In my Blog “Is a Christian Nation Possible? – 21 August 2006” I
wrote about the separation of church and state, and why I think that a
theocracy – government of a state by immediate divine guidance or by
officials regarded as divinely guided (Webster’s Dictionary) – is
feasible only when Jesus returns to establish His Peaceable Kingdom.
One of the lessons from the past is that the establishment and
support of a religion by government results in an erosion of belief
among the people, the opposite of the hoped-for result. As the expected
adherence to church dogma becomes established, over time ritual and
formula replace heart-felt prayer, until a once robust faith erodes into
a skeleton of religious clichés devoid of meaning and uttered
mechanically by the cowardly submissive.
Evidence of this phenomenon is widespread in countries where “faith”
is government-supported. Complacency has set in resulting in many
people’s distancing themselves from anything “religious” while a few
continue to go through the motions expected by followers of the state
religion.
Jesus describes this kind of empty ritual in Matthew 15:7-8:
7 “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.’
~ New American Standard Bible
In 1 Samuel 16:7, the Lord said to Samuel, “…God sees not as man
sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the
heart."
~ New American Standard Bible
