Scripture Meditation (Ephesians 2, NKJV)
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
My blog of a fortnight ago today about the caveat in Romans 13:1’s Submission to Governing Authorities on their not committing evil (with cross-references to Daniel 4 and Enoch on heavenly ‘watchers’) brought this response from Sidney Cordle, leader of the Christian Peoples’ Alliance:
“I discussed this yesterday on LCBN TV on this video starting 26mins: SHOULD CHRISTIANS BE IN POLITICS? on LCBN TV UK 28/08/2024. It basically supports what you are saying.”
He subsequently advised “We’ve done a summary which is 30 mins instead of 1 hour as follows which is in the CPA youtube link”
Therefore, I recommend Sidney’s exposition for your reflection (especially his reference to accountability of prophets and to a possible reason for the similitude of lack of God’s protection on 7th October to the destruction of Jerusalem) and considered response…
Christian People’s Alliance is a member of the European Christian Political Movement (ECPM), which includes Christian-democratic and Christian-social parties, NGO’s and think-tanks in Europe.
Read About the CPA and Values: What We Believe and visit its website here
Auto-generated transcript of interview and discussion (emphases RB):
“Why should Christians be involved in politics yes well this is a very important issue because one of the
issues which comes up in churches and around when you’re talking to Christians
is um well you know why do we need a Christian party why shouldn’t we just vote for one of the secular parties and
interestingly enough I came across um emails from Green peace now I don’t want
anyone to get the wrong idea that I support Green Piece but I like to get information from people that are my en
is if you like that campaign against us I like to see what they’re up to and what they’re doing and green piece
basically said that they had actually sent out something like a million over a million pieces of literature and they
knocked on I can’t remember the exact figures but it was thousands and thousands of doors in support of the
green party as well as pushing their policies within the labor party and the
conservative party and other mainstream parties and um that’s a model for us to
think about because you know it’s not you know the Christian People’s Alliance only and you know no Christians should
be involved in any other party but there’s nothing wrong in pushing hard
for Christian values within the Christian people at the same time pushing for Christian values within the
mainstream parties the two are not against each other the issue is compromise yes and you know no Christian
should be compromising their faith no matter what it and that’s why we need the Christian
People’s Alliance it’s like if you’re like a beacon of light as an example to Christians this is what we really want
to stand for but it’s disappointing that generally speaking the church hasn’t got behind us and Christians generally
haven’t got behind us so that’s why we need this broadcast to say look this is what the Christian People’s Alliance is
all about this is what standing for Christian for for God in politics is all about and all Christians should be
getting behind us yes okay so the the first point is like you
say love the Lord your God with all your heart all your mind with all your strength and in Psalm 24:1 it says the
Earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof the world and all who dwell in it so these are all pervasive verses so
you know it’s not it’s not like you know well um I go to church on Sundays and
that’s when I worship God and the rest of the week I campaign for the labor party I mean you know I’m sorry but
that’s not you can’t I know you can’t you know and Jesus also said you know if
you’re going to come after me you take up your cross and follow me um for you save his life will lose it but if you
lose your life for my sake you find it so Jesus is saying you know no I demand everything I I you know I I there’s
nothing which is not meant to be surrendered to me the next point I think which is important is that you know is
that people go to um what Jesus said when he was asked is it lawful to pay
the tax to Caesar or not yeah and Jesus says give Caesar what is Caesar’s and
give God what he’s got and some people say oh there you are that’s um God isn’t
interested in the realm of politics he says you know let’s Caesar just have his and and then there’s this realm which is
Caesar’s realm which he’s to have and there’s the realm which is God’s realm which which which he’s to have no that
it’s a completely misunderstanding of what Jesus was saying there isn’t a realm of politics that God isn’t
interested in because Jesus also said um you cannot serve two masters you either
you’ll be devoted to one or despise the other you know so how can he say on the
one hand you can’t serve two masters and on the other hand say oh this realm of politics I’m not interested in that
Caesar’s realm you know let let Caesar have have that realm no that’s not what
he was saying what Jesus was saying was because they said show him the coin for the and he says who inscription is it
was saying let Caesar have his money God will take care of you now this was
actually quite radical our primary Authority in every situation is God and God always has to
come first and God is always the person to direct us and to lead us and to guide
us there is not a realm that God is not interested in yes we have to put God first because otherwise you know if we
if we say Jesus Christ is Lord then you know that that means that
we are we yield and submit ourselves to him and to his word throughout his time
on Earth was Kingdom and it’s quite interesting the word Kingdom appears 54
times in Matthew yet the word church only appears three times so Jesus did
talk about church but only very rarely he talks about Kingdom all the time and
the most obvious he talked about kingdom was when he gave his disciples the Lord’s Prayer he said don’t Heap up
empty phrases he said just pray simply and precisely Our Father in Heaven your
name is Holy your kingdom come your will be done on Earth as in heaven now if we
stop there for a minute and think about what Jesus was saying he you know Realm Of
Heaven is where God’s Authority is absolute and there’s no one in heaven
that is not subject to God’s Authority and God’s Rule and God’s
Reign Jesus said we’re to pray that we should experience God’s Kingdom on Earth
in the same way as it’s experienced in heaven so he was saying you to pray for
God’s kingdom to cover absolutely everything every aspect of life so so if if people just talk about
church and not about Kingdom see what they’re talking about is God’s reigning
on Sundays or when they’re in church or when they’re when they’re with other
Christians but when it comes to secular life business life whatever it is then
in that area that well you know we just get on with that in normal life and then we no I’m sorry God wants to rule in in
this what some people call talk about the seven mountains of influence which includes business it includes media it
includes sport you know it it it includes every aspect of life and it
certainly includes government and God wants to to rule in politics and to be in charge of the whole political system
that’s the truth of it that’s what his kingdom means we need churches we need
pastors we need ministers to get involved and to you know I had so many
people contact me voicing their frustration that their Church refused to
get involved in in political issues okay well yeah so the next issue which I want to address is the issue of government
because people say you know well particularly with Romans 13 but I want to start by referring to
Isaiah chapter 9 because in Isaiah chapter 9 it talks about Jesus and it
says of Jesus you know the it says the government will be upon
his shoulders let me let me give the exact quotation yeah so it says to us a child is born to
us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor Mighty God
Everlasting father Prince of Peace of the increase of his government and of
Peace there will be no end he will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom
establishing and upholding it with Justice and righteousness from that time
and forever now it’s interesting you see that’s that’s government and he say he’s
going to sit on David’s Throne you know David was a king in charge of government
yes and it says that Jesus is to govern everything and rule over everything and
it will be forever so it won’t just be he’s not just going to come and and rule
for a short period of time and then disappear no he’s going to come and Rule forever so in Jesus left he said I’m
sending you Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit will be with you forever so we have God
With Us now here with us yeah he wants with us to reign in government now that
then brings me to Romans 13 which I’ve referred to before which we need to refer to again where in Romans 13 it
says let everyone be subject to the governing authorities because there’s no Authority except those appointed by God
now we got to understand what Paul is saying in Romans 13 is that we should
never engage in violence to overthrow authorities that’s what he’s talking about he’s not saying you always have to
do what government tells you to do no, no, no, because there’s sometimes there
are there are government like for instance in Russia Today that is or in
China you know that closing churches China’s giving orders that um you know in the churches you was we have have to
approve your sermon first and you have to say sermons that praise the Communist party now if we had to do
everything that authorities say then we’d have to do what they say and preach in churches the the Communist Revolution
no that’s not what’s being said what’s being said is that we’re not to engage in violence to overthrow the
authorities but we can speak to them and we can speak God’s word to them and we have to speak God’s word
now I think this is comes out more clearly and more startling in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1-5 I’m going to read this because I think this is important we need to unpack this so that
says I mean Paul is right again I urge first of all petitions prayers intercession
Thanksgiving be made for all people for kings and all those in Authority that we
may live Peaceable and quiet our lives in all godliness and Holiness this is good
it pleases God our savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth for there is one
God one mediator between God and Mankind the man Christ Jesus so what is Paul
saying Paul is saying that we’re to pray for authorities and we’re to pray that
God will speak to them so that we can live as Christians as God wants us to
live peacefully now that doesn’t mean if authorities don’t listen and
want to close churches and make orders like I said in China that we then we
then have to do what they say no it means that we have to pray that God will
deliver us and spare us and we will boldly proclaim the word of God whatever it costs you see I think another example
is is what the Peter and John said right at the beginning when the Holy Spirit came they cured the man who was
lame yes were upset because he was going around saying you know you know he
was he was now cured and they ordered them not to speak anymore in the name of
Jesus the name of Jesus yes they did what the authorities were saying you mustn’t speak in the name of Jesus and
this is what’s being said in some cases today as I say in China in
North Korea you must not speak in the name of Jesus but what did they say did they say well you’re in charge Authority
so we have to do what you say no no whether it’s right in the sight of God
or man to obey you or to pay him you must judge but we cannot but speak of the things that we’ve seen and heard and
that has to be our attitude we will not compromise our faith we will always
speak in the name of Jesus no matter what it costs no matter if we end up in prison we will not resist speaking in
the name of Jesus but we will pray for those in authorities we will pray that God will lead them in the right way we
will not pick up arms and try and shoot and bring about a revolution that is not godly so that gives us a clear
indication of what we’re meant to do and engaging in politics in the political system is is actually giving God the
vehicles to put Christians in power which is what God wants he wants his
people in power so we’re actually doing God’s will when we’re standing in elections for to put God’s people in
power does that make sense yes yes absolutely because you know God you know
cares for every aspect of society and you know Christians in politics and in
places of power will be submitting to the word of God and to the Holy Spirit
and to the authority of God’s word the next issue which people might well confront us with is to say well okay
what does this mean practically I mean I can’t go to the Bible and say well you
know what should I attitude be towards nuclear weapons what does the bible tell well the Bible doesn’t mention nuclear
weapons what about our Economic Policy what about should our policy be on inflation what should our policy be on
debt well we can’t get a lot of information there from the Bible on those issues what about what about crime
you know what should our attitude be towards building new prisons or how should you know it’s like well there’s
no clear answer from the Bible so so you say well the Bible doesn’t tell us the answer to these things so we we so well
yeah but okay well what where we come to there is two verses the first one is
John chapter 10 ver 27 the other one is James chapter 1 verse 5 John chapter 10:
27 says my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me James
chapter 1 verse 5 says if anyone lacks wisdom let them ask God yes now if you
can hear God’s voice which Jesus says all Christians can hear God’s voice but if you can hear God’s voice then you can
say God what is your will in this situation now at this point I want to
make it clear we have to do this humbly and we have to do it subject to other
prophets so it says the the the spirit of the prophets must be subject to the prophets so we don’t go around saying
God has told me and if you disagree with me you’re disagreeing with God which um I’m afraid there have been a few people
that I’ve come across that have taken that attitude that is wrong that is not godly
The Godly approach is to be subject to one another but you can say I believe
God is saying do you believe this is right and we can allow other prophets or
other Christians indeed that hear God’s voice to say yes I agree I believe
that’s absolutely right or you can allow others to say no I’m sorry I don’t agree
with that I don’t believe you’ve heard from God on that I don’t believe that’s right but they it’s then up to them to
say what they believe God is saying now we apply this now
practically I mean the whole of the Christian People’s Alliance Manifesto has come taking this approach so people
read our Manifesto and I think you find in the manifesto you find incredible wisdom and I can’t go through the whole
Manifesto now because obviously it would take far too long but it’s there on our website www. CPA party.net which I think
there’s parts of it that are written behind me but you know you can click on
policies you can click on the manifesto and you can read it but just to give one
example I genuinely didn’t know what our attitude should be towards nuclear
weapons now my background is from the conservative party I was there because
as a child I was very strongly influenced by the persecution of Christians behind the Iron Curtain I
should say more as a teenager than as a child as a teenager I had a
this the one of the leaders of our church used to go regularly behind the Iron Curtain with bibles and come back
with harrowing stories of the way Christians were being persecuted and arrested for nothing just simply for
reading the Bible and simply for meeting together and um he used to say if we’re
not careful it could come to our country and as a young man I was saying I’m not going to let this happen to my country
and as a student I used to speak up against communism against socialism speak up for freedom and um I wasn’t
part of any political party I just stood as a Christian yeah and indeed I put
organized Christian stools in in National union of student conferences I was actually appointed as the leader of
Christians in student politics so that’s but then when I left University I felt I
had to join one of the major parties and as a friend of mine advised me the best party for me to join was the
conservative party so that’s how I ended up in the conservative party but I was always a Christian first in the conservative
party I wasn’t a conservative but also a Christian I was a Christian in the yes
and um that’s that that was my position so um in that in that position
in the conservative party uh it was natural to support nuclear weapons
because that was part of the conservative party policy and conservative party policy was we need
nuclear weapons to defend ourselves and um I was of the opinion if you just
got rid of all nuclear weapons how could how could you know people say well you know how are you going to defend us then
and as far as a Christian how could our a Christian say just we’re going to well we’re going to get rid of all our weapons how can people vote for a party
that’s not going to defend us but then on the other hand people could say well if you were prime
minister and um you are expected to press a button that was then going to um
kill a million people people because you got to launch a British nuclear weapon on a major city could you do that and
they be like well no I couldn’t I couldn’t as a Christian launch a weapon was going to kill a million people how
could I no if you’re not willing to use it then what’s the point of having it so
we then have to say God what’s your heart here what’s your what do you want us to be saying on this issue yeah yeah let us pray and I felt God say missile shield and that there will be in time um developing
technology where it’ be possible to divert missiles and then you think wow yes and
um it’s actually if you think about it well it’s what Israel is doing now you
know with the Iron Dome shooting down stuff yes that’s right it’s it’s what Donald
Trump has been saying you know we need to develop in in in America more uh you know a bigger missile shield in in fact
when they w threats from North Korea the first thing they did was to say well we got to have a missile Shield so that if
they do launch any missiles from North Korea that we can uh we can pull them
out the air and destroy them we’re not just going to threaten North Korea with wiping them out if they wipe us out you
know you know we’ve got to be able to shoot down these missiles yes and this is Godly defense because you are
defending but you’re not killing yes and it’s not my idea this came from prayer
and interestingly enough in elections when we put forward that policy well you know we believe our priority should be
missile Shield you know developing technology to divert missiles and shoot down missiles so that no missile can get
through the shield and and and Destroy um any towns in Britain you know isn’t
amazingly you know in a hustings a lot of people say yeah it’s a great policy it’s a brilliant policy and far better than
spending billions you know renewing nuclear weapons spend you know spend the
money on a missile shield now so that’s just example to people to say as we pray
and as we hear from God he helps us develop a policy that is Godly that works yeah yeah yeah that’s a really
good example s wow yeah very good
amen well if we are let me ask you something for Christians to get involved
in politics and to be in politics what would you say how does how does that work
practically okay well um I very obviously we want people to be involved
with us with the Christian People’s Alliance and um if you want if you want
to be involved with us then the email is info@CPAParty.net so you can just
send an email and you can say hello I’m so so uh I heard your broadcast I’d like
to be involved and um we need your um
you will obviously will’ll have your email if you also give us your mobile and you give us your post code please so
we know what part of the country you’re in then we’ll be back in touch with you we’ll give you information and the next
thing you’d have to do would be to join the party which um it doesn’t cost much I mean it’s only 25 a year for a single
person or two pound a month so not it’s not a lot of money to join the party but you’d have to join the party and then if
you if you don’t join the party we could then take you to the process we we send you a candidate application form which
is quite simple to fill in and it’s only just one page of A4 you can fill it in electronically and send it back to us
once we’ve got your membership we’ve got your candidate application form we can then take it from there to actually
putting you in place as a candidate for CPA so that’s that’s ideally what we
want people to do um but obviously we also need money I mean the amount of money we had in the last election was
pathetic frankly I mean you know we probably did the whole election with about 15,000 and that was still you a
number of candidates paying their own deposits of 500 privately you know and but you
think that the amount of money that the major parties have got runs into millions millions millions I
know why why should we as Christians be be desperately struggling with it you
know with hardly any money trying to make ends meet you know whereas whereas
you know the secular parties have got millions it’s time for Christians to actually say I want to give if you want
to give then then you’ll find donate buttons on our website you know we’d love you to donate just one other thing
I want to talk about which is which is God’s attitude to government now this is
very very interesting because I want to go here now to um Matthew
23:37 so in that verse Jesus says Jerusalem Jerusalem you who kill the
prophets and stone those sent to you how often I’ve longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings but you were not willing look your house is left
you desolate and then a few verses later he refers to the temple and says truly I
tell you not one stone here be left on another everyone will be thrown down so Jesus
was referring to the destruction of Jerusalem which took place in 70 AD some
40 years after he was speaking now we know that from Luke 3:1 in Luke chap 3
verse 1 says that Jesus started his ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius
and we know that Tiberius became emperor in 14 AD so Luke is actually telling us that the year was 29 AD when Jesus
started his ministry people believe Jesus’ Ministry was about three years so on that basis Jesus died in 32 AD so
the destruction of Jerusalem we know was 70 AD that’s what Jesus is talking about yeah
but Jesus said here if you had allowed
me to gather you together and protect you then the destruction of Jerusalem by
the Romans would not have happened now and we need to stop and
think about that for a moment because you know that’s like incredible but that’s what Jesus is saying see the
truth is that the governing authorities did not accept Jesus’ Authority yeah
they rejected him yeah you they many times they tried to arrest him and um
sometimes he just walked out of their midst in the end they did successfully arrest him and put him to death but Jesus knew
what was in their hearts and in their hearts was a complete rejection but if the Sanhedrin if the
Jewish authorities had recognized him as their Messiah and had said you know like
they did on Palm Sunday welcome blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord welcome you see it’s interesting after
the crowd said that to Jesus he went to the temple and was the next day was
rejected by the governing authorities but if the Governing authorities accepted him Jesus said well I would have
protected you and I would have guarded you and Jerusalem would not have been destroyed now that means that Jesus said
I have authority over the Roman Empire yes the Roman Empire is not
stronger than me than the Roman Empire Amen to
manifest that Authority you have to call upon me and accept my authority and ask
me to help you yes now if you bring this bang up to date some people may
wonder why did God allow October the 7th to happen to allow one to allow Hamas to
invade Israel and kill 1,200 people and take 253 people off God allow that to
happen surely you know God could have stopped Hamas doing that now you look and see what was going
on in the Rave that was going on in the Negev they were worshiping a
Buddha – you see now that doesn’t mean that God killed those people as
punishment but what it meant was that they were not claiming the authority and
protection of God to guard them at that time because they were worshiping a false god and God wants us to be in this
place where all the time we’re calling upon him and asking him for his protection yes and he will only protect
us when we ask him see this is why prayer is so important you know yes and
you know it talks about prayer Rising as a sweet incense Before the Throne of God and God hearing the prayers of the
Saints you know sometimes people think well why should I bother to pray you see it’s only when we pray that we receive
God’s protection and and and we get in tune with God’s Authority but you see
see if we go back to what I said earlier about the Lord’s Prayer you know we’re to pray your kingdom come your will be
done on Earth as in heaven which tells us two things one is that God’s will
does not automatically happen if God automatically happened we never have to pray your will be done but it tells us
that we can pray that God’s will will will be done on Earth in the same way as
it’s done in heaven and it will happen because Jesus would never have told us to pray your will on Earth as in heaven
happen but it can happen live in this realm where God’s Authority happens all
the time and that’s the that’s the realm he wants us to live in he doesn’t want
us this realm where we’re punished because we’re or we’re not protected because we’re worshiping false gods you
know we have to understand this one final point I perhaps make is one of my
favorite verses in the Bible with it is Ezekiel 22:30 I look for a man to stand in the
gap of the land that I would not destroy it now you see it’s quite interesting you see so what was Jesus looking for he
was looking for somebody who would pray and for somebody who would Proclaim
to the nation his word which is quite interesting I mean I love the story of Jonah because you know you see you know
everyone thinks of Jonah and the wild but I think Jonah 3 is amazing because after Jonah got off got got got over
going right off in the wrong direction yeah um he goes to Nineveh and proclaims
to Nineveh God is going to overthrow you unless you repent repent and Nineveh
repents repent everyone repents you know he must to being some incredible preacher and it’s like oh yes it’s
happened again I predict I’ve told told them that God is angry with them and he’s going to overthrow them and he doesn’t
do it and of course you know he’s You’ got Deuteronomy which says you know well if what people prophesy doesn’t come to
pass and they a false prophet so that’s why he was upset because people call me a false prophet because you know he
didn’t think they were well you know but you know but the thing is God said I’m looking for a man
that will stand in the gap for the land you know and Jonah stood in the Gap and Nineveh wasn’t overthrown because they
repented and you know but it’s interesting God isn’t looking for thousands of people he’s looking for
faithful people that will Faithfully Proclaim his word and will not compromise that will stand for him and
he will use them if you’re somebody like that he says yes I want God to use me and come on Now’s the Time to Say Yes
I’m standing for God in and let God use me and God have authority over me and
God have authority through me to touch the nation then your email is info CPA
party.net and join us amen”
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