23.40 Human Leaders and Leadership - an Introduction to God and His Involvement in Human Affairs (Part 2)

Indigenous Faith

In today's final episode in this introduction to God and His ways in human leadership and leaders, Craig and LaDonna finish their journey into Romans 13:1-7. Picking up where they left off last week, the Smiths continue to explain the reality that God has ordained all human leaders on all human levels to serve as rewarders of them who do good and punishers of those who do evil. The Smiths remind us about the four levels of human leadership that He has instituted throughout the world. First are political leaders who serve over national, regional, tribal, and local levels of society. Second, is the Church of the Risen Christ over all believers in Christ. Third is the role of parents over children in family life, and the fourth is the role of "masters" or, employers over employees in the world of business affairs. But how is the Indigenous follower of Christ (or all followers of Christ for that matter) to respond when it's the leaders who are the corrupt ones, or the ones who lead their followers down paths of disobedience to God's Word? Well, as the Smiths reminded us in the previous episode, it is then and only then when God allows civic disobedience to the leaders when we are taken down roads of disobedience to God's Holy Word and ordinances by those in authority over us. This introductory look into governmental affairs is especially important for us in America today as we are only a year or so away from an election that will have huge impact on the future direction of our nation. We need to get this right not only today, but also as the Smiths turn our attention in podcasts to come to their important case studies of political leaders of God's Old Testament Chosen people, Israel, in their historic journey of faith. As we'll soon see, God's evaluation of these leaders is articulated in Scripture as either evil or good, based upon how they led their people. As we'll soon be seeing, all too often when they were listed as evil, it was because they led God's people into syncretistic behaviors much like what we are seeing today in evangelical Native ministry. This makes this series crucially important to us as we seek to live out a biblically healthy Indigenous Faith in the context of our cultures and communities.