As followers of Christ, we must openly support those political candidates whose values and policies reflect our own. However, history shows that when the Church forges cozy ties and alliances with civil authorities or a political party, she loses her purity and the ability to be a bold, prophetic witness to the nation and those in power.
When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, he expressed confidence that the Church would not oppose him because pastors of the State Church received their salaries and other benefits from the state. Except for a few brave voices like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Albert Niemoller, Hitler was right. The silence of a politicized German Church allowed him to carry out his evil schemes
Jesus Showed Us the Way
There were many political and religious
parties in first century Israel, but Jesus forged no ties with any of them. How
could he? His heavenly mission was not of this world. The kingdom He preached transcended
all their petty and partisan politics.
When arrested and interrogated by the
Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, Jesus made it clear that he had no interest in
Caesar’s crown or Herod’s throne. Those kingdoms were of a lower, inferior
realm. His kingdom transcended them all. When Pilate asked him about being
called “the king of the Jews,” Jesus replied,
My kingdom is not of this world. If
My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be
delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here (John 18:36).
We too must guard against becoming identified with a
political party and its machinery. We must always be free to speak truth to those in positions of political power. We must also remember that Jesus did not entrust
us with a political plan or strategy for overthrowing Caesar or winning the
next election. His kingdom begins in the heart and works its way outward from
there.
He, therefore, entrusted us with a Message that has the
inherent power to change hearts and
thereby change families, communities, and nations.
I am not ashamed of the gospel, Paul said, for it is the power of God
unto salvation . . . (Romans 1:16).
We must, therefore, be faithful to the Message the Lord has entrusted to us. We must
guard against modifying the
Message to accommodate cultural and faddish trends, for a compromised message becomes
a message without power. Paul warned of this in I Corinthians 1:17 where he said,
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the
Gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be
emptied of its power
(NIV).
The Distraction of Worldly Power
The vision of
political and worldly power for the Church is a distraction, not
a calling. The Church has
experienced political power in history, and it was a disaster. With the
conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine in 312 and the merger of the Church
with the Empire, the Church enjoyed imperial wealth and power.
Constantine took money from the Roman
treasury and built magnificent cathedrals for the Christians. He also began
paying the salaries of the bishops and pastors and putting the power of the state
at their disposal to enforce doctrines and practices. However, many of her bishops proved to be as cruel and oppressive as any Muslim ayatollah or pagan
emperor. We are still experiencing the negative ramifications of that period of
worldly power in the Church (Hyatt, To Comply or Not Comply, 55).
In such an arrangement the Church becomes
beholden to the political authority and her prophetic voice is muffled or
completely silenced. Dependent on the state for her existence, the Church becomes
feckless and spiritually dead. A. J. Gordon, Baptist pastor and founder of
Gordon College in Boston, wrote,
It is not altogether strange that when the Church forgot her citizenship in heaven and began to establish herself in luxury and splendor on earth, she should cease to exhibit the supernatural gifts of heaven (Hyatt, 2000 Yearsof Charismatic Christianity, 53).
America’s Founders Wanted a Free Church
With No Political Ties
This is why the Puritans in early America would not allow
ministers of the Gospel to hold political office. It was not to keep their
influence out of politics; it was to keep the ministry pure and the ministers
free to speak prophetically to the civil authorities.
This is the reason that America’s
founders, whose thinking was influenced by Puritan thought, instituted the
First Amendment that reads, “Congress shall make no law concerning the
establishment of religion or hindering the free exercise thereof.” This was not
to keep the Church out of politics, but to keep politics out of the Church.
They wanted a Church in America with a
clear prophetic voice that would speak truth to power. This was made clear by James
Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution, who wrote,
We are teaching the world a great
truth, that governments do better without kings and nobles than with them. The
merit is doubled by the other lesson: that Religion flourishes in greater
purity without, than with the aid of government (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 148).
Indeed, if we are to be a prophetic voice to the nation, we
cannot forge cozy ties and make ourselves beholden to any political party. Like
the Old Testament prophets, and Jesus Himself, we must be free to speak the
mind and heart of God to all those in positions of influence and power.
Whose Side Are We On?
Jesus did not align with any political or religious party
because He had not come to take sides, but to take over. It, therefore, has
never been a question of whose side He is on, but a question of who is on His
side? That is why the basic confession of early Christianity was not “Jesus is
Savior” or “Jesus is Healer,” but “Jesus is Lord!”
President Abraham Lincoln understood this. During the Civil
War, when a northern minister expressed his hope that, “the Lord is on our side,”
Lincoln replied,
I am not at all concerned about that . . . but it is
my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s
side (Hyatt, The Great Prayer Awakening of 1857-58, 39).
It is the same today. Our commission is not to assure any politician or political party that God is on their side, but to be a prophetic voice, declaring the Lordship of Jesus, and continually challenging those of every political persuasion with the question, “Are you on the Lord’s side?”
Dr. Eddie Hyatt is a Bible teacher, revivalist, and church historian. This article was derived from his latest book, To Comply or Not Comply, available from Amazon and his website at www.eddiehyatt.com.
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