The Divine Institutions and the spirit of lawlessness (5) - a podcast by The Oxford Bible Church

The first 4 Divine Institutions (DIs) were established by God before man fell into sin: (1) FREE-WILL, (2) WORK, (3) MARRIAGE, and (4) FAMILY. Therefore these are the primary DIs, which God ordained to form the main structure for our social life. When the Fall happened, sin came into the world, along with the lawless spirit of satan, which attacks the DIs (e.g, crime attacks our personal freedom). Thus the Fall made it necessary to bring in the next two DIs of (5) HUMAN GOVERNMENT and (6) the NATION STATE, in order to protect the first 4 DIs, by restraining sin and limiting the spread of its evil consequences.

The division of mankind into nations is necessary to restrain the spread of the virus of sin and evil around the world, because if evil takes over one nation, at least it can be contained within its borders, whereas a one-world system is vulnerable to being completely taken over by evil. If all humanity was united under a One-World Government, an evil man would become world dictator, and be satan’s instrument to control all mankind, forcing men to reject the true God. This was and is satan’s Plan.So, the main Purpose of the DIs of Human Government and the Nation State is not to interfere in our lives, by overriding our freedoms, but to restrain the spread of evil, which always attacks freedom, and the other primary DIs: (1) by maintaining Law and Order within the Nation, and (2) by defending the Nation against all external attacks.

In this video, we focus on the 7th and final Divine Institution - the CHURCH of Jesus Christ, which has been invested with spiritual authority by God. The Church is God’s spiritual Representative in the earth, entrusted with the Gospel of Salvation. As a DI, it exists for the sake of all people, including non-members. Its purposes are: (1) to fulfil the Great Commission by preaching the Gospel for the salvation of all people (Mark 16:15-20, Rom 1:16-17), and to teach and make disciples of all people (Matt 28:19), (2) to pray for all men, especially for those in authority, creating peaceful conditions, so that the Gospel might spread freely (1Tim 2:1-4), and (3) to restrain evil and lawlessness in the earth (2Thess 2:6-8, Matt 5:13-16). We have been given the spiritual authority (the keys of the kingdom) to get this job done (Matt 16:18-19).The Church is called to uphold, honour and protect all the DIs, by teaching the truth, preaching the Gospel, and exercising her spiritual authority in prayer, thereby restraining the spirit of lawlessness, which seeks to destroy our freedoms and even society itself, by undermining the DIs, which provide peace, freedom and order, which are necessary for us to be free to fulfil our mission of preaching the Gospel.

We are the SALT of the earth (Matt 5:13). SALT is TRUTH, which restrains corruption. The SALT of God’s WORD includes the TRUTH of the DIs, so as we respect, value and hold forth the TRUTH of freedom, marriage, family, work, the government, the nation-state and the church, we help to restrain corruption (lawlessness) in society. We must stand for the truth of the 7 DIs. We are SALTY by speaking TRUTH and living in RIGHTEOUSNESS, honouring the DIs, and thereby we restrain the spirit of lawlessness in this world. In our prayers, we are to pray for the DIs (for all those in authority), and to stand against the satanic spirit of lawlessness. The Purpose of the Church is to bring men to Salvation through the Gospel and to know the truth through the Word of God (the Great Commission), but that requires the establishment of peace and order in society through the DIs, so it is of first importance that we pray for the authorities (the DIs).

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