Can you find any region where Christians once ruled where the church has prospered over the long run? Scan the whole of Europe: England, Sweden, Denmark, and so on. Could anyone dispute that these countries are today on the whole more secular and less open to the gospel than regions that have had little or no contact with the gospel? And while there are pockets of vibrant kingdom gatherings in these countries, don’t the mostly empty, large church buildings in these countries testify to the long-term damaging effect that Christian rule has had on the church? What does this tell us? It teaches us that whenever Christians have gotten what so many American evangelicals today are trying to get—namely, the power to enforce their righteous will on others—it eventually harms the church as well as the culture. The lesson of history, a lesson the Devil has known all along, is this: The best way to defeat the kingdom of God is to empower the church to rule the kingdom of the world — for then it becomes the kingdom of the world! The best way to get people to lay down the cross is to hand them the sword! Boyd, Gregory A. (2009-05-18). The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church (pp. 94-95). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 03:51:58 +0000
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