LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 321

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS

church and can even be traced throughout the Bible. Of course, this study
cannot possibly hope to resolve one of the most enduring problems of
human history, but it can do several important things:
© First, it can help us to understand better the history of church and
government and our own place, as American Lutheran Christians,
in that history (as George Santayana wrote in The Life of Reason,
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat
it’”6).
Second, it can help us to identify strengths and weaknesses in the
ways that previous generations of God’s people have dealt with
the problem of church and state, so that we can be more informed
participants in our contemporary cultural debate.
Third, it can help us to appreciate how the proper distinction
between Law and Gospel, as well as the distinction between the
two kingdoms, prevents us from confusing the duties of citizen-
ship with the righteousness of faith.
Finally, it also can help us to participate in the important duties of
citizenship with greater freedom and confidence.

The first section of this study will provide a very brief survey of the
history of church and state, including what the Bible says. This survey will
focus particularly on those elements of the story that are a part of the direct
lineal history of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. The second sec-
tion will interpret the history of church and state according to the Luther-
an Confessions and the Synod’s doctrinal commitments. The third section
will provide contemporary practical applications of this confessional

Lutheran perspective.

"The Life of Reason (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905-6), 1:284.

5

For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as
indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—yet for us there is one
God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and
one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom
we exist. (1 Cor. 8:5-6)

Above the empires and states of history stands one evertasting divine
authority to whom all are accountable—even kings and queens, presidents
and dictators. And so, while kings and empires pass from the scene, the
church continues to proclaim God's divine authority. As Arthur Cleveland
Coxe once penned it:

O where are kings and empires now
Of old that went and came?

But, Lord, thy Church is praying yet.
A thousand years the same.*

Just as basic and enduring as this teaching of the Bible regarding God's
sovereignty, however, is the conflict (even war) between the one true God
and pretentious earthly authorities. There was, for instance, the contest
with the Egyptian Pharaoh over the release of the Israelite slaves (Ex. 5:2,
“But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lorp, that I should heed his voice and let
Israel go? I do not know the Lorp, and moreover I will not let Israel go’ “).
There was also the deadly confrontation with Sennacherib, king of Assyria
(2 Chron. 32:17, “And (the king} wrote letters to cast contempt on the Lorp
the God of Israel and to speak against him, saying, ‘Like the gods of the
nations of the lands who have not delivered their people from my hands,
so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand’ “).
Indeed, the Old Testament overflows with illustrations of conflict between
God and earthly rulers who had illusions of sovereignty.

Not all instances of Old Testament conflict were between God and
pagan governments, however, for even the kings of Israel became corrupt
and moved God to battle against them. This happened already with Saul,
the first king of Israel, when the Lord tore the kingdom out of his hands
and gave it to David (1 Sam. 28:16-19). It happened as well to King
Solomon who, although he was Israe}’s wisest king, did not always put his
wisdom into practice:

And the Loro was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned

away from the LoRD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,

and had commanded him ... that he should not go after other gods; but he

did not keep what the Lorp commanded. Therefore the LorD said to

"In Excelsis: Hymns with Tunes for Christian Worship (New York: The Century Co., 1897),
hymn 637:1

I. God and Caesar Revisited

In this first section we will review the long, almost tortuous history of
Christians and government. This history will illustrate the extremes, both
domination of the church by the state and domination of the state by the
church, as well as the persistent difficulties that Christians have had in
finding a more balanced relationship between church and state. This his-
tory will also illustrate the Christian roots of the American democratic
experiment as well as America’s current struggles to maintain both reli-
gious and political liberty in a pluralistic modern world.

A. What the Bible Says

The problems of church and state are relatively recent. Through most of
tecorded history they were problems of church and empire or kingdom. In
contrast to modern states, where power is quite abstract and bureaucratic,
the governments of ancient empires were personal and often authoritarian.
The emperor (such as the Roman Caesar) or king was in direct personal con-
trol of the government and, as the absolute authority in many societies, the
royal word was law. Indeed, the kings and queens frequently exercised such
tremendous powers of life and death that they often were considered gods.”

It is important to begin our study, therefore, by observing that the
Bible makes a fundamental distinction between divine and human author-
ity. While from the beginning humans have wanted to be like God and to
play god, the Bible persistently proclaims only one God who is sovereign
over everything and everyone:

Remember this and consider, recall it to mind, vou transgressors ... for [

am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declar-

ing the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not done,

saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.”

(Is. 46:8-10)

“See, e.g., Ethelbert Staufter. Chnist and the Caesars, trans, K. and R. Gregor Smith (Lon-
don: SCM Press LTD, 1955), Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (New
York. The Modern Library. nd.), 1:61.

Solomon, “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my
covenant and my statutes which I have commanded vou, | will surely tear
the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.” (1 Kings 119-11)

It happened, in fact, with many of the kings of Judah and with most of the
kings of Israel. Thus, the rebellious northern kingdom of Israel was con-
quered by Assyria (2 Kings 17:7-23). When the southern kingdom of
promise, Judah, was conquered decades later by Babylon, this also was
because Judah’s leaders were at war with God (2 Chron. 36:15-21 and
Lam. 4:11-13).

In view of this persistently rebellious behavior by earthly emperors
and kings, we can understand why God forewarned His people that hav-
ing an earthly king would be burdensome. Although God granted Israel’s
request for a king (and, indeed, blessed them graciously through the
Davidic royal line from which Jesus came), He spoke sobering words
about the persistent abuse of royal power:

So Samuel told all the words of the Log to the people who were asking 4

king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign

over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be

his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for him-

self commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to

plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of

war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be
perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and
vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take

the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and

to his servants. He will take your menservants and maidservants, and the

best of your cattle and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take

the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you

will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves;

but the Lorp will not answer you in that day.” (1 Sam. 8:10-18)

Lord Acton reflected this assessment of earthly rulers in a letter to Bishop
Creighton in 1887: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.”? Therefore, even in God’s own “holy nation” (Ex. 19:6), civil
government was a mixed blessing. The king could promote the common
good (Psalm 45) and also could perpetrate injustice (Jer. 22:13-17). The
king could be extolled as God's chosen instrument (Psalm 2) and also be
condemned as a shepherd who scattered and destroyed the sheep of God's
pasture (Jer. 23:1-2).

Indeed, it was this marked contrast between the theoretical goodness
of the kings as God's chosen ones and their rebelliousness as sinful human

“John Emerich Edward Dahlberg Acton, Essavs on Freedom and Power (Boston: Beacon
Press, 1948), 364.

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