Tim Keller: "I Prefer Polytheism in Government"

All right, let's do this. Let's definitely Do this. Hope you had a good weekend.

I hope you had a good Lord's Day I had a good one and all of that kind of thing a couple prayer requests if you don't mind

There's a there's a man at my church He's older and he's the one who kind of leads the singing and all of that Anyway, his health has been deteriorating and and turns out he has brain cancer.

It's kind of an aggressive one So, you know barring a miracle, you know His days on earth are definitely numbered pray for his recovery pray for his comfort for his family for him all that kind of thing

He's at home right now. But but yeah, it's not looking good. So prayers would be appreciated for that also,

I've got a few deals in the works this week and Just prayers that they would go through I could definitely use a

Positive start to the year for sure. So prayers for that as well. I would appreciate it Today's Martin Luther King Day and You know, this is the day that that we get off from work.

I don't take off work because you know, I'm whatever I do whatever I want but this is the day that a lot of white evangelicals will be swooning about Martin Luther King and well, you know

Yeah, that's my that's my feelings on Martin Luther King. Yeah But have you seen the new statue?

It's it's unbelievable. I mean me and Marcus We talked about art on Friday And this is the antithesis of what we're talking about This is the kind of grotesque sort of monstrous art that's been produced by a pagan worldview

It's just completely demoralizing and disgusting. It reminds me of You know ever play a video game like Final Fantasy 7 or something like that where there's like a genetic monster

That's being created and you have to fight this monster, but it just it's just like a mishmash It's very low effort, right?

It's like a mishmash of like body parts sticking out and heads and things like that It's just it's just a disgusting monster.

But at least in the game, it's like well you understand why because it's a number one It's a monster and number two. It's like a genetic like freak, right?

That's what this thing looks like and this is just one This is actually the more flattering angle if you can believe it.

It looks like two hands holding a penis a gigantic penis that's what it looks like and Then the other side of it looks pornographic

This is the if you can believe it the the penis side is the non pornographic side If you can believe it and then somebody was like, oh, you know the the the angle

It's supposed to be viewed at you know, kind of looks like that one photo and I'm like How could you even know what angle this is supposed to be viewed?

It's a monster in any case It's completely disgusting, but it is fitting. I will say it is fitting

For our current age, this is what we this is the kind of art we deserve as a nation who's turned from Christ This is not what me and Marcus were talking about and this is not what

I'll be talking about on this channel a bit more I did look at the comments of that video and it's very clear to me that a lot of people get it some people don't the importance of beautiful art

God thinks it's important. I think it's important I think you should think it's important too and I've got more content coming out about that because I'm no expert

I'm no historian of art or anything like that, but I do understand the importance of it as far as being a human being so More to come on that.

I did though want to talk about Tim Keller again because Tim is just he is a bad take machine

There's just no question about it. I was thinking about this the other day The Lord's Prayer right because a lot of our churches right now

They're not liturgical. And so if you go to a liturgical church, there's a very good chance that you pray the

Lord's Prayer every Sunday But if you don't go to a liturgical church, you might not pray it at all I mean just when you're in that passage in the

Bible, right, but the Lord's Prayer is just it's packed with Awesome theology as you might imagine.

I mean, of course God's Prayer Right, right the way Christ taught us how to pray. Of course, it's gonna be packed with awesome stuff

But the Lord's Prayer, you know our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Obviously, there's a bit more to it than that But that's where I want to stop for right now thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

What is the will of God right? What is what is the will of God that we are praying to him?

We ought to be anyway, we're praying to God For his will to be done here on earth the way it's done in heaven, right?

You might I will your kingdom come your kingdom your rules, right? That's what a kingdom is It's a rule of a ruler.

God is a ruler. He's a king of kings He's the Lord of Lords and we don't just think that listen I think a lot of people think that in a in a kind of like an esoteric like, you know indistinguishable way

That's how it should stay if you say in the spiritual realm No, I don't think that's how his rule is done in heaven.

It is done thoroughly It is done in every manner in every way and then it says that kingdom come

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What is God's will? See, I think a lot of people would want to limit this to like what what theologians call the secret will where it's like Whatever God what wants to happen is gonna happen

But we don't really know what God wants to happen. Like like God has already written my book, right? He's already written the book of 80

Robles and he's written whatever he wants is whatever his will is, right? he could be it could be that that his will for me is to live to 120 or it could be his will is that today is my last day on earth or Anything in between and any kind of story any kind of thing could happen to me or to my family to any he's already written

That book right? So that's his will but I have no knowledge of that, right? I have no knowledge of it. So I have to live it moment by moment as if that it's not already written, right?

I got to live it, you know make my decisions, you know that kind of thing and all of that But but there's no there's nothing in the text though There's nothing in the prayer that would limit it to that kind of will right?

So what is the will of God? We know what the will of God is and as as someone who's praying it

We can say that we want his will to be done and that will is revealed in the law of God Right, it's revealed in the law of God And so we've got of course the will of God that's secret that we don't have any knowledge of right?

Like what am I gonna do tomorrow? Well, God knows but I don't know right? I don't know what's gonna happen to me tomorrow

I mean, I've got my plans, but who knows anything could change my plans So we've got that will and of course, we're praying for that will to be done

But we understand that will is going to be done, right? God's will will be done. We get that But God's kingdom involves more than that just that just that kind of will it also

It also involves his revealed will he gives commands, right? He tells people to do certain things

He tells certain people to do certain things like he has a will that he has revealed to fathers, right?

And so just because I don't know what's gonna happen to me tomorrow. I don't know that secret will I do know what

God wants me to do tomorrow, right? He wants me to work hard He wants me to love my wife.

He wants me to love my children. He wants me to teach my children He wants me to provide food for and shelter and safety for my family.

He wants me to love my neighbor He wants me to consider the poor and give charity to the poor.

He wants me to go to church on Sunday He wants me to be available to help people if somebody asks me to go one mile

He wants me to go two miles like like he's already revealed a lot of what he wants for me as a father

He's revealed things to my wife as well. And it's different by the way, there's different revelations depending on who you are

If you're a wife, he's got some certain revealed will for you And when you're praying that Lord's Prayer that's gonna that's gonna mean something very different to you as a wife and to me as a father or to you as a

Child right as a child or a pastor There are certain things that are revealed in his will for pastors and then of course

There are certain things that are revealed in his will For the civil governing authority the government

So what a judge is supposed to do what a king is supposed to do right that there's there's a revealed will and so when you're

Praying God your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

That part of his will that revealed will for the government is certainly part of that So when you're saying that prayer you're saying

God I want your will to be done on earth For fathers for mothers for children for pastors and of course for rulers

This is not controversial. This is not something that's debatable Romans 13 This is

New Testament as well It says this let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power

But from God the powers that be are ordained of God so that so the civil governing authorities the ones that are there you're to be subject to them because there's all the only power that Really is legitimate

The only part that really exists is the kind that God has ordained and God has ordained the civil governing authority the higher powers

Here's what it says Next it says whosoever therefore resisteth the power Resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation for rulers are not a terror to good works

But to the evil wilt thou not then be afraid of the power Do that which is good and thou shall have the praise of the same for he is listen

This is talking about the civil the government right the government though how people rule how people reign how they judge ready

The government he is a minister of God for thy good

But if thou do which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for again He is a minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil the civil governing authority

According to Scripture according to God's will that when we pray the Lord's Prayer the way that Christ taught us how to pray

He said this is how you pray when you pray you pray like this That will the the will of God that he reveals to the government

It's because he's a minister of God. He's a servant of God. He's a revenger of God Executing the wrath of God upon the evildoer

It's all of God. It's all of God the the authority comes from God.

He's a minister of God He does the work for God and he's executing what revenge?

wrath of Who of God? it's all from God and So so the civil governing authority ought to be we ought to be desiring we ought to when we pray that prayer your will be done

We're not saying we want a government. That's that's of Allah, right? We don't we're not that's not what we want We don't want a government of Allah We don't want a government of Satan right with that.

That's not what we're praying I know this seems dumb guys. I get it. This seems remedial. I understand right but it's but it's true when we're praying

God Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven we are not praying for our government to to to do

Allah's rules or Satan's rules or I mean, it's pretty much the same thing

But you know what? I'm trying to say like we're or or or any of that We're asking for the government to do

God's will Christ's will because Christ is God Christ is the

King of Kings Christ is the Lord of Lords And so our government when we pray that prayer when and and I hope we mean it when we pray that prayer, right?

Cuz I know sometimes we just kind of go through the motions, right? We know this prayer so well that we just we just repeat it like we're a robot and it's just like yeah

I get it, you know on earth isn't heaven But but but if we actually mean it in our in our hearts, right? Cuz that's what the point is, right

Christ is not just saying look. These are the magic words say the magic words You'll be fine. No, he's saying this is this is what your desires should be

You should be you should be asking for this You should be coming to Christ with this request these requests give us our daily bread, you know that that kind of thing

That's what he's saying. We should we should feel that we should be asking for God's will to be done in our lives in every area

And government is a key area of that Romans 13 makes that very very clear and and we know this lesson, too

You know, we we have the history of Israel We have the history of Israel and and you know in the times where there was no king in Israel, right?

There there was no king that was executing justice according to God's law There was no king that was that was that was taking the law and saying look we need to we need to bring

God's will Into this God's kingdom your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

There was no king in Israel and what was going on in Israel at the time when there was no king in Israel Everyone did whatever the heck they wanted to do

Everyone did whatever they wanted to do. They were eating each other literally They were they were they were they were raping people gang rapes

They were chopping people up into bits. I mean, it was just it was just chaos They were worshiping any God they wanted to there was no king in Israel, right?

There was no one to to say, you know, let's let's execute justice according to God's will God your will be done

I I'm your king, but I'm an under king. You're the king of kings. You're my king Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

There was no one like that in Israel So everyone did whatever they want and you ended up with stuff like this

That's what you ended up with Instead of the beautiful art of the temple the tabernacle all this stuff and you ended up with statues of penises

That everyone looked everyone came gathered round to see the biggest penis in town. That's that's basically what you ended up with And so that's our situation.

There's no king in the United States. There's no there's no king in the United States Everyone's doing whatever the heck they want to do

There's no one in the United States. That's that that that's in our in authority saying you know what we're a minister of God We're a minister of God we are not the ultimate

King Christ is the King Christ is the Lord. He's the king of the Kings.

He's the Lord of the Lord So he's certainly the king of the president. He's certainly the Lord of of the of the

Congress There's no one like that here And and the reason why there's no one like that here is because we've had decades and decades and decades of Let me just let me just come out and say

Polytheistic teaching Coming from Christian conservative Christian pulpits when it comes to politics.

Here's a quotation from Tim Keller Quote I'd rather be in a democracy than a state in which the government is officially

Christian. That's the quote Tim the great

Tim Keller the wise Tim Keller the wise the gray the sage

I'd rather be in a democracy than a state in which the government is officially

Christian This comes from a

Wall Street Journal article guys This is what I what I mean like these guys are akin to the selling your soul for a bowl of porridge like this is this is what you do you sell your soul and then you get a think piece in the

Wall Street Journal And you get a little bit more notoriety you get a little bit more publicity And it's not a lot because in comparison to you know, the really famous people you're really not all that famous But in your circles and evangelical circles, you're pretty famous, right?

You sold your soul and what you get in return is every now and then they reach out to you for an interview

They reach out to you for an interview or you get a think piece every now and then not very often But every now and then

Here's the context because this is behind a paywall and I'm not gonna pay for that. Are you out of your mind? I'm not paying for that Here's the context

The September 11th attacks led more people to Redeemer. This is Tim Keller's church. I went to Redeemer. So I know

I know about Redeemer In 2008, Dr. Keller's best -selling book. This is by the way

This is around the time I did go to Redeemer, right? Cuz I converted around this time if you remember my story

I was living in New York During the great financial crisis and I was living the fast life drugs all the whole nine -yard partying all that and Then my income took like a 50 % hit

I was making a ton of money at the time my income took a 50 % hit But I still lived the lifestyle. I went into debt just to continue my lifestyle, you know and It was right around this time and that's when

I went to Tim Keller's church when he started gaining popularity I didn't know that. I thought he was always popular. I don't know The September 11th attacks led to more people to Redeemer in 2008.

Dr. Keller's best -selling book their reason for God made him a celebrity Do you see do you hear it?

I mean they're open about he's a celebrity now Drawing visitors who hope to suck for a sign book or a selfie

He founded the nonprofit Redeemer city to city to help other urban church planters learn from his success

This is how I found my wife. By the way, I went to a Redeemer city to city church plant and It was a much smaller church and I was very glad I did it after I went to Tim Keller's church

This is true and and Tim Keller, you know because of his celebrity status He would never announce which campus he was gonna be at so it was always a surprise

So the idea was that you never know where he's gonna be So you couldn't come just because Tim Keller was gonna be there because that's that's the kind of following he had

You know if he announced I was gonna be at the east side campus Then the other campuses would be empty and everyone would come to see

Tim Keller the sage the wise the gray speak Dr.

Keller preaches a conservative Christianity. This is according to the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Keller preaches a conservative

Christianity to his cosmopolitan flock In which marriage is between a man and a woman and abortion is murder

Right, although he was glad when Roe vs. Wade was overturned in June He also says he shuddered for the country because we're so divided

He worries about efforts to impose Christian values that may not hold up if put to a vote

Lord your will be done on earth as it is in heaven That's how we're supposed to pray But Tim is shuddering in fear and worried about Christian values because people might not like it

Well, your will be done. Just so long as everybody likes it and everybody agrees your your your kingdom come

Just as long as you know, there's no one that's gonna feel left out We remember we got it

We got to consider diversity equity and inclusion as well because if people are gonna feel left out then your king is not time

For your kingdom yet now your kingdom don't come don't come Because there you know

Muslims might not like it or Jews might not like it Quote he worries about efforts to impose

Christian values that may not hold up if put to a vote I'd rather be in a democracy in the state in which the government is officially

Christian he says instead of trying to take power. I think what Christians ought to be doing is trying to renew their churches

Well, we can walk and chew gum at the same time Because Christ's kingdom is not limited to the churches

Christ's kingdom is not limited to the churches. He is the king of Kings not just the king of pastors

Jesus Christ is the king of Kings not just the king of pastors. He's the Lord of Lords Not just the

Lord of the Deacons But even if he was just Lord of the Deacons the civil governing authority

According to Scripture, which is our standard not Tim Keller's wise wisdom sage words of advice on his

Twitter feed The civil governing authority is a deacon of God and so Christians in government should rule as Christians Regardless of what atheists think regardless of what

Muslims think regardless of what the Jews think Regardless of what anyone thinks it doesn't matter because they serve

Christ. They don't serve the people They serve Christ. They don't serve the people.

Here's the reality Democracy is an idol Democracy is an idol

Tim Keller is a political polytheist He's a polytheist because what he thinks is the right thing to impose

Changes depending on the makeup of the people you see if there's a lot of Muslims That's gonna be a different government.

That's what he prefers this. He says he'd rather be in this This is not me imposing this belief on him.

This is his preference His preference is political polytheism because according to what the people the makeup of the people are

That's what he thinks is the right thing for the government to do that is idolatry It's I doll its textbook idolatry

Because regardless of the makeup of the people there is one lawgiver and it's not the people

There is one lawgiver and it's Jesus Christ the King of Kings the Lord of Lords Anyway, you slice the text anyway, you slice the biblical commands.

That is what you end up with It is God's rule. It is God's kingdom. It is God's will that we ought to be

Preferring we'd rather have God's will Than the will of the nations than the will of the people

When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we're not just reciting magic words. We're supposed to really feel it

We're supposed to really want it his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven We're not supposed to rather we're not supposed to prefer political polytheism

Democracy where it's like well, you know, whatever's right in the eyes of the people that this is the thing

I don't think that in the book of Judges that it's talking about a democracy necessarily But that's the closest thing that I could find to democracy in Israel It's when there was no king in Israel.

No king No servant of God that was saying no God's rules are this God's laws this no everyone did whatever was right in their own eyes

Tim Keller Seems to me to be preferring to rat to be rathering the days of the judges the days when there is pornography in the public parks

Where everyone comes around to check it out and to take pictures and to pretend like this is some kind of meaningful beautiful art

When all it is is ugly disgusting offensive pornographic

Idolatry Idolatry I gotta stop talking about Tim Keller.

This is the last one for a while I hope you understand what I'm trying to put down here. God bless you.

Have a great week pray for my week I I do really want to get the year started, right? Because the end last few for last year did not go well for me

I'm fine, but it didn't go that well for me. So in any case, I hope you found this video helpful