{"id":1111,"date":"2010-12-22T06:59:08","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T11:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.wordpress.com\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2010-12-22T06:59:08","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T11:59:08","slug":"first-baptist-church-of-the-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/first-baptist-church-of-the-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"First Baptist Church of…the Republic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Over at the White Horse Inn<\/a>, there is a good article on the Church and politics called, No Nation Under God,<\/em> that I’ve included in my Google Shared Items Page<\/a> and I encourage you to read it in its entirety.<\/p>\n

In this article, Pastor Jason Stellman discusses the way in which the political process has infiltrated the Church, closely aligning a heavenly citizenship with our earthly one.\u00a0 Stellman argues that this is a marriage we must reject and, instead, focus on what is of eternal value, for the overall good of this life and the next:<\/p>\n

American Christians need to remember something that we so easily forget, and that is that our true homeland is an eternal, heavenly one whose allure cannot be compromised by the goings-on of the culture war. It is remarkable that, for all the passionate Christian devotees of right-wingers like Glenn Beck or lefties like Jim Wallis, there are very few evangelicals in this country who can articulate the doctrine of justification in a coherent and biblical way. In other words, we Christians seem to have sacrificed the one thing that makes us unique\u2014the gospel\u2014on the altar of some baptized political ideology for which the divine Son of God isn\u2019t even necessary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For a long time now, I’ve been voicing concerns about how the Church is supposed to be positioned to speak to ALL of culture, not from a right or left perspective, but a BIBLICAL one.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Evangelicals have allowed (or designed?) the Church to act as a religious arm of the Republican Party, thus relegating us to little more than just another special interest group. Don’t get me wrong, the left is trying to do the exact same thing, they’ve just not mastered the process yet.<\/p>\n

My position is that we must divorce ourselves, as a Body, from the political process.\u00a0 That is not<\/em> to say we back away from the ISSUES that drive the political process, but rather that we approach them not from a partisan position, but a biblical one.\u00a0 Speak the TRUTH of an issue and if it lines up with the agenda of the Right, fine.\u00a0 If it aligns itself with the Left, so be it.\u00a0 I prefer to act in such a Christ-honoring, biblically-focused way that we’re not aligning ourselves with them…but they are lining up with us!\u00a0 The Church must no longer be enslaved by political zealots of any party.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at the White Horse Inn, there is a good article on the Church and politics called, No Nation Under God, that I’ve included in my Google Shared Items Page and I encourage you to read it in its entirety. In this article, Pastor Jason Stellman discusses the way in which the political process has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6,18],"tags":[684,685,162,692],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-hV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":62,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-president-to-attend-worship-service-in-chinese-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":0},"title":"The President to Attend Worship Service in Chinese Church","date":"August 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I see as a pretty amazing opportunity is the news that President Bush will be attending a Chinese church while attending the Olympics. I can't imagine a better way to spotlight the necessity of human and religious rights for the Chinese people than for the American president to actually\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Missions"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1353,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/on-presidential-politics-the-aftermath\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":1},"title":"On Presidential Politics: The Aftermath","date":"November 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It was once told to me that if you have a pastor you don\u2019t like, don\u2019t waste time complaining. \u00a0Instead, pray for the one you have that he\u2019ll become the one you want. \u00a0This will prevent you from dishonoring Christ, leaving too early or causing problems within the church. \u00a0I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1370,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/a-deal-breaker\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":2},"title":"A Deal-Breaker","date":"September 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As a pastor, I don\u2019t officially endorse candidates. I am a registered Independent who makes every attempt to take a biblical approach to issues related to politics. \u00a0Though I try to refrain from talking about specific candidates and believe it is wrong to turn a church pulpit into a political\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apologetics\/Worldviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4417,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/article-recommendation-christianity-is-not-just-about-a-personal-relationship-with-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":3},"title":"Article Recommendation: Christianity is Not Just About A Personal Relationship With Jesus","date":"May 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I mentioned a thought-provoking article on Sunday that I promised I would share on my website this week. The author of the article, Chad Bird, argues that when we are called into a relationship with God, it is not so much about a personal relationship with Jesus but is much\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidcprice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/0C0415BD-BB97-45A9-8A32-966FBF990A91.jpeg?fit=707%2C471&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3023,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-church-in-the-second-stage-of-exile\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":4},"title":"The Church in the Second Stage of Exile","date":"June 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A must-read by Steve McAlpine on the \"Stage Two\" exile of the Church. \u00a0If you are wondering what is going on with the church and culture (the world) and where we are heading, you need to take the time to read the entire article. \u00a0I think he's probably spot on.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":356,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/dr-alvin-reid-on-the-cost-of-a-great-commission-resurgence\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":5},"title":"Dr. Alvin Reid on The Cost of a Great Commission Resurgence","date":"March 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I came across this exceptional article by Dr. Alvin Reid of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, titled Do We Really Want to Pray for Revival? The Cost of a Great Commission Resurgence. If you care anything about the Church (the organism, not the institution), please take the time to read this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}