The Second American Revolutionary/Civil War, Part 15
Rick Joyner
Earlier, we began to discuss the link between the
judicial tyranny threatening our Republic and how the church has been a culprit
in this. We need to briefly elaborate on how this is so.
In
Matthew 16, Jesus asked His disciples who men say that He is. This is the
dialogue that followed in Matthew 16:16-19:
Simon Peter answered, "You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood
did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. "I also say to you that you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not
overpower it. "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and
whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
The “rock” that
The Lord is building His church on is not Peter, which means “a little stone,”
but rather the rock that is The Father’s
revelation about who Jesus is. No one is part of His true church because
they had parents that knew The Lord or sit under a pastor that does. We must
each have our own revelation from The Father of who Jesus is.
Then Jesus
states the authority of this church to prevail over the gates of hell, and what
is bound on earth gets bound in heaven and what it loosed on earth gets loosed
in heaven. Heaven here is not just the next life—it is a term often used as a
reference to the spiritual realm. This is a statement about the remarkable and
yet rarely understood and untapped authority given to the church that what it
releases on earth is pervasive in the spiritual realm. When we understand the
prevalence of the spiritual realm over the earth, we understand its influence
over the affairs of mankind.
So how might this apply with regard to our
government, Constitution, and the judicial tyranny that our Founding Fathers
warned would be the greatest threat to the Republic? In I Corinthians 6, the
Apostle Paul lamented that there were no judges among the church in Corinth.
They were called to “judge angels,” but it was to their shame that they could not
find a single one wise enough to judge the small matters of this life. Now let
us consider, is there a church anywhere where such wise judges can be found?
New Testament church government was modeled after
the Old Testament government that Moses established for Israel and was carried
over into the Promised Land. In this model, elders sat in the gates of cities
to judge the people, hearing and deciding disputes and even carrying out
judicial duties, such as authenticating deeds. The elders established in the
New Testament churches were likewise expected to be the judges of the
congregations when needed. Paul lamented to the Corinthian church that their
elders were not doing this. When he said that this was “to their shame,” he was
likely being far more prophetic than he may have realized, as this lack could
be attributed to most of the shame that the body of Christ has suffered to this
day.
In Psalm 89:14 we are told that
righteousness and justice are the foundations of The Lord’s throne, which is
His authority. Righteousness and justice go together—you cannot have one
without the other.
If
we are called to judge angels, how is it possible that we do not have such
justice in the church? Why is the world not beating a path to our door seeking
our wisdom for justice? It does not do this because the church might be the
last place they think of as having the wisdom of just and righteous judges. We
have strayed that far.
Now there are many false teachings circulating in
the church about God’s judgment, not to mention our calling to have righteous
and wise judges in the church. So the result is basically judicial tyranny in
the church where those with control spirits dominate. Or we have anarchy in the
church where elders are afraid to judge anything. Do we not have the same in
our country? We have those presuming and usurping authority that do not legally
have to impose their own opinions and prejudices on the land, or we have those
who literally let murderers get away with it.
So what is the solution? First, we need sound
teaching on the judgment of God, the Judgment Seat of Christ—the authority that
leaders in the church such as elders have “to judge those who are in the church,”
as Paul asserted that we must. Since judicial tyranny and judicial anarchy are
now the greatest threats to our country, the church that is called to be the
light of this world should have answers to these ultimate issues with a
righteous devotion to justice that even the world would start to desire.
Righteousness is doing what is right in the
sight of The Lord. Justice is basically about people being treated fairly, and
The Lord cares deeply about that as well. Both of these are key factors if we
are going to build our houses on the rock and stand against the storms.