170. Allegiance to Jesus: Why Tyler Boyd Stopped Saying the Pledge of Allegiance

For years, Tyler Boyd said the Pledge of Allegiance like most people around him. Then one word started bothering him: Indivisible.

So he did something small. He kept saying the pledge, but when everyone reached that word, Tyler stayed quiet. That tiny silence eventually opened a much bigger question.

If Christians already confess Jesus as King, what exactly are we promising when we pledge allegiance to a nation?

Tyler, a writer at The Christian Exile, joins Craig to talk through the argument behind his article The Case Against Christians Saying the Pledge of Allegiance. It is not a conversation about hating America, disrespecting veterans, or creating a new purity test for Christians.

It is about taking a familiar sentence seriously.

The Word He Stopped Saying

Tyler did not grow up suspicious of patriotism.

He describes his younger self as a “principled Republican.” Christianity came first, but conservative politics still made sense to him. Ron Paul helped him question some of the positions he had inherited, and two books sitting on his father’s shelf pushed the questions further.

One was David Lipscomb’s On Civil Government. The other argued from a much more nationalist direction. Tyler read them side by side.

Then he started looking differently at the pledge.

At first, “indivisible” was the problem.

“I would just be quiet when it got to that word indivisible.” — Tyler Boyd, around 09:02

What if a country stops protecting the very liberty and justice named in the pledge? Is a Christian really prepared to promise that the nation must remain indivisible no matter what it becomes?

Eventually Tyler’s discomfort moved beyond a single word. Maybe the problem was not which parts of the pledge he could say. Maybe the question was why a Christian was pledging national allegiance at all.

“I Pledge” Is a Bigger Sentence Than It Sounds

The pledge begins with two words most of us can say without thinking: I pledge.

Tyler wants Christians to slow down there.

A pledge is a promise. An oath. A declaration of loyalty.

Jesus’ words about oaths in Matthew 5 have been interpreted in different ways by Christians, and Tyler does not pretend that debate is settled. His narrower point is easier: if Christians are going to make a pledge, it should not be automatic. We should mean what we say.

Craig knows how uncomfortable that can become in public. He remembers deciding not to participate during the patriotic ceremony at a Memphis Grizzlies game. Sitting while nearly everyone else stood brought the pressure of the crowd into focus quickly. Tyler has felt a similar tension at Chamber of Commerce events.

Tyler still stands and removes his hat as an act of respect. He simply stops before putting his hand over his heart or reciting the pledge. That distinction matters to him. Refusing allegiance does not require contempt.

Can You Respect a Government Without Giving It Your Allegiance?

Romans 13 enters the conversation, as it tends to do whenever Christians start talking about government.

Tyler points to Paul’s language about taxes, respect, and honor. Craig wonders how that passage should be read alongside everything else Christians are told about earthly power. Tyler argues that Christians should be able to disagree with rulers, political parties, and governments without becoming cruel toward the people involved. That leaves an uncomfortable middle ground.

How do you show respect without endorsing everything a government does? How do you obey where obedience is appropriate without turning obedience into loyalty? How do you refuse a pledge without turning the refusal itself into another badge of superiority?

Those questions may be harder than simply choosing whether to stand or sit.

What If “Faith” Includes Allegiance?

That distinction between respect, obedience, and loyalty leads the conversation into a deeper question: What does Christian faith itself ask of us?

Craig and Tyler turn to the Greek word pistis, often translated as “faith.” Tyler argues that modern Christians sometimes hear “faith” mainly as believing that something is true. But biblical faith, he says, carries a stronger sense of faithfulness, loyalty, and lived commitment.

His simple example is marriage. 

Being faithful to your spouse does not mean believing your spouse exists. It means loyalty. Tyler points listeners toward Matthew Bates’ Salvation by Allegiance Alone, which explores this understanding of pistis in much greater depth.

When “allegiance” is simply a form of loyalty aimed at a ruler, nation, government, or cause, the pledge question gets harder. If faith in Jesus includes loyalty to Jesus, what does it mean to stand and formally pledge loyalty somewhere else?

“There Is Another King, Jesus”

There is some language Christians use so often they have lost the political edge of their history.

Jesus is Lord.

Jesus Christ.

King Jesus.

Tyler points to Acts 17, where Christians are accused of announcing “another king, Jesus.”

His argument is that the accusation was not entirely a misunderstanding. Christians were not trying to build another Roman-style government or organize an armed revolt, but they really were proclaiming another ruler: Jesus.

That is the heart of Bad Roman’s familiar line, No King but Christ. It does not mean Christians stop living among governments. But rather it raises the question of who gets the final claim on our loyalty.

“There is another king, and his name is Jesus.” — Tyler Boyd, around 30:26

Not Every Loyalty Is the Same

As Tyler makes clear, Christians clearly have loyalties besides their loyalty to God. A husband can be faithful to his wife. A worker can be loyal to an employer. Tyler can remain very faithful to Tennessee football and Craig to Dallas football (win or lose). None of those loyalties automatically compete with Christ. In fact, faithfulness to other people can sometimes become an expression of faithfulness to God.

But Tyler argues that some loyalties are different. If he introduced his wife to a girlfriend and explained that everything was fine because his wife still ranked first, nobody would call that a properly ordered marriage. Some commitments are exclusive. Some commitments require sacrificing their alternatives. That leads Tyler to the real question beneath the pledge:

“Allegiance to one’s country, which category does that fit in?” — Tyler Boyd, around 35:54

Is national allegiance like loving your spouse, neighbor, or employer, a secondary loyalty that can sit beneath Christ? Or does an earthly kingdom make a competing claim to rule?

Tyler later expanded this distinction in Why Christians Keep Talking Past Each Other About Patriotism, because people on both sides often agree that Jesus comes first while disagreeing completely about what that means for patriotism.

The Lamb, the Beast, and Competing Kingdoms

Tyler’s answer to the allegiance problem comes from the way he reads earthly kingdoms across Scripture. He moves from Israel’s relationship with surrounding nations to Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, Paul’s language about rulers and authorities, and the beasts of Revelation.

Craig and Tyler do not pretend every passage is simple. They also do not think Romans 13 should be allowed to stand alone as though the rest of Scripture has nothing to say about power. For Tyler, Revelation is especially important because Christians are not told to reform Babylon by becoming more loyal to it. They are told to come out.

Whether you agree with Tyler’s reading or not, his larger challenge is worth hearing clearly:

When Christians say Jesus is Lord, is that merely a statement about personal spirituality, or is it a claim about who actually rules?

Polycarp Had an Easy Way Out

The conversation becomes less theoretical when Craig and Tyler turn to the early Christian martyrs.

Tyler is careful here. He does not treat early Christian writers as Scripture. They could be wrong. But they lived much closer to the world of the apostles, and their choices show how some of the earliest Christians understood loyalty to Christ.

Polycarp is the clearest example. According to The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Roman officials offered him a way out: swear by Caesar.

He refused.

The account also says that when the men came to arrest him, Polycarp had food brought out for them before they carried him away. That detail may be just as challenging as the refusal itself. Polycarp would not give Caesar what he believed belonged to Christ. He also fed the people taking him to his death. No violent revolution. No hatred of his captors. No oath.

Craig and Tyler also discuss Speratus and the Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs, another early account involving Christians refusing loyalty to Caesar. Tyler acknowledges that ancient Roman loyalty rituals are not a perfect one-to-one comparison with an American pledge before a basketball game.

The circumstances are different, but the question they raise remains difficult: What did these Christians believe they could give Caesar, and what did they believe belonged only to Christ?

Staying in the Church When You Disagree

Tyler brings the conversation back into ordinary church life. Finding a congregation without nationalism, patriotic worship, or political disagreement can be hard (as Craig knows). But, Tyler’s response is not: leave everybody who disagrees with you. Quite the opposite.

He talks about worshiping that very morning with people who may not share all of his conclusions. He even thanked the song leader for keeping the service centered on Christ rather than turning the Sunday after the Fourth of July into a patriotic service. Then they kept talking. Tyler believes churches need Christians willing to stay in relationship, study Scripture, disagree honestly, and encourage one another. 

That might be one of the most useful ways to carry this episode forward. Not by turning the pledge into another test of who counts as a real Christian. Not by beating somebody over the head with a new conclusion. Ask the question. Study together. Listen together. Read the sources together. Be together in Christ on a team for a political party. Then decide whether the words you say match the King you claim to follow.

🤝Connect with Tyler Boyd🤝

• The Christian Exile

• Tyler Boyd’s articles

• The Case Against Christians Saying the Pledge of Allegiance

• Why Christians Keep Talking Past Each Other About Patriotism

• How the Early Church Approached Politics

Highlights & Takeaways

• Saying a pledge by habit is different from examining what the words actually promise

• Tyler’s first break with the pledge began with one word: “indivisible”

• Respect for governing authorities and allegiance to them are not necessarily the same thing

• The biblical idea of pistis raises questions about faith as loyalty, faithfulness, and allegiance (not mere belief)

• “Jesus is Lord” was more than a private religious phrase in the Roman world

• Not every secondary loyalty competes with Christ; the central debate is whether national allegiance does

• Early Christian martyrs provide historical examples of believers honoring rulers while refusing oaths to Caesar

• Disagreement over patriotism does not have to become another reason for Christians to abandon community or each other

Listen

Notice the moments when Tyler’s argument moves from abstract theology into ordinary life: staying silent on one word of the pledge, standing respectfully without reciting it, comparing national loyalty to marriage, and worshiping beside Christians who disagree with him.

Reflect

When you say you are loyal to Jesus, what do you mean by “loyal”?

Are there promises, rituals, political habits, or cultural traditions you participate in mostly because you have never stopped to examine the words?

Read

Read Matthew 5:33–37, Romans 1:1–5, Acts 17:6–7, Romans 13:1–8, Revelation 18:1–4, and 1 Peter 3:21.

Then read Tyler’s original article and compare his argument with the passages yourself.

Practice

The next time you encounter the Pledge of Allegiance, do not begin by deciding what everybody else should do. Read the words slowly. Write down what you understand “pledge” and “allegiance” to mean. Then ask whether you can say each line truthfully and faithfully before Christ.

Resources Mentioned

• On Civil Government — David Lipscomb

• Salvation by Allegiance Alone — Matthew W. Bates

• The Martyrdom of Polycarp

• Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs

Episode Timestamps:

(00:00) Allegiance to Jesus and the Pledge

• Tyler Boyd’s article

• early Christian questions

• loyalty to Christ and the state

(06:24) “I Pledge” and the Word “Indivisible”

• pledges as promises and oaths

• Matthew 5

• Tyler’s first hesitation

(11:44) Public Pressure, Respect & Romans 13

• Grizzlies game and social pressure

• standing without pledging

• honor, respect, and love

(18:52) What Does Biblical Faith Mean?

• pistis

• faith versus simple belief

• Salvation by Allegiance Alone

(25:30) Jesus Is Lord — and Caesar Is Not

• Romans 1

• Lord as a ruler’s title

• “another king, Jesus”

(31:04) Can Christians Have Dual Allegiance?

• ordered loyalties

• marriage and faithfulness

• Tennessee football

(36:30) Which Kind of Allegiance Is Patriotism?

• earthly kingdoms as rival authorities

• temptation of Jesus

• Revelation and Babylon

(43:44) What the Early Christians Did

• church before Constantine

• political power and military service

• enemy-love

(49:02) Polycarp, Caesar & the Cost of Refusal

• “swear by Caesar”

• King and Savior

• Scillitan martyrs

(53:24) A Different Kingdom

• loyalty already declared

• baptism as pledge

• invitation rather than coercion

(56:32) Church, Patriotism & Staying in Community

• finding a congregation

• Fourth of July worship

• disagreement without abandonment

• farmer’s market conversations

Everything beyond production costs supports local charities in Memphis, Tennessee.

No King but Jesus.

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160. Revelation 18, Ephesians 6, and the Love of Money with Brandon Kroll

Is Christian anarchism a faithful place to stand as governments grow darker, or should we still try to “fix” things through the kingdoms of this world? That is where this episode begins, and Brandon Kroll does not answer with soft edges.

This is one of those Bad Roman conversations that feels like a long walk into deep water. Some listeners will nod the whole way. Others will stop every few minutes and ask, “Wait, what did he just say?” But even when the details get wild, the central question of the episode is clear enough: Christians must decide whether our allegiance belongs to Christ or to the systems of power built on money, control, and fear.

Brandon Kroll, of the Manna Daily Podcast, returns to the show to connect Revelation 18, Ephesians 6, the merchant class, the founding of America, spiritual warfare, and the love of money. It is not a neat conversation. It is a provocative one. But the heartbeat underneath it is old and familiar: the powers of this age are not neutral, and disciples of Jesus should be careful not to confuse the machinery of government with the Kingdom of God.

When Merchants Become the Great Men of the Earth

Brandon starts in Revelation 18:23, where the merchants are called “the great men of the earth.” That phrase becomes a doorway into the whole conversation. What happens when commerce no longer serves people but rules them? What happens when wealth, technology, government power, and public deception all start moving as one machine?

That question does not stay in the first century. Brandon brings it right into our world of billionaires, corporate-government partnerships, and systems that seem too big to resist. Whether or not listeners agree with every link he makes, the deeper issue is hard to ignore: money is never just money when it starts shaping our desires.

Jesus warned us about Mammon because Mammon is not simply a budgeting problem. It is a loyalty problem.

And if the merchants really are the great men of the earth, then maybe empire does not only wear a crown. Maybe it also wears a suit, signs contracts, and smiles through a press conference.

The Government, the Market, and the Old Temptation of Control

One striking thread in this episode is Brandon’s insistence that America’s founding cannot be separated from merchant power. He moves through the East India Company, chartered privilege, the Articles of Confederation, federalization, and property requirements for voice and representation.

Some listeners will want to sift through every historical claim. Fair enough. But the spiritual point underneath the history is what gives the episode its force: concentrated power tends to gather around concentrated wealth, and both tend to justify themselves with grand language about order, freedom, and progress.

That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

We still live in a world where poor people are told to trust systems designed by people who profit from distance. We still treat “representation” as though it means consent. We still call people free while they are trapped in structures they did not choose and cannot meaningfully challenge.

The old temptation remains the same. We keep hoping Caesar will become kind if the right people advise him. Jesus offers a different path entirely.

The Love of Money Is Never Just About Cash

Around the middle of the episode, the conversation shifts hard into 1 Timothy 6:10 and the love of money. Here Brandon ties money, identity, digital control, and dependence together.

Again, some of his applications are unusual. But the warning itself is painfully relevant: the more tightly our lives are tied to central systems of access and approval, the easier it becomes for those systems to train us. Buy. Sell. Comply. Scan. Submit. Repeat.

What if the real danger is not just greed, but slowly becoming the kind of people who cannot imagine life without being managed?

That lands close to home. We all know how easy it is to trade freedom for convenience, conviction for access, and discipleship for comfort. The love of money is not only about wanting more. Sometimes it is about being too afraid to lose what keeps us comfortable.

And once comfort is king, Jesus becomes a consultant.

Our Struggle Is Not Against Flesh and Blood

One of the strongest moments in the episode comes when Craig brings the whole conversation back to Ephesians 6:12. That is the right move. Because if Christian anarchism means anything in a Bad Roman sense, it does not mean rage, chaos, or macho rebellion. It means seeing that our deepest battle is not against our neighbors, but against rulers, authorities, and dark powers that shape the world.

Craig asks plainly whether those “authorities” and “powers of this dark world” refer to the government, demons, or both. That question matters because Christians often make one of two mistakes. We either reduce evil to “bad people over there,” or we spiritualize everything so much that we stop naming real systems of domination.

The New Testament refuses both shortcuts.

The powers are spiritual, yes. But they also take visible form in institutions, economies, governments, and habits of obedience. Evil does not only show up in dramatic places. It can also show up in laws, rewards, and systems that train us to compromise.

Christian Anarchism and Heavenly Citizenship

Near the end, Brandon circles back to the idea that Christians belong neither to the land nor the sea, but to heaven. Whatever one makes of the imagery, the point resonates with Philippians 3:20: our citizenship is in heaven.

That line is so easy to quote and so hard to live.

Because if our citizenship is really in heaven, then the government cannot claim our ultimate loyalty. Flags cannot tell us who we are. Money cannot tell us what we are worth. Political structures cannot tell us what hope is possible. The Kingdom of God is not an improved version of government. It is a rival reality.

This is where Bad Roman listeners should lean in. Christian anarchism, at its healthiest, is not rebellion for rebellion’s sake. It is a refusal to hand over to Caesar, to governments, what belongs to Christ: our conscience, our worship, our neighbor-love, our fear, and our future.

Closing

If this episode unsettled you, that may not be a bad thing. Sometimes we need our reflexes interrupted before we can hear Jesus clearly again. 

🤝Connect with Brandon Kroll🤝

• Previous Bad Roman Episodes

• EP 123 Patriot or Saint with Brandon Kroll

• Mana Daily Podcast on YouTube

• Mana Daily Podcast on Spotify

• Mana Daily Podcast on Rumble

• Mana Daily Podcast Patreon

Highlights & Takeaways

• Revelation’s warning about merchants still speaks in an age of corporate-government power.

• The love of money is about loyalty, not just greed.

• Christians should be careful with systems that demand dependence in exchange for access.

• Representation without real consent is not the same as freedom.

• Ephesians 6 pushes us to see both spiritual evil and real systems of domination.

• Christian anarchism is not chaos; it is allegiance to Christ over coercive power.

• Material comfort can become a rival master if we are not paying attention.

• Philippians 3:20 reminds us that our deepest citizenship is in heaven.

Listen

Listen for the tension running through the whole episode: are we trying to beat the government and empire at its own game, or are we learning to live as citizens of another Kingdom?

Reflect

Where are you most tempted to trust the government or the market to do what only Christ can do? What forms of comfort or control make you slow to question empire/government?

Read

Read Revelation 18, Ephesians 6:10–20, 1 Timothy 6:6–10, and Philippians 3:17–21. Hold them together and ask what they reveal about money, power, and allegiance.

Practice

This week, examine one area where your life is tightly bound to systems of convenience and control. Don’t start with panic. Start with honesty. Ask what faithfulness to Jesus would look like there.

Episode Timestamps:

(0:00) Is Christian anarchism a good place to be as empires grow?

• Craig frames the episode around Christian anarchism, empire/government, Ephesians 6, and the love of money

• Brandon Kroll returns to talk spiritual warfare and allegiance

• Christ vs. the kingdoms of this world

(2:58) Starting with Revelation 18:23

• Craig hands the conversation to Brandon

• Revelation 18:23 tied to Ephesians 6

• the episode’s scriptural frame comes into focus

(3:20) The merchants, sorcery, and deception

• “the merchants were the great men of the earth”

• pharmakeia / sorcery language

• nations deceived through power and commerce

(4:44) America founded by merchants

• Brandon moves from Revelation to modern elites

• Charles Beard’s An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution enters the discussion

• merchant power becomes a lens for reading America’s roots

(6:58) Articles of Confederation and federal control

• looser confederation vs. franchise-style federal control

• one center of power over many states

• Brandon’s “franchise” analogy

(7:33) Property, money, and public voice

• representation tied to property and money

• peasants, patriots, and class language

• Leviticus 25 raised against land-selling and ownership claims

(24:18) Saints, rulers, and the governments of this world

• saints defined as people set apart from this world

• being against the rulers of this world

• money, materialism, and merchant control

(35:03) Technology, feeds, and programmed belief

• AI, feeds, and controlled information

• shaping people to believe what they already want

• programming people to act on behalf of power

(36:53) Ephesians 6 and the real battle

• Craig returns to Ephesians 6:12

• rulers, authorities, and spiritual warfare move back to the center

• the episode shifts from history and money back to the powers

(37:20) Government, demons, or both?

• Craig asks the question directly

• Brandon keeps pressing the powers language

• spiritual warfare stays tied to visible systems of rule

(49:14) Rome, seven mountains, and America’s symbols

• America, Rome, and symbolic parallels

• Catholic influence and founding imagery raised

• the conversation turns from abstract powers to public symbols

(49:49) Charlie Kirk and Christian nationalist imagination

• Brandon reflects on Charlie Kirk’s name and symbolism

• Christian nationalism comes into sharper focus

• the talk shifts into a dystopian thought experiment

(50:40) Restrictions, surveillance, and forced “Christian” order

• “make America Christian again” on a world scale

• Palantir surveillance and restrictions on the population

• public executions and corporate power used as a warning image

(59:23) Fear, compliance, and getting back to normal

• confusion and fear drive people toward control

• compliance is tied to comfort and normalcy

• Christians who resist power are contrasted with those who go along

(1:00:00) Voting, agency, and what we hand to government

• Craig shifts toward voting and political participation

• agency, trust, and dependence come into view

• allegiance to Christ is measured against what we hand to Caesar

(1:02:41) Caesar, land and sea, and citizenship in heaven

• “give that to Caesar” language returns

• land empire and sea imagery are tied to the government

• Philippians 3:20 closes the argument with citizenship in heaven

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65. Reclaiming Church with Dan Morrison

About this Episode

Craig is joined by the Rev. Dr. Dan Morrison, Assistant Rector of All Saint Anglican Church in Springfield, Missouri. Dan brings his plethora of experience and knowledge of scripture to the show for a conversation on the original role of the Church and how modern Christianity is living up to the model Jesus set forth over 2,000 years ago. 

Why do Christians seek solutions through political systems of power and fail to remember those are the very systems that murdered our savior? How did we get here, and how can we reclaim Churches for Jesus rather than sell out to the state and its illusions for physical and spiritual freedom? Too often we forget it is Jesus who makes us free, but that freedom is not freedom from suffering, but rather a call towards it. It should be difficult to be a citizen of heaven in a fallen world, but that is when we need to turn to God most.

In divinity school Dan became an expert on the book of Revelations, he shares his expertise and vision for the future of Churches with Craig, as well as some perspective on how we have gotten so off course as Christians. Listeners will leave this episode with a renewed desire to pursue Christ over politics, to not fall trap to the illusions of earthly power, but to instead do what Jesus would do, turn from the earthly kingdoms, and show the world what it means to know the love of God.

Episode Timestamps:

00:35 Shoutout to Amber

01:06 Dan’s Background

• Assistant Rector All Saint Anglican Church in Springfield, MI

• Undergrad in classical applied math

• Ph.D. in Divinity studies

• Roll-tide or Razorbacks?

03:30 Dan’s Sermon 

05:36 Why are Christians seeking solutions through political systems?

• Do christians truly trust God as the ruler of all things?

• Christians are called to suffer in following Jesus

  • We live in a fallen world, the systems of the world ar destined to fall…yet we latch onto them instead of God 

• Fear vs. Jesus

  • the two-party system – voting against vs. for something

• Illusions of changing the system from within

• Joining the military

  • Asses what you are doing and why

    • Don’t lose sight of Christ’s way

• World systems have been allowed to infiltrate the churches

  • Result: churches look more like the world than Christ

11:20 Two Responses to September 11, 2001

• Preach the gospel or kill people out of anger

• Profiling others (only God can judge anyone)

• Christians on the right and left

  • Being a “Christian nation” (are we the good guys?)

    • The deadliness of the United States Empire

  • “Hold my beer”

14:06 Who do we worship at Church? 

• Jesus, Troops, Flags, and Afghanistan

• Romans 13

  • But first: Romans 12

• Killing other Christians (or anyone) for the sake of a geopolitical nation

  • Partisan agendas and scripture

    • Conquest in the old testament – Joshua

    • Can’t pick and choose, must then look at the old testament text about care for the foreigner, ect.

    • It’s all or nothing or in consistency

17:50 The Consistency of Jesus – who will you follow?

• We don’t follow Paul or Joshua, we follow Jesus and his teachings

  • “When you’ve seen me you’ve seen the father”

  • Jesus is who set us free – take that seriously, opt. Out

    • Galatians 5:1 – USA is not who set us free

19:07 The World is Watching – What are you going to do as a Christian?

• The state is going to do what the state is going to do

• We forget who we belong to as Christians

  • Or we just ignore it

• “America” is not even the United States of America (i.e. remember Canada, South America, Central America, and Mexico?)

  • Jerusalem and USA 

    • False belief: God created the USA on purpose to protect Israel

• Paul’s statement of the Israel of God reconciled with Romans 13

  • Romans 13 in light of Romans 12

• Jesus never gives us the power to call done fire from heaven upon anyone

  • If you think that’s what being Christian is about then you don’t get Jesus

• Loving your neighbor and enemy leaves you with no one left to hate

22:33 Romans 13 out of context — the Jump to the White Horse of Revelations 

• Revelation 1

  • God as Jesus Christ ruler of Kings on Earth

• Revelation 4

• Revelation 17

  • Will God rain fire?

  • “John’s 3rd Vision”

    • People with Jesus do nothing but ride in behind him, no one is slayed

  • Destruction of Babylon – Romans 17 Verse 16

    • World Sytems implode on themselves, their failure is baked into their creation before Jesus ever shows up

• We are going to kill people in the name of Jesus does not add up

  • God never tells us to do that

• Nations get stricken down because they have waged war against Christ himself

• Churches – fix yourselves!

• The systems are powered by satan

  • Will we appeal to the empire to feel safe or dare to follow Jesus

• Jezebel – welcome in the imperialism in the church

  • The false hope of political power

• Churches are in bed with the empire

31:38 Difficulty of Finding a Church that has Jesus as the Focus

• Home church?

• Pushback from Dan’s sermon on revelation

35:47 January 6, 2021

• Christians trying to save their earthly king

• Civil Religion

  • People have become enchanted as if by a spell

• Did God stop being ruler? 

• Ruling by proxy, shifting blame to please God

  • Outsourcing sin

• Paul could not have voted Cesar into power

  • Pray for those in authority over us

 43:09 Romans 13 – Paul uses Submit vs. Obey

• David Bentley Hart New Testament Tranaslation original greek

  • Peter: “It is necessary we obey God rather than man”

• Rosa Parks

• Abortion debate and submit or obey

  • Following the constitution

  • Live in a world where abortion is not seen as a choice, not one the government has a say so in

  • Don’t celebrate anything the government does

• With the reversal of Roe v. Wade — what is there left to run on?

• Should Christians be voting?

  • Why are you going to the world systems that caused the death of your savior?

  • Being in bed with the beast vs. suffering under the foot of the beast

51:26 Choose this day (and every day) who you will serve

• Frustration with Christians and a relentless need to follow Jesus 

• The term we translate as Church is also a political term

  • Eclessica – a local gathering of the citizens of God that have come together for a purpose

54:29 Daniel I. Morrison’s Plugs

• Facebook 

• Twitter & Instagram

• Allsaintsspringfeild.org

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