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About Jesus Steve Sweetman The Politics Of God And The Bible Part 1 Scandal
After Scandal On
September 11, 2001, the Twin
Towers
collapsed in a huge storm of dust and smoke.
The United States of America, the land of the brave and the free, had just lost a big chunk of its
freedom to terrorists. In
2002 President George W. Bush, or, Bush 43 as he was sometimes called,
linked 911 to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Secretary of State, Colin Powell, warned the world about Iraq
at the United Nations, something I hear he later regretted.
How and where the Bush administration got this information helped
create a scandal that went far beyond the The
political left and right argued the reason for war on a daily bases.
Did Robert
Novak, a left-winged CNN commentator and columnist, seemed to take
offense to an op-ed article Wilson
wrote in the New York Times contradicting the president's assertion
about Iraqi WMD. In the
national media, Novak exposed Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert CIA officer, overseeing middle
eastern affairs and WMD. This
knowledge was leaked to him and another reporter from the White House,
affectively ripping Plame's career apart. The whole scandal broke into a
media circus, something I'm sure was good for TV ratings. Terrorists
across the world probably sat back and enjoyed CNN's coverage of the
scandal. They might have
viewed it as America's latest sitcom, as sad as it was.
The
battle between the left and right raged on in the hallways of the I
admit that I waver back and forth over how to think about this issue,
but I'm convinced of one thing. Despite
the best intensions of many, the hallways and offices of the kingdoms of
men are filled with lies, deceit, dirty tricks, and men like
"Tricky Dick". As
Pat Robertson said after bowing out of the Presidential race in the late
1980's, "politics is a game of hardball".
It's not a friendly Sunday school picnic softball game.
After scratching my head in confusion over the politics of men, I
ask, "how should Christians view the political nature of their
nations, and, does the Bible say anything about these things"? Introduction
I'm
not really a political junkie, but I do like to keep up with what's
going on. In the early
1980's I lived in What
I'm about to say is not the final word on this issue.
I never claim to have the final word on any issue.
As the apostle Paul said, "consider what I say and the Lord
give you the understanding in all things". Merriam
Webster's online dictionary defines "politics" as; "the
art or science of government … concerned with guiding or influencing
government policies … winning or holding control over government …"
Western style politics has certainly become a science, although I
wouldn't necessarily call it a work of art.
You may or may not be politically inclined, and you certainly
don't see the word "politics" in the Bible, but the Bible does
speak to this issue. The
Bible uses such words as "nation", "government",
"king", "kingdom", and other related words that are
associated with national politics. The
following is my attempt to state, at least in part, what I think is the
politics of God and the Bible.
In
The Beginning The
creation of all material things, including humans, is recorded in just
two chapters of the Bible. That's
not a lot of information for such a huge event.
It's my opinion that there is more that we don't know about
creation than what we do know. I
don't think we really know the whole mind of God concerning why, and
possibly how He created. I
know the standard thinking concerning why.
God created humans so He could show His love towards us.
I personally think that's a bit simplistic.
God's way of thinking is far beyond our scope of understanding.
(Isaiah 55:9) One
thing we do know about creation is that God created two individuals.
The first grouping of humans was established by God.
The husband wife relationship which produces a family was God's
will for humanity. For this
reason, I believe the breakdown of the family, that is, father, mother,
and children, is one root cause for the breakdown of any civilization.
It's hard to believe that I now live in a world where I have to
state my definition of family to mean, father, mother, and children.
All
groupings of people evolved from the family.
That's easily seen as you read the Genesis account. If
the fundamental building block of humanity is faulty, anything built
from that building block will be faulty.
Kingdom
and Nation The
Hebrew word "gowy" is translated into English in the Old
Testament as nation. It
seems to come from a root word meaning "a body, or, a corpse",
and when thought of in terms of people, means, "the body politic of
a whole people". The
Hebrew word "mamlakah" is translated into English as
"kingdom" in the Old Testament.
"Mamlakah" basically means "the domain of a
king". This sets the
scene for one major theme of the Bible, that is, the
conflict between the In
both the NIV and the KJV the word "kingdom" first appears in
Genesis 10:10. Nimrod was a
grandson of Noah. He had an
army, and the center of his kingdom was Babylon. This is the first hint in
the Bible of man's desire to build his own kingdom, something I'm not
convinced was God's will, at least for that moment in time.
The second mention of the word "kingdom" in both the NIV and the KJV is found in Genesis 20:9 where Abraham met Abimelech who had his own kingdom. By this time man had well established kingdoms with political systems.
The
first mention of the word "nation" in both the NIV and the KJV
is found in Genesis 12:2. It's
in reference to Abraham becoming a great nation.
The second mention of
the word "nation" is found in Genesis 15:14 which prophesies
the future relationship between
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