State-Owned Churches Are Killing America

State-Owned Churches Are Killing America
By Chuck Baldwin 
February 3, 2011

Archived column:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=3022

America was birthed in the spirit of liberty and baptized in the
blood of patriots and tyrants. Leading the charge in America's fight
for independence was a courageous group of patriot-preachers that came
to be known as the "Black Regiment." I have written several columns on
this subject. Suffice it to say here that I invite readers to take a
look at my Black Regiment web page to learn more about this early
American phenomenon. There is little doubt that without these stalwart
Christian pastors, this country would not have come into existence. (I
extended this call for a modern-day Black Regiment 5 years before
Glenn Beck ever mentioned it.)

See my Black Regiment page at:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?page_id=23

Plus, to read my column regarding the Black Regiment that was
published in The New American magazine in 2009, go to:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/history/american/1789

So, what did these colonial preachers have that today's preachers
don't? The better question might be: what did these colonial preachers
NOT have that today's preachers do? The answer? Two things: 1) an IRS
501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation status, and 2) a 50-year
misinterpretation of Romans chapter 13.

The now infamous 501(c)(3) section of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC)
goes back to 1936 (the seeds of this Venus Fly Trap date back to
1872). But then-Senator Lyndon Johnson was the Dr. Frankenstein who,
in 1954, unleashed this monster upon America. His motivation was: he
did not like the way pastors and churches were opposing his liberal
agenda, and he wanted to use the power of law to silence them. He,
therefore, introduced verbiage to the IRC that churches were
prohibited from influencing political legislation and supporting
political campaigns, or risk losing their tax-exempt status.

Of course, colonial pastors didn't have to worry about their churches
being "incorporated" as State-created (and controlled) entities, or
about IRS agents intimidating them regarding what they could or could
not say. In early America, preachers were free men; they could say
whatever they darned well pleased. Gasp! Beyond that, virtually
everyone regarded preachers as being "God's men," not the "servants of
men."

Today, however, the average pastor has become the servant of the
State and the church he pastors, more often than not, has become a
creature of the State. It is an absolute fact that State-owned
churches are killing America!

Dick Greb of the Save-A-Patriot Fellowship in Westminster, Maryland,
wrote:

"Many Americans find it disturbing that some of our churches today
are little more than milquetoast corporations that fear our federal
government more than the great I AM. Moreover, it can even be said
that some preachers have the appearance of cringing, 'politically
correct' cowards, rather than committed Godly men of fortitude with
backbone, such as those we read of in the Bible." (Source: Greb, Dick.
"The 501(c)(3) Hallucination: A Bane to Liberty." Reasonable Action
Issue #244 Winter 2003.)

Dear reader, you can take this to the bank: the vast majority of
pastors and board members of these 501(c)(3) corporations, when push
comes to shove (and it always does), will demonstrate unconditional
loyalty to the State. Plus, they will compromise or sacrifice any and
every Bible doctrine or principle in order to preserve their
tax-exempt status and stay on the smiley side of the IRC. They will
also throw anyone under the old proverbial bus who might risk them
falling out of favor with the IRS. (I can give painful and personal
testimony to that fact!) Greb is right! Many, or most, of today's
pastors and church officers fear the federal government far more than
they fear God.

Not only did colonial preachers not have to contend with putting
their churches under some State-controlled corporation, they would
never have allowed it to happen! Can one imagine John Leland, Jonas
Clark, or John Witherspoon being told by any State official what he
could or could not say, or what his church could or could not do? What
a joke! These men were willing to go to prison or even the grave in
order to remain faithful to their spiritual calling and to their
political and moral convictions!

The other thing that colonial preachers did not suffer from was a
50-year indoctrination of a misinterpretation of Romans 13.

This "Submit-to-the-government-no-matter-what" doctrine (using Romans
13 as the pretext) is a satanically inspired lie designed to turn free
men and women into slaves of the state! Students of history know that
Adolf Hitler encouraged German pastors and churches to promote this
same fallacious philosophy among the German people. Gee! I wonder why?
And according to Erwin Lutzer's book, "Hitler's Cross" (must reading,
I might add), out of the more than 14,000 evangelical churches and
pastors in Germany at the time, only about 800 remained faithful to
Scripture and opposed Hitler's brand of state worship. If my math is
correct, that's about 5%. And it would not surprise me if 5% is about
the percentage of pastors and churches in America today that are
opposing this modern-day worship of the state.

At this point, instead of embellishing upon Romans 13, I am going to
insert a commercial. I began a series of messages on Romans 13 last
Sunday at Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, Montana. In fact, by the
time you read this, Part 1 of my message on Romans 13 will be
available online.

To view my message, "The Truth About Romans 13, Part 1," go to:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=3014

I will continue my series on Romans 13 this Sunday, February 6, 2011.
I invite readers to watch this address live on the Internet. To view
this livestreaming broadcast, go to:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?page_id=17

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do
nothing." So said Edmund Burke. And, unfortunately, the good men that
are mostly doing nothing and allowing evil to triumph in our land are
the good men (and women) of America's churches who have either been
intimidated by the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation status, or who
have been put into a sheepish, servile, Satan-induced coma from an
overdose of misapplied Romans

13 poison.

To quote the famous Bible commentator, Matthew Henry, "It is the
devil that stirs up his instruments, wicked men [in government or
without], to persecute the people of God; tyrants and persecutors are
the devil's tools, though they gratify their own sinful malignity, and
know not that they are actuated by a diabolical malice." (Source:
Matthew Henry's Commentaries on the Bible, notes on Revelation 2:10)

Yes, the Black Regiment preachers of colonial America helped lead
America's fight for freedom and independence. But, they did not have
their hands out to the IRS, or their minds and hearts numbed into
apathy and indifference by decades of misuse and abuse of Romans
chapter 13.

P.S. My son, Timothy Baldwin, who is a historian, author, and
constitutional attorney, is in the process of publishing a new book
entitled, "Romans 13, The True Meaning of Submission." I have read it.
In the similitude of Tim's first book, "Freedom For A Change," this
book is an absolutely brilliant and scholarly presentation of the true
meaning of Romans 13. Watch my web site, or Tim's web site, for
information regarding this new book's release.

My web site:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com

Tim's web site:

http://libertydefenseleague.com/

And, if you have not yet ordered Tim's book, "Freedom For A Change,"
I enthusiastically recommend it to you. Order it here:

http://libertydefenseleague.com/freedom-for-a-change/buy-from-the-author/

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(c) Chuck Baldwin