11: God’s Strategy For Civil Conquest 1 or 7 - EKKLESIA (b)

The apostle Paul certainly understood “church” to be politically active, per the church’s original ekklesia design:* The Lord told Paul he was to specifically go and speak “to kings” (Acts 9:15).* Paul told Timothy the church’s “first” priority is to affect “kings and all who are in authority” (1 Tim. 2:1-4).* Paul told Christians to set up their “own judges” (1 Cor. 6:1-5).* Paul and those with him were committing treason in “turning the world upside down” declaring “Jesus as King” in place of Caesar (Acts 17:6-7).So Christ’s ekklesia “church” was never a building but rather Christians who were political activists:* “Seek first the Kingdom of God” (God’s nation with King Jesus), as Jesus commanded (Matt. 6:33).* “Discipling the nation” (law & government), as Jesus commanded (Matt. 18:19).* “Ambassadors for Christ” (representing His Kingdom), as Paul commanded (2 Cor. 5:20).* “Royal priests” (servants of the King), as Peter declared (1 Peter 2:9).* “A holy nation” (a civic body), as Peter declared (1Peter 2:9).This vision will explode “building up the body of Christ,” but can only happen when pastors see this as Christ’s vision and their mission to stop preaching nice sermons but understand their responsibility (Eph. 4:12):“Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the body of Christ.”The opposite of this is what Paul warns against (2 Tim. 4:3-4 TLB):“For there is going to come a time when people won’t listen to the truth but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear. They won’t listen to what the Bible says but will blithely follow their own misguided ideas.”Paul said (Acts 20:27 NASB):“For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God!”The church is to be God’s battle station for equipping God’s people to Christianize their cities and nation. It is not to just be a sweet Christian social club but rather to mobilize Christians to transform your city and nation to literally be “One Nation Under God!” That can ONLY be one nation under King Jesus and God’s Law.Every church is commissioned to obey Jesus’s Great Commission regardless of how much liberty any nation gives Christians. All unrighteous rulers should be an abomination to all righteous people (Prov. 29:27):“The righteous are an abomination to the unrighteous and the unrighteous are an abomination to the righteous.”God declares what the righteous must do to have political success (Prov. 21:12 NLB):“The righteous wisely considers the place of the wicked and overthrows the wicked for their wickedness.”Churches rejecting the use of God’s Law in being politically active today are unwittingly praising the wicked (Prov. 28:4):“To reject God’s Law is to praise the wicked; to obey God’s Law is to fight them.”If you obey God’s Law, you will fight the wicked with God’s Law and that certainly includes unrighteous civil leaders. If you fight for or with any other law than God’s Law, that would be blasphemy. Only “the Law of the Lord is perfect” (Ps. 19:7).Jesus said - God’s Law is to be obeyed and taught today (Matt. 5:17-19):“Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses … I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s Law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.”In all nations, Jesus’s church can do some if not all 10 points below to transform their city and nation for the Kingdom of God. This is “seeking first the Kingdom of God”:* Have regular meetings for prayer and strategizing for political action to affect or replace your national and city leaders to follow God’s Law.* Many churches have weekend Marriage or Family Retreats to train and develop godly families. The church has NO MORE responsibility to help God’s family institution then God’s state institution! Have an annual Christian Political Action Retreat - educating, training, and mobilizing believers to take back their city and nation for the Kingdom of God.* Mobilize Christians to engage during political campaign season to get wise capable Christians in every civil office.* Have a Sunday series going through the book of Deuteronomy, God’s Law - the civil law for your city and nation. This was the book Jesus quoted from more than any others!* Have the righteous political candidates speak in your church, especially prior to elections.* Have a Registration Sunday to fulfill Jesus’s civil mandate for voting. Don’t just have a Registration Table in the vestibule. Rather, just like you’re faithful to pass a collection plate, be faithful to pass out the registration cards and pencils down the aisles. Take the time right then for everyone to fill out their registration. Then pass a collection bucket to pick up all the registrations and see that they get turned in.* Have a Voting Sunday or Political Sunday. Be fearless, deliberate, and devote at least one Sunday for God’s righteous political cause. At some time you should have a whole Sunday series on this subject. God devoted 80% of His Book (Exodus to Acts) in the exclusive context of how He deals with nations, and it was not just Israel. Realize, most of the Old and New Testament saints made political impact, to name a few: Joseph, Moses, Esther, Daniel, and most of the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11.* Mobilize to have public political rallies (with other churches if they will join you) - prayer, music, speaking, registering everyone to vote. Right after Paul said to pray for authorities in 1 Timothy 2, he then said to have what would amount to public prayer rallies: “Therefore I want men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger and dispute” (1Tim. 2:8).* Make sure everyone is reminded to vote on election day or early as they can. Take anyone that needs transportation to vote. If it’s legal, collect ballots and turn them in. Get out the Christian vote every way you can. Then God will hear your prayers.* Pursue Christians to fill all strategic civil offices: mayor, city council, school board, chief of police, sheriff, and any other local offices. Many local elections are won by only a few votes, and some positions have no one even contesting them! Only one truly New Testament ekklesia (church) could turn a city upside down today for King Jesus.There is no such thing as political versus spiritual or spiritual versus secular. With God it’s ALL spiritual (Ps. 24:1):“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”All God’s institutions are under God’s Kingdom – family, state, and church. The Lord and godly men are to rule over all three of God’s ordained institutions.Charles Finney, the great 19th century American revivalist, declared:“The church must take right ground in regard to politics… the time has come that Christians must vote… and take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will curse them… And if he will give his vote only for honest men, the country will be obliged to have upright rulers… the church must act right, or the country will be ruined. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the church will take right ground. Politics are a part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God. It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation were becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you, He does see it, and He will bless or curse this nation, according to the course they take.”Jesus said (Matt. 16:18):“I will build My ekklesia and the powers of hell will not conquer it!” Get full access to Jim McCotter LIVE at jimmccotter.substack.com/subscribe