Editor:
Several decades ago, theologian and Presbyterian pastor RC Sproul asked Francis Schaeffer, “Dr. Schaeffer, what is your biggest concern for the future of the church in America?”
Schaeffer was a well-known philosopher, theologian and author, who founded the L’Abri Fellowship.
Without hesitation, Dr. Schaeffer spoke one word: “Statism.”
Schaeffer’s biggest concern was that the citizens of the United States were beginning to invest their country with supreme authority. This would result in statism, which refers to government systems based on the state’s unlimited power.
Outside of America, this has been the “norm” for most of human history. America, by contrast, was founded on a Bill of Rights and a constitution that specifically limits the powers of government through a series of checks and balances.
Biblical religion has always been a denial of statism.
Statism can rise in many forms: communist, fascist, socialist or “welfare,” to name a few. In all cases, statism is based on the government’s unlimited power.
Differences among statist systems are only a matter of time and-degree; the principle is the same.
Under statism, the government is not a policeman, but a legalized criminal holding power to use physical force in any manner and for any purpose it pleases against “legally” disarmed and defenseless victims.
For example, statists want gun control because fewer guns mean greater dependency on government.
State “ism” means a philosophy or worldview. It is a far fall from statehood to statism, when the government is perceived as or claims to be the ultimate reality. This state then usurps God as the supreme entity upon which human existence depends.
“Statism” is big government that gets its power through coercion (a form of illegal deceit) – the threat of violence.
Statist systems, in whatever form, are based on government’s unlimited power. Statism acts on the evil theory that government is itself the only god.
Unless rejected, statism denies individual responsibility and rights and tends inevitably toward brutality, collective destruction, persecution, slave-labor camps and slaughter.
In stark contrast, the Bible, in Acts 5:29 states, “…we must obey God, rather than men.”
The Bible identifies scores of other limits on the state’s ultimate sovereignty, though when those are not violated, its followers are directed to obey governing authorities.
Currently, America’s founding system of checks and balances to protect citizens’ rights is being intentionally taken apart by academics, corporatists, politicians, economists, celebrities and false religionists to overthrow our constitutional heritage.
Statism is the ultimate enemy of Christianity because it demands trespass and violation of the rule of God’s word, will and laws.
If this troubles you, seek out and support others of like mind – those who value biblical priorities, virtues, morals.
America’s federal government and numerous state and local governments are by orchestrated movements being undermined as America’s historic form of government is being overthrown.
Without Scripture, humans predispose away from civil society to a very different world: statism.
Peter Ready
Albany