Truth, as God sees it.

You know, two weeks ago, our Bible study group completed lesson 9 in the Truth Project. We've enjoyed all the lessons, but for some reason this one struck a chord with just about everyone in our class. The discussion that ensued was varied yet marvelous.

We have been exploring several different social spheres over the past few weeks. These social sphere's make up what is considered God's "social order". We discussed the sphere of the church, of family, and the relational sphere that exists between God and man. Later we will move on to talk about the sphere of community and also labor.

For now, let's talk about the State. Not as in, Texas... as in the State or governing body. What is the role of the State? Dr. Del Tacket would say that under optimal conditions, the government should be set up for the purpose of helping it's people by punishing evil and condoning good. When they step out of their own sphere and deny the sovereignty of the other social spheres (family, church, community, etc.) we begin to see a problem. When the state quits looking to God and tries to take on His role as well as the role of the other spheres or institutions, we see a shift in the balance of power from God to man (State). This is the situation I believe many countries, including the US are in right now.

The Law's purpose within the State is to help and not harm. However, we can all think of instances where the law has purposefully been changed for very wrong reasons, according to a Christian worldview. We see abuse of power all over the world. All the worst regimes in history have had this shift in power. Marx said that to get rid of capitalism, you must first get rid of God. These leaders understood something very profound. When we quit looking to God as our savior, we will begin to look to the government. Today's society expects the government to pay for our homes, our food, and our healthcare, and now they are rallying for the State to pay for our education. We have a government that spends 8 billion more in a day than we take in. How can this go on? It can't. We need to place our focus back where it belongs. On Christ. When we put Him back in his rightful place, we may still have to pay some consequences of our actions, but we will be a much healthier State. This raises some questions... Are we, as Christians, doing our part to make sure things run smoothly? Are we giving our time and money to help others in need, true need? What can we do to turn the tide around?