The Divine Institutions and the spirit of lawlessness (4) - a podcast by The Oxford Bible Church

Human authorities are imperfect, but we are still required to submit to their authority, which is from God. Authority can be abusive, when it oversteps its boundaries, especially if it tries to override our free-will without good cause. In such cases, we are not required to OBEY it, especially if it tells us to do something that is contradictory to God’s Word, which is the higher authority: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). However, we are to maintain a respectful, submissive attitude toward that authority, even when we are justified in disobeying it, because that authority is ordained by God.

An illustration of how the spirit of lawlessness (rebellion) works (manifests itself), when the authority fails, is seen from the story in Genesis 9 of Noah’s drunkenness after the Flood.This reveals how the spirit of lawlessness works to undermine, discredit and destroy the authority, when it gets the chance. It looks for an opportunity to strike when the authority fails, using this occasion as an excuse and basis to attack and even overthrow that authority, all done under a cloak of righteousness. Thus the lawlessness (rebellion) in a person’s heart is often manifested when an authority sins or fails. This story also reveals that those who are rebellious against God-ordained authorities) come under a curse.

The first 4 Divine Institutions (Free-will, Work, Marriage, Family) were all established by God in Genesis 1-2, before the Fall of man, so they define and describe how God has structured our society, revealing the way that He intends us to live together. So it is vital we honour these institutions and authorities as being of God.The next 2 Divine Institutions: HUMAN GOVERNMENT (Genesis 9:5-6) and the NATION STATE (Genesis 11, Deut 32:8, Acts 17:26) were brought in after the Fall, in order to restrain sin and to limit the spread of its evil consequences, and to help create a society of order and peace, so that the Gospel can go forth freely (1Timothy 2:2-4).

Through the DI of HUMAN GOVERNMENT, God gave man the responsibility and authority to restrain evil in society, and to exercise judgment upon evil. So the primary purpose of Human Government is to maintain Law and Order - restraining evil, by punishing evildoers, according to justice (Romans 13:1-7, 1Peter 2:13-17).The DIVISION of mankind into NATIONS was instituted by God at the Tower of Babel, when He multiplied the languages. This was necessary, because satan’s plan was to use the Institution of Human Government to unite fallen mankind under a One World Government at Babel, in rebellion against God. The Tower of Babel was satan's first attempt to bring mankind under one ruler (Nimrod, a type of his final world-ruler, the
antichrist). Satan’s plan is to create a totalitarian one-world government, under one evil ruler, so he can subjugate all humanity to his will, and cut them off from God, forcing them to worship his antichrist instead of worshipping God.Although globalism with a one-world government sounds like a good idea, it will be the means for evil to take over the world. The one-world vision is based on humanism, that man is basically good, who can create utopia independently from God. But man is sinful and corrupted by power, so this project is doomed to failure. With satan’s help, an evil man will take all the power, and then evil will take over the world through him. So God restrains evil by dividing the world into different nations, which limits the power of any evil ruler. If an evil dictator takes over a nation, his control is limited to that nation. Thus, the spread of evil is restrained.

At this time, satan’s spirit of lawlessness wants to destroy all the Divine Institutions, which are God-ordained structures, which preserve freedom, and stand in the way of satan’s one-world government under antichrist. In particular, satan wants to destroy the Nation State, by removing borders and replacing nationalism by globalism. In the Tribulation, in the last 3.5 years, satan will succeed in establishing his totalitarian one-world government, with antichrist as world-dictator, forcing everyone under penalty of death to take the mark of the beast, and reject God and His Christ, and instead worship the antichrist. Thus, the modern rise of globalism is a sign of the end-times.God will destroy this lawless one-world empire established in rebellion against God (Babylon the Great, the 2nd Tower of Babel), just as He judged man’s rebellion at the first Tower of Babel. He will do this at the 2nd Coming of Christ, when King Jesus will establish His Kingdom over the whole earth.

Thus God ordained the Nation State, giving it the right (authority) to protect and defend its borders, to be a brake on the spread of evil over the world, and to restrain satan’s efforts to set up his one-world antichrist empire.Based on the 5th and 6th Divine Institutions, Human Government and Nation State, the 2 main purposes

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