The Gospel and Politics (Part 3)
June 12th, 2008
(By John MacArthur)
This article is a continuation from yesterday.
LESSONS FROM SCRIPTURE
My point is not that Christians should remain totally uninvolved in politics or civic activities and causes. They ought to express their political beliefs in the voting booth, and it is appropriate to support legitimate measures designed to correct a glaring social or political wrong. Complete noninvolvement would be contrary to what God’s Word says about doing good in society: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10; cf. Titus 3:1-2). It would also display a lack of gratitude for whatever amount of religious freedom the government allows us to enjoy. Furthermore, such pious apathy toward government and politics would reveal a lack of appreciation for the many appropriate legal remedies believers in democracies have for maintaining or improving the civil order. A certain amount of healthy and balanced concern with current trends in government and the community is acceptable, as long as we realize that that interest is not vital to our spiritual growth, our righteous testimony, or the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Above all, the believer’s political involvement should never displace the priority of preaching and teaching the gospel.
There is certainly no prohibition on believers being directly involved in government as civil servants, as some notable examples in the Old and New Testaments illustrate. Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon are two excellent models of servants God used in top governmental positions to further His kingdom. The centurion’s servant (Matt. 8:5-13), Zaccheus the tax collector (Luke 19:1-10), and Cornelius the centurion (Acts 10) all continued in public service even after they experienced the healing or saving power of Christ. (As far as we know, the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus also remained in office after he was converted [Acts 13:4-12].)
The issue again is one of priority. The greatest temporal good we can accomplish through political involvement cannot compare to what the Lord can accomplish through us in the eternal work of His kingdom. Just as God called ancient Israel (Ex. 19:6), He has called the church to be a kingdom of priests, not a kingdom of political activists. The apostle Peter instructs us, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).
Jesus, as we would expect, perfectly maintained His Father’s perspective on these matters even though He lived in a society that was every bit as pagan and corrupt as today’s culture. In many ways it was much worse than any of us in Western nations has ever faced. Cruel tyrants and dictators ruled throughout the region, the institution of slavery was firmly entrenched—everything was the antithesis of democracy. King Herod, the Idumean vassal of Rome who ruled Samaria and Judea, epitomized the godless kind of autocratic rule: “Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men [concerning the whereabouts of the baby Jesus], was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under” (Matt. 2:16).
Few of us have experienced the sort of economic and legal oppression that the Romans applied to the Jews of Jesus’ day. Tax rates were exorbitant and additional government-sanctioned abuses by the tax collectors exacerbated the financial burden on the people. The Jews in Palestine were afforded almost no civil rights and were treated as an underprivileged minority that could not make an appeal against legal injustices. As a result, some Jews were in constant outward rebellion against Rome.
Fanatical nationalists, known as Zealots, ignored their tax obligations and violently opposed the government. They believed that even recognizing a Gentile ruler was wrong (see Deuteronomy 17:15, “You may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother”). Many Zealots became assassins, performing acts of terrorism and violence against both the Romans and other Jews whom they viewed as traitors.
It is also true that the Roman social system was built on slavery. The reality of serious abuses of slaves is part of the historical record. Yet neither Jesus nor any of the apostles attempted to abolish slavery. Instead, they commanded slaves to be obedient and used slavery as a metaphor for believers who were to submit to their Lord and Master.
Jesus’ earthly ministry took place right in the midst of that difficult social and political atmosphere. Many of His followers, including the Twelve, to varying degrees expected Him to free them from Rome’s oppressive rule. But our Lord did not come as a political deliverer or social reformer. He never issued a call for such changes, even by peaceful means. Unlike many late twentieth-century evangelicals, Jesus did not rally supporters to some grandiose attempt to “capture the culture” for biblical morality or greater political and religious freedoms.
Christ, however, was not devoid of care and concern for the daily pain and hardships people endured in their personal lives. The Gospels record His great empathy and compassion for sinners. He applied those attitudes in a tangible, practical way by healing thousands of people of every kind of disease and affliction, often at great personal sacrifice to Himself.
Still, as beneficial and appreciated as His ministry to others’ physical needs was, it was not Jesus’ first priority. His divine calling was to speak to the hearts and souls of individual men and women. He proclaimed the good news of redemption that could reconcile them to the Father and grant them eternal life. That message far surpasses any agenda for political, social, or economic reform that can preoccupy us. Christ did not come to promote some new social agenda or establish a new moral order. He did come to establish a new spiritual order, the body of believers from throughout the ages that constitutes His church. He did not come to earth to make the old creation moral through social and governmental reform, but to make new creatures holy through the saving power of the gospel and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. And our Lord and Savior has commanded us to continue His ministry, with His supreme priorities in view, with the goal that we might advance His kingdom: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).
In the truest sense, the moral, social, and political state of a people is irrelevant to the advance of the gospel. Jesus said that His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36).
The reality is we are not Jesus Christ, we have different callings by which to advance the cause of Christ and we live in a different milieu from that of Jesus’ and the disciples’ days on earth.
Jesus actually captured the culture and transformed religion and civilization for all time. Loving one’s enemy and giving the other cheek is the cultural opposite of eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. He introduced God as the loving Father and not a stern lawgiver as He is portrayed in the OT. (Of course God’s love is the same in both NT and OT but we didn’t see God’s wrath manifested in the NT.) Men and nations, with good motives or ill, have been used of God to advance the cause of Christ.
It may not have been Jesus’ first priority to care for the pain, hardships and other physical needs of people during His day but those may be precisely the first priority of christian doctors and nurses and christian social workers today.
Jesus could have have been a successful social and political reformer but He is far too great and noble to descend to merely that level, and God sent Him for an entirely different purpose. But a christian may be called by God to be a successful social and political reformer for the ultimate end of advancing the cause of Christ.
If evil people have been used by God to advance the cause of Christ, with more reason that christians can be used by God through any means for the same cause. The point is we all have different callings and we can be used of God in any way He wants including that of being a social and political reformer, and christian doctors and nurses and social workers.
Jesus, the disciples and the gospel writers understood the socio-economic and political realities of their day. And while they did not call for the abolition of slavery, in various ways they called for fair treatment of slaves. Slave labor was a necessity, they didn’t have the technology to do the tasks being performed by the slaves.
If slavery were still in existence today and christians choose to remain silent in the face of it, then that silence is the greatest disservice to the cause of Christ and any so called ministry that does not call for abolition of slavery is nothing but hypocricy.
But we must remember and be thankful that in due time Christians were the first ones to call for the abolition of slavery. They are the first genuine reformers who heeded Christ’s call to love their neighbors as themselves.
The moral, social and political state of the people is very relevant to the advance of the gospel. We should pray that the conditions be conducive to the preaching of the gospel or that they be such as to make the people’s heart receptive.
(I sure hate to sound as though my disagreement with pastor John’s views is vehement. Thats not the case at all. I understand where he’s coming from. Its just that I’m not really a writer and I don’t know how to express myself in any elegant way. I’m just one christian opinionating. Any conflict or doubt raised by what I have written must be resolved in favor of validity and soundness of John MacArthur’s views. Of course.)
“In the truest sense, the moral, social, and political state of a people is irrelevant to the advance of the gospel.” -John MacArthur
Amen to that. Good words in this post. I hope the Church gets it some day, and then we may see another Great Awakening. By His grace I pray for it, and hope for it.
However, before a revival, methinks we need a Reformation, and a return to the deep things of God in His Word. Man is dead spiritually, and this world is the devil’s domain, and the gates of hell shall prevail against every institution, except the Church. And the Lord shall crush Satan under His people’s feet shortly.
“A certain amount of healthy and balanced concern with current trends in government and the community is acceptable, as long as we realize that that interest is not vital to our spiritual growth, our righteous testimony, or the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.”
Very well put.
donsands wrote: “…this world is the devil’s domain, and the gates of hell shall prevail against every institution, except the Church.”
Huh? Do you believe this?
Yes I do.
“But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” 2 Cor. 4:3-4
The Church is the only safe haven in this world. All other religions, and all unbelievers have the devil as their father.
God is our Father, those who have come to trust Christ alone, and who love the Son.
Don,
Just because the devil is worshipped by those who are lost doesn’t mean that he has domain over anything. “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” Col 2:15. Jesus is Lord over all, so therefore the devil won’t prevail against any institution at all. All institutions will be victorious in Christ. “And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.” 1 John 5:4
“Jesus is Lord over all, so therefore the devil won’t prevail against any institution at all.”
The Lord Jesus has total authority, and all power. Amen. I agree. But how you conclude, “therefore the devil won’t prevail against any institution”, I don’t understand.
The Mormon Church is a Church of Satan, where millions of people are under his rule, though they don’t know it.
The Word of Faith and it’s millions of followers. The Catholic Church is under his rule.
The Jews who reject Christ are under his rule, and in His domain.
Paul handed Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme.
They were in the Church, where Satan has no authority. I’m seeing this as the Apostle turning these two out into Satan’s domain, the world.
Satan is the ruler of the world. He has been judged, and will shortly be crushed under our feet, and cast out, but until the Lord returns, this world is his–(though the world has always been God’s, even before Christ died on the Cross, and rose from the dead), “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air”, Eph. 2:1-2
The devil is God’s devil. And God has judged him, and his time is short. But he is the prince of this world, and he prevails in all the institutions. But he shall never, ever, prevail against Christ, and His Church. In fact, The Church shall prevail against the gates of hell, and Christ shall build His Church, and nothing will stop Him. Not the devil, and all his host of demons, and all his lies in the world, and even when he, by stealth, comes into the Church, and clothes himself in sheep’s clothing, he will be revealed for who he is, to the genuine sheep of the Good Shepherd. For His sheep will not listen to Satan and his ministers of righteousness, but we shall only hear the voice of our Lord and Savior.
Don, I think we might be using our terms differently here. By institution, I mean “church” as an institution, “family” as a separate institution, “state”, etc. In totality, Satan won’t have control over family, state, education, vocation, etc., but not church. By world, I mean the system of unbelieving thought, not the earth and all it contains. Since the church is only a small part of the kingdom, I see believers being successful in all areas of the kingdom. I hope clarifying this helps.
“I see believers being successful in all areas of the kingdom.”
Amen. Believers make up the Body of Christ, of which He is the head, and so yes, as the Church prevails against the gates of hades, so individual Christians surely prevail.
In fact, the Church can go through terrible persecution, as it did through the Inquisition, and in the time of Nero, but still grew and succeeded in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, who is the soul of the Body of Christ.
Steve, I appreciate you’re challenging me. I’m a little slow, and not that bright. I have a difficult time sharing my heart. I truly appreciate blogs like these, where I can read edifying posts, and then share my heart.
Have a great Lord’s Day.
I believe that the English Reformation — which few people today remember was Calvinist — led directly to the establishment of America and 400 years of the civilizing influences of the British Empire and the spread of Christianity throughout the Third World. Knowing the good that was to come, I like to re-read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs to remind myself of the selfless martyrdom these Reformers faced first.
Donsands:
and John wrote (literally) that “the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one” in 1 John.