The Scriptures teach that God designed five institutions to establish order on the earth — institutions that have precise roles, responsibilities and objectives that are unique to each of them.
Each institution is to fulfill the purposes it was assigned by God to achieve. It follows that each institution is woefully inefficient and ineffective when it tries to achieve the purposes of another.
Recent events bear this out as we experience the calamitous effects of the institution of commerce trying to moralize a culture!
Businesses have been using their products and services not to fulfill consumer wants or needs as they should, but rather as platforms to force unpopular and radical anti-biblical agendas on the public. But it’s not gone well for them.
One such company is Disney, which is pushing an anti-biblical agenda in exposing children to aberrant sexual lifestyles and presenting them as normal in their movies.
Disney executives vow to make half of Disney characters LGBT or racial minorities. Doubling down, Disney executives fought a Florida law prohibiting teachers from instructing kindergarten through third-grade students on “sexual orientation” or “gender identity.”
In response, the Florida Legislature passed a bill to dissolve Disney’s authority to self-govern, which obliterated decades-old tax breaks. Investors responded to the news that Disney will now pay much more in Florida taxes. Disney stock, which had been at an all-time high in March 2021, tanked. In January, business reporters disclosed that Walt Disney stock fell 43.9 percent in 2022.
Another example is the failed CNN+ streaming service, a repackaging of the network’s ultra-radical and biased newscasts. The service included anti-biblical shows such as “Parental Guidance with Anderson Cooper,” which featured an openly gay man whose two sons were born out of wedlock. The rollout cost CNN $500 million, but CNN+ was canceled within a month due to lack of interest.
Yet another example is Twitter, which banned conservative voices and dispatched armies of “fact-checkers” whose job was to promote radical policies. They boosted certain stories and hid others, such as the well-documented Hunter Biden laptop scandal. One ultra-wealthy American had enough. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, bought Twitter for $44 billion and vowed to make it a platform for free speech.
This recent phenomenon in American business serves to illustrate how things go sideways real fast when an offending institution attempts to usurp another institution’s area of calling and expertise.
In this week’s Bible study, we examine through the Scriptures “God’s Institutions and Their Roles on Earth.”
The sovereign, omnipotent God of the universe administrates, manages, stewards and dispenses his reign in a fallen world — one fractured by sin– through his ordained institutions. They are:
The Church: “Obey your [church] leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.” (Hebrews 13:17)
The State: “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” (Romans 13:1)
Commerce: The point of this study is to illustrate the authority-submission relationship that exists in the institution of commerce both then and now. “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.” (1 Peter 2:18-19)
Marriage: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.” (Ephesians 5:31-33)
The Family: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (which is the first commandment with a promise), ‘so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.’ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:1-4)
The Bible study reveals, through Scripture, the various roles, responsibilities and limits of each institution.
The study also reveals that disaster usually results when one institution tries to usurp another’s territory. For example, when the state attempts to eclipse marriage, a redefinition of marriage occurs. When the state eclipses commerce, socialism is likely to result.
This is a basic and necessary Bible study for every officeholder and every Christian citizen.
My prayer is that God will use this not only to equip you, but to serve others with great wisdom. Click here to read the full study.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
