Many Christians feel they have gotten the sanction of Heaven for political action to reform the morals of the nation and world. Hence the call for strict enforcement of laws protecting the populous, and the voting down of laws that infringe on liberty, and the great uprising of the religious right. This thumbs-up from God frees them to promote their party of choice and to secure a political post for their man, because he is God’s man, and a just ruler, rendering government a “terror to the evil doers.”
I am not opposed to government, per se, only that Christians should not be involved. God did sanction government among the nations; but nowhere has He sanctioned Christian involvement. There will always be worldly legal and political action; it too is ordained of God. Who can deny that some marginal and temporary good has been accomplished by the prosecution of evil doers; or that the ballot box has provided some superficial stability amongst earthlings? I cannot dispute that our present form of government has shown itself to excel above other management systems, while resulting in only a delusive, superficial solution.
Brilliant Christian/religious minds enter government only to find that they are in competition with equally brilliant Christian/religious minds across the aisle; everyone of them under the pretense of serving God. Is it God who has set these men in array against each other? Has God put it into their minds to practice this contest of contradiction? Is it Christian enlightenment that has prompted this madness? I smell a con, a gyp, and a fraud in the game! Does the Holy Spirit deceive Himself? Will the Holy Spirit be either the victim or victimizer? NO! Either the men are not good, their ideas of duty false, or they are the pieces in a spiritual chess game played by the Devil against God. Is this what many Christians call “having influence”? How many out of ten will escape corruption, contamination, or disgust if they reach high office?
These few facts will suffice to illustrate that under the present system of government political action is anti-Christian. Good men in government become fodder and fuel to feed the evil machinations of the world’s Prince, who is held within certain boundaries set by God. Government is a world system run by world rules, and not Christian rules.
How Do Christians Reform Government?
Existing governments have their merits; they could always be worse than what they are. They are as good as the Christians who inhabit the country. “When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Proverbs 16:7. This is true on a personal level and national level. Consider this; if a full blown Christian constitution could be instituted, at this time, by a hypothetical Christian President, he would be voted out of office with contempt. If we could trick the mass of unbelievers in America to adopt this constitution, they would have no idea how to live under it. Governments are the expression of the aggregate of the people. With the lack of Christian light, a righteous moral base, or a Christian intellectual plan of development, there will be a corresponding false and low government. The government is, to the Christian, just another part of the world, of which a Christian needs to be at peace with, through his pleasing walk with God. Can you see that it is God who directs the government and not our activity at the ballot box? It is God who does it; He builds the Church, and He runs the government; and this has the backing of Scripture.
It is the Christians job to enlighten the populous in the ways that please God; and this is not done at the polls. Our attempts to send influential men to fill prestigious positions in places of worldly power are not the ways of Jesus. We cannot please God by pledging ourselves to anti-Christian political contracts and allegiances. If we will reform our Nation it will be by pure Christian examples on the part of those have taken the Name and embrace truth.
We are a Christian people who show no shame for the blood on our hands; who show no shame in war. We are proud of our righteousness and honesty on the witness stand, while we condemn our neighbor. We show no embarrassment in knowing and proclaiming sola scriptura and turning the other cheek, while insuring our safety with mace, stunning devices, and 38 revolvers. The cleanliness of our dress covers the filthiness of our hearts; and we are more thankful for the “delete history” button on our computers than we are for salvation.
If our Country can be saved, we must do nothing to hinder our own pure testimony, either by defiling our lives with filth, by provocative opposition to government, or by participation in its sins. The ends do not justify the means. Christians are not to get involved in anti-Christian activity for family or governments sake. We must not falsify our principles by going with evil for the sake of good. Part of the Christian mission is to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” We are to teach the people and not worry about growth; God will supply that. We are to show to the world a model of what ought to be–not conform to what is.
We have a sanction from heaven, but it is not to get involved in politics, in any way. “He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”