Cops and Citizens: A Biblical View

What is the relationship between law enforcement and citizens?

According to the Bible, civil rulers and authorities (cops) are supposed to be a terror to bad conduct (Rom. 13:3), servants of God (13:4), and ministers of God (13:6). When authorities do the opposite of what their purpose is – when they reward bad conduct (like when otherwise good cops defend, rationalize, justify, and cover for the behavior of bad cops or when bad cops get promoted) it is an abuse of their God-given (John 19:11) power. These “authorities” cease being ministers of God and become enemies of God.

So while the actions of cops are good when they do their actual job, this means that we are not necessarily to think of everything they do as “good.” In a nation with good government, the law rules over the rulers. That is, the rulers do not rule over the law. Both, citizens and law enforcement, are subject to the law. This principle was established in Israel, reiterated by the law that a new king was to write a copy of the Mosaic law for himself, so that he would remember it and be subject to it (Deut. 17:18-20).

However, the principle of the rule of law is violated whenever any person or group in a society has unchecked power and can disobey the law without any fear of punishment. Because the rule of law is for everyone, we as citizens have a duty to hold our authorities accountable, be it through citizen journalists videotaping police on the streets or regular folks simply posting articles on their Facebook walls. Bad behavior (even by civil authorities) needs to be exposed and rebuked when it is encountered.

This is precisely what God’s prophets did in Biblical times. John the Baptist rebuked Herod (a civil authority) “for all the evil things that Herod had done” (Luke 3:19). And Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar “Break off your sins by practicing righteousness” (Dan. 4:27). Other examples can be found in 1 Samuel 13:13-14; 2 Samuel 12; and 1 Kings 18:18.

Some cops do not like being rebuked in this way and have tried to take away the rights of people to speak out. This censorship is an abuse of their power and, in short, tyranny that should never be tolerated by the citizenry.

We, as citizens, have to be the watchmen. If we remain silent our nation will soon be led astray by leaders and “authorities” who no longer have any sufficient accountability to the public. We risk becoming what Isaiah warned would happen to Israel :

His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. (Isaiah 56:10)

Lying, Part 2: Three Reasons Why Lying is Wrong

Reason #1.
First, lying is a sin because it can do damage to God's character and can even be a form of blasphemy. According to Matthew 12:31, 32:

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Jesus had just cast a demon out of a blind and mute man. The result was so astonishing that the Pharisees began to explain it away in the cheapest way they could think of. They said, "It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons," (12:24). They were so desperate to discredit Jesus that they were willing to call good, evil, and evil, good. It is unforgivable because it is a case of so thoroughly distorting reality that repentance is impossible, without which there can be no forgiveness. Jesus warns them against speaking this lie because they weren't just rejecting Jesus as truth, their lie was a willful rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit even though there can be no other explanation of Jesus' exorcisms than that. But in twisting the truth, they had called the good work of the Spirit demonic!

Reason #2.
Second, lying hurts others. Proverbs 6:16-19 states that there are six things God hates:

There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

As we can see, on a list of six things that God hates the most, lying scores twice.

There is little good we could say about thieves, but after reading this passage we have to conclude that liars are even worse than people who steal. Thieves may steal others' material possessions, but liars rob people of their reputations, names, and peace of mind. Not only that, but lying is wrong because as the lies circulate, the effects linger and continuously do damage to the victims. This is why "bearing false testimony against your neighbor" is so forbidden in the ten commandments (Exd. 20:16). When we lie against our neighbors, we do much more damage than we often realize.

Reason #3.
Third, because the truth usually finds the light of day, lying is wrong because it hurts us, and I don't even mean in the physical, "Ananias and Sapphira" (Acts 5:1-11) kind of way (although I wouldn't completely discount that). Lying is wrong because it discredits us. How can we be effective witnesses for Christ if our word has a reputation of being untrustworthy? How can we properly raise children or love our spouses if they don't trust us?

There are many clear commands throughout the Bible which teach that lying is a sin. We have already seen a few of them. Here are a few more:

Exodus 23:1 - "You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness."

Leviticus 19:11 - "You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another."

Psalm 5:6 - "You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man."

Psalm 15:1-3 - "O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend."

Psalm 24:3-4 - "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully."

Proverbs 24:28 - "Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips."

Psalm 34:12-16 - "What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Zechariah 8:16 - "These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace."

Ephesians 4:25 - "Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another."

Colossians 3:9 - "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices."

I Peter 2:1 - "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander."

Revelation 21:8 - "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

Whether you are telling a lie about someone you know, lying to someone you know, lying about God, or lying to God, the Bible's message seems pretty clear. To lie is to transgress God's law.

Lying, Part 1: Defining Terms

The subject of this series may be controversial to many, but we don't call ourselves Religiously Incorrect for nothing. We couldn't live up to our name if we simply ignored truths of suspect nature. Everything is on the table for discussion in this blog, even what some consider "questionable" ethics.

When I wrote that it's a sin for parents to teach their children that Santa Claus is real because it's a sin to lie, I should have clarified a few things. So let me start by defining the terms.

Defining terms.
I found the following definitions at dictionary.com:

"A false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood . . . something intended or serving to convey a false impression . . . a statement that deviates from or perverts the truth . . . an intentional violation of the truth."

I like those definitions. Webster's dictionary goes a little further by pointing out there are different kinds of lies. It lists "fib," "prevaricate," "equivocate," and "false testimony" or "fabricate" as different kinds of lies. But both are good definitions.

The first thing I should clarify is that a lie doesn't have to be spoken or come from the mouth. A lie can be something you say or do, like when we hear people accuse others of living a lie. We understand that people are not always "speaking" a lie, but one's own actions can be "serving to convey a false impression."

Also, I want to point out that a lie doesn't always have to be intentional. Some people may mistakenly think they are telling the truth, when they are actually lying. A lie can be any "statement that deviates from or perverts the truth." Therefore, someone can make a statement without even knowing that it deviates from and perverts the truth (a child repeating that Santa Claus is real), but it is a lie nonetheless. Romans 1:25 talks about people who exchange God's truth for lies. They may not all know they're lying, but they are just the same. If it "deviates from or perverts the truth," regardless of one's intentions, then, according to dictionary.com, it is a lie.

Therefore, we have learned that lies can be:

• Verbal.
  


• Non-verbal
  


• Intentional.


• Unintentional.

What do You Mean by "Choice?"

There was a girl in my speech class a couple years ago who gave a speech about a woman's right to "choose." I jotted down all her talking points and got up to speak after her to debunk everything she just said. One of the first things I asked the class to think about was what the girl before me meant by the word "choice."

Today I am using this blog to participate in a large social media endeavor to counter NARAL's Blog for Choice Day. by asking them, "What do you mean by that word, "choice”? Down on the Pharm has written a good explanation of this effort:

January 22 is a special day for the abortion supporters to push their cause using blogs and social media. It’s the 39th anniversary of unfettered recreational abortion brought to you by your Supreme Court.

The pro-life bloggers and their contributors are using the same day to ask them: ‘exactly what do they mean by CHOICE’? This campaign is rebirthed by Jill Stanek and friends. Feel free to join the party. If you tweet, add #tweet4choice to your effort. Use your facebook or similar accounts too! It’s good clean fun, and will drive NARAL nutz.

So, 39 years ago the US Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand in a decision called Roe vs. Wade. Since then 55 million babies have been brutally murdered under the guise of this word "choice," which NARAL is blogging about today in celebration of the occasion.

We've all heard the left's mantra that no one can tell a woman what to do with her own body. That's what the girl in my class spoke about in her speech. I agree with her. No one should force anyone's body to do anything. We need to live and let live. Where I disagreed with her is that I don't believe a baby inside a woman's womb is "her" body. That baby's body is its own, and no one has the right to force it not to live. As long as we're talking about a female's right to "choose," let's start with the 30 million females who have been aborted without any rights to choose anything, especially the most basic right of all, that of life.

What some are calling choice is actually the opposite of choice. What some are calling rights is actually the opposite of rights. A mother saying she has the right to "choose" to abort her baby for nothing other than her own convenience is like a Nazi saying he has the right to murder a Jew . . . and then claiming he has the moral high ground because he cares about people's rights.

Why I Love Jesus, But Can't Stand This Guy || Written Word

So there's this new and hip video making its rounds on the internet. Jeff Bethke made it a few days ago and already it has over 3 million views on Youtube. Whether you agree with him or not (and I don't), there is no doubt his latest video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” — which he describes as “a poem I wrote to highlight the difference between Jesus and false religion” — is provoking discussion across the web. Check it out:

He's right when he says "Religion says do," but he's wrong about Jesus coming to abolish religion.

This guy says he loves Jesus but hates religion's message of "do." Yet Jesus is the one who said that if you love him you will "do" what he commands (John 14:15). The book of James says "do." The sermon on the mount says "do." Jesus came to abolish religion? I don't think so. He came to abolish every other religion except his own which He came to establish. Jesus came to establish HIS church and HIS disciples, under the Holy Spirit's guidance, organized and started the largest religion the world has ever seen.

Also, why is Jeffke so insistent that "Republican doesn't mean Christian?"Are there people out there making the case that the largest religion in the history of the world is the same thing as a political party that's been around for less than 200 years? Who is he arguing with? What's his point?

My guess is that he's grappling with the fact that so many unenlightened "religious" people in America lean toward the Republican Party more than they do the Democrat Party. Well, look buddy, this isn't a hard one to figure out. Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me" (Matt. 19:14). Democrats say "kill the little children who inconvenience you." Jesus said marriage was to be between one man and one woman (Matt. 19:4-6) and so does Barack Obama . . . I mean . . . .er . . . oops. Anyway, the Republican Party platform reflects like no other party the Judeo-Christian values. Deal with it.

Those are the main things about this video that stuck out to me. Let's look at some of Jeffke's other statements and see how well they do upon closer scrutiny:

"If religion is so great, why does it start so many wars."

Because some things are worth fighting for. Hippie.

"Why does it build such big churches yet fail to feed the poor."

You should read John 12. Mary took a pint of the best and most expensive perfume and wiped the Lord's feet with it. Judas argued that the perfume could have been sold and the money could have been given to the poor. But Jesus rebuked Judas and said, "You will always have the poor among you." The moral of the story? There are times to give to the poor and times to give your best to God. The church I used to attend kept having to build a bigger building because their congregation kept getting bigger and they didn't like having to turn people away from the gospel. Am I to believe that is a bad thing?

And if you are really upset about churches not feeding the poor you would be encouraging everyone to become a republican as well as a Christian. Historically, churches always did feed the poor until Democrats' big nanny programs got people turning to the government for help instead of the church. I'm pretty sure that was their plan all along. And it worked.

If Jesus came to your church, would they actually let him in?

Yeah, man. We invite Jesus in every Sunday morning when we worship. But we don't cherry pick. We like everything about Jesus because . . .

When He established his mission
We believe he meant it.
And unlike your revision
We don't resent it.

Now take the Bible literal
Think about it just a little hyper-critical
And you'll see this isn't political
But that anyone can be hypocritical

We live in a sinful world.
That's the infection.
Where Jesus is the cure.
And religion is his direction.

I want to feed the poor.
But there's this thing called common sense.
I don't want to go to war.
But I believe in self defense.

Yes, Jesus rebuked those teaching circumcision.
But I puked, too,
When I saw you
Preaching your own religion.