I can find only three occasions in the Bible when God’s messenger is told to “Eat the Scroll” — twice in the Old Testament, with the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and once in the New Testament, with the Apostle John. In each case, an angelic messenger gives a scroll [or book] to a terrestrial messenger of God. Each is told to ingest God’s words — containing blessing, lament, mourning, or woe — before they speak them. All taste God’s words like honey in their mouths. But the Apostle John becomes sick in his stomach.

• Ezekiel 2:9-10: “Behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. And he spread it before me. And it had writing son the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.”

• Ezekiel 3:1,3: “‘Son of man … Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.’ So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat … it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.”

• Jeremiah 15:16: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.”

• Revelation 10:9-11: “I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, ‘Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.’ And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, ‘You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.’”

From these Bible texts and from pastoral experience I conclude: when God’s servants are called to speak out against the world’s government leaders, it can be nauseating — or worse.

My church denomination will soon debate a controversial topic — Christian Nationalism. The PCA’s proposed statement is more pastoral than prophetic. In contrast to the Barmen Declaration, when German churches confronted rising Fascism and Führer idolatry, this Report helps pastors and officers to care for churches. While not a general distribution pamphlet, it’s an excellent Report.

The Affirmations and Denials offer boundaries for acceptable views. Different pastoral approaches apply to 1) non-members, 2) those who take membership vows, and 3) ordained officers. To explain differences between the 1646 (British) and 1788 (American) Westminster Standards offers good historical context. I am grateful the Report rebukes “intemperate and unclean speech,” antisemitism, kinism (exalting your culture), and racism, evident in some politicians.

I am especially grateful for the cautions about the “spirituality of the church” which I have previously commented about here. The PCA Partial Report correctly notes that this doctrine has been used “to silence prophetic witness on issues where Scripture speaks clearly … as a pretext for the church’s failure to address clear moral evils, like the institution of slavery … Correctly understood, the doctrine of the spirituality of the church protects both the church from politicization, and the state from ecclesiastical overreach.”

The PCA Report affirms that: “The church and the state are both institutions created by God, each with its distinct calling and sphere of responsibility. The church is not called to direct the affairs of the state, nor the state the affairs of the Church.” And, “The church — not the nation — is the primary community through which Christ manifests his reign in the present age. Civil government remains provisional, penultimate, and subject to divine judgment.”
God ordains governments for social order. But rulers can become like beasts. God’s prophets ordinarily speak to God’s people. Individual Christians should vote and God may call some individual Christians to become noble civil servants.

But we must return to that matter of spiritual indigestion.

Sometimes, at the risk of persecution, God’s messengers, ordained as leaders of Christ’s church, must rebuke government leaders for their grave injustices and blatant corruption. And that is a nauseating but necessary role for God’s messengers!