Is the Bible True?, page-493

" The only instance that I can recall in which church and state has been somewhat sanctioned by any Scripture to come together in a non-specific way is in the prophecy stating that, the government shall be upon his shoulder. To my knowledge this is a first and will coincide with the emergence of a globalist religion."

There is not explicit reference to "separation" because it was the natural state of things that people were allowed to practice their own religion, unless it violated the laws of the group that was dominant in a civil sense.

The Biblical narrative, to the degree it has historical personages and events in it, mostly takes place during times when members of many different religions lived in peace, in close proximity. This was the norm. Conflicts based on religious differences were the exception, rather than the rule.

It appears that the desire to impose a religion by forced conversion, or a policy of extreme persecution, is what causes problems for mankind. I doubt a Universal Religion will ever be adopted, other than by force.


The persecution of the Christians by the Romans, with the eventual triumph of Christianity being adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire, is an interesting case. My opinion is that the Roman-Jewish Wars were so traumatic for the Roman government that they were very concerned about an internal conflict generated by an insurrection of Jews and early Christians.
The Romans were imperial masters over a great area that had dozens, if not hundreds of different religions being practiced.
They didn't care about the religions of their inhabitants as long as they paid their taxes, obeyed Roman Law, and supported the State. So they feared the Jews and the early Christians on this account, and reacted to them as "enemies of the state"

Eventually the oppressed minority came to win over the establishment, in a peaceable manner, which is quite amazing.
[Their descendants even came to be in a position to become themselves the oppressors of other groups].

This shows that the moral basis for the Roman society and religion was not organically strong enough to maintain itself and its value system by anything other than the power of its temporal institutions. There was no conviction or lasting value in their theology, no moral instruction; Jupiter and the other gods behaved like humans with supernatural powers...they raped, stole, quarrelled, got angry, etc. etc. The gods were worthy of their emulation because of powers they possessed,not morals they embodied.

What impresses about Roman civilization has largely survived and been transmitted:

Law, architecture, engineering, language, literature, and so forth.

What has not survived are their moral and religious beliefs, because these were not so great.

Vicarious entertainment and distractions to the populace by "bread and circuses" also has flourished and been transmitted from the Romans, but these are not of a moral or religious character, unless you consider that Soccer and Football, and watching violence or pornograhy to be religions, whose followers have as their principal activities the consumption of fast food and beer, driving automobiles, and entertaining themselves on electronic devices.

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The situations vary considerably, from small tribal groups to large and sophisticated empires. To review the literature this discussion in mind is quite interesting. One can reads of an incredible variety of interaction between religious groups, only occasionally are there conflicts on the basis of religion, though as I say the ones that do

The majority of ancient societies were theocracies, insofar as there was identity of the supreme authorities in both the state and a particular religion. However the majority of them permitted to a large degree other members of society to practice their different religions, by and large there was "freedom of religion" even though technically the society could be called a "theocracy".

It was only rarely that the dominant state-religious entity would attack and persecute its inhabitants on the basis of religion.