The reign of the believer

The preacher looked at the large congregation and said, “Are there priests here today?” People were surprised and restless in their seats. Many looked around to see if there were any men in the telltale clerical collar.

The parish priest continued: “Please raise your hands all the priests present this morning.” Once again, people wondered if the pastor thought that a bus full of Catholic priests had mixed with the congregation.

Then some men and women cautiously raised their hands. The pastor chuckled and said, “Every hand must be raised. If you are a born-again Christian, you are a priest! The Bible says in First Peter 2: 9 that we are a royal priesthood!”

The illustration above shows how uncomfortable we are with the term “priest.” We associate it with Catholicism or High Church Protestantism. All born again Christians are priests.

A priest is someone who approaches God on behalf of others. A priest is an intercessor. Whenever you pray for others you are fulfilling a priestly function. In 1500 during the Reformation, Martin Luther proclaimed the biblical truth of the priesthood of the believer. Luther had to counteract the unbiblical Catholic concept of a limited priesthood ordained by Rome.

The reform of the 16th century brought great spiritual freedom, but the political reform of the 17th century brought biblical truths to the political arena. The Bible teaches not only the priesthood of the believer, but also the royalty of the believer. First Peter 2: 9 says that we are a royal priesthood and Revelation 1: 6 says that Christ “has made us kings and priests to God.” It’s bad enough that Christians are uncomfortable with the term “priest,” but Christians are almost completely unaware that we are kings!

I have written several articles that show that it was the Bible that laid the foundation for the concepts of human rights and democracy in Western civilization. The Bible’s teachings on the sanctity of life, its teaching that man was created in the image of God, the dignity of man, and the biblical concept of the believer’s freedom (Romans 14: 2-6) are the very foundation of freedom and prosperity. we enjoy today.

By 1600, the Protestant Reformation was well established in northern Europe. It is precisely in northern Europe, especially in the British Isles, where the greatest advances in the advancement of freedom were made. The English Civil War with the triumph of parliamentary forces and the overthrow of King Charles, the formation of the Cromwellian Republic, the bloodless revolution of 1689, advanced the biblical concept that the people, not a wealthy elite, should rule.

Consider the example of Thomas Hooker (1586-1647). He was a congregational preacher with strong Puritan and nonconformist views. He taught that spiritual reform under Luther should extend to civil government. Unsurprisingly, Hooker was summoned to the High Commission Court in 1630. He fled to Holland that year and in 1633 sailed for Massachusetts. He pastored a church in Newtown Massachusetts for three years and then, in 1636, he emigrated with his congregation to the Connecticut River Valley and founded Hartford in the new Connecticut colony.

Hooker was largely responsible for writing and securing the adoption of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (The Connecticut Constitution) in 1639. He also worked to form the New England Federation in 1643. Thomas Hooker’s teaching on the biblical concept that Christians should govern themselves and their communities as co-regents served to promote and clarify the concept of the kingship of the believer.

The concept of believer royalty leads convincingly to democracy because a community of co-equal kings must vote in a democratic process to pass laws. Instead of having an almighty king ruling by decree without consulting the people, the people themselves are kings who must consult and confer with each other.

More than a century later, Protestant and Calvinist New England was the hotbed of the American Revolution. New England in the mid-1700s was the biblical belt of the colonies.

The theology of the New England churches was Calvinism. Calvinism is a form of Christian fundamentalism. Calvinism is a very conservative understanding and application of the Bible. The secular version of the history of the American Revolution is that it had to do with tax issues. That is an oversimplification. Of the more than twenty formal causes of war listed in the Declaration of Independence, only a few had to do with taxes. The true causes of the Revolution were much more convincing.

Slavery was a problem. Massachusetts wanted to abolish slavery, but the Crown forbade it. It is interesting that one of the first acts of the Continental Congress was the resolution passed on April 9, 1776, calling for an end to the importation of African slaves to the colonies.

Massachusetts abolished slavery immediately after the war. Slavery continued in the new nation just to keep the south. I will not have time to discuss the biblical concepts and Christian activism that led to the ultimate abolition of slavery at the time of the American Civil War. Let us now turn to our time, to the United States at the beginning of the 21st century. Theologically conservative Christians are well aware of our priestly role as intercessors and worshipers. However, we are hugely divided when it comes to our role as kings (and queens).

The truth is that we annul each other’s votes! Some of us vote for the liberal who promotes abortion but makes empty promises to help the poor. Others of us vote for pro-life candidates.

If we voted as a bloc, we would be a reliable helm leading America to righteousness! The church’s confusion over politics and the refusal of many Christians to even talk about politics is what I call the forgotten crown scandal.

The most pressing political issue of our time is the mass murder of the unborn called abortion. I believe that abortion is the greatest abomination of our time. More than one million human beings, created in the image of God, are killed by abortion each year in the United States alone.

For this reason, the issue of abortion carries more weight than all other domestic issues put together. Christians should certainly agree 100 percent on this issue! Abortion is the main domestic policy issue, but we should also agree that protecting Israel is the most important foreign policy issue. Liberals claim to have compassion on the poor, but abortion disproportionately eats the poor and minorities. Most abortion clinics are located downtown, in poor and minority neighborhoods. I’m glad to hear much-needed teachings about Christians making a difference in the marketplace. The concept of a Joseph company of Christian believers restoring the land is one of God’s priorities.

We must not forget that Joseph was an official and not a businessman in the pure sense. Joseph was the highest ranking government official after Pharaoh.

Entering government is one of the purest forms of Christian activism. Why limit ourselves to marching through the streets with banners when we can sit in the city council or in the town hall or in Congress and make the decisions? In Revelation 12:14, the woman (the church) was given the two wings of a great eagle. I think these two wings are left politics and right wing politics. Leftists feel a burden of compassion for the poor. The right-wingers are more concerned with law and order and are pro-business. Both wings are needed. Christians are needed to manage welfare reform and end the secular philanthropy that traps the poor in utter dependency. Christians on the right are needed to empower business and job creation and end the ungodly tendency of secular companies to exploit workers and pollute the environment.

Left and right must unite to vote pro-abortion out of office !!! We must not be reluctant to preach against abortion from the pulpit. Christ has made us kings and priests. We must boldly enter public service, public office, and business and not be ashamed to talk politics. We have been good priests, it is time for us to become good kings.