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The institutional church as an arm of the government

In the book by Kurt Vonnegut, “Mother Night,” American Joseph Campbell moves to Germany shortly after World War I. He made a name for himself in Germany as a writer and is recruited by the Nazis to write propaganda for their regime. Soon after he was contacted by the United States to act as a double agent spy on the Nazis for the American military.  Campbell becomes a buffoon dressing up in this ridiculous costume mixing American patriotism with Nazi ideology symbols.   He is captured at the end of the war and is tried for war crimes.  The tragedy of the story is that he had become so confused as a double agent that he can not defend himself as an American spy for he began to believe the propaganda that he was spouting for the Nazis.

Michael Spencer is the author of a blog called, “The Internet Monk,” and had written a series of posts on the “Coming Evangelical Collapse” which was picked up by the Christian Science Monitor and has sparked considerable debate.  Spencer is not claiming an end to evangelical Christianity, but rather a collapse of biblical moorings confused by the culture war of causes.   He goes into great detail and I encourage all serious believers to read those posts.

The embrace of the “culture war” by the evangelicals has greatly undermined their faith in Christ.   When I began this website I did so because I saw the evangelical efforts in the culture war as failing.  I was greatly discouraged by the Republican party which I was led to believe stood for the constitutional republic and, indirectly, Christianity. The Bush administration increased the government and its unconstitutional activities.

The Lord brought me through my disappointments and frustrations by reminding me that I was not a citizen of the United States first, but only a pilgrim and stranger passing through.  My citizenship is in the Kingdom of God.  I am a Christian first, and an American second. This was a difficult change for me to understand.  When I first came to Christ, the Lord had spent some time developing in me a sense of patriotism for my country.   Today I see the line that He has drawn for me.

I came out of a liberal, atheistic and socialistic background.  It was important for me to understand the godly heritage that the United States was founded upon.  I say, “godly heritage” because it is erroneous to say “Christian foundation” of the government.   The godly heritage of America is found in the many genuine believers who participated in the formation of this country.  But there were also many who were not Christians in the formation of the country, too.

Evangelical Christianity wants us to believe that God has made a covenant with the United States, and that we are in violation of that covenant today.  They cite the Mayflower Compact and other such “covenants”.  It is true that those people made a covenant with God, but it is not true that God made a covenant with them.  There is a difference in instigation.  God has not made any covenants with any nation except Israel.   And He has died to that covenant (Rom. 7:4) through Jesus Christ.  The New Covenant He made with Christ is for people as individuals, not political organizations.  The covenants made by the Pilgrims in the Mayflower compact, and others are covenants made with God by men, not by God for men.  Those covenants only apply to those people and can not be applied to anyone else. The sins (or promises) of the fathers only apply to the fathers and can not apply to the sons (Ezekiel 18).

The change in my understanding of patriotism that the Lord was working in me increased as I understood the strengths and weaknesses of the paid clergy system, often called “the institutional church.”   That understanding only came as I stopped participating in the clergy system. The strengths are worth mentioning again. It provides a grammar school education in the knowledge of the Bible and Christ.  It has been a tool of world missions, and has been a tool of many relief and charitable efforts.  But the weakness is a huge financial burden of overhead to support a paid clergy system upon the believers, which is usually compounded by guilt and condemnation that leans on the law of the Old Covenant which brings confusion to the congregations in mixing legalism with grace.  But the most damaging weakness of the paid clergy system is the artificial life of being a corporation which has to be sustained by causes that naturally gravitates to the cause of the culture war.

Let me explain this further.  When a group of people create a government for that group with a board of directors and bylaws, they have created a corporation.  A corporation is considered to be an artificial life that borrows the “consciousness” of people to function.   If those people leave, the corporation can continue to live as long as other people will add their “consciousness” to it as well.  So universities continue for centuries while the founders of them have long since died off.  But since new people take on the corporation they can steer it wherever they want it to go.  This is why so many universities began as “Christian” education but are now secular liberal institutions.  This is why the US government had a strong Christian influence in its inception, but is now a fascist regime.  And this is why God does not make covenants with governments, for they are artificial intelligences.  He only makes covenants with people individually, with the one exception of the Mosaic covenant, which is over from His point of view.

Up until the 20th century the paid clergy system remained a tool better disposed for the use of the body of Christ and the Father.  But, since they were corporations all along, they could be hijacked by others.  That happened when they accepted the non profit status from the IRS.   Because of that the paid clergy was drawn little by little and more and more into the control of the government.  Along with preaching the gospel, the government was slowly raised to equality with the gospel in subtle ways.  Obeying the law and government from a legalistic point of view became synonymous with obeying God.  Paying your taxes is the primary example used in the pulpit.  Patriotism for the government is equated as patriotism for God.

I agree that we should honor the intentions of every soldier and veteran for defending our nation.  But can any honest man really say that the wars of the 20th century were really about defending the United States?   Certainly not World War I.   World War II has more legitimacy than WWI, although I believe Roosevelt knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor and deliberately waited for the bombing so he could put us into that war.  The sentiment of the American people was not to engage in WWII because they saw the fiasco of WWI.  The Korean War had no defense of the US, neither did it accomplish any good.  Vietnam had no defense of the US, nor did that engagement change anything.  Americans believe that this “war on terror” is real because of the collapse of the World Trade Centers, but Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth have convincing evidence that they were demolished by controlled implosion that shows government collusion with the hijackers who rammed the planes into the trade centers.    And frankly, hindsight shows that the invasion of Iraq had no defense of the USA at all in mind.  If the government were really concerned with defending our nation, then they would control the borders, especially between Mexico and the USA, but they do not.  But who are the main supporters of the government?  The institutional clergy system.

The irony of church history is the state and church relationship has been entangled  ever since Constantine.  The early church was not involved in cultural causes.  They were persecuted by the government of the culture until Constantine made Christianity the state religion.  The Roman Catholic Church controlled the kings of Europe.   England was one of the first European countries to separate from the Roman Catholic control (I am not ignoring Luther in Germany, but I am looking at Wycliff who preceded Luther by two centuries), yet ended up creating a state church through the Church of England.  They persecuted the Puritans who fled to Holland, then later to the New World.  The early states of America before the Revolutionary war had many state churches.  And, sadly, the main supporters of Adolf Hitler were Christians of Germany who wanted law and order maintained.  This is why the swastika has the cross in the center of the symbol.

Why do Christians continually embrace the State?  Because they want to control others, which, ironically is contrary to the Spirit of Christ.  Controlling others is a work of the flesh.  Organizations, corporations, governments are all works of the flesh.  And they can only accomplish the work of the flesh, not the Spirit.  Yet, the church is the biggest advocate of law and order in America today, in thinking that the government can accomplish only what the Spirit can in the hearts of men.  The danger is that the Church will be used by the American government to establish totalitarianism in this already fascist system.

Evil is perpetuated by the flesh, but evil left on its own will always collapse from within.  Consider the many passages in psalms:

Ps 1:5-6
5    Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6    For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.  (KJV)

Ps 3:7
7    Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. (KJV)

Ps 5:4-6
4    For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.
5    The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
6    Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. (KJV)

Ps 5:10
10    Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee. (KJV)

Ps 7:14-16
14    Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
15    He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
16    His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.  (KJV)

In this small sampling it is noteworthy that the evil is either directly defeated by God Himself or collapses from their own machinations.  But there is no mention of the righteous battling the wicked, only their trusting in God.   The church engagement in the culture war is actually serving the government, not defeating the problem.  Gregg C Singer in his book, “Unholy Alliance” details how the communists have used the American Church all through the 20th century.

I agree with Spencer in the coming collapse of the evangelicals, but it will remain as the State Church of the USA.   The evangelicals have become like Joseph Campbell in Vonneguts, “Mother Night” book.  They have been used so much in spreading state propaganda that they are not able to distinguish between the gospel and the causes of the culture war.  They will be the people used by the state to persecute those believers who follow only the gospel.  But be not dismayed, for persecution is a light affliction that will pass away, as evil will collapse  by its own weight.  God will use all who pursue the gospel and follow Christ, not the culture war.