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| Elder Jesse Maina Gitau |
Main theme-The SDA church on church-state relations
1peter 2:13-17
Without submision no relationship can be able to be maintained.
The speaker also referred to the months' lesson on association.
The verse
That God is love and he gave us ability to make a choice.
'Patriarch's' book page 35- that our father does not take no pleasure
in a forced obedience. Which can be translated that God could easily
make us worship Him,but He prefers willful worship.
In the book of Ezekiel he talks about hardening of the heart.the
prophet of the lord goes on to say that
13 without love whatever you do is considered nothing before God's
eyes as nothing.
Adam being put on the garden was given a choice of good and bad.
Talking of religious liberty where one has a choice on paths to take.
The path one takes is up to ones discretion.
Jesus never forced anyone to follow Him, it was all by choice that all
His followers took the path that they did.
If anyone had the ability to force people to follow him, it would be
Jesus, but He was all about freedom (choice)-stating that His kingdom
was not of this earth.
As the church's obligation towards its members increase so is the
pressure to recognize the state church relationship. Tremendous
pressure is placed on church at large to ensure this occurs.
Freedom of conscience
An obligation has been bestowed upon us as a church to ensure legal
and religious freedom in the environment in which our church operates.
As per the church, we(church) should obey the local authority and all
its modalities as no leadership can exist without Gods approval.
Hence pointing that whatever leadership exists on the land arise out
of God's discretion.
Looking at Romans13-christians should obey local authorities(roman tax
authorities)
But in cases of conflict between the state and God's laws we should
opt for the God's door. We ought to obey God rather than men.
Adventist have been called
Case for Participation in the governments:
Examples like Joseph come to light here. He was a member of that
Egyptian administration(coming up with awesome ideas like saving food
in times of surplus for times of drought,until other countries came to
Egypt to borrow-Joseph's brothers)
Illustration of Cuba's president being one of the union directors
before his appointment.
Daniel became a part of the administration of Nebukadnezza and persian
and Medo Persian government.
Looking at the book of Fundamentals of .....
Which points out that everyone of us makes a mark...but we must remain
mindful of civil affairs....
Principles like the Golden rule should also be taken into consideration
Math 7-.....do unto others as you'd want them to do unto you.
Should take part in the election procedures with good conscience
We have a responsibility of building our communities.
Daniel and Joseph participated in the administration but didn't go
against God's will.
They should not use the church forum to forward your own agenda
Advents who are leaders in the church should hold the believes at
heart to inspire the community around them.
Representation of government:
In Genesis Abraham and Joseph and Moses went head to head with the
pharaohs of their time.
Many of the reformers stood against the administration to express
their christians values.
Governments are expected to deal with the dealings of the governed
example security,ensuring basic human rights,discrimination both
gender race
For example
Women in kenya didn't have national identifications until 1978s
There has been a long debate on funding from government. Here he
stated that the church should not create barriers.
We should have strict accounting programs in regards to the financial
handouts received.
There in no problems with these funds as long we account for them as required.
Referring to the book:
Testimony to leaders pg 107-203
We should follow the government guidelines with regards to funding.
In exceptional circumstances the church needs to lias with the
government in order to minister in that particular State ,we should
seek for serious prayer when joining with governments in their
dealings so as to avoid associating the name of christ with
administrations that are retrospective to human rights in their
conduct.
The SDA conduct of its relations has a world wide impact that
reverberate through its surrounding society as a result we should fast
and pray
In summary we the church should strive to champion for the freedom of
conscience.
