I have been pondering this question for some time with mixed feelings. On one hand, the Lord has given us some clear morality guidelines. Yet on the other hand, how far to we push to make others around us obey those guidelines?

Solomon once said that “what has been done will be done again” – so it with this question.

Starting around the time of Constantine, the Church adopted the position that it was called to police morality in society through the control of government. The view persistent for many, many years as the Pope in Rome ruled Europe with threats of excommunication and death by torture for all those who disagreed. The result of this view was the creation of “Christendom” – or, in other words, the creation of the kingdom of God on earth through which mankind would usher in the millennium age of Christ.[@more@]

As history continued it’s forward march, this view of Christendom continued to dominate western society. Only now instead of being ruled by the Pope, the Church was ruled by various kings and queens in their respective countries. However, we also see a different view slowly growing in the remote parts of Europe. This view said that the kingdom of God referred only to one’s personal salvation; therefore, the Church should stop trying to “rule” or police society and focus solely on preaching the gospel.

Growing up in a “free nation”, the church in the United States of America adopted this second view of society for the first few hundred years. Everything the Church did was focused on “winning souls” for Christ – to the extent that life afterwards was either forgotten about or heavily regulated. In a fit of irony, the areas of the nation where the church heavily regulated the lives of it’s people, a form of Christendom emerged with the local pastor at it’s head.

Continued tomorrow…