For your enjoyment: The 501(c)(3) Song
Lyrics are at the bottom of this webpage

Online version of Separation of Church and State: God’s Churches – Spiritual or Legal Entities?

Some pastors have called God Betrayed: Separation of Church and State/The Biblical Principles and the American Application the encyclopedia of information on the issue of separation of church and state. For one who has some concept of the biblical principles involved, the author was encouraged to write Separation of Church and State: God’s Churches -Spiritual or Legal Entities?, a book which gets to the church issues of incorporation, 501(c)(3), how a church may utilize property without becoming a legal entity, etc. much more succinctly. This following online study presents Section VI of God Betrayed and all of Separation of Church and State.

Online Edition is on this page below

Order information, free PDF, and free online version page for books by Jerald Finney

Free Downloadable Audio of:
Separation of Church and State/God’s Churches:
Spiritual or Legal Entities

Click here to order from Amazon (all books available in Kindle, two in printed form)

Link to the PDF of the 3rd edition of the book

Left click the above to go directly to PDF version
of the 2d edition of the book.

Jerald Finney Lectures on Hierarchy of Law (CD of speech at Old Paths Baptist Church in Fayetville, TN. given on the Sunday the church formally adopted the Declaration of Trust)

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Online edition of Separation of Church and State/God’s Churches: Spiritual or Legal Entities? :

The following are links to the chapters from the book (as well as chapters from Section VI of God Betrayed)

1. Preface to “God Betrayed: Union of Church and State in America”
2. Introduction to Separation of Church and State: God’s Churches: Spiritual or Legal Entities? (Chapter 1 of Separation of Church and State: God’s Churches: Spiritual or Legal Entities. This introduction is more suitable for one who has not read God Betrayed.
3. Introduction to Chapter 1, Section VI of God Betrayed: Separation of Church and State/The Biblical Principles and the American Application. This introduction is far one who has read the first 5 sections of God Betrayed.
4. Spiritual versus legal entities (Chapter 2 of Separation of Church and State. This is a summary of important information for one who has not read God Betrayed.).
5. Incorporation of Churches (Section VI, Chapter 2 of God Betrayed; Chapter 3 of Separation of Church and State)
6. Incorporation of churches in the colonies and the new nation (Section VI, Chapter 3 of God Betrayed; Not included in Separation of Church and State)
7. Federal government control of churches through 501(c)(3) tax exemption (Section VI, Chapter 4 of God Betrayed; Chapter 4 of Separation of Church and State)
8. The church incorporation-501(c)(3) control scheme (Section VI, Chapter 5 of God Betrayed; Chapter 5 of Separation of Church and State)
9. Spurious rationale for church incorporation: limited liability/incorporation increases liability of church members (Section VI, Chapter 6 of God Betrayed; Chapter 6 of Separation of Church and State)
10. Spurious rationale for church incorporation: to hold property (Section VI, Chapter 7 of God Betrayed; Chapter 7 of Separation of Church and State)
11. Spurious rationale for church corporate-501(c)(3) status: tax exemption and tax deductions for contributions OR Tax reasons given for church corporate 501(c)(3) status: a biblical and legal analysis (Section VI, Chapter 8 of God Betrayed; Chapter 8 of Separation of Church and State)
12. Spurious rationale for church corporate-501(c)(3) status: one’s convictions (Not included in God Betrayed or Separation of Church and State)
13. Spurious rationale for church corporate-501(c)(3) status: winning souls is more important than loving God/The Most Important Thing: Loving God and/or Winning Souls (This is the book. Not included in either God Betrayed or Separation of Church and State.)
14. The results of ignoring the biblical principle of separation of church and state (Section VI, Chapter 9 of God Betrayed; Not included in Separation of Church and State)
15. Conclusion to Separation of Church and State
16. Conclusion to Section VI, Chapter 10 of God Betrayed: Separation of Church and State/The Biblical Principles and the American Application

Separation of Church and State: God’s Churches – Spiritual or Legal Entities?
(Click to go directly to PDF)

Click the following to go to “Is Separation of Church and State Found in the Constitution?”

A biblical and historical Baptist principle is that God desires separation of church and state, not separation of God and church or separation of God and state. Study Jerald Finney’s writings and/or audio teachings to discover the truth about and how to apply the principle.

The Church 501(c)(3) Song Lyrics:

There’s a Church in our town by the square
It just seems like it’s always been there
And many’s the story of folks led to gloryBy its holy altars of prayer

But the deacons they met just last night
With a lawyer who seemed so polite
He said to avoid litigation and state regulation
You must sign these papers of white

So a meeting was held the next day
And we voted without much delay
To adopt the formation of a corporation
And then we just all drove away

But the thing that keeps going through my head
As I’m lying awake in my bed
Are the words somewhat fleeting, that still keep repeating
The words that the preacher-man said

He said “Our Church is a 501 c
In the IRS Code, Section 3
And the chief tax collector of the non-profit sector
Has decreed our legality

Yes our Church is a 501c
With its rules made in DC
And we can preach tax excemption right along with redemption
Yes our church is a 501c”

And now that Church in our town by the square
With its steeple so high in the air
Well it seems a bit older and just a tad colder
To judge by the rows of gray hair

And now that lawyer with his suit of blue
He sits back on the seventeenth pew
And though he’s neither a preacher, not a Sunday School Teacher
He still tells us all what to do

Because our Church is a 501c
Yes we’re government friendly
And how each Sunday morning, there’s a strict federal warning
To avoid topics X, Y and Z
Yes  our Church is a 501 c
In the IRS Code Section 3
And we can preach tax exemption right along with redemption
Yes, our Church is a 501c
Yes our Church is a 501c
Well my Church is a 501c