On Politics

by Audrey Christensen

Christianity and politics.  For some reason, it is one of the touchiest subjects to talk about amongst Christians.  And with November drawing increasingly nigh, a blog post about politics was inevitable; perhaps my dad (Joey) wanted me to be the scapegoat since I’m now 750+ miles away!  If you know me, you know I mostly stay silent in political conversations, so I may seem like an unusual choice for the author of this post.  However, the reason I’ve never felt the need to initiate political conversations is that, ultimately, I trust that the Lord is sovereign.  So let’s talk about what that looks like.

When I started doing research for this article, I found an article titled “Faith and Politics – Bridging the Gap” on Liberty University’s website.  (You can read that article by clicking here).  The unnamed author of this article cites many valuable reminders for the Christian: to care for the poor, pray for our leaders, value life, and others.  Certainly, as Christians, we have the responsibility to obey the parameters set for our life as given to us by the Word of God, and there is nothing wrong with using your voice to try to influence the world for the Gospel.  However, when we believe that our main God-given responsibility is to affect the government, we have severely misunderstood the Gospel. 

Syncretism

“Syncretism” is the meshing of two beliefs to create one new belief.  Many Christians do not realize that by putting their physical trust in the government, they are failing to put all of their trust in the Lord.  The Moral Gospel—the mesh of the Gospel with the ultimate goal of morality —has infiltrated the church.  Doesn’t the Bible teach morality?  Yes, but the goal of the Christian life is not morality; the goal of the Christian life is the glory of God.  Perhaps you’ve heard a sermon in which the preacher heavily emphasized moral reform.  Maybe he said things like “this nation has turned its back on Jesus.”  Yes, America is far from the Lord, but it has never been right with the Lord.  As Christians, our goal should not be to seek to help our neighbors become better people.  Instead, our goal should be the teaching of the Gospel.  When the Spirit opens our neighbors’ eyes—just He did for us, by the grace of God—that we are filthy sinners who are all far from God apart from Christ, that redeemed sinner may bring glory to God.  

When you combine Moralism with the Gospel, you misunderstand grace, and you end up with a twisted, legalistic view of it.  While the good works of the redeemed bring much glory to our Father in heaven, those good works that we do are only by His grace.

Moralism and Righteousness

The author of the article from Liberty starts wrapping up his article with the strong statement, “[A]s Christians, our ultimate hope rests not in government or rulers, but on a coming King and His coming kingdom” (para. 15).  But he takes a turn for the worse: “Yet, when Christians abandon the political arena, we risk allowing those who are not driven by righteousness or a desire for God’s best to determine our future” (para. 16).  This sentence highlights the problem you inevitably encounter when you trust in the Moral Gospel.  No man has the power to determine our future; we know that only Jesus commands our destiny.  

If we say we trust that the Lord is sovereign but fear for what tomorrow holds, we do not trust Him.  He has commanded us to not worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).  We are commanded to pray for our leaders, but the Bible never says that we’ll have to fight to ensure that His people are in office.  In fact, I have yet to see anyone running for office evidence fruit of the Gospel.  This country has turned its back on Jesus because it is not righteous, has never been righteous, and has never known the true King.

To Vote or Not to Vote?

I’m not here to tell you whether or not you should vote because Scripture gives no clear indication one way or another.  However, I do want to encourage you to examine your heart no matter what you decide.  If you choose to vote, are you doing it out of fear for the future and lack of trust in our sovereign Lord?  If you choose not to vote, are you doing it out of hatred?  Do your research on candidates, and stop accepting a candidate’s word that he or she is a “Bible-believing Christian.”  Instead, see if there is fruit.  If this candidate lives in openly unrepentant sin, we have the right to assume that the label of “Christian” that he or she has claimed is a lie (Matthew 7:15-16).  Either way, do not approach politics with the belief that it has the power to right any of the wrongs in this world.  Sin will remain until the day our King and Savior returns, and oh, how we long for that day.