I have to confess to a near obsession with our current presidential election and all of the political maneuvering that has been involved.  Perhaps it is because of the historic nature of the two tickets or the implications of this election in such nationally and internationally perilous times. No matter who is elected, we are about to make history! As pastor of FaithBridge, I believe it is my responsibility to call upon the church to have a Biblically based view of both politics and our role in those politics.

It is important that we first have an appropriate view of the State in order to best understand how we should relate and respond.  Since we all have a personal, civic and spiritual responsibility to get involved and to cast our vote we need to make sure our beliefs and expectations are consistent with God's Word.  God established three human institutions: the home (Gen. 2:18–25), government (Gen. 9:1–17), and the church (Acts 2). The question for this blog is:

What should be our view of the government and why does it exist in the first place?

FIRST, government is a God-ordained institution (Gen. 9:6; Daniel 4:17, 25; Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17) and this is true of all human political entities.  God puts those people in the positions of authority that they hold and will work His sovereign will through them as He decides ... whether that is with their cooperation or not. While the government of the United States is not the God-led government of Old Testament Israel (Theocracy), our government is still obligated to operate according to God’s laws and in service to God’s interests.  Psalm 9:7 records the consequences of ignoring that obligation when it says, the wicked return to the grave, all the nations that forget God.

SECOND, government occupies an important place in human social order. Because man is essentially wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), and when left to himself will serve selfish interests, a political institution is a moral and practical necessity (Gen 9:6).   The Bible teaches that man has a moral responsibility to God and others so our government should affirm and support those moral responsibilities.  The problems start when God’s moral standard is rejected or minimized as just an alternative.

THIRD, our obligation to submit to our government has its limits. Jesus said, give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's (Mark 12:17).  In doing so, he acknowledged there is an appropriate submission to governmental authority. However, the first century disciples offer a good example of the limits of our obligation.  When they were on trial, the court officials said to them, “we gave you strict orders not to teach in this name … yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood.” To this, Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! (Acts 5:28-29).  For Christians, obligation to submit to governmental authority should be held in tension with the personal responsibilities we each have toward God, our families and the church.

FOURTH, our government has a limited scope of responsibility for our lives. There are reasonable limits of the obedience which we are to offer to the government because it has a limited responsibility for our lives.  It is neither responsible for all aspects of our lives (Totalitarianism) nor should it be absent altogether (Anarchy).  God himself intends to be our source of strength, hope and provision … not our government.  We should not expect the government to create an ideal society.  Rather, its function is largely to restrain the wickedness of individual members of that society from abusing the freedoms of others (Romans 13:4-5).  Specifically:

• Administer justice (Jeremiah 23:5; Amos 5:15)
• Protect the poor and weak from the rich and powerful (Isaiah 3:13-14; Amos 2:6; 5:12)
• Protect the innocent (Romans 13:3)
• Promote equality in application of the Law (Acts 10:34; Exodus 23:6)
• Protect the whole from hostile invasion (2 Chronicles 26:9-15)

Responsibility for building a particular quality of life is the responsibility of the individual in relation to God (and of God’s people to care for those who are without).  Socialism and its offspring have an unlimited view of human ability and morality (Humanism); it charges government with the responsibility to engineer an ideal society ... its religious twin (Liberation Theology) teaches that, in essence, Jesus came and died for us to have a better quality of life here and now. Government cannot change people’s hearts and we should not expect it to play a role that only God can play.  The children of Israel made this mistake when they rejected God’s rule over them and asked for a King “like all the other nations.”  Check out what happened in 1 Samuel 8:10-18.

Next, let’s look at the idea of what constitutes “Christian politics” …