BLOG BY DAVE SEIVRIGHT – July 24, 2016
I am not registered as a Republican or a Democrat, and have always voted on the issues, with loyalty to my Christian worldview, rather to any political party.
Very few Evangelicals have a Biblical worldview of politics. Often they concentrate on the personality, charisma, style, manners, or other characteristics of candidates instead of on their POLICIES! Some even think the candidate should be Christian or act in a Christian manner in their personal life. In my opinion this is a grave error from a Biblical Worldview perspective. Many American evangelical leaders, whom I respect, disagree with my point of view. Yet, I believe that my point of view, on this particular issue, follows Francis Schaeffer, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Stott, Chuck Colson, J. I. Packer, and many other of my respected theological and spiritual mentors. So why is there disagreement on this issue amongst respected Christian leaders?
Historically, the church in America split in the 1920s. This was the great Liberal-Evangelical Divide. The Evangelicals rightly insisted on the inerrancy of Scripture and teaching the Gospel of Salvation of sinners; but they wrongly withdrew from “the world” and cultural or social issues — including the compassionate use of wealth, racial and class discrimination, abortion, and politics. Not until Francis Schaeffer spoke out on these matters in the 1970s until his death in the mid-eighties, did some of the evangelical church in the USA begin to reconsider that the church should correctly apply Scripture to ALL of life, including politics, economics, and abortion. Now there is a growing interest in doing so, but unfortunately after so many decades of separation and withdrawal from “the world” Evangelicals often don’t understand how to do so.
INVLOLVEMENT OR SEPARATION?
Perhaps the most important, reason that Christians don’t understand the relationship between Christianity and politics, is that they have an improper understanding of the ROLES of the Kingdom of God and the role of the Kingdoms of the World, including the State.
They don’t understand how the Kingdom of God operates during this interval time between when Jesus set up His Kingdom and when He will return. They don’t understand how these two kingdoms should be different and yet intersect. They don’t fully understand Jesus’ teaching on “salt and light”.
They do not understand Jesus’ Great High Priestly Prayer in John 17, where Jesus prays ” I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one… As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” We must be IN the world, although WE should not accept its values.
Unfortunately, many evangelical leaders teach the opposite, they preach SEPARATION from the world. They originally thought that novels, radio, TV, alcohol, dancing, music with a beat, etc., etc., were intrinsically evil. Many today, even in Miami, still don’t have TV sets in their homes. Some will never go to a club, a bar, or even to places like Miami Beach! This is the opposite of the life of Jesus who surrounded himself with sinners and went everywhere even partying and dining with gross sinners — yet He criticized the most morally righteous of that time, the religious leaders!
Is that news to you? Yes, the Pharisees were the most sincerely morally righteous people of their day, contrary to the caricature painted of them by evangelical preachers today. Jesus pointed out that unless our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees we cannot enter His Kingdom. Jesus’ disciples understood at that time and in that context what He was saying — that this was a near to impossible standard to meet. I don’t know many Christians who are more righteous than the Pharisees, do you? This is why the disciples were so puzzled by what Jesus was teaching. They saw this as impossible. However, Jesus was primarily teaching about “an alien righteousness,” as Luther put it — the righteousness of Jesus Himself credited to us through our justification, which takes place simultaneously with our regeneration. None of us are as righteous as God or nearly as righteous as God. Self-righteousness is hypocrisy, precisely because it does not exist. After over 40 years of ministry, I can assure you that even regenerate Christians in the PROCESS of sanctification, although they increase somewhat in godliness, the gap between the most righteous of men and God Himself is immeasurable — yet so many Christians are vocally “self-righteous” and hypocrites, as they criticize politicians and others in general for the same sins that the practice on a daily basis!
SHOULD WE EXPECT THE STATE TO BE AS MORALLY RIGHTEOUS AS THE CHURCH?
Jesus did demand the same standard for Christians and religious leaders, we must be born again and justified and even sanctified, we must by faith allow the Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out, but he never expected the same standard of the political leaders of His day, the Romans, or the non-believers.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told Christians to love their enemies but he prefaced the Sermon by stating that he did not come to abolish one punctuation mark of God’s law which taught that the State should use the sword and execute justice by taking an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and pursue self-defense and just wars. My point is that this was a matter of ROLES, Jesus was against “private vengeance” but for public national Justice. This illustrates that the church and the state have different roles. Jesus as King sets up Kingdom values for the hearts of believers, but does not expect the same from the rebellious hearts of those “of the world”. He is not in favor of a theocracy!
Instead of demanding PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS of political leaders Paul says:
“I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that WE may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior” – 1 Timothy 2:1-3 (ESV)
Obviously wise moral leaders will make good leaders, and we should not elect leaders who have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be dishonest and corrupt, but nowhere in Scripture does God demand that political leaders should be as godly as Christians! Unfortunately, even Franklin Graham, whom I respect and love dearly, doesn’t get this! Nor does Max Lucado who suggests that he is looking for a person with the same standard of “decency” as he would allow or approve to date my daughter. I agree with Jerry Falwell, Jr., that we are not electing a Pastor-in-Chief, but a Commander-In-Chief.
Abraham Kuiper, the Great Dutch theologian and Prime Minister, went so far as to teach that we should ONLY vote for Christians and formed a Christian political party in Holland. He was grossly mistaken. On this point He is in serious error. In effect he was trying to set up by votes the Kingdom of God in the world. Jesus specifically taught that His Kingdom was not of this world, but that genuine believers would VOLUNTARILY submit their hearts to be ruled by Him. This is why in the Garden of Gethsemane he rebuked Peter for using his sword. This is in vast contrast to Kuiper’s beliefs that as Christians we should use votes to impose our Christianity on others. MANY EVANGELICAL LEADERS TODAY ARE “NEO-KUIPERISTS”.
In the Old Testament we see God set up his moral law, particularly in the Decalogue, but NOT every moral precept of the Decalogue is enforced by the Civil Law. The Civil Law is particularly concerned about our not injuring others, not about the attitudes of our hearts, or our style, or our immature or egotistical behavior. There are no hate crimes or lust crimes in the Civil Law, but SERIOUS ACTIONS of murder and theft and adultery do have civil consequences. There are not even consequences for not loving God in the Civil Law. Many Evangelicals today do not understand these distinctions.
To make matters worse, unknown to many, if not most, evangelicals have been heavily influenced by Platonic thinking and an elevation of the spiritual over the physical. They think that when Jesus compares the temporal with the eternal he is comparing the physical with spiritual. Treasures in Heaven are physical, Jesus has a physical body forever. They also have a proclivity towards legalism, that is ADDING to scripture and interpreting Scripture with super-spiritual interpretations. This in their minds justifies their separation from the world or causes them, to seek heaven on earth by mixing with and voting only for “spiritual” people. These people tend to live in a Christian ghetto and have few or no non-Christian friends. They do little evangelism, and are seldom “salt and light” to the non-believers whom they work with or encounter.
CHRISTIAN ACTIVISM IN THE MIDST OF A NON-CHRISTIAN STATE
Separation has been the norm for evangelicals for well over a century, even before the 1920s. Yet William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect, Martin Luther and other great Christians who changed the world would not agree with most modern evangelicals. These world-changers were “activists” and “salt and light” very involved with social and political issues; but they never expected the civil authorities to become Christians or even act like Christians. The German princes who protected Martin Luther were anything but genuine Christians. Neither was William Pitt the Prime Minister of England who supported Wilberforce against slavery, or JFK OR LBJ who —supported the civil rights movement of MLK. Jesus not only surrounded himself with sinners, but the apostles did also, and in so doing turned the world upside down, WITHOUT the support of genuine Christians in the political realm. Not even Constantine is regarded by most respected Christian scholars as a regenerate Christian, although his mother was undoubtedly a genuine believer.
Jesus even respected non-Christian leaders such as Pilate and Caesar, who were sinners. Jesus told Pilate that God had put him in place, and this would be true also of Caesar. This is not to say that we do not have a personal responsibility to oppose evil and not to submit to evil, but Jesus sacrificed His rights for the greater good — our salvation. How many politicians today sacrifice themselves for the greater good? When they do we call them “statesmen”.
I adhere to Calvinistic Reformed Theology which believes BOTH in the sovereignty of God and in the responsibility of man. Our choices do make a difference both in time and eternity. This is in stark contrast to believing in “fate” as Islam does. Allah holds them to account, but their choices have no effects on what happens in the world.
The American Revolution was not based on the personal morality of the King but on the unjust POLICIES of the British.
ABORTION: Did you know that before Francis Schaeffer, few Evangelical leaders, if any, opposed abortion? They were too “spiritual” to get involved in such non-spiritual “social” issues! This is why I moved with my whole family to Switzerland to study under Schaeffer and later to the UK to study under John Scott and J. I. Packer. Loving one another, based on the sanctity of human life, is the heart of the Great Commandment, 2nd only to our primary duty to Love God. It is the primary mark of any true civilization. “Life” is the first mentioned privilege in our Declaration of Independence, even before “Liberty,” and the “Pursuit of Happiness”.
CIVIL RIGHTS: Even as a new believer, I was not satisfied with the teachings of American evangelical theologians! How could I trust American evangelical theologians, most of whom were conspicuously absent in the Civil Right’s movement? Thank goodness this was not true of those of the black American church who, listened to Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet King was severely criticized by the evangelical church, both black and white, because of their bad theology. This is why MLK wrote his famous letters from a Birmingham jail. King was not primarily concerned with the personal morality of JFK or Lynden Johnson, but he wanted all Christians to vote for POLICIES which would advance civil rights and advance genuine Godly social justice.
THE CULTURAL MANDATE
Most American evangelicals still have no idea of what “the Cultural Mandate” in Genesis means:
“God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘ Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ (Gen. 1:28) ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.'” (Gen. 2:15)
Nancy Pearcey beautifully and accurately describes the Cultural Mandate:
“In Genesis, 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 buts 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”.
SUMMARY:
- We as evangelicals must resist BOTH extremes of withdrawing from the world or of expecting politicians to be Christian or have the same personal morality as we expect from Christians.
- We must be involved in politics, this is a Biblical duty. We must vote if we believe God’s Word — especially the cultural mandate which demands our involvement in our building our culture and our civilization.
- We must vote primarily for POLICIES in line with Scripture and Wisdom, not people.
- We live in a fallen world, politics will always involve the lesser of two evils. However, we cannot support evil policies which are as bad as those of Hitler, which intentionally murder tens of thousands of babies.
Let us pray that God will give wisdom to all Americans how to vote in the upcoming election, particularly to Christians who have the advantage of knowing Biblical principles.
For further reading on this subject I suggest “God and Government – Kingdoms in Conflict” by Chuck Colson. Here is one American who got it. His legacy is being followed by Eric Metaxas, John Stonestreet, and a growing but still relatively small number of evangelical intellectuals. See: http://www.colsoncenter.org/wfp-home
You can subscribe to their email commentaries on current affairs.
I also recommend the video series by Francis Schaeffer entitled “How Should We the Live? – the rise and decline of Western civilization,” which is available on Amazon Prime and in my Amazon video library.
