Many followers of Jesus Christ believe political involvement violates the commission of Jesus. Liberals criticize strong conservative Christians for not sticking to the spiritual work of redeeming lost souls. They suggest that by staying out of politics right-wing Christians will better their nation. Instead, Christians should work to transform government and culture by reforming individual hearts and minds.
During this season of left-wing dominance over American politics, liberal Christians want America to believe that their views represent the best of both heaven and earth or rather the best of both the spiritual and the secular. The problem with liberals is their rejection of the underlying tenets of the gospel.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is supposed to result in a more godly view and subsequent lifestyle. By replacing the rule of God’s law with the rule of pseudo-religious secularism, liberals also reject the power of God over all aspects of life. This is the opposite goal pursued by America’s Puritan founders.
But, what is the gospel? It is often summarized as the good news about God’s offer of forgiveness for past sins based on the substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection of the Jew Jesus. His death is the divine means to the complete satisfaction of God justice. Moral crimes against the natural law of the Creator must be punished. The punishment stated in Genesis chapters 2 and 3 set the standard of punish for all sin. The prophet Ezekiel reiterated this when he said, “the soul that sins shall die.” Jesus’ apostle, Paul, expanded on this aspect of God’s law and justice in his letters to the Christians in both Rome and Galatia. As the story of Adam and Eve demonstrates, separation of right relationships, including the natural relationship with God, spouses, and alienation from others, is the essence of death.
If one thinks about it, liberals have been its champions promoting every form of death and its misery imaginable in American society and around the world for decades.
By the pain of death and by his descent into hell for the sins of others, Jesus temporarily suffered the permanent punishment for all our moral crimes against God’s law. By resurrection and ascent to throne of God, Jesus precedes those who accept God’s gracious offer as the federal head or representative. His ascent to God’s throne is also his reward because he was given the authority and legal oversight of his redeeming work, which is why Jesus is Lord over the rule redemptive justice.
The commission given by the resurrected Jesus to his Church was to make disciples of all peoples. At the very least, this commission means Christian are to represent God’s purpose and will to all people. The message of redemption and grace presented by the gospel of Jesus is that justice has been fully satisfied for one purpose only: that individuals and nations may choose eternal life under God’s rule of law.
Yes, it does mean a kind of theocracy; one based on the natural and moral laws of God. A study of the Puritan colonies and early history of state laws gives us an idea of what that would be like.
It also means laws sanctioning the restriction and punishment of immoral and unjust behaviors. In the American colonies, the enactment of such societal laws required citizens educated in the discipline of self-government. As often stated in early American literature, liberty meant the freedom to do what is right. It was the opposite of doing your own thing no matter how right it might feel.
The rule of law is a political principle rooted in the biblical law as well as natural law. Human nature as created by God is the basis for both. Both are the result of human experience with God and other humans in society. Because the gospel represents the fulfillment of the requirements of divine justice, the commission of Christians is to serve the God as ambassadors of His kingly rule. Only kings rule by law over their kingdom of citizens. Citizens are people invited by kings to enjoy the benefits of and the obligations to the King. Those who do so are citizens of good standing and those who don’t are rebels and enemies.
It should be obvious that the Creator of the universe has an unalienable right to rule over all. This is a self-evident right. If humans can do what they will with their creations, the Creator of human nature even more. That is why Darwinian evolution and its resulting atheism (or secularism) has to dominate the view of public institutions. One of the primary means to that end is the fabrication of the wall of separation of church (religion) and state by the American judicial system and its members like the ACLU. This contemporary view, however, is antithetical to the majority decisions of both the U.S. Constitutional conventions and later Congresses. In other words, federal courts and its members continually violate that First Amendment as it was originally argued and defended by eighteenth and nineteenth century Congresses.
Christians cannot separate their “religion” from their social or political involvement. They can not because it is their life. Their lives are politically ordered under the rule of God and His law. Christians are political representatives by definition of their membership in the kingdom of God under the Lordship of Jesus. Christians have no other choice other than to be politically involved. Their involvement must present the purpose and interests of God and Christ rather than their own. That must be first on their list of their priorities followed by family, nation, and self-interests.
Christian are also citizens of the nations in which they were born or now live. Although loyalty to the kingdom of God does not conflict with their being good citizens in their respective nations. Yet, genuine Christians have pledged their lives to the Kingship of God, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and to good citizenship in the divine kingdom. Allegiance to the United States or any other nation is secondary. Loyal citizenship to a secondary political entity is only a problem when a nation’s laws and policies contradicts the law and objectives of the kingdom of God. Just as Americans inherited freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly from those who had fought the arbitrary rule of unjust monarchs for centuries, Americans also have inherited the weaponry by which those rights were won. God’s law was and still is the primary legitimating sword in the fight for liberty and justice.
In his Commentaries on the Laws of England published in 1765, British jurist Sir William Blackstone succinctly summarized the prevailing view of man-made law prior to the rise of secularists in both Britain and America. He wrote:
“No human laws are of any validity if contrary to [God’s Law].” (Vol. I, p. 41)
To reiterate, loyalty to God’s kingdom does not necessarily conflict with good citizenship in America or any other nation. Conflict arises when a nation’s law and practices violate the laws of God and conflict with His objectives.
It must be concluded that American Christians are obligated as citizens and representatives of God’s kingdom as well as members of the American body politic to decisive involvement in shaping political and all other aspects of life according to the divine plan. Anything else is treason.
