Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: The church and the state are totally separate, and yet the believers in Christ who make up the church are to recognize that God and the state are never to be separate and that they have a Christian relationship towards the state and are to support it. Thus we see that belonging to Jesus Christ integrates us into our own place in society. We radiate the majesty of his presence in us, directed by him in all things and learning to live his life among men.

Narrator: Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio outreach which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The application of God's word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled, What are Our Obligations.

Many people say that they support and believe in the separation of church and state. But what they really mean is they want to see a separation between God and state. But God is just as much Lord over government and the state as he is over the church and every area of life. What are the Christian's obligations to the state and the governing authorities? And how can we fulfill them in a Christlike manner? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 13 and verse 7. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, What are Our Obligations.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ we come unto thee our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. We want the light of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the pages of thy word so that we may know where and how to walk before thee. We want to please thee, and we know that if we are to please thee we must first learn thy will and be utterly surrendered to it.

So teach us we pray thee and bless the going forth of thy word in this hour, that it may reach the innermost recesses of the soul and bring forth life and light. And these things we ask in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In our study in Romans 13 we come today to the text in verse 7: Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. There must be a clear recognition of the joys and benefits that we derive from our government and a willingness to pay the cost of these benefits.

We go back to the history of Israel and find a terrible verse that is all the more terrible because God repeats it. Twice it is written in the book of Judges: In those days there was no king of Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes. The horrors of those days stain the blackest pages of God's people.

If for only three days every individual was left at liberty to do exactly as he pleased and to obey all of the evil impulses of his nature, there would be chaos in our communities. We would soon see how much we owe to the Congress and our legislatures for enacting wise and wholesome laws and how much we owe to our police and our courts for enforcing these laws.

We owe the peace and order which we enjoy to our civil government. Our lives are preserved from injury and our property from thievery and violence through the protection of our government. God tells us that we must pay the cost of this protection. The authorities who are to receive our taxes and our respect and honor are said to be ministers of God.

In these days when there is so much disrespect of authority, so much juvenile delinquency, so many gangs, so much crime, we should consider well that the authorities who govern us are called the ministers of God. The ministry is not in the sphere of religion but in the sphere of government. When we understand this passage, we see the proper relationship of church and state.

There are two extremes that must be avoided: that of the domination of the church over the state and that of the domination of the state over the church. The first error is to be seen in those countries where religion has come to exercise its sway over the civil government, the second under such philosophies as fascism and communism.

It should be noted that the Reformation did not fully escape in this respect from Romanism and Judaism. Calvin established a state in Geneva, merging civil powers in religious things, and such folly led to burning a man alive. In our own day some legislators say that they rejoice in the tremendous moral pressure that is exercised by various spiritual groups.

If this can be kept in the sphere of survey, study, counsel, and advice, it can be good. If it ever slips over into the realm where a church dignitary or committee seeks to command a civil servant, then it is horrible. Now the church of Jesus Christ has a heavenly calling and presently an earthly life, but that life is not to be aimed at a reformation of society but as a testimony against it.

History shows us that where a church claims spiritual directive authority over government, the people finally rise against it and seek to throw it off. The Bible tells us that in the future the state under Antichrist will thus destroy the scarlet woman who rides the beast. It is therefore very important that the Christian support the state under God.

And that he do all possible to prevent state domination of church or church interference with state. The true Christian ethic, therefore, demands a total allegiance to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and in response to his command, a yieldedness to civil government in all the phases of its proper jurisdiction.

Tertullus stood before Felix and said, "Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your provision, most excellent Felix, reforms are introduced on behalf of this nation, in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude." And that verse out of the Bible sets the tone for believers.

And again we come back to the theme that such government is expensive and that Christians are enjoined to pay for it. Pay your taxes, Jesus Christ said to those who asked if it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar. Pay your taxes, says the Holy Spirit in our text, and pay all other obligations no matter what they are.

Government is expensive, so taxes are justly paid to support such necessary expenses. Now we know that some of the taxes will be badly used, but we are to pay them anyway. We may not approve of some of the causes upon which the government spends money, but how taxes are spent is not our primary responsibility. We are to pay them.

Calvin said, "Paul takes occasion to introduce the subject of tributes, the reason for which he deduces from the office of magistrates. For if it be their duty to defend and safely preserve the peace of the good and to resist the mischievous attempts of the wicked, this they cannot do unless they are aided by sufficient force."

"Tributes then are justly paid to support such necessary expenses. But respecting the proportion of taxes or tributes, this is not the place to discuss the subject, nor does it belong to us either to prescribe to princes how much they ought to expend in every affair or to call them to an account."

"It yet behooves them to remember that whatever they receive from the people is, as it were, public property and not to be spent in the gratification of private indulgence. For we see the use for which Paul appoints these tributes, even that kings may be furnished with means to defend their subjects."

Now those of us who live under a democracy are in the same situation as those who live under any other type of government. The American Christian must pay taxes to his government. The English Christian when the Labour Party is in power must pay taxes to a socialist government. God has decided this.

In the day when our text was first written to the Romans, it was Nero who was in power and he was the Caesar to whom the followers of Christ had to render that which was his, taxes to his treasury and respect to his office. Now before leaving the subject of taxes, I want to give a personal testimony about a change in my own attitude toward the subject.

For many years I resented taxes terribly. As a young man when I got out of the army, I spent seven years in Europe, mostly in France, and these years were among the most formative of my life. One cannot live in France as closely to the people as I lived without absorbing some of their attitudes.

And the French are so constituted that they resent all taxes. In late years we can remember the Poujadists, who had their little moment as a political party on the platform that they would not pay taxes. It seems almost incredible to us that a score of representatives should be elected to the highest legislative body of the land on such an avowed platform, but this was the case.

And I had a little of this attitude in me. Then when I returned to America, I developed a further animosity against taxes because I believed that it was unjust to make some ministers pay taxes while the clergy of another segment of Christendom pay no taxes whatsoever. It seemed to me that this was not fair.

And inwardly I raged that some clergy, who seemed to deny themselves no luxury, should contribute absolutely nothing to the national treasury. But the time came when I was brought to face this whole matter for myself as an individual Christian, responsible to God alone and not to be concerned about anyone else and the justice or injustice of their position.

I knew that William Howard Taft, while he was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, had said that it was the duty of every citizen to avoid the payment of all taxes and to evade the payment of none. This is common sense and a Christian can well follow the advice, taking every lawful deduction.

But my attitude toward taxes today is quite different. I buy my gasoline with its large percentage of taxes and am very thankful for the fine roads over which I am able to drive at ease and even for the police that patrol and protect those roads. I go through a national park and rejoice at what our taxes are doing for the relaxation of millions.

I see our lighthouses or the trail of a jet plane in the sky, and I am grateful for the forces that guard our coasts and defend our skies. Some time ago one of our news magazines carried the story of a stockholders meeting at which the president of the corporation had spent more than an hour talking against the government and its taxes.

Finally a woman rose and interrupted the speaker saying, "Mr. Chairman, I'm thankful for our country and I enjoy paying taxes. Will you please get to the point and tell us how much our profits are and what our dividends are going to be?" Yes, the Lord says to the Christian that he is to pay his taxes.

Another item of statistics states that 2% of our entire national income goes for benevolences, approximately half of this going to the Red Cross, community chests, medical services, etc., and the other half going to the churches of the country. 1% for all religion.

Now there are many Christians who give a tithe, who give their 10% to the church and above this are faithful in their charities outside the church. This is well-pleasing unto God. 1,700 years ago, Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, remarked that what the Romans lost by the Christians' refusing to bestow gifts on the pagan temples, they gained by the conscientious payment of taxes which the Christians were never slow to give.

Now before leaving the question of taxes, it should be said that a government has no moral right to vote confiscatory taxes. Our nation was born under the theory that taxation without representation is tyranny. One of our earliest Chief Justices, John Marshall, said that the power to tax is the power to destroy.

Any exercise of that destructive power, however, must be considered as villainy. And Mr. Justice O. W. Holmes rightly stated that the power to tax is not the power to destroy while this court sits. The existence of an income tax that is graduated above one half of a rich man's income cannot be considered otherwise than an infamy.

The existence of the higher brackets in our tax structure is a low playing to the poorest mass of voters and is not worthy of a nation with high moral principles. The commandment 'thou shalt not steal' is addressed to Congress as much as it is to individuals, and the extent to which some demagogues want to soak the rich is as much a breach of this commandment as is the work of a highwayman at the point of a gun.

I know of one case where our tax structure takes 52% of a certain man's income in corporate taxes, and then 93% of the remaining 48 is taken in personal income taxes, and if he should die, another 90% of his capital would be taken. This would mean that more than 99% of his wealth removed by the present tax structure.

Now why does this man remain in business? Only because of a dedicated zeal for his tens of thousands of employees who are dependent upon him. Now the above instance may be taken as a transition to the last half of our text. After saying you're to pay taxes, you're to pay revenue to those to whom they are due, the Christian is now told that he is to render respect to whom respect is due and honor to whom honor is due.

This divine command needs the especial attention of Christians in the United States. We have become almost by nature more lawless than our British cousins, and this arises in part from our colonial history and our failure therefore to obey such verses as that which we have in our present text.

The citizens of this country were aware of the pressure that was put upon them by the governing class in Britain, and there arose a contempt for those in authority. I am not at all in agreement with Benjamin Franklin in what he wrote when he was still in his teens as an essay for his brother, in which he attacked the pretensions of place and power.

It sounds pretty when you first read it, but fundamentally we can see that it's at fault. "In old time," Benjamin Franklin wrote, "it was no disrespect for men and women to be called by their own names. Adam was never called Master Adam. We never read of Noah Esquire, Lot Knight and Baronet, nor the right honorable Abraham, Viscount of Mesopotamia, Baron of Canaan."

"No, no, they were plain men, honest country graziers that took care of their families and their flocks. Moses was a great prophet and Aaron a priest of the Lord, but we never read of the Reverend Moses, nor the right Reverend Father in God Aaron by divine providence Lord Archbishop of Israel."

"Thou never sawest Madam Rebecca in the Bible or my Lady Rachel, nor Mary though a princess of the blood after the death of Joseph called the Princess Dowager of Nazareth. No, plain Rebecca, Rachel, Mary or the widow Mary or the like. It was no incivility then to mention their naked names as they were expressed."

Now this may appear to be right, but a close study of the Bible will show how wrong Franklin was. And God himself has showed us how he established the kingdom with Saul, David, and Solomon. He, God, gave them the titles of royalty and established that the tithe should be paid to them and that men should give them honor and respect.

Aaron may not have been named the right Reverend, but he was called the great high priest. When Paul was before the Sanhedrin, he was smitten on the mouth by order of a man whose identity he did not know. He spoke out against the injustice, and those that stood by said, "Would you revile God's high priest?"

And although Paul was in the right, he immediately apologized saying, "I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest, for it is written you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people." Now the Christian should apply this in all of life. We may disagree strongly with the policies of a president, a senator, a governor, a Chief Justice.

But we must remember the high qualities of their office and respect the office even if it should be that we do not respect the personality of the man that fills it. Children of Christian families must be taught respect for the policeman, the fireman, and above all for the school teacher.

The Bible tells the parents that they are to whip their children in disciplining them, and it seems to me disrespect for a school teacher should receive a punishment equal to that given for lying or obscenity. The school systems of our great cities could not produce Blackboard Jungles if this respect for authority were inculcated.

The Bible says that the member of a church should have great respect for their pastors and for the elders and deacons who have been elected to guide them. We read in Hebrews 13: Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as men who will have to give account. Let them do this joyfully and not sadly, for that would be of no advantage to you.

And again in 1 Timothy: Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. If such principles are inculcated in our children from their earliest years, they will understand that they themselves must be worthy if they are to hold church office, and they will be slow to vote for others who are not worthy.

This principle which applies in the state and in the church should also apply in all of life. The Christian must be respectful of those who are older. The employee must give due respect to the employer. If you're going to accept wages from a man, you must give him faithful service.

If your employer is an impersonal company, there are nevertheless very personal men in the various gradations of management from the chairman of the board all the way down to the office manager or the foreman in the shop. The Christian will often be in a subordinate position, though he himself will never be servile.

The fact that we belong to Christ and have been redeemed by him gives a very high quality to our being. We have great respect for ourselves, and one of the reasons that we can respect ourselves is that we are yielded to Christ and therefore know ourselves to be good citizens.

We know that we have high respect for those who have been placed in life above us, whether in business, government, or the church. We have respect for the office and therefore honor those who hold the offices. We in turn can look with frankness on the faces of all who are our equals in position and with dignity on those who may be below us.

And from whom we may command respect by the efficiency of our working and the simple fairness of our dealings. Thus we see that belonging to Jesus Christ integrates us into our own place in society and that in all directions we radiate the majesty of his presence in us, directed by him in all things and learning to live his life among men.

As he was heaven's word made flesh dwelling in the midst of humanity, so we become that same word made flesh dwelling in the center of our own circle to his honor and glory. And thus men will see him in us and glorify our Father which is in heaven. And we pray thee our God and Father that thou shalt take these lessons to every heart and use it to thy glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

Narrator: Christians are called to be model citizens as we live in Godly submission to the government and civil authorities and faithfully fulfill all of our obligations in this sphere of life. We hope you have benefited from today's Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible message entitled, What are Our Obligations. To listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse, visit us online at Alliancenet.org. Again our website Alliancenet.org.

An audio copy of today's teaching is also available by calling us toll free: 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled, What are Our Obligations, or simply request message number R13-7. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, Death is Swallowed up in Victory.

In this four chapter booklet, Dr. Barnhouse answers such questions as: What happens the moment you die? Where are the dead right now? Is there such a thing as soul sleep? These and many other questions on the subject of death are treated with profound biblical insight. Are you grieving the loss of a loved one or struggling with the issue of death? Ask for your free copy of Death is Swallowed up in Victory when you call or write.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals exists to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of Reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

The Alliance also produces the radio broadcast, The Bible Study Hour, featuring the teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and Every Last Word, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. For a full list of radio stations carrying our programs, please visit our website at Alliancenet.org.

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Write to us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Visit us online at Alliancenet.org. Be sure to ask for a free resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding Reformed teachers and theologians, including Doctors Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken. Thanks for listening today. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.