A Barna study showed that 90% of pastors believe the Bible speaks to social, cultural and political issues of the day. But the same survey also showed that 90% of those pastors said they had not nor did they plan on preaching on those same issues. Dr. Jim Garlow, founder of Well Versed World and author of Well Versed, joins Dr. Rick Scarborough on a recent episode of Mixing Church and State God’s Way on the Charisma Podcast Network to discuss the biblical foundation of government.
Dr. Garlow recognizes that, like the pastors in the Barna study, most people would also agree that the Bible addresses relevant topics for today. However, what is not understood, Dr. Garlow says, “is that the Bible speaks to the civil governance of life” as well.
When a church recognizes these truths about the relationship between the Bible and governmental issues, they become a church with a biblical worldview. Dr. Garlow says that means they “apply the lens of Scripture to every issue, including governmental, including all things so-called political.”
Pastors have a unique challenge set before them as they implement a biblical worldview into their church atmosphere. Dr. Garlow says, “We have to be a prophet in the same culture where we want to be an evangelist. We don’t want to offend the people we’re going to lead to Christ.”
His encouragement would be to “understand that you’ll be accused of being on the wrong side of history, but you’re gonna be on the right side of eternity.”
Listen to the full discussion here. {eoa}
