Our Clarion Call
The contemporary political landscape has begun to resemble a fusion of warfare and theatre. Acrimonious accusations and division now overshadow the civil discourse and common sense of the past. From the assassination of a Christian leader to protests erupting outside state capitols in response to pro-life court rulings, to violent behavior on major city streets like Minneapolis, to activists demanding that children be taught radical gender ideologies in public schools, political life increasingly feels like a battle for the soul of the nation. Christians have not fared well under these circumstances, with mainstream media and liberal thought leaders labeling us as uninformed, prejudiced, and intolerant. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many are inclined to perceive the political realm and its discourse as inherently corrupt.
One noteworthy reason for the chaos in today’s society is that certain efforts have generally been successful in severing the social order from the sacred order, the natural from the supernatural. Despite this growing constituency of clamoring dissenters, we live in God’s world, a world with divinely ordained ends built into it. In light of this, a clarion call goes out to all Christians: let light shine in darkness and guide society to the truth, goodness, and beauty of God’s design. This call to live out an authentic Christian faith in all spheres of life, positively shaping culture for good, must be heeded if this world is to flourish. After all, Christ’s Lordship is relevant not only to our private lives but also to our public lives—to every sphere and endeavor on earth. Good Christian political engagement requires, and should be informed by, the realities of God’s kingdom. Indeed, it is through this that we encounter truth, the truth to which we are to witness prophetically as stewards of the things of God. To this end, we will seek to understand the Bible’s grand narrative and its implications for the political issues we face in today’s chaotic world.
The Bible’s View of Government
When one reads the Bible, one reads a story with an overarching narrative. Theologians often enumerate four segments in this narrative: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. When we speak of creation, we refer to an infinite and yet personal God who created the world out of nothing and ordered it so that humans could flourish within it. When we speak of the fall, we refer to the first historical people, Adam and Eve, and their rebellion against God and his speech. This cosmic mutiny had profoundly negative, earth-shattering ramifications for all aspects of the created order. Redemption refers to God’s sure promise and particular plan of salvation, accomplished through the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ, and applied by the Spirit sent by Christ following his ascension into the heavenly places. Finally, the consummation refers to the imminent and definite return of Christ to reign and rule forever in the new creation.
Strikingly, this claim that Jesus is the King of kings is a political claim, for the risen Christ is above all kings and governments.
A narrative as grand as this, having implications for everything, ought to inform the church’s view of all of life, including politics. And indeed, God, within the created order, instituted what has been denominated a political order. But what is this order, and what is politics? Politics may be defined as “the art or science of directing and administrating states or other political units” (Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics, 417). It may be said further that the purpose of government is to achieve public justice for the individuals and communities under its jurisdiction. Political discourse, therefore, involves debate about the best way for the government to achieve that justice.
Any sound notion of justice presupposes truth, and any truth presupposes God’s speech. Given the fall of humanity into sin, politics will tend toward corruption. Indeed, justice has often been perverted rather than maintained. And so, it is all the more important for Christians to bear witness to Christ and his kingdom in the public square as they seek the welfare and good of their neighbor, as well as the good of that place in which God has placed them, namely, their nation. And so, this call to witness to Christ and his kingdom is a call to Christians everywhere until the consummation, when Christ arrives to establish his reign and rule fully.
The Design and Purpose of Government
Given this, the political sphere has a uniquely significant purpose in God’s world—to secure public justice. Yet, God limits its jurisdiction. It violates its God-given purpose when it swells to oversized proportions, seeking to control other spheres. When, for example, it interferes with the religious sphere—penalizing Christians for their views of gender and sexuality, shuttering churches during a pandemic, or restricting religious speech in the public square—such politics displeases God and violates his created order.
In the Old Testament, Daniel proclaimed, “He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. It is God who installs kings on their thrones and God who removes them” (Dan. 2:21). In the New Testament, Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11). What was Jesus declaring to Pilate? We could paraphrase it like this: “I don’t care who Herod thinks he is. I don’t even care how powerful Caesar believes he is. I want you to know that you are a little man and have no authority apart from the sovereign authority of Almighty God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. God reigns supreme over all kingdoms.” Strikingly, this claim that Jesus is the King of kings is a political claim, for the risen Christ is above all kings and governments.
Jesus’s message to Pilate has an eternal shelf life. Every mayor, governor, and president—Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, and Independent—serves at the pleasure of Almighty God. Whether downstream to the next county’s offices (sheriff, city council, etc.) or across the pond to Europe’s dynasties (monarch, prime minister, etc.), all authority and any delegation of it originates from God’s throne. A question of supreme importance thus arises, “What is God’s design for government?”
The most precise and concise statement of God’s design for civil government is found in the thirteenth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans. When Paul wrote these words, the governments of the first-century world barely reflected God’s design. There was idolatry, chaos, and oppression throughout the Roman world. We see an example of this in the fact that Paul had to write to the church in the city of Rome from the city of Corinth. This was because all Jews and Christians had been sequestered from Rome by Emperor Claudius (10 BC–54 AD). He was angered and threatened by the increasing number of Christians, and he tried to suppress this movement by driving both Christians and Jews from some of the empire’s major cities. There is also the example of Emperor Nero (37–68 AD), a notorious tyrant who murdered his own mother, brutally killed his pregnant wife, and reportedly set the city of Rome ablaze, blaming Christians for the destruction. And as history tells us, the fervor and spirit of the Christians was not dampened.
In this context, despite such brutal corruption and oppression, Paul instructed the early Roman church to believe in God’s design for civil government and to fulfill their civic duties:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. (Rom. 13:1–6)
Paul begins by making two things crystal clear: There is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. In other words, God is the sovereign authority, and every earthly authority receives its power from God. Paul was reminding Jewish Christians in Rome who the King of kings and Lord of lords is. As truly sovereign, God is the authority over all: the church and all things spiritual, as well as the state and all things governmental. This is perhaps why John Witherspoon proclaimed in his sermon entitled “Dominion of Providence” that “magistrates…are called to use their authority and influence for the glory of God and the good of others.”
Religion is very personal, yet it is not private.
The original Greek text goes some way in helping us understand the purpose of civil authorities. Paul calls them “servants,” using the term diakonos. This same term is used in Acts 6 to describe a deacon. Thus, the early church would have been very well acquainted with the function of deacons and their mission to serve. Moreover, two verses later, Paul uses the Greek word translated as “minister” in reference to those authorities: “For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.” Paul sums up the servant-minister function of government officials by identifying their twofold, limited role: “For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.” In effect, Paul is saying that the purpose of the state’s servants, acting as ministers of Almighty God, is twofold—and only twofold. First, they are to do good and to promote the common good. Second, they are to restrain evil. The promotion of the common good and the restraint of evil are accomplished through what we call “the power of the sword.” But what is the “common good”?
Here we encounter one of the central points of disagreement: Christians and non-Christians define the common good in vastly different ways. For the biblically minded Christian, the common good is grounded in the objective moral order revealed in Scripture and rooted in God’s design for creation. It includes honoring human dignity and the sanctity of life, defending religious liberty, upholding the biblical notion of the family, and promoting virtue in public life. In contrast, secular progressives often define the common good in subjective terms, driven by individual autonomy, therapeutic identity, and ideological commitments that frequently contradict God’s created moral order—such as promoting abortion as “healthcare” or redefining gender and marriage. As a result, when Christians and secularists advocate for the “common good,” they may use the same words but mean very different things.
And so, another question arises: what must we do when a corrupt government fails to honor the God from whom its power comes? The Bible teaches that we must obey God rather than men. If the state were to decree that the gospel was not to be proclaimed, that is an unjust law, and one by which Paul himself would not abide. The government of every nation is to promote good and restrain evil, and the God of nature and Scripture is to determine what good and evil are. God and God alone is the One who “calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom. 4:17). When the government subverts or repudiates the word of the One who has given the government its authority, Christians have a special duty to proclaim that word, even despite manmade laws.
The Impact and Influence of Christians
With the government limited in the above ways, Christians are positioned to have maximum impact and influence. Throughout most of the last two thousand years, in societies in which Christianity was permitted to thrive, to whom did the poor, the hungry, the naked, the weary, the abandoned, and the hopeless turn for help? Christians. In third-century Rome, for example, while pagans fled the plague, Christians stayed behind to care for the sick—earning the respect even of their critics. Who spearheaded education initiatives spanning all social strata? Christians. Cathedral schools of the Middle Ages laid the groundwork for the first universities—Oxford, Paris, and Bologna—founded by Christians. Who launched foreign aid and relief efforts for citizens of countries thousands of miles away? Christians, through missions organizations such as the London Missionary Society and humanitarian efforts such as Samaritan’s Purse. Who funded the arts through countless movements and political regimes, century after century? Christians, who commissioned masterpieces by Michelangelo, Bach, and countless others. Whom did God charge, from their earliest days, with providing for widows, orphans, and “the least of these”? Christians, from first-century deacons in Jerusalem to the founding of hospitals and orphanages by Christian communities throughout history.
To remain silent is to betray our vocation. If political corruption is sin, then the church must reprove it.
Such examples of the church’s extraordinary positive impact can be found within U.S. history. Who provided the New World with a bottomless well of democratically elected civil leaders from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries? Christians. Who founded America’s first and most reputable institutions of higher learning, such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton? Christians. Who synthesized and submitted thousands of years’ worth of political philosophy to the lordship of the biblical God, leading to an experiment in government that respected the inherent worth of human beings more than any government before it had? Christians did, since the Founding Fathers of the United States were influenced by (and influential in) their churches. Who created and ran the abolitionist movement in the United States? American Christians followed in the footsteps of England’s William Wilberforce, a Christian who, as a member of Parliament, devoted his life to outlawing the international slave trade decades earlier.
But today’s chaos tells a different story. Due to rampant sin and, arguably, a laxity in both church and state, we now live in an upside-down society in which the government has maximum influence, while the church has marginal influence. Think of the chasm between Witherspoon’s words from the eighteenth century (written in “Dominion of Providence”) and our current context: “whoever is an avowed enemy to God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country.” Do you see what sin has done? One can argue that we live in a society in which churches and pastors have abdicated their roles and relinquished their authority to the state. In certain instances, the state wields authority, and the church cowers with little prophetic witness in the public square. Do you see why it is so important to elect government officials who advance a theological framework defined by the word of God? God has called agents of the state to promote the common good and restrain evil. So, we should do everything possible to elect government officials who uphold and advance that Christian theological framework, and who look to the God who defines good and evil. Why, as Christians living in God’s world, would we not advance God’s righteousness in the public square
The Local Church: A Public Assembly
If, as we have seen, political activity is appropriate for Christians, how should it be discussed and exemplified by a pastor and his congregation? In teaching a biblical perspective on politics, the church, and the state, a pastor ought to further assist his church by avoiding two contrasting pitfalls: the erroneous belief that the church is apolitical and the inclination to conflate church and state.
It is a great misconception to view Jesus’s ministry as apolitical. Given that politics relates to the administration of political units and public affairs, it is abundantly clear that Jesus’s message was deeply and undeniably political. Jesus spoke out against rulers, said that the Jerusalem temple would be destroyed, and led what looked like a political revolution against Caesar. No one who was sane thought he was talking about a revival or an evangelistic stadium crusade when he declared the arrival of the Kingdom of God. No, he was claiming to be the Lord over all other lords and the King over all other kings. And for these offenses, he died like a political rebel.
Jesus never sought office, led an army, or wrote books on public policy, but his ministry was political in the truest sense of the word. It showed that he was the genuine King of the world, the One who rules and has an impact on all public affairs. His power is more important than all other political powers because he is the Creator and Savior of the world. This is why Paul informed the Christians at Philippi that Jesus, and not Caesar, is Lord (Phil. 2:10–11). It is also why Paul instructed the Roman church to continue respecting the Roman government, even though Jesus is the highest and most powerful authority in the universe.
So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that God made the local church service a political event. The Sunday morning assembly feeds Christians’ main political identity— being messengers of the world’s King of kings and Lord of lords—in very precise, God-ordained ways. When I serve the Lord’s Supper as a pastor, I remind our people that the King died for us and will come back one day to set up a Kingdom of peace and justice that will never end. When I preach, I act as a messenger for the King and remind my congregation that the Bible’s story of the world is bigger than any political party’s story of the world. When I close the meeting with prayer, I am sending my flock out into the world as representatives of King Jesus.
The second mistake to avoid is conflating the two divinely ordained powers, church and state. Some individuals wrongly want the church to have power over the state, while others want the state to have power over the church. The renowned Dutch Reformed pastor and theologian Abraham Kuyper helps us understand how to avoid this error.
Kuyper analyzed patterns in the Bible and history and came to the conclusion that God gave the earth many categories of culture—such as art, science, politics, and religion—called “spheres” (Col. 1:16). He proved that each one has its own center (cause for existence) and circumference (limits to its jurisdiction). God is in charge of each sphere, so he doesn’t want one sphere to “lord it over” the others. Therefore, God’s plan for such spheres is akin to an ontological system of “checks and balances.”
As a pastor, I want my people to be aware of all these spheres and to faithfully exercise their dual citizenship, which means having a biblical perspective on religion, politics, the church, and the state. The institutional church is a political group that says Jesus is the true King of the universe and that Caesar is not. Even when the church is not meeting together, God’s people should utilize their citizenship to make the public square a better place for everyone, where the government fights for freedom as a fundamental human right.
The Pulpit and Our Moment
The question still remains: Should a pastor talk about politics from the pulpit? It’s a question that has been asked for a long time. Some Christians believe that Christianity provides explicit directives for contemporary political discourse; hence, pastors ought to address political matters in sermons. Some Christians believe that religion and politics should not mix. Hence, pastors should refrain from discussing political issues. So, what should a pastor do?
Pastors shouldn’t keep faith and politics apart. The Founders’ idea of the separation of church and state meant that there should never be a federally established church. However, they never desired for politics to be divorced from religion. As George Duffield said, “The truth of the case is, it is impossible to run a line of distinction between things civil and religious, so as to separate the one from the other, in any civilized State. They are in many respects what God and nature have joined together, and man may not put asunder.” A person’s religion encompasses their most fundamental convictions, which means that their religion will inevitably influence their politics. Religion is very personal, yet it is not private. It is not only right but supremely reasonable that one’s personal beliefs will affect one’s public life. God’s infallible word must first and foremost inform a Christian’s political positions.
The contemporary era in politics poses unique challenges for Christians who declare ultimate allegiance to Christ. Indeed, one notable front on which Christians find themselves is that of giving a reason for the hope within, vis-à-vis the secular ideologies—systems of thought hostile to Christianity—that dominate our current political state of affairs, such as progressivism, socialism, and LGBTQI+ ideology. Progressivism deifies social and moral “progress,” with progress in this case being defined as the society-wide rejection of the Christian worldview. In other words, we “progress” away from the God who speaks. Socialism absolutizes material equality and is willing to crush procedural justice to achieve the outcomes it deems best. LGBTQI+ ideology absolutizes the human desire for personal autonomy over gender and sexuality.
Current Challenges in a Romans 1 World
Recent acts of political violence bring to the surface ideologies and issues that have been eroding the foundations of American public life. We are witnessing the steady erosion of religious liberty, where the freedom to worship and to live out one’s faith in the public square is increasingly curtailed. Freedom of speech is being suppressed, not only by government actors but also by powerful cultural forces. The very definition of “hate” has been twisted so that speaking God’s truth about life, marriage, and gender is labeled violent and intolerant. Cancel culture has grown deadly, moving beyond reputational harm to foster an atmosphere in which lives themselves are considered expendable. And layered over all of this is a tragic loss of civility, a social coarseness that tears at the fabric of neighborly love. Scripture gives us a lens for interpreting this decay. In Romans 1:18–31, Paul describes a society that suppresses the truth of God in unrighteousness, exchanges the glory of the Creator for created things, and is given over to dishonorable passions and a debased mind. These are not only ancient realities but present ones. America today is displaying the very symptoms of a Romans 1 world: hostility to God’s truth, celebration of sin, and the collapse of moral reasoning.
This is the environment into which the church is called to speak. John Murray, one of Westminster’s first-generation professors, rightly observed that the church “is to proclaim the counsel of God on civil matters… If it is to be faithful to its commission, it must make its voice heard and felt in reference to public questions.” To remain silent is to betray our vocation. If political corruption is sin, then the church must reprove it. If public life is descending into disorder, then the church must bear witness to the order of God’s kingdom.
Salt and Light
In the face of these idolatrous ideologies, Christians must stand firm, refusing to defile ourselves in an attempt to retain cultural relevance. Consider Jesus’s analogy with salt: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot” (Matt. 5:13). In the ancient Near East, salt played the dual role of preservative and seasoning. Salt was the only preservative; the admixture of salt preserved the life-giving qualities of a food item. Moreover, it served as a seasoning that made food pleasant to the palate.
Christ’s Lordship is relevant not only to our private lives but also to our public lives—to every sphere and endeavor on earth.
Similarly, our adherence to God’s law and proclamation of the gospel plays a dual role in the public square. It helps to preserve our society, staving off immoral and idolatrous inclinations that corrupt it. It also helps to season our society, making it more pleasant and conducive to human flourishing. Therefore, let us not be weary of bearing witness to Christ’s lordship and engaging in the public square as salt and light.
Agents of Righteousness
Our Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the dead for our justification and has ascended into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of God. Jesus Christ is on his celestial throne, from whence he reigns and rules over creation. By his divine right, he has called us to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and a city on a hill. We are not to retreat, but to stand fortified by the grace of God on the revelation of God. Indeed, Christians are to call all nations to repent and obey all that Christ commanded. In other words, we must not fear the public square or be silent observers in it, nor should we seek to appease the world at the expense of biblical truth.
The assault against the Word of God in the public square should not cause the church to retreat in fear, but to redouble our commitment to proclaim Christ’s lordship over every sphere of life. Evil is real, yet it will not have the last word. The risen Christ continues to reign, and he calls his people to courageous faithfulness until he comes again.
Shall we seek the approval of the world, the world that crucified the Son of God? Shall we refrain from public, declarative speech about Christ’s Kingship to maintain some semblance of relevance? The most relevant truth is that this world and all things in it belong to Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the church’s clarion call for all nations, and when the church heeds the Lord, the church remains a beacon of hope in a darkened world. This is our moral clarity for today’s chaos.