May I drive an SUV and eat a hamburger ?

Yup. That would have added some interesting scripture.

And Andre did speak, saying unto the Son of God..... "Jesus, you should have planned that better...."

 

You are confusing American cultural values with Scriptural ones. It happens all the time.

It is an American value that church and state are separated. It is not a Biblical one.

Governments are instituted by God and it is the duty of the Church to work to enshrine Kingdom values in all our institutions.

Imagine if the Jews to whom Leviticus was written said, "Well, God, we really do not want to have to obey your Jubilee laws, we have been fighting to rid ourselves of government mandated behaviour - we do not want such a regime".

Make no mistake - the Jubilee Laws were laws of the land - they were the government telling people what to do.

 

I will ask you again. Do you believe we should live under a theocracy?

 

That question is not specific enough. I believe that, within the context of a democracy, we should try to enshrine laws that represent the Kingdom values. So, yes, if we believe that the Scriptures teach that sex before marriage is a sin, we should democratically advocate for making it illegal.

And we should promote the creation of laws against abortion if we believe that to be sin. And universal health care should become the law of the land, if we can make it so in the context of a democracy. Why? Because universal health care is an enshrinement of a kingdom value - caring for the least of these.

All authority on earth has been given to Jesus. Why are we not implementing it? Jesus did not instruct us to pray "thy will be done on Earth as in Heaven, except of course in how we structure and order our society"

 

That was condescending, and wrong besides.

 

Historically, this didn't happen in first-century Christendom.

 

I will take your word on this. But do you not think that the Scriptures teach that we are to enshrine Kingdom values in government. Paul certainly seems to believe this, given some of his statements in Acts.

 

Please get back to the OP, or this thread will be closed. Thanks. LE

 

Maybe from now on, I'll just start deleting posts that derail the threads......:wavey:

 

"Well you can do anything ya want but lay off of my" Fat Mo's super deluxe burger with the works, fries and deep fried mushrooms!

 

The only thing worse than what Senator Obama said would be the arrogance with which he said it.

Please notice how many times he says "I" when referring to these different issues. I will not stand for people attacking my wife. I.... I..... I....

Now we are not to ask questions about his pastor, his wife, his friendship with a known(proud of himself) American terrorist, or other questionable associates. If we do, we are labeled racist.... how convenient!

If he couldn't convince a friend to renounce his terrorism, do you really think he can convince that little guy over in Iran?

This guy is SCARY!

 

How many times can one change in the course of one election cycle?

 

Well, that depends...are you talking only about the voters...or also the candidates stance on issues??? :laugh: :laugh:

okay...sorry that I continued to derail the thread...:saint:

 

The posts are entirely on the topic. The OP introduced an the issue of our responsibility to other nations. That lead to questions about the nature of how our behaviour is to be governed.

 

Back to the op, as long as the product is avaliable, and one can afford the price, one can live any way one chooses. The downside is that once that product is not avaliable anymore, and the money dries up, do you have it within you to adapt? We as Americans consume 20+% of the world's goods being only a few percentage points of the population. Most of us are spoiled and have no idea want it truly means to need.

 

I only address the underlying issue and, frankly, make my case with the Scriptures.

I am not trying to derail any threads.

You do not get a free pass to criticize the position of Mr. Obama and then cry "foul" when the criticism is then legitimately critiqued.

 

I agree with the last bit of the post, but not the bit about "living any way one chooses". Our choices need to be tempered with consideration of how our conumption might create problems elsewhere in the world.