The Separation of Church and State – Daniel 3:1-7

 Most of us are familiar with this story beyond the verses which I have read. From early in our primary-age Sunday School classes we learn about the faith and courage of the three “Hebrew children” – as they are often called. They were commanded to bow before an idol which King Nebuchadnezzar had built. But they refused, and as a result they were condemned to die in the king’s incinerator. When they were eventually tossed in, the guards who committed them to the flames, died from the tremendous heat which radiated from the mouth of that furnace, but not so with the three saints of God. A few minutes later, from a safe distance away, Nebuchadnezzar saw, not only the three Jews, but also another man with them in the flames. “He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”

This is a timeless children’s Bible story. It is believed by millions, and it is also considered to be a really incredible myth by millions of others. What is surprising is that nearly everyone knows the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the burning, fiery furnace, whether they believe it to be true or not.

You are no doubt aware that we only read a quarter of the chapter, and we didn’t get around to the saints’ conscientious objection to this idol worship. If we stop and think about these first seven verses, we are confronted with another timeless theme. Here is something which has characterized Baptist doctrine and practice for the last 2,000 years. And yet this is not something which you will find in most of the commentaries on the Book of Daniel, because most of those commentaries were written by Protestants. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego – properly known as – Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah – were not just standing firm against idolatry and false religion, they were willing to give their lives in the battle against the Catholic idea – then the Protestant idea – of a state-sponsored religion or church.

Let’s try to grasp more of the background behind this wonderful piece of history. Nebuchadnezzar had led his armies all over the world as he had known it. He had defeated the powerful Assyrians at the Battle of Carchemish. Then he had to take on the Egyptians who thought that they could fill the gap left by the Assyrians. In the process he ran over dozens of minor and insignificant kingdoms – like Judah. Nebuchadnezzar controlled the world from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and on to the Indus in the East. Like those who followed him – the Macedonian, Alexander, and then the Romans, the French, the Dutch, the English and others – governing such a vast Empire, with so many different kinds of people, was a daunting challenge. Some of the later imperialists had plans for dealing with this problem, and some only improvised. I think that in Nebuchadnezzar we see a two pronged plan to unite the far reaches of his empire.

Prong number one is seen in the first chapter. “And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.” The first part of Nebuchadnezzar’s plan was to Babylonianize some of the brightest young people out of each the lands that he had conquered. This was probably something that he had done everywhere he had gone. Once he got these young people thinking like Chaldeans – once he got them trained to do the Chaldean bidding – then he would send these men back to their homelands to act as representatives of Babylon. Once he got this part of his plan going, he moved on to the second point – men’s souls.

We live in what is likely the most secular age and the most secular society in history. Just as an example, the latest issue of “Christianity Today” is all about pro football and secular sports. The average American thinks about eternal things and spiritual things less today than our American counterparts in any other day in history. As we read – even in fiction – we see that people in every land and every age, were more thoroughly religious, spiritual and/or superstitious than people are today. This being true, Nebuchadnezzar knew that not only would he have to control the thinking of his conquered victims, but he’d have to control their hearts and religions as well. And that brings us to prong #2 in his far-reaching government.

This image which he had built in the plain of Dura was not an egotistical declaration of his personal magnitude. I know that most people picture the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream being raised up in chapter 3, but there is no indication that this is the same image. This is usually called “Nebuchadnezzar’s image.” While it is true that it was commissioned by and owned by Nebuchadnezzar, there is no reason to say that it looked like Nebuchadnezzar. The truth is we are not told anything about the appearance of this image. The point was not what it represented so much as what it was designed to produce. This was a deliberate attempt to begin, or to revitalize, some sort of one-world, universal religion. In this regard, notice who those people were who were invited to the initial dedication of this image? “Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.” These are government officials, and the rulers of the provinces, including the Province of Babylon. In an overt attempt to bring the hearts of the people of his vast domain under the wing of a single religion, Nebuchadnezzar had erected an image to be worshiped by one and all.

Similarly, since before the 3^rd century A.D., apostate Christendom, has been establishing similar images and demanding that the secular citizens under its authority worship those images. For example, since the days of Constantine, who welded together apostate Christianity with the Roman Empire, Catholicism has claimed the rights to all the souls that it could reach. So in country after country throughout the 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th centuries – throughout the Dark Ages – which were dark primarily because of Roman Catholicism – there was only one religion permitted by law. Secular history tries to tells us that it wasn’t until the days of the Reformation that there was any kind of rebellion against the image that Pope Nebuchadnezzar had set up. But that simply isn’t the truth. There have been Baptistic people in every century and in most countries ever since the days of Apostles, who have stood like Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah against the command to bow at “the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick.” Although they were protesters, they were not Protestants – they were Baptistic people like ourselves.

And eventually when the Protestants gained control of countries and colonies, they imitated their Babylonian/Catholic parents, establishing state authorized churches in England, in Germany, in Massachusetts, in Virginia and nearly every other place that their arms could reach. But the Baptists in those places constantly declared that those actions were essentially idolatrous. Baptists have been tossed to the lions, into the fires, drowned, butchered and otherwise viciously attacked for their fight for spiritual freedom, and literally millions of them stood firm. The religious liberties which are found in our world today are directly – directly – connected to the suffering of the Baptistic Hananiahs, Mishaels and Azariahs particularly of the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th centuries. These are undeniable, irrefutable facts.

But I have gotten away from our scripture, so let me return. What are some of the essential problems with these state authorized religions? As we look at Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar we could be talking about Virginia, Georgia or Massachusetts of the 18^th century.

Obviously, there was an IDOLATROUS FOCUS.“Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.” Let’s say that the average man in our church is 6 feet tall; how broad is he? I am 6 feet tall and I am less than 2 feet from shoulder to shoulder. We aren’t talking about front to back, but from side to side. The breadth of Nebuchadnezzar’s image was 6 cubits – let’s say 10 feet across, to make the math simple. If this image was in the proportion of an ordinary man – three times as tall as broad – it should have been about 30 tall. But we are clearly told that this image was 60 cubits high or about a hundred feet tall. This leaves us with several visual options – This might not have been the image of a man, but of something else. Or this man was terribly disproportioned. Or as is more likely, this image was standing on some sort of tall pedestal. Perhaps the pedestal was 60 feet high and the image at the top was another 30 feet above that. Whatever it was it was built in order to be seen.

Something else to consider is that it was highly unlikely that this was solid gold. I couldn’t find any scholar who was willing to say that Nebuchadnezzar had enough gold to make a solid figure of dimensions like this. This image was either hollow with an gold exterior, or else it was made of some sort of inferior matter like wood or plaster and then covered with a veneer of gold. I’m not trying to diminish the costliness or the beauty of this idol; I’m just trying to be realistic.

But the obvious implication is that this is a forbidden idol. “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God.” There has never, ever been a state church, other than the very special case of Israel, where the god to whom the citizens were to bow was not an idol of some sort. Never has the state authorized and approved god been the Jehovah of the Bible. Oh, he may have been really, really big, like the secular god of science of the 20^th century. He may have been really, really beautiful, like the Buddhas of the East and Virgins of the West. Sometimes parts of the Bible might have been quoted around him. He may have been made of gold, whether solid or veneer, and decked out with an innumerable array of precious stones. He may have been blinding to the eye, and even more blinding to the heart, but none of these state-church gods were ever the Jehovah of the Bible. Like Nebuchadnezzar’s image, every single one of them has been an idol of some sort – a corruption of the one true and living God.

“To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up.” What did all this music have to so with the worship of the image? Why didn’t Nebuchadnezzar just order the blast of a trumpet or something? Wasn’t it in order to make this all more appealing? King Nebuchadnezzar commissioned the George Frederick Handel of his day to produce the most stirring music that he could. Or maybe it was Babylonian equivalent of Pearl Jam, Beyonce, Kiss, Elton John or the Black Eyed Peas. Whatever it was, you can be sure that it was designed to draw the masses to the Mass and the mess. But clearly the focus of this state authorized religion was not the Lord.

And, at the root, this had an IDOLATROUS FOUNDATION.Initially, it didn’t really matter to Nebuchadnezzar whether or not anyone was sincere in their worship. There is no command requiring anyone to renounce their allegiance to other gods. It was a simple matter of pretending allegiance to this new image. However it is likely that some of the polytheists of Babylon, didn’t mind adding another god to the long list of imitation deities that they already had. And as we have said many times, it is a proven fact that if people are told something often enough and long enough, they will eventually come to believe that it is true, even when there isn’t a shred of evidence to support it. “Abortion doesn’t kill babies; it only makes life more enjoyable for the immoral men and women who make those babies. Homosexuality is nothing more than an alternative life-style; it isn’t a disgusting sin with horrifying effects. Evolution is the way that life, as we know it, came to be; divine creation is unscientific.” When such foolishness as this is repeated long enough, eventually the ignorant will come to believe it. State authorized religions have circumnavigated the globe a hundred times since the days of Christ. And even though there have been hundreds of millions of devotees to all the various varieties, the fact remains that for the majority of the members of those churches their devotion has been no more spiritual than eating their vegetables. Just bow, just bend your knee before the image – that’s all that really matters.

The foundation of Nebuchadnezzar’s new religion had nothing to do with faith. But the religion of Christ is all about faith. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” This difference between faith and no-faith has been the difference between recent state-churches and God’s churches. Although Catholicism and Protestantism have always talked about faith, the foundation of their doctrines has always lain in obedience to religious laws. “If you are not baptized then you cannot enter Heaven. It’s through the Mass, or the observance of Communion, that Christ enters your hearts. If you sin one too many times it becomes impossible for God to rescue you, so curb your sinfulness. If you will give up your drug use, alcohol excepted of course; give up your adultery; and give up most of your profanity, God will be obligated to shower His grace down upon you.” Such things are mere images, laws designed to bolster man’s worship of their idols. There has never been a state church which was built upon the proper foundation – true faith in the Lord. And the Baptists, who have preached salvation by grace through faith, have never tried to establish a state-approved or authorized church.

My third, and last, point this morning is that this state-church had a DISASTROUS FUTURE.In the last chapter, Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed a dream, the substance of which was that his kingdom would come to an end. “And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass.” Despite the glory of this Babylonian Kingdom…. despite the fact that this is the head of gold compared to all the inferior kingdoms which followed… the Chaldean/Babylonian Empire ceased to exist just about 70 years after that dream. About 50 years after the building of this colossal image, the Medes and the Persians came into Babylon and brought down the empire which Nebuchadnezzar and his father had established.

What became of this image? We have heard of the Colossus of Rhodes, another huge image, straddling the mouth of the harbor at Rhodes. That huge monolith eventually came crashing down. and I am told that we can see its ruins even today. But what happened to the Colossus on the plain of Dura? There is no evidence that it ever existed, except that it is found mentioned in the eternal Word of God. We aren’t told, but if I had to guess, I’d say that when King Darius defeated Babylon he ordered its destruction. He probably had his goldsmiths peal off all that gold and rework into items honoring the reign of the Medes. If it had a wooden interior they may have cut it into pieces and thrown into specially prepared devices to burn up the wood and to catch the liquified gold. And what became of the worship which Nebuchadnezzar had ordered? It had essentially the same end as the image itself. Eventually, and the end was sooner than he expected, it became a part of ancient history.

The thing to remember is the rest of the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”

Nebuchadnezzar’s image was a temporary – and ultimately – a useless religious device. It was without doctrinal foundation – it was totally foreign to the revelation of God – it was doomed. Even some twenty years before it was built, the Lord had declared its futility. And similarly, all the man-made, government-mandated religions of this world are equally futile. There is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and men – the man Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus will soon establish one kingdom, and it will be related to only one kind of religion – based upon faith in Christ, and Him alone. If man had his way – and I refer to any man and all men – if we had our way we’d have religions much like Nebuchadnezzar’s. But each and every one of them would be a terrible, terrible mistake.

Thankfully there is an alternative – a proper, perfect, and permanent alternative. And it demands surrender to the King of kings – the Lord Jesus Christ. It demands repentance before God – something which we haven’t yet seen from Nebuchadnezzar. It demands faith in the Lord – and as far as you and I are concerned in this 21^st century – that means a submission, a love and a trust in Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour. There has never yet been a state-church which properly lifted up Christ, and there never will be one. To be a proper citizen of the Kingdom of Christ, requires repentance and faith, not laws and commands. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Look at the example given to us by Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah – trust God, obey God, and believe in the Lord.