Making The Good Confession

This week we're considering American civil religion , a phrase coined to describe the unique role that religion plays in America. The question before us is how does a committed Christian bear witness to his faith in that pluralistic context, how does he make the good confession?

The Apostle Paul writes the following words to young pastor Timothy about his calling to bear witness to his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as his one and only Savior.

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . - 1Tim 6:12-14 ESV

Note the phrase the good confession used twice by the Apostle. What is that? Paul explains what he means by referring to the Apostle John's record of what happened when Jesus was tried by Pontius Pilate, Prefect of the Roman province of Judea, after the Jews accused Jesus of doing evil by claiming to be the Jewish Messiah, i.e. king of the Jews (John 18-19). Pilate told them to make their own judgments. He didn't want to be involved. However, they said Jesus deserved to die because of his claims. Since Roman law forbad them from carrying out capital punishment, they wanted Pilate to do it. This led Pilate to call Jesus to stand for a trial before him.

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 

Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”   

Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”   

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” 

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him." - John 18:33-38 ESV

Jesus openly accepted the title of 'king' before Pilate. This was why he was born. This was why he came into the world. But—and this is critical—his kingdom was not of this world. Here we come smack up against the Jesus' teaching of the two kingdoms. I wrote in detail about this in a series of blogs last August:

• Let Us Start To Talk About The Two Kingdoms 
• The Authority Of Secular Government
• Thank God For Good Government

As noted, Jesus was a king, but not a worldly king. However, Pilate was, with authority ultimately derived from above, from God (John 19:11). Jesus teaches that good governments must be respected. Good governments are God's gifts to preserve order and justice in a world that is ultimately under the rule of Satan, the god of this world (John 12:31,14:30; 2 Cor. 4:4).

Pilate at that moment represented such a government of law and order. The Jewish Sanhedrin on the other hand was operating contrary to its own nation's laws. The members of that worldly government—for that is what it was—were driven by greed, a desire for personal power, wealth and hate. As such Jesus' servants would be within their rights to resist that government's decisions, even with force if necessary.

So we come again to the question of how does a Christian make the good confession in a two-kingdoms world, a world that defies and despises Christ? Christ's followers are ever to bear witness to their faith in Jesus, the Christ, just as Jesus told his disciples after his resurrection.

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. - Luk 24:45-48 ESV

The Apostle Peter encourages us in the same way.

. . . in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, - 1Pe 3:15 ESV

But how do we do that in a pluralistic country like the United States where believers and unbelievers are mixed? Certainly we believers are prepared to work hand in hand with unbelievers to maintain the good and oppose moral evils such as drug abuse, abortion, euthanasia, pornography, child abuse and many other deviant sexual behaviors. There is, after all, such a thing as "civil righteousness," based upon the natural knowledge of God that comes through conscience and human reason. Civil righteousness recognizes the importance of obeying parents and rulers, honoring marriage, protecting all from harm and murder, and punishing those who steal and rob. We Christians join with unbelievers to promote and sustain such righteous acts.

Further we offer prayer for the well being of all, for our rulers and legislators, police and armed forces and all in authority. We even pray for our enemies. And we pray outside the context of the fellowship of believers. As we pray, we make it plain that we pray to the one true God. We confess openly that there is none other even as we pray.

However, there are times and contexts outside the fellowship of believers when public prayer may not be appropriate. More about that next time.

Another Look At Capital Punishment

Capital punishment—the very phrase spells controversy. It points to a crime pronounced worthy of death. Civil laws in the various states and by the Federal government allow the death penalty for a wide variety of crimes:

• Murder
• Treason
• Aggravated kidnapping
• Drug trafficking
• Aircraft hijacking
• Placing a bomb near a bus terminal
• Espionage
• Aggravated assault by incarcerated, persistent felons or murderers
• Killing or attempts to kill any officer, juror or witness in cases involving a continuing criminal enterprise
• Sexual battery or attempted battery with injury to a child under 12
• Rape of a child less than 10 (some laws say 12, others 14)
• Second conviction for sexual intercourse without consent accompanied by serious bodily injury

The death penalty in the United States is used almost exclusively for the crime of murder. Although state and federal statutes contain various capital crimes other than those involving the death of the victim, only two people were on death row for a non-murder offense (Patrick Kennedy and Richard Davis in Louisiana) when the U.S. Supreme Court addressed this issue in 2008. No one has been executed for such a crime since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court in Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, held that the death penalty for the rape of an adult was "grossly disproportionate" and an "excessive punishment," and hence was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. The Court looked at the relatively few states that allowed the death penalty for rape and the few death sentences that had been handed down.  

Some states passed new laws allowing the death penalty for the rape of a child. In 2007, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Patrick Kennedy for the rape of his step-daughter, STATE OF LOUISIANA v. PATRICK KENNEDY (No. 05-KA-1981, May 22, 2007). Kennedy was convicted in 2003. However, Louisiana's law was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25, 2008. See Kennedy v. Louisiana for more information. This decision also held that the death penalty would be disproportionate for any offense against an individual that did not involve death of the victim.

So far the United States. What about the Bible and Jewish civil laws in the days of the New Testament? We come across the following in John 8.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" - Jhn 8:2-5 ESV

What laws were those? And why? Here's what we read in the Old Testament about crimes deserving the death penalty:

• Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. 

• Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. - Lev 24:16-17 ESV 

• For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

• If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.  

• If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. 

• If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 

• If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. 

• If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. 

• If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. - Lev 20:9-16 ESV

What kind of laws were those? Death for cursing your parents? Death for adultery? Death for homosexuality? Death for perverted sex with an animal? Death for blasphemy? We need to take a serious look at these laws and ask ourselves as Christians how to view them. What, if anything, does the Holy Spirit teach us in our day?

More on this next time.