Our Dual Citizenship

By David Steven Roberts

David Steven Roberts, Best Selling author of “Preparing for the Coming Collapse of the US Dollar” has written a new book. “Our Dual Citizenship” explores the Christian’s citizenship in God’s Kingdom and in America. For too long, Christians have been passive in regard to the direction that America has taken. Churches feared to mention or study the Godly Foundations of America and the Godly Founders of the country as being too ‘political’ of an issue.

Today, America is at a crossroads where in one direction is a godless Socialist agenda and in the other is the restoration and return to the principles that guided the founders and authors of the Constitution.

Today, the Church is at a crossroads where in one direction lies the emphasis on Social Justice as Gospel and the other is the return to the principles written by the authors of the Scriptures. “Our Dual Citizenship” is a book that can be used in individual study or in a group setting as Bible study material.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Steven Roberts
• Release date: Jul 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497743830

David Steven Roberts

David Steven Roberts is a graduate of Florida Christian College and former minister of Community Christian Church in Coralville Iowa and Gays Christian Church in Gays, Illinois. He has since left the ministry and spends his time writing.

Book preview

A SPECIAL NOTE TO CHRISTIAN AMERICANS

Dear Christian American,

Thank you for taking a look at Our Dual Citizenship. I do not ask that you agree with all of the conclusions reached in this study. I do not insist that I am 100% right on each topic I discuss here, but I truly believe that there needs to be a sincere effort on all of our parts to return to the study and use of the Bible only in our lives.

Many of us were taught beloved traditions and ideas that are quite simply not supported in Scriptures. I will not say that to believe these traditions or ideas is inherently wrong. I will say that we do need to return to the original intents of the authors of our Bible. There is no mystery or secret method of doing so save to read, understand and apply the teachings of the Apostles to our belief systems.

Some of what is discussed in this book will challenge the very heart of these beliefs. It is not out of a rigid dogma that I write this, it is out of a sincere desire to see Christ’s church glorified and adding daily to their number those who are being saved.

When Jesus taught, He did so in an attempt to turn the hearts of His people back to the Father. The Jewish leaders had built up traditions around the Scriptures that they were convinced were just as important as God’s Word. It was the love for these man-made traditions that caused some Jews to be angry at Jesus’ words and caused some of them to want to kill Him. Jesus said,

But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as Doctrines the precepts of men. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. Mark 7:7-8

If you find in this book, that a Biblical teaching challenges a belief or tradition you have been taught, good. You do not want to be in the same company as those who could not accept the truth of God, because a beloved man made tradition was challenged. Pray about it, think about it and study about it.

A SPECIAL NOTE TO AMERICAN CHRISTIANS

Dear American Christian,

In the last three years, there has been a resurgence of interest in restoring America back to the Constitutional Republic that she was meant to be. More and more believers are studying The Federalist Papers, The Constitution and the original intents of the Founding Fathers of our Country.

Too many churches are so frightened to teach the Christian heritage of our great nation for fear of becoming political that they remain silent. Consider this if you are a member of one of these churches: America was founded by missionaries seeking to spread the Gospel. Her laws were crafted based on Scripture, 50 of the 56 Founding Fathers were Christians. Half of those were preachers or graduates of a Bible college. Christians have no real reason to be ashamed of the founders of our country.

As the churches have become silent on these issues, the influence of the Gospel on our nations’ leaders has dwindled. It is this lack of willingness of churches to participate in the political spectrum that has led to the legalized murder of more unborn children than there are living people in the United States. It has led to a progression toward accepting homosexuality as just another lifestyle. It has led to debauchery and arrogance. It has led the more moderate churches to swallow whole the false teachings of social justice, born out of Marxism and based more on class-envy than on Scripture.

As American Christians, we cannot allow this to continue. We must get back to our Founding Fathers’ original intents. And like the Tea Party, we should also as Christian Americans get back to the original intents of the New Testament writers. Like Jesus, we need to challenge even the most dearly held traditions that keep us from doing God’s work in God’s way. We need to set aside the added traditions and ideas that are quite simply not Biblical. By doing so, we can restore both America and the New Testament Church.

Our Dual Citizenship

originally published in The Lookout Magazine July 3rd, 2011 issue.

Ours is a unique position in history. As Christians, we are citizens of God’s Kingdom, members of Christ’s family, His brethren. We were chosen as all those who have responded to the Gospel have been, to be a part of the elect, those called out of darkness into His marvelous light. We are benefactors of the blood of the One, who gave His life so that we could be free from the guilt and eternal consequence of sin.

As Americans, we are citizens of a country born of a people’s desire to be free. We are members of a common group of people, by birth or by choice that have come to make this their home, we are brethren. It is the home of the free and the land of the brave, and we are the benefactors of the blood of the many who gave their lives to make this a free Country, to keep this a free Country. We stand poised with one foot firmly planted in Christendom and the other on the soil of the greatest country in the world, America.

Never in history had a nation began its’ life based on solid Biblical principles. The king of England had taken one step too many in the oppression of a people who just wanted to be free, of tyranny, and of monarchial rule. Despite the efforts of those within the progressive movements in our country, the truth remains that the Founding Fathers, the original signers of the Declaration of Independence were for the most part, Christians, not Deists. They were preachers, hymnal writers, and seminarians.

As Christians, we are bound to what is our constitution, the Bible. We cannot add to it in terms of doctrines that contradict the clear teaching within. We cannot take from it if there happens to be clear teaching we do not like. We cannot ignore it for it is the very foundation of our faith and contains the rules of faith and practice given by God through the Apostles to us. As Christians, the Bible is our constitution.

As Americans, we are bound to what is our bible, the Constitution. We cannot take from it the right to free speech, the right to practice our faith or the right to keep and bear arms. We cannot add to it a right to murder our unborn children in the name of privacy, or a right to a nationalized Health Care plan that takes from some to give to others. We cannot ignore it, for it is the document that in its’ original intent, limited the role of government in the lives of the people who fought and died to keep this nation free. The Founding Fathers knew what would happen to this freedom they were fighting and dying for should this fledgling government ever gain as much power as the one they fought against, it would be lost. As Americans the Constitution is our bible.

Note that the word ‘bible’ is not capitalized. I do not intend to demote the Scriptures to the level of a human created document such as our Constitution. Nor do I intend to elevate the Constitution to the level of Scriptures. I do believe however, that aside from the Bible, our Constitution is the most perfect document ever written. It was bathed in prayer before pen was ever put to paper. The authors spent days in prayer during the intense debates leading up to the creation of our Country.

Ours is a dual citizenship, as Christians in the Kingdom and as Americans in our country. As Christians, we have the duty to follow God’s word as closely as possible to the original intent of the writers. As Americans, we have the duty to adhere to the original intent of the Founding Fathers of our Country. And, because our country was built on Christian principles, Biblical examples by Godly men, there is no ‘original intent’ in the Constitution that contradicts an ‘original intent’ in Scripture.

America was built on the blood of many thousands of people yearning to be free, and as a wise man once said, Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

As citizens of our American nation, we have the duty to keep and preserve the freedoms our fathers have handed down to us, we have the duty to fight and perhaps even to die, to keep our nation free from the onslaught against our freedoms that occur on what seems to be an ever increasing ferocity. God gave us this country as a ‘shining city on a hill’ an example to the whole world on how freedom can change, can save a nation.

As Christians, we have a duty to keep and preserve the doctrines of our Lord without fear of offending someone, without thought for political correctness, and without worry over the consequences.

As millions of unborn children are murdered each year, one every 22 seconds, are we worried about offending the members in our church who vote pro-choice? Do we stay silent in the wake of this national holocaust on the unborn because of the consequences of offending a life-long one party voter?

As millions of the deceived slip into Hell each year, are we concerned about what clear teachings on salvation will do to our ‘on the fence’ visitors? Do we accept members into the congregation who aren’t really sure about the Deity of Christ so they can come to understand it later? Jesus Himself said, Unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins. John 8:24

One by one, the freedoms that believers have in this country to stand up for biblical principles against homosexuality, indecency, and corruption are being taken from us. As these freedoms are being increasingly taken from us, taken by a government that has become out of control with leaders who are openly hostile to the Christian faith, elected by many who consider themselves believers,  the question is, do we stay silent?

As the First Amendment right to freedom of religion is replaced with the freedom of worship will we find that expressions of faith outside a Sunday service are no longer protected? Google the phrase, freedom of worship, its history should give you pause.

Will we wake up one morning soon to the news that a gathering in the name of Jesus will be permissible only if all followers are included on a national database? Will we wake up one morning during Christmas break with the news that in order to avoid offending unbelievers in our country that since nativity scenes and Christmas trees have been successfully banned in public due to political correctness that now church services are banned? Will it take an absolute loss of our rights as Christians and as Americans in this country to wake us up and help us see that as both Christians and as Americans we have a duty to protect and defend our American Constitution? 

As the Gospel is being supplanted in our nation’s churches with the concept of Social Justice and as believers are caught up in the class envy that drives a wedge between those believers who have been successful in their life’s pursuits and those who have not, do we stand up against it, or do we acquiesce. Or worse yet, do we begin to envy as well and start to believe that a redistribution of wealth is what Jesus would want?

This is something that C.S. Lewis warned of in his classic, The Screwtape Letters

On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything-even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the state at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice.

The complacent Christian, willing to bend in any direction the wind blows may soon find themselves without the freedoms to religion, or to practice their faith outside of church. . After all, it’s only ‘just politics’ until they come after us personally. And then it’s persecution.

Introduction

Two years ago I wrote the