HISTORY
The pattern of religion and government being closely intertwined has always been true. In Bible times the government and religious leaders were the same. Kings and emperors of Gentile nations were often considered to be religious leaders as well as civil authorities. In some cases, they were given the status of gods. In more modern times there are still examples of countries which sponsor a state religion.

STUDY TIP: See this Wikipedia article for a history of the separation of religion and government around the world. Evidence of historical church/government entanglements is found in this Pew Research Center Report on Religion and Public Life about religious symbols in national flags.

Also see this Wikipedia article on State Religions.

In the days before, during and after Jesus, religion and government in Israel/Palestine were closely integrated. Rome ruled the land, and religious leaders managed religious matters. But religious leaders were limited in what they could do. That is why the chief priests and elders, brought Jesus to Pilate, the local Roman governor, to have him killed. The religious leaders knew that their authority did not include capital punishment, so they incited Pilate to use his authority to have Jesus killed instead of doing it themselves.

This is the way it is today — at least in America. Government laws and regulations limit what churches and ministries can do and how they do it. Some religious leaders argue for reductions in government while others try to influence it from within to pass laws that will execute the agendas of religious organizations. Religion is not ashamed to use political influence and money to accomplish through government what it cannot do independently. Through twisted logic and false doctrines, religion sees no inconsistency in trusting government to protect it and provide for it and trusting God. Religionists, therefore, eagerly engage in politics to advance religious issues while all the while claiming to trust God for every aspect of their lives. That is the way it is in America, but it is different in Israel where the relationship between religion is embedded in government because of the Zionist movement out of which the nation of Israel was created.

STUDY TIPS: See Confronting Christian Nationalism and this Wikipedia article on the Christian Right for a historical review and discussion of contemporary issues.

See this Wikipedia article about the relationship between religion and government in Israel.

In the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, government played a crucial role in his death. In these modern times, government continues to play a crucial role in the effective killing, or limiting the life of Jesus’ body (i.e. the church). As religion advances its own causes through government, it gains followers and attracts money that strengthens religious leaders and religious organizations. Christians, for example, employ religious language arguments from scripture to justify legislation and mobilize people to lobby and vote for their causes and candidates who will advance their agendas. Their conflicts with government are the same as the ones that Jews had with Rome.

In their self-righteousness, Christian activists persuade themselves and their like-minded brethren that they are doing God’s work. They are deceived into thinking that God wants them to use worldly techniques such as politics and money to advance his kingdom. Like the Jews, they believe that the Messiah’s purpose is to save them from the tyranny of government, and so, ignorant of the principles of faith, they use their political influence and their money to impose their religious beliefs on everyone through laws enacted by and enforced by government. In their frenzy to advance religion, they use literal scripture to justify engagement in politics.

They do not understand scriptures that tell them that their job is to establish a spiritual kingdom on earth — not a political kingdom. They do not understand that grumbling against government is really grumbling against God as we see in this story:

Exodus 16:1-9: The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” 4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the LORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD.” 9 Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.’ ”

COMMENTARY: Israel had just been delivered from bondage to an evil government (i.e. Egypt) that, in their twisted memory, had provided all the food that they needed. And now it was grumbling against God for bringing them out of Egypt and feeding them spiritual manna instead of material food.

People who want to change government do not realize that they grumble against God when they grumble about government when they work to change it. They do not realize that the freedom they now have is spiritual freedom that is not influenced or constrained by natural, material conditions.

Later in the Exodus story, God gave Israel all the natural food it could eat. but he also brought a plague with it. The message here is that God will give other food (e.g government, etc.) to those who crave it, but that it comes with a great cost.

Spiritual food, on the other hand tastes sweet.

Luke 17:20-24: Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” 22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23 Men will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. 24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.

COMMENTARY: People who grumble about government and mobilize to change government are longing to return to the bondage of Egypt. They find their satisfaction (i.e. food) in material things that they can see and touch. They are not satisfied with spiritual manna. They do not realize that the kingdom of God is within them and not in the government.

Lacking a spiritual understanding that the kingdom of God is within individual people, they are busy trying to establish the kingdom of God in government through leaders who will adopt laws that conform to their literal interpretation of the Bible. They do this even though Luke 17:20-24 tells them that the kingdom of God cannot be seen. In the process, they show that they trust political organizations and government more than they trust God. And they do this with no shame over the fact that they are displaying their righteousness before men when they use scripture to advance religious agendas based on the literal words of the Bible — not on God’s spoken word.

STUDY TIP: See this link for scriptures about not trusting men.

Moreover, they employ worldly techniques to gain results that they think are spiritual. They pride themselves on defending the Bible and maintaining religious standards that they have developed through their literal, not symbolic, interpretations of the Bible. Everything they do is based on their Old/First Covenant perspective of religion, which always acts to preserve and advance the religion and its leaders. And they always use God’s name and Biblical language to make lofty, fine-sounding arguments in favor of their causes and in opposition to worldly conditions they do not like.

The fact is that these so-called Bible-believing religionists carry on these activities totally ignorant of what God has said about government and what he expects from his people about involvement in civilian matters. They exercise a form of godliness that is nothing more than religious showmanship that benefits only religious activists — not God. And, as they advance their Old/First Covenant thinking and ways, they inhibit the advancement of New Covenant thinking and New Covenant ways. They will not hesitate to use Jesus’ name, but everything they do is contrary to what Jesus stands for.

We see from these observations that the kind of arrangement that existed between Jewish religious leaders and Rome in Jesus’ time has continued down through the centuries into these modern times.  In many countries around the world the relationship is formalized into a state religion. This is not the case in the United States, of course, but there are still many government laws that actually control the formation and operation of corporate, institutional religious organizations such as churches and ministries.

Laws that provide tax exempt status to religious organizations in exchange for limitations on political action and lobbying has existed so long that it has an appearance of legitimacy that, with few exceptions, does not arouse questions of appropriateness within the religious community.  The length of a tradition, however, does not legitimize it from God’s point of view. God may seem slow in bringing judgment, but he will bring judgment when it is called for. He waited until 70 AD to officially bring down the cozy relationship between the Pharisees and Rome, but we have no idea how long he will wait to end the cozy relationship between religion and government in these modern times.

So why should this relationship end? To many religionists, it seems to be a good thing that they can get a tax deduction for donations to their church or favorite ministries. It seems to be a good thing that government will bail religious organizations out financially when income from followers decreases so much that the financial viability of the organization is threatened by a declining economy. What can be wrong with that?

There is plenty wrong with that and we will discuss those issues in this series of pages. But the overriding problem is that members of religious institutions have indirectly joined themselves to government. This is so because the religious institutions to which they belong are legally joined to government trough laws that control the establishment and operation of religious institutions. Thus, in yoking themselves to religious institutions, individuals have effectively yoked themselves to the government in a way that places government ahead of God in several ways. In effect, religions idolize government when they trust government more than they trust God.