SHOULD CHRISTIANS BE INVOLVED IN POLITICS?

BLOG BY DAVE SEIVRIGHT – April 20, 2016

The Protestant Reformation and indeed the Declaration of Independence points out that all human rights come from God including democracy itself. This is an expression of the Biblical teaching that all men and women are created in the image of God. Jesus’ teaches a further responsibility for Christians – that we must be “salt and light” in the world and indeed “a city on a hill”. In John 17 Jesus prays to His Father that Christians should be “in” the world which means “involved” with the world although not “of” the world which means not having the world’s values.

So indeed THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE INVOLVED IN POLITICS.

See the painting above  – the famous oil painting in the Lausanne Palace of Justice, Switzerland,  where Lady Justice is not blindfolded, but holds the scales of justice in one hand and the sword in the other hand WHICH POINTS TO THE BIBLE. Her eyes are fixed upon the Bible, as the ultimate source of justice, God Himself.

We should judge every political argument and every bit of existing or promised legislation by a “higher law” – that is God’s law. For this reason no Bible-believing Christian should vote for a candidate or a political party which supports the murder of unborn babies. To do so would be the equivalent of voting for Adolph Hitler in Germany if we knew that he intended to murder Jews. God will hold us accountable as accessories to murder, if we support as our representatives those who support murder!

We live in a fallen world, therefore no political candidate or political party will perfectly reflect God’s character or God’s law. We will ALWAYS have to vote for the lesser of two evils in a fallen world. However, we must separate form from substance, personality from agenda, and always vote for the sanctity of human life, which in addition to religious liberty, is the highest of moral earthly values affected by our political choices.

Abortion cannot be supported by a Bible-believing Christian, we should not only vote against it but we should speak out about it. The same applies to a host of issues including upholding Biblical Marriage, and issues relating to gender. Our Mission as Christians is to speak out with the words of God himself – loudly and clearly on every subject political, social and otherwise. We are AMBASSADORS of Christ, his ONLY ambassadors here on earth at this time:

 “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’ “   2 Corinthians 5:20

 

THE CULTURAL MANDATE

Most Christian teachers today ignore the most important and basic teaching on this question – called “The Cultural Mandate”. What is this?

“In Genesis 1:28 God gives what we might call the first job description: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” The first phrase, “be fruitful and multiply” means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, “subdue the earth,” means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, compose music. This passage is sometimes called the Cultural Mandate because it tells us that our original purpose was to create cultures, build civilizations-nothing less. Our calling is not just to go to heaven, but also to cultivate the earth, not just to save souls, but also to serve God through our work. For God himself is engaged not only in the work of salvation but also in the work of preserving and developing His creation. When we obey the Cultural Mandate, we participate in the work of God himself, as agents of His common grace”. – Nancy Pearcey in “Total Truth”.

Yet we do not have an option of not voting. Voting is a God-given privilege and duty set forth in accordance with the Cultural Mandate, referred to above, and fought for with the blood of our Christian forefathers. Many gave their lives for the Bible-based liberties and rights outlined in the USA Constitution, and its amendments  – not the Constitution as changed and re-interpreted by the judicial activism of the liberal justices of the Supreme Court.

We should vote for candidates and political parties who do not seek to change the constitution by judicial activism instead of by Constitutional amendments, because the Constitution and its amendments more accurately reflect Biblical values than the agenda of “progressive” activist liberal judges who wish to fundamentally change America by imposing their progressive humanistic anti-Christian secular worldview on our nation without the majority of the electorate agreeing to such changes by Constitutional amendment.

 

THE SCOPE OF THE CULTURAL MANDATE

First of all I want to say that I entirely agree with the motto of “Covenant College ”In All Things Christ Preeminent“. The Bible has a lot to say a lot about EVERY IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE and not just “moral matters” or issues relating to salvation. 

The Bible says a lot about the role of the state, the rule of law, and the role of the individual. This means that not just abortion, but laws about borders and immigration, same-sex marriage, and gender confusion, must be seen through a Biblical lens. 

Moreover one cannot separate the Revelation of God from God Himself. This is what was tried by the Enlightenment. They Wanted Freedom Fraternity and Equality (all Christian values) but WITHOUT THE GOD OF THE BIBLE. 

GOD IS A RATIONAL BEING BUT CHRISTIANS CANNOT SUPPORT “RATIONALISM” which is a philosophical anti-supernatural worldview in line with “HUMANUSM”.  All this will lead to chaos, the end of the rule of law, mayhem, and ultimately to tyranny‼️

AS FRANCIS SCHAEFFER PUT IT “God is a rational and reasonable God, but his reason and rationality are based on His Character and His precepts”.  

This is the polar opposite of “AUTONOMOUS REASON” of humanism and the Enlightenment which is entirely man-centered, and regardless of whether it is from the right or the left will ultimately produce chaos, the end of the rule of law, and then tyranny uses the chaos as an excuse for dictatorship. We have recent examples in Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot who executed hundreds of millions of human beings‼️

 

In Summary:

As a Christian, I have a DUTY to speak out on politics under  “THE CULTURAL MANDATE” given to us by God at the very beginning of the Bible. See above.

This is why Wilberforce an evangelical Bible-believing Christian devoted his life to the abolition of Slavery, and MLK, a pastor, felt it his DUTY to fight the political system, particularly Southern Democrats. He was not only involved in politics but even in civil disobedience. Please read his excellent defense of doing this in his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.

See: https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

 

Recommended Reading:  

“God and Government” by Charles Colson

”Total Truth” by Nancy Pearcey

I have both these books in my Kindle Library.