Here are my notes from a talk by Wayne Grudem at The Kings Centre, Chessington on the 01st July 2010 organised by the Christian Institute. It was an excellent talk that took five wrong views on the interaction of the Christian faith and politics and tackled them from a biblical perspective to show their error. It was an encouraging talk for anyone who is considering involvement in or who is involved in taking their faith into the public sphere.

My notes are not necessarily complete and are brief towards the end because he was short on time and spoke less on the latter points. If you want to read the arguments in more depth then wait for his new book ‘Politics according to the bible‘

Wrong View #1: The government should compel religion

  • Matthew 22:15-22 shows us the legitimacy of paying taxes, also teaches us that not everything belongs to Caesar (e.g.: peoples religious beliefs). Here Jesus was teaching a clear distinction between church and government, a very new and challenging view for the Israelites for whom faith and government were intricately linked.
  • Luke 9:52-55 Jesus refused to compel people to him by force of judgement, only instead by invitation. Imagine how many people would have come to him if he had let his disciples had commanded fire from heaven. He did not judge at that point in time. This shows us how there should always be freedom of religion, not suppress anything and everything that is anti-biblical. We should be confident that the bible has power to stand on it’s own in the public sphere.

Wrong View #2: We should exclude religion from government and the public square

  • Rom 13:4 Civil authority is Gods servant, we should submit to it, we should also understand and teach good and evil in this context. There are many examples in scripture of godly men reproving Government because they did not do ‘good’ bringing the gospel into the political sphere:
  • Luke 3:19 John the Baptist reproved Herod for not just one thing he had done but for ‘all the evils which Herod had done’
  • Acts 24:25 Paul ‘reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgement to come (KJV)’ when in front of Felix the governor

Wrong View #3: All government is demonic and therefore Christians should not get involved

  • Luke 4:6 versus John 8:44: Greg Boyd’s recent book “the myth of a christian nation” claims this exact point but is based on a misinterpretation of Luke 4:6. In this passage Satan tempts Jesus by ‘showing him all the kingdoms of the world’ and saying to him ‘all this power will I give you, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me’. Boyd’s premise is that Jesus did not deny Satan’s claim that he was the ruler the ‘kingdoms of the world’ because they were ‘delivered unto him’ and therefore they were all entirely his to give, Satan was in control of them, including government. However this is not the case as later Jesus says that everything Satan says is a lie: John 8:44 “because there is no truth in him”
  • Rom 13:1-6: There is no authority except for Gods. We need the police force because you can’t stop drunk drivers with the gospel. Sometimes the Government achieves great good before the church, for example the Army under Lincoln overthrew the southern states to destroy slavery. This was Gods way of achieving his ‘good’ Wrong

View #4: We should do evangelism not politics because the government does not do any eternal good

  • 1 John 3:8 Fully understood, the gospel should transform not just individual lives but also result in changed families, schools, businesses, even government. We should seek to influence politics because God left us on earth to do evangelism AND good works to all men.
  • Mark 12:31 The greatest commandment also includes this command to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. If we love our neighbour then we would want laws that protect their marriage, children and freedom to hear the gospel.
  • Mat 5:16 So let your light shine before men, so that they might see your good works… In other words the good words evanglism is more than just preaching the gospel.
  • Eph 2:8-9 & 10-11. Note how 10 and 11 follow on directly from 8&9! The great and classic passage on justification by faith carries on immediately to state that we are created for good work
  • There are many examples in history of Christian Influence on government. For example the abolition of slavery (wWlberforce), the prohibition of the burning of widows on funeral pyres in India, prohibiting the binding of feet in china, banning of gladiatorial contests in the Roman empire, Martin Luther Kings fight for abolishing racial segregation.
  • Matt 6:13 ‘Deliver us from evil’ in the Lords prayer show us how we are to pray for protection from evil
  • 1 Tim 2:1-3 Paul write to Timothy that we’re to pray for rulers and those in authority that we might have a quiet and peaceful life that the gospel might prosper.

Wrong View #5: We should do politics not evangelism

  • Laws solve many problems but we know that laws don’t change hearts.

The right view: There should be significant Christian influence on government

  • There are many examples through the bible of men and women who had significant impact on the political leadership of their time.
  • Consider the life of Daniel or Esther.
  • Consider Jeremiah who was told when he went into captivity that he should “seek the peace of the city that I have caused you to be carried away to as captives, and pray to the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall you have peace.” (Jer 29:7) We should also so seek to influence politics to help bring about peace for our community, nation etc.
  • Consider also Nehemiah the cup bearer to the King, a high office with access to the Kings ear and also Esther.
  • It’s not for everyone, some are called into politics, others into business, others into other things but in each case bringing Christian influence into their environment.
  • Consider 1 Peter 2:12-17 ‘submit your self to every authority’ and also ‘As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.’: Where we do gain significant influence we must not enforce religion and we must protect free speech not stopping or opposing in a hostile way literature or other critique of the Christian faith
  • Last of all, pastors and teachers in church have a responsibility to teach the ‘whole counsel of God’ (Acts 20:26-27). Paul did not shrink from teaching on any topic simply because it was unpopular, and he considered himself blameless in this matter.

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