Idolatry in our Midst

“For there are no authorities except from God.”  Romans 13:1

Every day, in the discussion of politics, American Christians blaspheme the name of God in a most horrible way. 

 One could imagine what would happen if a pastor, on his way to the pulpit to preach before his dutiful congregation, tripped and fell while ascending to that lofty place where God’s Word is taught.  Oh, what a sight it would be.  There’d probably be giggles aplenty.  But imagine that as he fell this man of God let loose a string of profanity and – gasp – even included the name of Jesus Christ among his expletives.  Ah, indeed, we can easily see in our minds the reaction, the horror, the dismay, the abject disappointment, we would experience as this man of God, under so little a provocation, would so cheapen the name of his Savior and beloved Lord.  

What would become of such a man?  Would he be able to continue in his office of pastor after having defamed the name of God so publicly?  Well, I tell you that this episode is but a dark and small moon compared to the hot sun of conflagration that is the open defiance and blasphemy Christians commit every day in regard to the authority and character of the Lord.  This imaginary pastor would have sinned in anger.  It would be a sin of passion whereas the latter, done with pride and secular certainty, is done with forethought.  

This grave sin is that of Christians agreeing with the secular humanist definition of the separation of church and state.  

Alright.  I know this is a whopper, so let’s look carefully at what’s going on. 

The secular view of church and state is that there is no God.  All is matter and motion and, therefore, the state is the highest authority on earth.  The classical Christian view, the biblical view, is ours, which is that God has established all authorities, including the state.  Each authority has a “sphere” (hence the spheres of sovereignty doctrine) in which it operates.  The secular view is at open odds, indeed it’s hostile to this view because it maintains that there is no power higher than self/state.  To defend its position, the atheist redefines the separation of church and state as meaning that the church must stay out of politics for the reason that it must not “impose” its doctrines on unbelieving citizens.  Sadly, tragically, Christians have accepted this false belief. 

There are several problems with this.  

First, the principle upon which it rests is unanimity, that is to say that one can’t bring Christianity into politics because not everyone is a Christian.  But the Christian isn’t an atheist either so the principle can’t be applied consistently.  If Christian principles are inadmissible because they are not held by non-Christians that means the principle at work, the foundation of political thought, is unanimity.  Clearly, Christians don’t share atheistic principles nor do Muslims, etc.  

Second, and proceeding from the first, how did we arrive at this principle in the first place?  The thing to know about non-Christian thought, insofar as moral/ethical issues are concerned, is that without the immutable and righteous God at the bottom of it all, is that everything is absolutely arbitrary.  Why can’t Christian doctrine be admitted to the political field?  They simply assert the impossibility of it as though it’s, yes, a doctrine from on high.  “Everyone knows,” they proclaim, “that you can’t bring religion into politics.”  But this is, amazingly enough, a religious statement of sorts in that it’s a claim to absolute moral knowledge.  What’s the source of it?  The Christian has been duped into thinking he can’t bring the Bible into politics, that it’s somehow unfair and biased, and stupidly, foolishly, he never bothers to inquire as to which book teaches this.  And this happens because even the Christian has been deceived into believing that secular man is “neutral” and that we can reason about moral issues on our own terms.  

All moral reasoning (questions of right/wrong) must rest upon an ultimate authority.  In this way, all moral disagreements are disputes about ultimate authority.  Incidentally, this is why political arguments are so frustrating.  People insist upon debating “mid-stream” without reference to ultimate standards and that’s like debating who was the greatest football team of all time while arbitrarily refusing to consider the Super Bowl record.  In this way, the insistence that Christians not bring up the Bible when discussing politics is a non-starter.  A Christian is a Christian because he/she is joyously under the authority of God’s word.  To set aside that authority to engage in a debate over right/wrong is to demand that the Christian not be a Christian.  

Can we say that a man is a good husband if every day when he goes to work he takes off his wedding ring and flirts with women at the office?  The secular principle of government is that the state is independent of God, that God has no authority.  No Christian should accept that principle.  

Third, and equally vexing, if not more so, is the unargued accusation that the secular state must protect the unbelieving public from God and His word!  It’s to say that His will is evil toward those that aren’t Christian and these individuals must be protected from Him!  How horrendous a thought.  And to think that Christians accept this ghastly slander against the goodness of the Lord they profess to love.  One can imagine what a man would say if a neighbor told him that his wife was an abusive and vile whore.  Surely, he’d have an answer to that.  Surely, he wouldn’t say, “…yes, she does have her moments.”  But this is, in effect, what the Christian says of God when he/she concedes to the atheistic notion of separation of church and state.  

            The same God that sends His sunshine and blessings aplenty upon the just and unjust, also provides security for all too.  He does this by the restraining of sin through the establishment of civil authorities.  Be sure, the Bible separates the church and the state.  To the church, God gives the gospel to make men right with God through faith in Christ and this can’t happen by force, but by preaching and teaching, by love, by ministry, and by service.  To the state, as we’ll see, God hands His sword of wrath to punish interpersonal evil, not private sin.  The other “sphere of sovereignty” is the family.  

It’s true that the Scripture doesn’t devote too much space to the civil magistrate in the New Testament.  This doesn’t mean what people think it means, though.  What it means is that, in the economy of God’s order, His righteous and life-giving rules, church and family are preeminent.  Family structure – that is, Godly parents who raise their children in Christ and provide for them both spiritually and materially – is given far more space in Scripture because the Bible isn’t deluded like man’s mind is today.  We are children of our parents, not the state.  And children are a gift from God, not the state.  Secular America, on the other hand, assaults the integrity of the family through perverse sexual ethics.  They teach our children to “explore their sexuality” outside of the bonds of marriage and then, in the wake of the catastrophic fallout of fatherless homes, divorce, betrayal, adultery, shame, neglect, and aloneness, the state promises to provide.  Indeed, what in God’s economy is the role of the family and church, the state assumes to itself.  The vast majority of current socialistic public expenditures used to be done by families and the church (not that the secular schools want you to know that).  

So, this is why the atheist wants us to leave Christian principles out of politics.  It simply doesn’t want the competition.  It simply wants to go on with the ruse that the state is both the church (the vessel through which men’s hearts will be changed) and the family (welfare schemes, healthcare, college loans, etc.).  The state is the beast of Revelation.  It will allow you to worship Jesus in private so long as your ultimate commitment is to the state.  In all, you must not challenge the state’s ethical and epistemological authority!  Thus, we must see that the demand that we reason about politics without the Bible is the demand to worship the Beast because it means we must renounce Scripture as the final authority over the affairs of life and instead concede that it’s Caesar.  

Remember, the early Christians weren’t executed because they were Christians.  Pagan Rome didn’t care what god you worshipped so long as you ultimately admitted that Caesar was above all.  All Christians had to say was, “Caesar is Kyrios” and they could avoid being thrown to the lions.  They could keep worshipping Christ.  They could keep going to church. That’s all they had to do but they wouldn’t do it because they knew that “Jesus is Kyrios!”  

Well, just like then, Christ is Lord, not the state.  

Refuse, therefore, to abandon Him when asked about politics.  Refuse to abandon Him when asked about right and wrong, good and evil.  

These are ever more dangerous times because Christians have unwittingly, in their ignorance, to their shame, accepted the fake lordship of Caesar.  So, we do well to remember that if the state has its own standards of right and wrong then God isn’t really God and the state is.  But the state is one sphere of authority given by God and we must resist the urge to idolize it.  We must not say, “the state is Kyrios’ when considering politics.  

Yes, as always, choose this day whom you’ll serve.