The Church and the State

By Michael E.B. Maher

1 Timothy 2:1-4 "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,  (2)  for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.  (3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, (4) who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit exhorts the church to pray for heads of state and all those who are in authority. One of the main roles that the church is required to fulfil with the regards to the governments of the nations is to pray for them, for we must not forget that they are God's ministers. And so the answer to the question as to who to vote for lies in the above quoted passage of scripture which teaches us what to pray for regarding a nation's government, for the qualities that we pray for in a government are the same qualities that we should look for in prospective candidates. This passage teaches us that there are two main qualities that the church should always look for in the candidates and political parties that they vote for. Firstly, the church should vote for candidates that stand for honest government and law and order thus allowing the citizens of that nation to live quiet and peaceable lives, for as we have already seen, one of the primary reasons that God raises up those in authority is to act as His ministers in rewarding good and punishing evil (Romans 13:3-4). Secondly, the church should vote for candidates that support freedom of religion thus allowing the church to serve the Lord in all godliness and reverence without any constraints being placed upon the preaching of the gospel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Maher Ministries
• Release date: Sep 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393566137

Michael E.B. Maher

About the Author From childhood, Michael E.B. Maher has always known that the Lord's call was upon his life for the ministry. When he was saved at the age of twenty-two, almost immediately the Lord Jesus began to deal with him about entering the ministry. However, it was only many years later that he committed to the Lord to answer the Lord's call to the ministry. And so, in 2014 Michael Maher Ministries was begun. From the beginning, the mandate given to Michael from the Lord Jesus was to preach the word. And so, this ministry preaches the word of God on every available platform around the world.

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Chapter 1

God forms nations

God begins nations

Genesis 11:4-9 And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.  (5)  But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.  (6)  And the Lord said, Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.  (7) Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.  (8)  So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.  (9) Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Prior to the flood in the days of Noah and even a few hundred years after that event, there was only one people group in the earth. In other words there were no separate nations in the earth at that time. The principle reason for that was because as revealed in the above passage of scripture, everyone spoke a common language. And so it was as a result of the incident that occurred in the city of Babel, when men tried to give themselves a universal name, that God decided to divide mankind into different people groups or nations. As can be seen in the above quoted passage, the mechanism that God used to accomplish this was through the act of confusing their language. This action had the effect of forcing people to congregate together with those they could understand because they now shared a common language, and separating from those they could no longer understand because they now spoke, what to them was a foreign language. That concept is still prevalent in the earth today, for every nation still has its own unique language. Even among nations that speak a common language, such as English for example, it is evident that each of those nations still has its own unique dialect. And so beginning from the incident at Babel, God has brought nations into being and nations have been in place ever since. We do not know how many nations were formed at the Babel incident, but we do know that each of those nations formed at that time could trace their origins back to that incident. And so we see a principle revealed in this passage of scripture, which is that God decides when nations are to be formed. It is amusing to watch mankind today striving to try and create a globalized society in the earth, in the hope that the concept of nations can be done away with. This is contrary to God’s order however and He will not allow that to happen. God has various mechanisms that He uses to thwart mankind’s endeavours in this area. One example of this is the recent global Corona virus pandemic which impacted every nation in the earth. That pandemic forced every nation to close its borders to the rest of the world, even among the nations that have tried to create the entity called the European Union, thus reinforcing the status quo of separate nations in the earth and destroying the human concept of globalization.

Acts 17:24-26 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.  (25)  Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.  (26) And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.

The above passage of scripture confirms the truth to us that God decides when a nation is to be formed in the earth, for in this passage the apostle Paul teaches us that God determines their pre-appointed times. That simply means that every nation on the earth today began at the point in time when God decided it would first be formed. Because they obviously only see that which takes place in the natural, mankind would argue that men are the ones who form nations. Nevertheless, it is in the realm of the spirit that God initiates the birthing of nations, and He does that through various mechanisms which are available to Him.

Genesis 25:21-24 Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea and Rebekah his wife conceived.  (22)  But the children struggled together within her; and she said, If all is well, why am I like this? So she went to inquire of the Lord.  (23)  And the Lord said to her: Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.  (24) So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb.

One of the mechanisms that God used to form nations is revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, which was the birthing of nations through the descendants of a patriarch; for in this passage God told Rebekah that the twins she was carrying would in fact become two separate nations. The twins born to Isaac and Rebekah were Jacob and Esau, and we know from scripture that Jacob became the father of the nation of Israel while Esau became the father of the nation of Edom. God used this particular method for forming nations when the earth was still relatively sparsely populated and families could develop into clans or tribes, eventually growing sufficiently in number to becoming fully fledged nations. God no longer employs this method however, as the earth has become fully occupied by the nations that are currently on the earth and there are no longer empty spaces for patriarchs of families to move into and develop over time into becoming newly formed nations.

1 Kings 11:29-37 Now it happened at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the way; and he had clothed himself with a new garment, and the two were alone in the field.  (30)  Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces.  (31)  And he said to Jeroboam, Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you  (32)  (but he shall have one tribe for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel),  (33)  because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David.  (34)  However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I have made him ruler all