Denmark

Our Queen just had her 40th anniversary as our monarch.  Denmark is probably the oldest monarchy in the world, abt. 1,000 years.  The Queen was celebrated a couple of days, and the TV screens seemed to have only one topic, viz. the Queen.

According to our constitution we also have a State Church, the so called Evangelical-Lutheran church supported by the state.  It emerged in 1536 alongside with the Lutheran reformation in Europe. 80 % of our population are automatically members of that church through their infant baptism.  Today there´s very little true gospel in that church, though I have met a few born again Lutheran ministers.  They are  the exception that proves the rule, however.

The Queen is also the head of the State Church.  She is religious all right, but a personal testimony of a saving experience with Jesus Christ is not there, though she would have the freedom to say so if things were so.

I was watching  her celebration together with a couple of nurses at the sanitarium that treats me  (By the way its treatment is about the general strengthening of my frail body).  I was asked, “Are you a royalist?”  I replied, “I don´t think I am, but no matter what, the Queen is not the head of the church!”  - “But who would you prefer then?” they asked me.  My answer was, “According to The New Testament the head of the church is Jesus Christ – that church, mind you, which He  “purchased with His own blood”  (Acts 20:28).
What a wonderful opportunity for me to point to Christ and to tell them what He meant to me and how He came into my life.  And of course they had my little gospel card.  (Who knows?  One day I may give it to Her Majesty too!)

America

Being in family with America (what a privilege!)  I keenly follow the campaign about the next Republican candidate who will eventually challenge Barrack Obama. We understand that the chances of Mitt Romney look bright.  But he´s a committed Mormon, and as you look into the doctrines of the Mormon Church you are confronted with such abominable doctrines that I shudder to think of a Mormon president..  It´s not a Christian church of course, and yet it claims to be the only true church on earth.  I can´t go into what it teaches, but anybody can on the internet look up and check its doctrines.

So I trust my brothers and sisters in the U.S. are prayerfully concerned about the leadership of their nation. A leader committed to a religious set-up that denies the truth of the gospel should be avoided.  Rom. 16:17. Your Founding Fathers were not all saved men, but at least they cherished the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ  and wanted it to be taught without choosing a particular denomination to be the state church of America. The real distress of America is  spiritual, and being part of God´s  “infantry” in this spiritual battle, we should encourage each other to be bold about our testimony, “fervent in the Spirit” (Rom. 12:11)

Say it simple, say it often and let it burn!

Jan. 18, 2011 – jn