was the temple. So first of all, we have to make clear, what is this relationship between God and government? Well, there are a lot of places we could go, but let me just start with probably the premier scripture on the subject, and that is Romans chapter 13. Every person is to be, verse one says, into subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God.

And those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed it will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For government, it is a minister of God to you for good.

But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing. The goal of government is to act on God's behalf in promoting good and limiting evil. The fundamental job of government is to promote good in society and keep bad from proliferating in society.

And that can happen on business levels and civic levels and all those kinds of things. The world, brothers and sisters, is a theocracy. Theo, God, theocracy, rule. The world is ruled by God. God has set up systems in the world by which he rules, and these systems are called government systems. There are three government systems in the Bible. The family is a governmental system.

Why? Because it has a jurisdiction, and it has consequences tied to behavior. The church is a governmental system. It has been given a certain jurisdiction with responsibilities tied to behavior. Then there is civil government, which is a jurisdiction, and it has to do with the order of society. And God says, I run them all. I sit on the throne, and I give the guidelines by which all three of those institutions work, the family, the church, and the civil government. Now, what he is saying is, I don't want them telling me what to do.

That's the bottom line. I can tell them, they can't tell me, we are not equals. Don't allow the institutions, and I can apply it to any of them, although I'm talking about civil government, he would say to a man in a house, he would say, you the head of the house, kinda. You're the head of the house underneath me, 1 Corinthians 11, 3 says. Tony Evans, you're the shepherd of this house, kinda.

You are underneath me. The moment that any institutional leader extracts himself from God, he is no longer governing God's way. But when you allow that to enter into God's house, you have messed with his throne.

And what God did, watch what God did, his glory departed. That is, if you want government to rule independently of me, or you're gonna compromise my throne with that throne, I'm gonna find someplace else to hang out. It is the job of government to reflect a theocracy that already exists. It is the job of the family to reflect a rule that already exists, and that is God's rule. Families are fine, but they're to complement God's rule. Churches are fine, and they complement God's rule. Civil government is fine, it's to complement God's rule.

So the glory of the Lord left, because the kings were allowed to have a position that was unauthorized by God in God's house. So where have we positioned politics in our worldview? Dr. Evans will have some thoughts about that when he continues our message in just a moment.

Stay with us. Too often it's an us-versus-them society. Even among believers, it shouldn't be like this, and it can't be like this. Unity is key to spiritual victory, and when believers stand shoulder to shoulder in prayer, darkness is overcome. In his book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart, and his powerful prayers to unite us in love, Dr. Tony Evans urges you to unite in prayer, providing a starting place and then inviting you to pray in your own words. Find out more about Stronger Together, Weaker Apart. Visit tonyevans.org. Stronger Together, Weaker Apart is the perfect prescription for the separation and discord tearing apart our nation, our churches, and even our families.

It's more than just managing to grit your teeth and get along. A collection of soul-searching prayers and devotions will teach you how to actually love people you disagree with as you work toward spiritual unity. We'll send you a copy of Stronger Together as our way of saying thanks for your contribution to help continue Tony's ministry on the air and around the world. Along with it, we'll also include all 14 full-length messages in his current two-volume teaching series, Turning a Nation to God, first as instant digital downloads, then on CDs that'll come to you along with the book.

But this is a limited-time offer, so don't delay. Contact us right away at tonyevans.org or give our resource center a call at 1-800-800-3222, where one of our team members will be happy to help you. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. I'll have that information once again after part two of today's message.

Here's Dr. Evans. Now, I would like to suggest that one of the problems we face today is that we have allowed politics to dictate to the kingdom of God. I love the story in Joshua 5. You don't have to turn there, but Joshua is getting ready to go into battle. He's getting ready to go to war, and he's getting ready to go up against his enemy.

And this other army comes alongside with this huge guy who's a captain, and he's leading this huge army. Now, Joshua's mom ain't raised no dummy. Joshua has a real question here. Joshua's saying, I'm getting ready to go fight these folks, but here this army that I don't know anything about has come out of nowhere. Now, I'm going to fight them, and then this other group is over here, and I don't know who they are, so let me find out who these folk are, because he says, if they are fighting with them, then I got to rethink my position, all right? But if they are fighting with us, well, now I'm good to go. So he goes and he asks the captain of the army, whose side are you on? He won't know whether I'm fighting one army or two. So he goes and he says, sir, whose side are you on?

The captain, the head of the army, looked at Joshua and made a powerful statement. He said, I am neither on your side nor am I on their side. And then he says, I am captain of the Lord's army.

Translation, I did not come to take sides, I come to take over. Until you and I understand God does not ride the backs of donkeys or elephants. He has his own throne.

He makes his own rules. And sometimes that's going to come out on the side of Republicans and sometimes that's going to come out on the side of Democrats. But if you are so committed to a king or to a political persuasion, just because you're more socially sensitive and you're concerned about justice doesn't give you the biblical right to overrule the throne of God on that issue. But because we have become so committed to the kings, that is to a political persuasion, regardless of the fact that it competes with the throne of God, that we have turned many of our pulpits into governmental or political playgrounds instead of representing the throne room of God irrespective of a particular political persuasion. Look, I don't care what you are. You can come in here as a Democrat. You can come in here as a Republican. Just know when you come in here, there is another throne. As long as you understand that. He says you let the kings put their stuff next to me. And that was an abomination.

There is only one throne and one throne room. And God does not want the political realm. He wants us involved in politics, absolutely. God has set up politics. Any Christian who refuses to vote, any Christian who refuses to take their civic responsibility seriously is nullified like a father who's failing the father or a mother who's failing the mother or a pastor who's failing the shepherd. A citizen who refuses to meet their civic governmental responsibility is failing the kingdom of God. But in fulfilling that responsibility, you've got to remember as a believer, there's only one throne.

Watch this. Then when they had finished the house, putting the house together, he led me to the gate, the gate facing the east. God wasn't going to come back to a house that was still compromising with kings. He says, when the house was ready, I saw the glory of the Lord. When the house was built according to the specification of God's guidelines.

Now, verse 10 of chapter 43. As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel. Describe, you say, the church to the nation, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities and let them measure the plan. Let them look at the plan I put down for the house. If they are ashamed of all they have done, which one of the main things was an illegitimate use of politics, make known to them the design of the house, its structure, its exits. Tell them the details of this house and write it in their sight. I'm going to close with this one.

Watch this now. Write down the details of my house so that they may observe the whole design and its statues and do them. This is the law of the house.

The entire area on top of the mountain, all around it shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. All of us have a house.

That's, we'll call it our throne room, the place where we live with family. I am sure you, like me, have rules that govern your house. First of all, those are rules for your family members. That is, those who live in your house operate by those rules. But you also have rules for visitors who come to your house. When children bring their friends to your house, I think most of you would say if your teenage son brought in his teenage boys and they were cussing up a storm in your house, the fact that they were not your kids becomes irrelevant because they in your house. See, once they come into your house, now all of a sudden your rules, but you can't change how they talk outside of your house. But once they cross the wall into your house, they now have to function by your rule. If your kid come in smoking weed, I think, at least I hope, somebody gonna say something, you can't smoke reefer and weed in my house.

Why? Because it's my house. I've got certain rules. If you got to drink Jack Daniels, you can't drink Jack Daniels in my house. But I don't care that you've always drunk Jack Daniels. I don't care that Jack is your best friend. All of that becomes insignificant because once you cross the wall, you are in my house.

That means that you must adjust. Well, guess what the Church of Jesus Christ has been doing? We've not been going by the law of the house. We've been going by the law of the secular world and letting it into the house. We've been letting the drug addicts run the house. We've been letting the prostitutes run the house. We've been letting the profane run the house.

And we wonder why the glory of the Lord ain't hanging out in the house. In Deuteronomy 17, God says, the King is to read my word every day, along with the priest. That's government and religion, because my throne rules all of it. Now, you can't make government read it. You can't make government read it. But you can't let the government that doesn't read it bring their non-reading perspective in my house.

Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with a final challenge to wrap up today's program. But first, if you'd like to get the full-length version of today's lesson, which includes material we couldn't fit into our program time, contact us for details on the title, The Separation of Church and State. You can also get it as a part of Tony's two-volume compilation, Turning a Nation to God.

It contains 14 of his most hard-hitting lessons on what it means to be a citizen of heaven living on earth. Just visit us at tonyevans.org for the details. And as I mentioned earlier, you can also get a copy of Tony's powerful book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart, as our gift to you when you make a contribution to help keep this program on this station each day.

This is a limited-time offer, so don't wait. Get details and make your request today at tonyevans.org. Or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222, where we have team members standing by day and night to help you with resource requests. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Crying out to God for revival can seem very spiritual, but tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explain why there's something we should want even more desperately. Be sure to find out what it is.

But right now, he's back with his final comment. So my challenge to you, very personally and very practically, is to maximize your political power and potential. And know that in every political party, there are great righteous goals and there are great unrighteous ones. And you just be faithful to the Lord house.

And here's why. When the glory of the Lord returned to the temple, the nation was blessed. The problem of our nation is that the glory has left the house.

That's where the problem is. Because the glory has left the house. There is nothing to overflow to the community, nothing to overflow to the nation. You bring back the glory to the house, and it becomes a blessing to the nation. May God help us to keep politics in its rightful place.

And that is not compromising the law of the house. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.