Liberty Alert With Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz

The following program is sponsored by evangelical life ministries.

Welcome to the Liberty alert with Gregory sells, sponsored by our friends at the Lutheran center for religious Liberty here in Washington, DC, a program that cuts to the chaos and confusion in the culture today by talking to kingdom, citizen old biblical principles for robust public Christian life. And now your host, Dr. Gregory ultz

Good day, good day, Washington DC, and friends of the program all around the country. I'm Gregory. Ultz welcome to the Liberty alert where every week we try to cut through the noise and take on the issues, especially the public issues that matter to people of faith. Today. I want to get back to some foundational things, because there are foundational principles. There are foundational truths that, that undergird what it means to be human, what it means to participate in a civil tolerant in society, what it means to be righteous, all those kinds of things that are so important that, that actually tell us what it, what human life is is meant to be, what life is all about. And we want to talk about some of those things today, and that's why the title of our program today is it's lent. So let's talk about religious Liberty.

I mean, what's that all about how do those two things go together or do they go together at all? And today? No guess I'm just gonna reference an article that was written by, uh, shotty Hammid America, without God, it was printed in the Atlantic. And I'm gonna quote that in just a minute on a couple of things, but I, I want you to begin this, see things like religious Liberty and the whole notion of, of actually being free to believe what is true and what is just, that is a biblical view of life. And so America is appropriated some of that. Yeah, but it, it, it goes much deeper than just whether America gets it right or not. It's whether it is right for all religious Liberty is something that all should cherish too, if you wanna maintain a free society. And so again,

The biblical

World view undergirds, all those things, even as it challenges us to live self-disciplined virtuous lives for the sake of others. And so lent lent is one of those times that challenges us to go deeper. I mean, there are people today who think that all of the solutions to life are either economic or political. How sad, because there are questions that cannot be answered by public policy. There are questions that cannot be answered by how big your bank account is. We know that's true and lent, pushes us to ask those deeper issues or talk about those deeper issues and push for those deeper questions and deeper solutions. And so in lent, we see God's law and God's grace in action. And it also gives us a sense then of what it means to actually be human. It really gives us a sense of what it means to be free, free, to not just do as we please, but free to serve free, to be faithful.

And then it gives us a sense of what dignity human dignity is all about. And all of that stuff depends on whether there's a God in heaven who actually cares. And Lynn says, not only does he care, but he has been, and is in action to preserve and to save the world in which you live. Now, what's also really interesting is the biblical worldview talks about the Christian's role as ambassadors in this society. And, and it talks about how God is at work, even through Caesar, not to save the world. And Caesar usually is kind of an, a metaphor for government and, and coercive power and that kind of thing. But the Bible says Caesar doesn't save and, and Caesar has limitations and, and Caesar has a thing is Caesars supposed to do? What's amazing in America is that the whole notion of give to Caesar what a Caesar to give to God was God's.

Well, America actually said the citizen is Caesar and in America, the government official works for the one to whom he has to give his allegiance and his representation. And that is the American SI. That's why citizenship is so important. So Christians have a role to play as God's ambassadors and in America, that role is expanded because we're, we have a role to play as Christian citizens for the sake of others. But ultimately our goal is to be reflections of Christ in service to our neighbor, no matter what's going on in government, in, in economics or in whatever's going on in the culture. Now, all of that's part of our Lenton deep dive, as we try to see where we are in reference to who God is and where we need to be as God's people in the world in which we live. So let's just jump in.

Let's just talk about this today because, uh, lent is a, an important, it's an important time. Still, even in our increasingly secular culture, people stop for lent. They think about things differently for lent and some people I know, treat it more like it's a, it's a it's 40 days of reflection for those of you're not Christian or don't know anything about this lent is a time of spiritual prep preparation, 40 days of preparation that culminates in the activities or the actions of Jesus in holy week. And, and so this is a time where Christians examine their lives. They examine their need for God, and they prepare to hear God's message of judgment and then forgiveness, mercy and eternal life as a gift. Why? Because of the person and work of Jesus, the work that happens on good Friday and the work that happens in his resurrection on Easter morning.

So lent is a preparation for this incredible message that sins are forgiven, and life is eternal for those who put their faith in Christ. But some people treat for lent as just, is kinda like 40 days of a reflection about life. Almost like an elongated spiritual new year's resolution practice actually lent is way, way, way more than that. There's nothing wrong with those kinds of things, cuz you're, you're trying to take certain things seriously, but lends is so much more because lent actually reminds us of what Christ did for us. When he spent 40 days in the desert being tempted by Satan himself in our place, a culminating in his final work for the whole world on the cross. And it really points to this notion that the issues that we face are way bigger than merely politics or economics. Um, the Bible actually in fact lent is actually, are we gonna take God's analysis of our problem?

Seriously? He says, sin is the problem in every human heart. And it is a problem that human beings can't overcome on their own terms or by their own terms, no matter how much technology we have, no matter how much money we have, no matter how much political will we have, it's not enough to overcome the sinfulness and the brokenness of every human heart. It drives us back to that Bible verse and Genesis three words says, remember that you are dust and to dust, you shall return. You know, the biblical notion of, of death death was not supposed to be a part of the human experience. Again, I don't want to get, uh, too deep into the theological testimony of the Bible on this, but it's a basic truth that human beings are broken. We're not unlimited in our capacity to deal with the issues that that we face.

And so Ash Wednesday, the whole season of lent is not so much a time of sorrow. It is that cuz we see the problems, but it's a time to repent focus and to put these peripheral items of life in their place and focus on what matters now, all that to say, that's why it continue used to be so distressing that America is being instructed to do without God. And that's why I quote that article America, without God in the Atlantic and the main premise of this article, I'm not gonna read, you know, get into the whole art article, but it says that as religious faith has declined, ideological intensity has arisen. And, and I would challenge even that statement. I don't think faith is just in decline. I think it's being purposely targeted for destruction. If you put your kids in a school from kindergarten through 12th grade and then four more years of college and grad school and the whole notion is that God has nothing to do with their formation, nothing to do with their education.

You you're basically targeting and, and driving out the biblical notion that there is a moralness to education that there's a moral structure to education. That education is not just about facts and figures. And it's not just about personal feelings. There's there's things like virtue, there's ethics. And of course then there's faith and all of that's part of a healthy education. The Bible actually says, uh, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. And so if we're actually striving for wisdom and education, driving God out of the whole educational process is not a good thing. So in this article, Shadi Hamid, he, he says, will the quest for secular redemption through politics do the American ideal? And the answer is absolutely because the American idea of constitutional government and by the way, the constitu doesn't talk about faith much, but it's the declaration of independent and you're, you have inalienable rights from God.

And that's why the constitutional limitation of government is so valuable and so important so that American citizens can live virtuous lives that are motivated by their faith, that self discipline. So they don't need to be told what to do. They do what is right and good for the sake of their neighbor. So one of the things that he says in this article, which I I thought was, you know, so this is a direct quote from the decline of religious influence America, without God he says, if the secularist had hoped that declining religiosity would make for more rational politics, drained of faiths, inflaming passions, they are likely disappointed as Christianity hold in particular has weakened ideological intensity and fragmentation have arisen American faith. It turns out is as fervent as ever. It's just become political. I would agree with that. And there's still so many people in the church who do not think that this is happening, that this is purposely happening in our, in our culture.

There are people who are trying to drive the Christian worldview and the biblical worldview, the Judeo Christian worldview, as it were out of the public square. But there are ramifications to that, the whole notion of what it means to be human, what good government is, all of those things will be driven out as well. And so that's why I think it's important to talk about religious Liberty in this time of lent because in the time of lent, we're reminded of Jesus telling us that Caesar's work is nothing compared to his, but holding to biblical that values to the biblical view of life does have blessings for a culture. And that means it even has blessings, uh, for non-believers too. So again, in lent, you wanna make sure, you know, what is ultimate in life, and then you want to know what properly serves, what is ultimate in life and don't mix the two.

So that's why we can come to grips of the fact that faith in life in Christ is unique, joyful freedom, filled mercy, overwhelmed, morally directed for the sake of our neighbor, with blessings, even to a society that gives wisdom, even if it gives lip service to that, but gives wisdom its proper place. Unfortunately, there is a rebellion against that kind of wisdom right now. And we've gotta, we've gotta address that. We've gotta deal with that. We even need to fight against that. So that means that we take this differentiation of God's work through Caesar, his preserving work through politics that can all that stuff. We gotta take it seriously. God's work even to preserve the world through families, whether they're Christian families or not. But we also wanna see that getting right with God on his terms is what is ultimately what life is all about.

So we can, we can talk about the implications of that. So in this article he's saying that we're gonna lose a whole lot, the things that we cherished because there's no secular foundation, no secular motivation for those things. So when we talk about the implications of a life that honors God honors, marriage honors, private property, honors life, honors, sexual fidelity and commitment. You know, when you think about the implications of a life ORM implications of the culture that stresses these things lent actually roots us in something far deeper than economics or politics, right? That's why, uh, there's another book. If you wanna read this at your leisure, I recommend it. It's Luke Goodrich's book free to believe because he reminds us that this whole notion of religious, Liberty's not merely some American cultural politic or even secular enlightenment ideal. It flows from a theology of who God is, you know, who, what God has done and what God wants for his people.

And so, you know, he reminds us that God wanted us to worship him in spirit and in truth freely. And so if our relationship to God has built on freedom, surely our relationship to government should be too. So now in that book, by the way, and that that's a good read. Uh, he was the lawyer that helped, uh, win the Hosanna Tabber case, which is before the Supreme court, which is one of the major rulings about religious Liberty and religious exemptions. So where churches and schools and preschools can hire people who believe as we believe because that's part of our religious integrity. And he talks, uh, again about how we relate to this notion of religious Liberty and Christian citizenship. He talks about, uh, different kinds of folks. He says, there's the Pilgrim perspective. Uh, those who wanna maintain a Christian dominance in culture as if government and church were two sides of the same coin, by the way, that's not us.

We'll talk in a minute about who we are. He says, there's the martyr perspective where church and government are always at odds. And then there's the beginners. Those who are overwhelmed with the task. Well, when you read his book, he tries to help you as a beginner, uh, come to a healthy understanding of how, how we as Christians engage this world. And we talk about it like that were two kingdom citizens who know how to put the government in its proper place. As we seek to share the ultimate good news of grace for Christ and all. And as we try to live freely for the sake of our neighbors. So a two kingdom engagement or government has its role, but it's a role that is secondary to the family. It's secondary to the church. It's secondary to free individuals living freely for the sake of others.

So again, you know, when you, when you read this lent, actually it, it makes us ask the question. What, what does it mean to be human? Now it's interesting Christians because we divide the ultimate issues of, of faith. We don't want governments legislating this or preaching this, but government should do its job. They're the, they're the final curb to keep us in the proper lane or they're the final backstops so that we don't go over the edge of, of Liberty is, and we're doing as we please. So that's why Len's important. You know, it's a time of repentance and reflection, but it's a time to go deeper in, in these kinds of things. And so I think it's also a time where we as, uh, Christian people, it's a time to stand up for the moral teaching of the Bible because it will bless a culture that honors it.

And of course, and it'll build in us a wisdom because as we seek to be faithful to what God wants us to do, you know, we begin to realize how difficult that is because we are too sinful and broken people as well. But when we strive for the things on his terms, it begins to build wisdom in us as well. I love, uh, Chesterton has that. I use it all the time and I'm gonna paraphrase here, but he just says, you know, I didn't like when he was young, he was not a Christian. Um, and later on he became a Christian. He was a journalist back in England and Chesterton said this. I didn't like Christianity when I was young, seemed to put up all these barriers. And I didn't like barriers. I don't like people telling me I can't do this. Or I can't do that until I realized that where God put those barriers, those moral barriers, if you will, it was for our good, it was so that freedom could run wild.

Cause without those barriers, we'd run over the edge to our demise, you know, it's so it's that notion that God knows. Um, and God loves us and cares about us even when he says no. And of course, gods know, always directs us to his yes, for us in Christ. So it's time to also realize that God's moral teachings are a, a blessing to us as, as human beings. That's why I love what George Washington's. He said, he's said virtue or morality is a ne necessary spring of popular government. You can't have our kind of government, without it, even Martin Luther king said, the church must remember that it's neither the master nor the servant of the state, but the conscience of the state, it must be the guide and the critic of the state and never its tool. And that's why we gotta get involved.

And that's why with the COVID 19 things, you know, when they tried to say the church was a secondary, instant tuition, we had to fight that back. Say, no, I'm sorry. It's, it's more important than economics. It's more important than politics. Now, the other thing too is Len tells us that if you start to really struggle with what's what these deeper issues are. Um, religious Liberty then reduces social con uh, conflict because faith is the foundation of tolerance because God is the ultimate judge and faith puts the best cons instructions on things, faith in God, tempers our potential arrogance in ourself. Our trust, uh, that we, that we think we're bigger than our bridges. And it provides room for other people in our lives, even if we disagree with them. And that's why, again, you know, I'm quoting a lot of these are just secular people.

JF, John F. Kennedy said the rights of man come, not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. And, and you know, we at the LCR L are, are obviously come to that because our rights don't come from the state. The state has no authority, uh, to grant them or to take them away. So again, lent drives us to deeper things and our constitution enshrine that, that struggle for those deeper things in the first amendment, because in first amendment, it said that religious Liberty, our conscious relationship before God is the most fundamental right. Of all. And we've lost that understanding. We think that faith is just something we do or we don't do. And most people say, well, in fact, a lot of people define faith. As I believe in myself today. What, how can you be the, the conscience of yourself when you are by definition, uh, the Lord of your life?

I mean, what kind of there there's no, there's no benefit there. You just do as you please. That's another way to say, just do as you please. But when you have a religious notion of your relationship to God and when things that are bigger than you and when the 10 commandments it, it are moral, uh, directives that have authority in your life that undergirds a self-disciplined citizens life that undergirds a healthy government, because it begins to show us why freedom of speech is so important. Why freedom of, of association so important, why freedom of so important by, by freedom, from unreasonable search and seizure, which is basically a government outta control doing as they please, why it's so important and why freedom, you know, from cruel and unusual punishment is so important too. But you know, again, this whole struggle with land, right with God drives all these other questions too.

And it begins to see why even the founding fathers who said that religious Liberty was so important, we begin to see why. And we, we begin to see why it does what it does. You know, when you watch, uh, some of these police shows every time they arrest to criminal, they have to read him his rights. Do you know why? Why is that true? Well, it's because the government doesn't have the right to do as they please. So this whole nation, this whole notion that you are, you are innocent until proven guilty. Do you, do you know that that's a relatively recent principle in government because when you live under a monarchy or when you live under, uh, an oligarchy or when you live under tyranny or all that stuff, you are guilty until you are proven innocent. And we're seeing a, you know, a move like that, even in our culture, like, wow, as long as, as long as the Monarch has all the right principles, well, monarchs tend to become iCal over time.

And the founding fathers actually protected us from the tyranny of monarchies. And the tyranny of democracies were a constitutional Republic where you as an individual are, are given Caesar roles or, or political, uh, responsibilities. And the way to do that is to live virtuous lives, motivated by your faith in service to your family and to your neighborhood. And that all flows from a Len and deep dive into what is really important in life. But last thought, then one last thought, um, religious Liberty, you know, so lent religious Liberty. Why are we talking about these two things together? Well, because one undergirds the other that's for sure, but religious Liberty doesn't mean much. If it doesn't find its ultimate foundation, the ultimate message and ultimate motivation in the love of God, because of God, it's redemption for our humanity in Christ. So again, that's what I'm saying.

Lent is so important to all of these things, because it starts to struggle with this notion that, you know, we need to know God as the providential creator of our life. So even people don't know the Christian uniqueness of God's work in the world through Jesus. Well, when you know that there's a God in heaven who actually provides a world that is orderly or a world that, that has blessings or, or moral structure to, uh, your life so that you can live a life of, of dignity or live a life of virtue. Wow. There's real blessings to that. Ultimately I'd love you to get to know God out as your loving Redeemer. And that's what good Friday and Easter is all about. And when you even know that, then you you're getting to know that life has an eternal nature to it. Life has an eternalness to it.

And so if there's an eternalness to our life, then that even challenges us to live more virtuously right now. And so the foundations, the Lenton foundations that are much deeper than economics are much deeper than politics. They also demonstrate why religious Liberty protection is important because we want people to be able to freely discover and live out these truths. So just something to think about today, cuz a case occasionally I'm gonna step back from our interview of the politics and the economics of what's going on in the world today. And I'm gonna talk about these foundational things, these foundational truths, because, uh, the God who created you is the God who redeemed you and, and knowing that makes even Liberty work and the notions of Liberty work. So a blessed lend to you and thank God you have the freedom to honor it and, and to direct your life and the lives of those.

You love to what is ultimately important, your relationship to God, I'm gonna close with this quote. It said, theology teaches us what ends our to desirable and what means are lawful and politics teaches us what means are effective. So I pray that you take the deep dive of lent with us today because it ultimately ends in the eternal liberties that can only come in Christ, but it even teaches you why the temporal liberties matter too. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today to get to know our LCR L DC work better. Check out our website@lclfreedom.org till next time. God bless you. Always I'm Gregory. Seltz have a great week.

You've been listening to Liberty alert with Dr. Gregory Seltz executive director of the Lutheran center for religious Liberty in Washington, DC. This program has been brought to you by the Lutheran center for religious Liberty.