An Article of Faith

One of the reasons our founding fathers declared “Independence” 239 years ago this coming Saturday, July 4th, was for “Religious Liberty.” Religious liberty is not a gift of the U.S. Constitution but the gift of God.
What is “religious liberty?” Dr. Hershel Hobbs defined it this way: “It’s the right of every man to worship God as his conscience dictates. It means equality before the law, not only of all forms of the Christian faith, but also of other religions.” And, I might add, of no religion at all.
Over the past two centuries oppressed Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Jews have flooded into America. Why? Because our Christian culture respects their individual liberties and offers endless opportunities.
Pluralism – or “Religious Liberty” – thrives in America as a direct result of our Christian heritage, not in spite of it. Thus, if you remove Christianity from American culture, then everything about this country ceases to exist.
John Adams (1798) declared, “Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people [viz., Christian people]. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”
In Luke 20:25 Jesus states a general principle that has specific implications for religious liberty: “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
The principle? As disciples of Christ we’re citizens of both heaven and earth. Render to Caesar [viz., the government] the things that are Caesar’s (Romans 13:1-7), and to God [viz., Christ] the things that are God’s (Luke 10:27).
Three specific implications for religious liberty can be drawn from Jesus’ general principle.
First, God alone is Lord of the conscience. No government has the right to claim coercive power over any individual’s conscience in matters of faith and religious belief. The church must rely on “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17), not the sword of the state, for the conversion of souls and the redemption of culture.
Second, religious liberty means that unbiblical creeds or confessions have no authority. As Christians we are not under obligation to affirm unbiblical “dogma” that’s not contained in the Bible or contrary to it, even if some political authority demands it.
Finally, civil disobedience is sometimes required to preserve religious liberty. Jesus’ parallel command in the second half of v25, “and to God the things that are God’s,” doesn’t imply that government and God are on equal ground. Loyalty to God always stands above loyalty to the state, especially when man-made law contradicts God’s Law.
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Jessie J. Charpentier Sr. is pastor of Jenkins Memorial Baptist Church in St. Martinville.