439 and Beyond: An Illustration of the Separation of Church and State | CBTS
In our most recent edition of Nick of Time, I provided a copy of the letter Chinese house church pastors first issued on August 30, 2018. The initial letter contained 29 signatories; two days later 87 more signed their names. That number had grown to 279 by September 6; this was the number reported in last week’s issue. According to the St. Charles Institute there are now 439 names on the list. This number is likely to grow as news of this declaration spreads. Plug in “letter from Chinese pastors” into any internet search engine and you will find dozens of stories about it.So how can Gospel-preaching American churches profit from considering these brave words penned by our Chinese counterparts? We could consider several themes raised in the letter, including the content of the Gospel message, the final authority of Scripture, the nature of acceptable civil disobedience, the demonstration of Spirit-motivated courage, the mission of the church, and the biblical role of civil authority. But space constraints permit me to concentrate only on the subject covered in declaration #4 which actually intersects with the last two themes regarding the mission of the church and the role of government: the principle of the separation of church and state.
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