We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
12 Reasons for Keeping the Kingdom of God Separate from Politics, Part 2
Image by the justified sinner via Flickr
- Satan is the “god of this age” (2 Cor 4:4) and “ruler of the world (Jn 12:30; 14:31) who “controls the entire world” (1 Jn 5;19) and possesses all the power of “all the kingdoms of the world” (Lk 4:6). While governments are ordained by God to preserve law, order, and justice (Rom 13), and while some governments do this better than others, kingdom people must always know that there’s a demonic element also at work in all governments and thus must take great care to keep the kingdom of God distinct from all of them.
- Among Jesus’ followers was a tax collector (ultra “right wing”) and a zealot (ultra “left wing”). Yet Jesus never once comments on either of their views, thereby revealing that such political differences are irrelevant to the alternative kingdom Jesus came to establish. When Christians today associate one political party or nationalistic agenda more closely with the kingdom of God than others, we compromise the separateness (the “holiness”) of the kingdom of God and then inevitably divide the body of Christ.
- Christians are called to be soldiers for the kingdom of God and thus not to be “entangled in everyday affairs” (e.g. the politics of the region where we’re stationed as soldiers). We are rather to seek “to please our enlisting officer” (2 Tim 2:4), Jesus Christ, who calls us to do nothing more or less than imitate him in his loving service to people as a witness to the alternative kingdom he was establishing in the world. Our witness is our willingness to serve and suffer for people whose lifestyle we may object to and even people who may despise us.
- Without exception, whenever the Church as succeeded in gaining what so many Christians try to acquire—political influence—it has resulted in a government that is bloodier than most secular governments. If Scripture is not sufficient to teach us to keep the kingdom of God completely separate from the politics of the world, history should be!
- Whenever the Church succeeded in gaining political influence, it has eventually all but destroyed the Church. All the areas once “ruled” by Christians are now more pagan and hostile to the Gospel than unreached areas (Europe for example). This is not an accident, for the Church is called to be a servant, not a master, of the world.
- The association of Christianity with political and nationalistic agendas has caused untold harm for missions around the world. Many today understandably resist the Gospel because they associate it with atrocities committed by countries identified as Christian in the past (e.g. Europe) or the present (America). For the sake of the Gospel, kingdom people need to proclaim that neither America nor any other country is or ever was “Christian.” The kingdom Jesus came to establish, and the kingdom we’re called to represent, is “not of this world” (Jn 18:36).
Category: General
Tags: Kingdom, Kingdom Living, Politics
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
Related Reading
The Testimony of Life and Death
David Kuo was a friend of ours. He was a passionate voice calling the church away from political division and calling us towards compassionate engagement. He succumbed to brain cancer this last week after a ten year struggle with the disease. Andrew Sullivan attended David’s funeral and reflected on David’s influence in his life. He…
7 Ways to Join the Kingdom Revolution
In the previous post, I introduced in short form the call to participate in the kingdom revolution that Jesus began. What does this mean for us today? Let me offer seven ways we are called to the Jesus revolution: When Jesus set aside the riches of his divine prerogatives and sided with the poor and…
Election Day Communion Resources
Rachel Held Evans posted today about Election Day Communion and provided resources for those of you who cannot attend one of these services. Let’s all be praying today for unity among the saints and blessings of peace regardless of the outcome of this election.
Our Sacred Scared
Tom Lin via Compfight Glennon Doyle Melton is the voice behind Momastery. She is a brave, funny and challenging writer who has decided to tell the truth after years of drug and alcohol abuse and bulemia. Recently, Glennon has invited a series of men and women (including Rachel Held Evans, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary,…
Shouldn’t preachers rally Christians to fight political injustice?
Question: My pastor has publicly supported your book The Myth of a Christian Nation. But he’s recently called on the church to take a stand against the injustice of our local government cutting funding for inner city recreational facilities. This seems right to me, since we’re suppose to defend the cause of the poor and oppressed.…
What Kind of Sinners Feel Welcomed by Your Church?
Perhaps the greatest indictment on evangelical churches today is that they are not generally known as refuge houses for sinners—places where hurting, wounded, sinful people can run and find love that does not question, an understanding that does not judge, and an acceptance that knows no conditions. To be sure, evangelical churches are usually refuge…