Church and State? Church and Nation? God and Country?

Church and State? Church and Nation? God and Country?

Capitalism is a diverse economic system. It is competitive with many "teams" (entrepreneurs) and therefore diverse results ranging from tremendous success to tremendous losses. Capitalists are generally driven by their basic needs for food and shelter and for the needs of their families for the same. All have sinned, and the motives of capitalists may be no more honorable than some socialists. Christian freedom is the only liberty by which the natural bent of mankind can curb the abuses of Capitalism or socialism/communism. 

Man’s great need for the Messiah to govern his desire for material possessions and “savings”
is ignored by many capitalists. The desire of capitalists to retain riches and to stingily keep all their wealth for themselves can inhibit the flow of godly generosity toward the poor and their neighbors. Wealth and generosity are ingredients recipes for making friends, but stinginess can be a recipe for brewing jealousy and envy in the poor and neighbors. 

Socialists and communists, themselves usually without the Messiah and morally impoverished, acquire other people’s wealth saying they will bring equity to the world and eradicate poverty. But the result has most often been the impoverishing of the successful whose wealth they take away without lawful claim to it.

Could it be that those who are risk adverse and or lazy and yet still lust for the fruits of success are moved to gather together and literally steal, rob and defraud the successful. Political parties and political systems are often motivated by envy and greed. There may be no more vicious motive than envy. There may be no more deceptive motive than greed. We all would like others to applaud us for something, but we ought not be deceived to seek the praise of sinners.

Come out from among them to the Messiah, be rehabilitated into citizenship in His Kingdom and be governed by His righteousness. This will make you an alien in the world, but a friend of God!

The Messiah’s people (called the church) are perhaps the only people who (ought to always) seeks and “rehabilitate” their criminal element without sending them to jail. Those who criticize the church for being home to hypocrites and sinners ought to consider that truly loving church people actually save them tax money by keeping people out of jail. Jails are very expensive. Should churches give asylum to criminals? Only if they will challenge the criminal to stop committing crimes against other men and women. At the point a criminal refuses to stop evil doing which harm others, that one must be turned over to civil authority for their judgment. That is the purpose of God for civil authority. Today many who call themselves by the Name Christian extend a “mercy” to criminal rebels which only encourages continuance in crime. That is not mercy at all, it is a curse.

Almost 200 years ago Alexis DeToqueville found America to be a unique place, and he called America good. We ought to find out why he thought that it was good.

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers – and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce – and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”  ― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life…”
We ought to find out why He said that.

Solomon wrote:

  Hear, my son, your father's instruction,

    and forsake not your mother's teaching,

 for they are a graceful garland for your head

    and pendants for your neck.

 My son, if sinners entice you,

    do not consent.

 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;

    let us ambush the innocent without reason;

 like Sheol let us swallow them alive,

    and whole, like those who go down to the pit;

 we shall find all precious goods,

    we shall fill our houses with plunder;

 throw in your lot among us;

    we will all have one purse”—

 my son, do not walk in the way with them;

    hold back your foot from their paths,

 for their feet run to evil,

    and they make haste to shed blood.

 For in vain is a net spread

    in the sight of any bird,

 but these men lie in wait for their own blood;

    they set an ambush for their own lives.

 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;

    it takes away the life of its possessors. Proverbs 1:8-19

We ought to find out why he wrote that. And to help, we ought to find out what “ought” means.

ought

noun \ˈȯt\

Definition of ought

:  moral obligation :  duty

ought

helping verb \ˈȯt\

Definition of ought

1 —used to show duty

2 —used to show what it would be wise to do

3 —used to show what is naturally expected

4 —used to show what is correct