I have been remiss; promising a post on Church, Family, and State as ruled by men of God, it remained undone. It’s a complex topic firstly, and effort posting about the word of God is not advised; teaching the laws of men as though they were God’s can be the result. Except the Lord allow, this primer will have to suffice that I will not be found a liar; so my yea, may be yea (Matthew 5:33-37, especially 37), while primarily seeking to please the Lord our God. There are pages of scrap; perhaps more posts on this subject will follow.

“25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” – Matthew 20:25-28

We could say much about these verses and our current state of affairs. The government no longer serves the people; all get this. Neither do men serve their family well by giving them all they desire, letting the help meet and children rule. And handing the churches to the government by “law” and taking debt from bankers is no service to our King at all. Most churches now are full of unrepentant sinners trying to control each other.

The Church in America is dead, and the people in them don’t know it yet. The problem with the American churches is not one of structure; the crisis from the fall in the garden to this very moment is sin. Sin is broadly defined as disobedience to Holy God. If they are Christians, we can suppose that they will be beaten with few stripes, for they indeed seem ignorant (Luke 12:47-48). The American churches are self-licking ice cream cones. They serve the corporation instead of building the Kingdom of God. They have done what Christ told the Pharisees they should not have done (Mark 7:7-9). They have taken the form and structure of a top-down managerial corporate enterprise by running things like a business (which is what they are) under the laws of men. They sell an experience while turning Christ into little more than a minstrel show. Their leaders are corporate heads, serving the corporation.

The problem with men is a problem of the heart. Creating a formal structure, or abolishing any legal system of rule, does nothing to address the root cause at the core of all that is wrong with the world. The problem is sin, it’s the problem with everything, and it’s the problem with you. Nobody in government follows the formal government that we have. It’s lawlessness by falsely claimed authority; it’s anarchy. It’s been this way because no structure, type, or outward form of a governing body can solve the problem with a man’s heart. The State, by its law, is only punitive, not preventative, and not restorative. The law can only punish. By the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). The law makes criminals, and that’s all it can do.

Sin is the start of what’s wrong with families in America. There’s no reason to list all the issues; we know them. Fathers that are known of God teaching their children the word of God, and not as intellectual exercises, but as doers of the word is what’s lacking.

The sin in these three governing bodies of civil society stems from a failure to serve God, seeking Him first, so “all these things” (Matthew 6:33) will be added as blessings from God. “All these things” will be taken away because we have failed to seek His righteousness first in the Kingdom of God, making church, family, and state His. The instruction in Matthew 6:24-34 has specific application as Jesus began to train His men to die for His holy name. Still, we must make an application today of verses 24 and 33.

The New Testament is primarily about the birth of the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. Today we are supposed to be building His kingdom, the Kingdom of God, while our Master is in the far country (Parable starting in Luke 19:12). Undoubtedly, He returns to us.

Anarchy isn’t a lack of formal government; is not your very government the source of anarchy in the West, which is lawlessness? Government is punitive. That’s all it can do is punish. Government cannot create a just State, restore a man, or be a child’s or woman’s family head and leader.

The Church (body of Christ) is restorative. Only God can change a man’s heart, filling him with the fruit of the Spirit to make him a minister and servant of the good. The family, not the State, is preventive in the proper training and raising of the generations.

These three only function to serve, or minister, to bring good when the individuals in them are Christ’s. And no man, in any capacity, can perform the good and minister in these ordained institutions of Holy God except he studies God’s word as though his life and the lives of those under his care depended upon it; because they do. Being converted and made Christian isn’t enough; you must read and first submit to His Law-word (Matthew 6:33).

It is the family ordained by God at the start (Genesis 2:4-5), by the proper raising of children (Proverbs 22:6, and Fifth Commandment – Exodus 20:12) that prevents crime (sin) and civilizational decay (judgment – removal of God’s blessings).

The Church, by salvation in Christ, is restorative, bringing the lost sinner to repentance by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, giving him the saving faith of Christ Jesus, and establishing the knowledge of sin in his conscience. Salvation first, then a desire to be as Christ through studying His word and assembling with other believers. Only the Gospel can save Western Civilization because the men need to be converted first.

The man, having been begotten again in Christ Jesus (1 Peter 1:3), a type and picture of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:3) as the head of the family, is to be priest and king (Revelation 1:6). Christian men are not only the priest (spiritual leader) of the family. The man is to be submitted to Christ and head of the local body of Christ (epistles to Timothy are replete). And yes, we are to take over all government (Exodus 18:19-27, especially 21) for God’s great and abundant purposes in judgment, grace, and mercy, and for instruction in righteousness that it may go well with our people upon the land.

Under the New Covenant, do these: build the Kingdom of God now while preparing every man his heart, his family, his church body, and his governments in anticipation of the great and terrible day of Christ’s return to claim all that are His. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” – Matthew 6:10

Dominion is not only about the planet. Christian men are the just judge, ministers, servants, teachers, priests, and kings of all Christ gives to them; government, church, and especially in their family; this is dominion in the New Covenant. God adds thereunto when you do well with little (Matthew 25:14-30). It’s a hard job. In fact, without Jesus, it can’t be done.

Christ’s Church, family, and state are all to be submitted to God, but men love to make for themselves false gods erecting governments that usurp His throne and ungodly home authority structures. And other pride-filled men are all too happy to abridge the Law-word, constructing governments to usurp family and religion. And the churches are capital enterprises instead of teachers of the nations as Christ commands (Matthew 28:18-20). The moral law is supposed to emanate from the Church (teach all nations Matthew 28:20).

Family is the primary government with the Christian man as head. Civil authority (Governments) are to support the liberty (keep the peace for He is the Prince of Peace) given by Christ for men to function in community one with another, keeping all that Christ commands. Family is supposed to be presented to God, and so too government and every gathering of believers. All these, in fact, will be handed up; may they be found of Him well and pleasing in His sight.

You say this is challenging. Not if every man believes and studies the Scriptures with purpose. Immediately the minds of men go toward how to structure society; that’s an error of approach. You can’t; the lost must be saved, sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, and sanctified (Galatians 2:21), the law following after. This is not an organization of men in which we set out to subjugate (again) one another. Nor are we to try to change the minds of the world. Jesus Christ saves souls; faith unto salvation (repentance) changes their minds. The job is to preach the Gospel to every creature and teach the nations which must first believe. You can’t do it; government can’t do it. Jesus does it. Only under Christ are all men made one before the majesty of His throne (Revelation 7:9-10).