The separation of church and state is bigger and more catastrophic than we realize! It’s the parting of the ways.

20 This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, “I’ve done nothing wrong.” This attitude is what is wrong with America today. The majority of Americans have left the Judeo-Christian values on which this nation was built.

There is a passage in the Bible that deals with the relationship between church and state, or the Bride and America. I understand that the analogy is not perfect; Christ is our Bridegroom, not America, but the principle is still the same.

¹² To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. ¹³ And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. ¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
¹⁵ But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. 1 Corinthians 7:12-15

The Puritans and others moved to America to get away from the Church of England so that they could worship the Lord as they saw fit, which was in many ways contrary to what they were forced to do in England. They were Bible-believing, Jesus-worshipping rebels who left the established church to start one of their own in a new land.

When the United States was established, many of the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were Christians, while some were Unitarians, who followed the Judeo-Christian values of the Bible. The Bride of Christ needs no established government in order to survive and even thrive, but the nation needs the Bride of Christ to help it keep its values. The Church sanctifies our nation through these values. God’s laws carry natural consequences and blessings. By abiding by those laws, blessings come, of which our nation has experienced many over the past 200+ years.

The divergence of our nation from these values carries those consequences. One need only to look at Israel to know what happens to a nation who separates itself from God’s laws (Jeremiah 7:17-19, 11:7-8, 19:3-5). By the way, God’s laws are simply the stating of what righteous people do and what unrighteous people do and the subsequent blessings or discipline. People with the Spirit of God have His laws written on our hearts and need no form of government in order to live together. The laws of our land were written for those who are unrighteous and need some kind of outward control. There is no Spirit in them.

As the “husband” rebels against his “believing wife,” he leaves the safety and sanctification that the believing wife provides. It is this rebellion that America is having against the Church, the Bride of Christ. How does this “parting of the ways” affect the Church? Foundationally, not at all. Culturally, it will become more difficult to live in the culture of the world. The Church will have to pull out and become a culture unto itself. Ironically, this counter-culture is exactly how the Christians lived in the first, second and third centuries! Even more ironic is the fact that the Church exploded during those centuries. Why? Because their Christianity was authentic; there was no advantage to be gained by pretending to be a Christian.

I pray that our churches would be filled with authentic Christians. How that may be achieved is up to the Lord. Will you begin the process of removing the world’s culture from your Christianity?

Abba, I pray for my readers that they would begin to remove the world’s culture from their lives. It begins with a simple question, “Lord, what would You have me do first?” From there, I know that You will guide them. I pray that You would continue to do the same in my life. May I replace time-wasters with reading Your Word, Christian books and studies, and time with other Christians. May we do everything we know to do to ignite the flame of revival in our own hearts so that it may spread to others. Purify Your Church, O Lord. Amen.

¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope—
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 
¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness 
and to purify for himself a people
that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Titus 2:13-14