Government and Christianity: November 2007
Table of Contents
The Powers That Be
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers; for there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1).
Human government, it has been justly said, finds its root in the authority which God conferred upon Noah. There was no such thing, properly speaking, in the antediluvian earth. Adam had a most extensive dominion, but no power over life. “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man” (Gen. 1:2628). There was no authority delegated over man, nor even to deprive the least animal of its life. Hence it was that the murder of a brother did not draw down vengeance from man, though conscience dreaded the retributive blow from every hand. “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground,” said the Lord to guilty Cain, and He set a mark upon him, lest any should slay the fugitive. Then followed a long reign of gigantic and uncurbed wickedness. Finally, a preacher of righteousness was raised up who warned for the space of 120 years, before God swept away the corruption and violence of the race in the waters of the deluge.
The Commission to Noah
After that catastrophe, a new commission opens. Noah and his sons have the Adamic responsibility confirmed, but they have much more. Every moving thing that lives, even as the green herb, should be meat for them, the blood thereof excepted. “Surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man: at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man. And you, be ye fruitful” (Gen. 9:57). Evidently the world was then placed under new conditions, which, in their substance, continue and must subsist till a new and yet future dealing of God changes the face of all things, as may be gathered from 2 Peter and other scriptures.
The principle, then, of the divine charge to Noah and his sons remains true and obligatory till the day of the Lord. Now what is its chief characteristic? Clearly it is God’s committal of the sword, or the power of life and death, into the hands of man. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” Such is the true source and basis of civil government. It did not spring from social contract. It did not grow by degrees out of family relationships. It did not originate in the usurpation of man or of a class. As God’s command gave it being, so it can never cease to be clothed with His authority, whether men hear or forbear. If there be any one part of the charge which stands most prominent, it is the responsibility of man to shed the blood of him who sheds man’s blood. Such is the requirement of God, grounded upon the fact that He made man in His image. But though the reason of the thing might apply from Adam downwards, no such power was delegated till Noah. The notion, therefore, of its being, in any sort or degree, a right inherent in man, is thus cut off. It is a right of God, which He, ever since the flood, has been pleased to entrust to human keeping, which those in authority are bound to enforce in subjection to Him, and for the exercise of which they must by-and-by give account to Himself (Psa. 82).
It is easy to say that God has withdrawn or quashed the commission given to Noah and his family. But I ask, where? when? how? and await in vain the shadow of a proof.
The Promise to Abraham
Undoubtedly, God revealed other thoughts and hopes to the faith of Abraham and of his seed. With the fathers he entered into a new relationship — a covenant of grace and promise, as proved by Romans 4 and Galatians 3 — which did not clash with the previous bond signed, sealed and delivered, if I may so say, to Noah and his sons. This was a covenant between God and the earth at large; that was a special covenant between God and His own people. By the one, the world’s wickedness was kept in check; by the other, the wandering patriarchs walked as strangers in a land promised to them and their seed for an everlasting possession. The former menaced human violence, when needed, with death; the latter led the men who embraced its hopes, pilgrims on earth, under the guidance of a known and almighty Friend. The government of the earth proceeded in its own sphere, wide as all the families of the earth. The calling of Abraham and his seed had its proper and peculiar domain. Between them there was no confusion, much less contradiction.
Government and God’s Calling United
It is true that, after the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, the principle of government, first committed to Noah, and that of God’s call, first manifested in Abraham, were seen united. In that chosen people, separated from the Gentiles as His witness, God developed His ways as a Ruler. But, alas! At Sinai, instead of confessing their sin and pleading the absolute promises made to the fathers, they accepted the conditions of their own obedience. The result was ruin under all variety of circumstances: the law broken before it was brought down from the Mount, God Himself rejected, failure under priests, under prophets, under kings, “till there was no remedy,” and God at length gave them into the hands of their enemies. During their national existence in Canaan, none can pretend that God relieved Israel from the responsibility of punishing with death.
Earthly Rule Given to the Gentiles
At the Babylonish captivity, God severed the principle of earthly rule from that of His call, transferring the former to the Gentiles. The four great empires appeared in succession, as Daniel and other inspired writers predicted and attested. The last, or Roman, empire bore sway, as is well-known, when our Lord was born and died, and God began to call His church, chosen from Jews and Gentiles, as one body here below.
The Assembly and Government
But it is clear and certain, from the Acts of the Apostles and the rest of the New Testament, that the church in no way interfered with the government of the earth, which God had placed in the hands of magistrates. They had, no doubt, to hear and to bear the reproach of turning the world upside down, and of doing contrary to the decrees of Caesar, but it was false. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. They knew it, they had it, and they did not want another. They remembered His own glowing words about them: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world,” and they waited for Him from heaven, assured that those who suffer shall also reign with Him. As they never resisted the authorities by force, so they sought in their teachings to uphold, not to weaken, the just place which God of old had assigned them. Hence the Apostle Paul thus addressed the believers in the imperial city: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation [rather, judgment, as also in 1 Corinthians 11:29, where the context is decisively against the idea of ‘damnation’]. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same; for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger [or avenger] to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’ sake” (Rom. 13:15).
The reigning emperor was a pagan and a persecutor, but clearly that was not the question. The language of the Spirit is so framed as to exclude cavil, founded either on the profession or the practice of the ruler. “There is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” What can be conceived more definite on the one hand, more comprehensive on the other? What more opposed to revolutionary movement? The Jews were then turbulent, and the Christians were obnoxious in the extreme to the ruling powers. It seems probable that some at Rome, from old Jewish associations, found it hard to own and respect, as of God, rulers whom they saw sunken in the spiritual and moral degradations of heathenism. Under such circumstances, if under any, one might have supposed a priori that God might have revoked the grant of power from its Gentile holders, if He did not transfer it to the church. But no! The door is closed against every excuse. “The powers that be are ordained of God.”
W. Kelly
The Ministers of God to Us
“There is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” (What a terrible scene this world would be if there were no governments!) Although the Christian should be separate from politics, he can thank God for those whom He ordains —ministers of God to us for good (Rom. 13:4).
We would caution fellow-believers in respect to a habit prevalent in the world of speaking evil of rulers. This ill-becomes us; on the contrary, we are to render “honor to whom honor” is due. While we have nothing to do with setting up rulers, we should be the most respectful of all people to them.
The Place of Prayer
Another privilege we have is to pray for them; in fact, we are exhorted to make “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks . . . for all that are in authority” (1 Tim. 2:12). Who can measure the effect on any nation’s tranquility if separated, devoted saints of God make such intercessions! It is not by helping to select rulers, nor by mingling in politics, that this weight is effected. Consider Lot in Sodom, for instance; he was right in the midst of their politics and was of no help at all, while his godly uncle Abraham, who was separated from it, could make intercession on behalf of that wicked city. God heard Abraham’s intercession, but the wickedness of the place had gone too far then for judgment to be withheld. Lot neither perceived the imminence of judgment, nor was he fitted to make intercession for the city. His political associations blinded his eyes; his moral contacts blighted his soul and ruined his family.
The world’s history bears record to the fact that when Christians have lost sight of their heavenly calling and have sought to help forward certain political aims or have curried the favor and sought the support of “the powers that be,” they have done so to their hurt. It is not good to lean on “an arm of flesh”; rather, “it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes” (Psa. 118:9).
Taking Sides
As terrible and godless as atheistic communism is, it is to be feared that in many places where communists have gained control, Christians have suffered unduly by having taken sides against them and having sought by political means to prevent the communists from coming into power. In this way Christians, who should have maintained their separation, became identified with political forces. Then when the new authority was set up, they were treated as political enemies. The inflammatory remarks against communism by some Christian leaders in this country have perhaps added to the severity of persecution against Christians in such places. Satan has been very successful in seducing Christians to forget their earthly strangership and heavenly citizenship and in having them seek to adapt Christianity to the ways and aims of the world. There is little or no reproach for that compromising type of Christianity in the world. The god of this world easily makes use of it for his own ends. It has become integrated with world politics, reforms and advancements of all kinds.
Strangers and Pilgrims
In some ways we should be more like the Jewish captives in Babylon. They were taken from their own land and were strangers (not pilgrims journeying home, as we are, however) in a foreign land, but they were told by God through Jeremiah to “seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace” (Jer. 29:7). They were not to be engaged in setting things right in the land of their captivity, but they could and should resort to prayer on behalf of that place, not in the spirit of seeking its greatness, but that they might enjoy peace. In the same spirit, we are to pray for those in authority, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Tim. 2:2).
May we not forget that we are “strangers and pilgrims” in this world. Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20); our calling is to heaven (Heb. 3:1); our hope is in heaven (Col. 1:5). Yet for all that, the Christians who act accordingly and make intercession for those in authority are the greatest power for good in any land.
P. Wilson, adapted from Christian Truth, 6:26-28
Strangers Here
Called from above, and heavenly men by birth
(Who once were but the citizens of earth),
As pilgrims here, we seek a heavenly home,
Our portion in the ages yet to come.
Where all the saints of every clime shall meet,
And each with all shall all the ransomed greet,
But oh! the height of bliss, my Lord, shall be
To owe it all, and share it all, with Thee.
Thou wast “the image,” in man’s lowly guise,
Of the invisible to mortal eyes;
Come from His bosom, from the heavens above,
We see in Thee incarnate, “God is love.”
Thy lips the Father’s name to us reveal;
What burning power in all Thy words we feel,
When to our raptured hearts we hear Thee tell
The heavenly glories which Thou knowest so well.
That precious stream of water and of blood,
Which from Thy pierced side so freely flowed,
Has put away our sins of scarlet dye,
Washed us from every stain, and brought us nigh.
We are but strangers here; we do not crave
A home on earth, which gave Thee but a grave:
Thy cross has severed ties which bound us here,
Thyself our treasure in a brighter sphere.
J. G. Deck, Little Flock Hymnbook, #212
Our Place on Earth
Editors’ Note: To understand our present identification with Christ is to understand our present place with respect to government.
Our place here upon the earth is connected with Christ. Just, indeed, as we are identified with Christ before God as to standing, so also are we identified with Christ before the world. In other words, we are put in His place down here just as we are in Him before God, and I am sure that it would be very helpful to us all to have this truth continually before our souls.
The Lord Jesus, speaking to the Jews, said, “Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world” (John 8:23). Afterwards, when presenting His own before the Father, He said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:16). You will see that from verse 14 to verse 19, He essentially puts His disciples in His own place in the world, just as from verse 6 to verse 13 He puts them into His own place before the Father. And they have His place in the world, be it remarked, because they are not of it, even as He was not of it, for having been born again they are no longer of the world. Hence He speaks continually of their having to encounter the same hatred and the same persecution as befell Him. Thus, to cite an example, He says, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also” (John 15:18-20). The Apostle John in like manner indicates the utter contrast between believers and the world, when he says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness” — or “the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).
Every believer is regarded by God as having died and been raised together with Christ (Rom. 6; Col. 3:13). He has thus been brought, through the death and resurrection of Christ, as completely, in the view of God, out of the world as Israel was brought out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Hence he is no longer of it, though he is sent back into it (John 17:18) to be for Christ in the midst of it. Paul therefore could say, while active in service for Christ in the world, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [or whereby] the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). By the cross of Christ he saw that the world was already judged (John 12:31), and by the application of the cross to himself he regarded himself as dead — crucified to the world —so that there was separation between the two as complete as death could make it.
E. Dennett, adapted from Twelve Letters
Government and Christianity
Most of us live in the country in which we were born and by virtue of our birth are citizens of that country. But all of us who are “born again” (born from above) are now “citizens” of our new country of birth — “heaven.”
Our Lord, through whom we have received our new life and citizenship, shows us how to be heavenly people living on earth where men have power and rule. When on trial, our Lord submitted Himself to the judge, as having governmental authority given to him by God. We are to follow Him, being subject to government, “for there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1). Our Lord did not try to change the government or be a ruler among men in the affairs of government. We are to follow Him in this as well.
The Lord lived in a country whose government had been overthrown by force by another country. It did not matter, “for there is no power but of God.” To be subject to government is to be subject to God.
God’s will for us in matters of government does not change by what country we live in. As heavenly citizens we are to represent the Lord Jesus according to the same instructions, whether we were born and live in Cuba, in Iraq, in Israel, in Canada, in the U.S.A. or in any other country.
The Christian and Politics
When political campaigns wax hot and the world is besieged with claims and counterclaims, Christians who are conscious of their heavenly calling can go on serenely, knowing that men are merely working out “whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:28). Even though Satan is the god and prince of this world and is blinding the minds of those that believe not, God is still supreme and is moving behind the scenes to work out His own purposes and counsels. These may not be what men think are best, but we must remember that this world, as it is now, is not going on to a bright future, but to certain trouble, the like of which will never have been known before. It is guilty of casting the Son of God out and has not repented of its deed; God’s righteous judgments hang over it, ready to begin to fall when the true Christians are taken out.
What a mistake it is for Christians to think that they can improve this doomed scene by political means. When the Lord Himself was here, He did not try to improve it; He refused to be a judge between two brothers, to remove an iniquitous Herod, or to stop a wicked Pilate. He left this world as He found it, except that when He left it, it was guilty of rejecting Him. Can we suppose that we are to do what the Lord did not do? Have God’s thoughts about the world changed? He sent His Son into the world to testify for Him, and in the same manner the Son has sent us into the world.
The Example of Christ
How thoroughly unlike Christ it would be for a Christian to help select or to wield political power. Christ is the Heir of this world, and we are joint heirs with Him. Shall we, the joint heirs, have a place here before the Heir does? We are but followers of the rejected One, waiting for the moment when He will take us home. Our position is much like that of the Israelites who were sheltered by the blood of the lamb in an Egypt under divine sentence, while they themselves were awaiting the command to depart. How incongruous it would have been for those Israelites to be absorbed in Egyptian politics or to help to improve that doomed land!
The Christian is bound to respect all who are in authority and to treat them as established by God, but at the same time he is to pass on as a stranger and a pilgrim. His home is elsewhere; he is but passing through. He is here to represent One who is in heaven — to manifest Christ and His ways, which were always full of grace and truth. It would be as completely out of place for a Christian to mingle in earthly politics as for the British ambassador to Washington to become entangled in American politics.
One writer has translated Philippians 3:20 thus: “Our politics are in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” How comforting! How encouraging! The sense of this should free us from all participation, and even from all anxiety in any political agitation, regardless of how or where. Soon we shall hear that shout and be off to meet our Lord in the air. May we be found feeding on Christ the “roast lamb” who underwent the judgment for us, and by whose precious blood we have been sheltered, while we are girded (shoes on the feet and staff in the hand), ready to depart. (See Exodus 12:8-12.)
P. Wilson, from Christian Truth, 23:253-254
A Christian in Political Power
It is significant that while the New Testament scriptures give ample directions for the behavior of the husband to the wife and the wife to the husband, of the children to the parent and the parent to the children, of the servant to the master and the master to the servant, and while they also lay down the conduct proper from a subject to the powers that be, they give no directions whatever as to the way of executing political trust.
A Christian under authority has ample directions how to act. A Christian wielding governmental power has no directions at all. Why this omission? The character of believers as “not of the world,” as associated with Christ in His “patience,” and as fellow-heirs with Him whom God has not yet put in possession of the inheritance fully explains the omission.
Going About Doing Good
But did not Jesus, it may be asked, go about doing good? And may not the possession of political power and occupation with better government be the means of doing great good? This, however, is man’s reasoning. Looked at broadly, in the light of God’s truth, a Christian cannot do good by political action, for the end to which everything is working is God’s righteous judgment.
What does the Word teach us? It tells us that Jesus went about doing good, and it tells us too that believers are placed here for the same object for which He was here: “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world” (John 17:18). How then did Jesus do good? Was it by the exercise of political power? Was it by worldly combinations and societies? Was it by seeking popular support? While He had a right to rule and could rule righteously, He absolutely declined to receive power. Offered it by the devil, He at once detected and denounced the deceiver. Asked to take the place of an arbiter, He replied, “Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you?” (Luke 12:14). Perceiving that the people “would come and take Him by force, to make Him a king, He departed again into a mountain Himself alone” (John 6:15).
In private, none ever labored as He to do good, but the time for public and governmental blessing to the earth had not yet come. The scepter was not yet put into His hands by the only One who had a right to bestow it, and He would receive it from no other. If taken now, it must be taken either from the “god of this world” or from man, and from neither of these would He accept it. In what way are things different now? Can the Christian receive power from hands from which Christ refused it? Will God give it to the fellow-heirs while He is yet withholding it from the One whom He has made heir of all things?
T. B. Baines, adapted
War and Christianity
In the March 2005 issue of The Christian we considered the reelection of George W. Bush, including some remarks on the implications of a professed Christian holding political office. Now another related issue is surfacing in the news, namely, how soldiers can keep faith while under fire in war. While the issue may involve mainly the United States at the moment, the question is relevant for any individual or nation that engages in war today.
God’s Government in the Old Testament
The controversy is not new, for the question of God and war has been debated since the fall of man. In the Old Testament, God was laying claim to the earth through His chosen people Israel, and He used them as His arm of power against other nations. This was particularly true in their conquest of the land of Canaan, for the “iniquity of the Amorites” and the Canaanites’ worship of idols caused the Lord to drive them out and give their land to Israel. Later, after Israel themselves had failed, God raised up Gentile powers (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome) as His government in the earth. The “times of the Gentiles” that were ushered in with Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians continue to this day and will not cease until the battle of Armageddon.
Thus we see clearly that the governments that God instituted in the world after the flood are here with us today. Because God set them up, He expects them to carry out their functions in His fear and holds them accountable for the way in which they do it. Sadly, war has been a factor for thousands of years in man’s administration in this world, and governments have continually used armed conflict either to increase their power or to protect their positions. Some nations, however, have gone to war specifically to try and correct wrong in the world and to free others from the tyranny of unrighteous and oppressive regimes.
Invoking God’s Name in War
Since man is essentially a God-conscious being, God has often been appealed to and His name invoked on behalf of nations going to war. Many times, both in the past and at present, false gods connected with false religions have been looked to for help, and some of these occasions are recorded in the Word of God. When the true God was appealed to in the Old Testament, in a cause of which He approved, His people Israel could count on victory, for His glory and their ultimate blessing. Doubtless there were times when appeals to false gods were connected with victory, for God is behind the scenes and “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11). Also, appeals to the true God sometimes were connected with defeat because His people were taking refuge in an outwardly right position, but without inward reality. While allowing defeat under such circumstances, God always vindicated His name in other ways, even if His people were walking badly.
The Worst of Man
In our day we find that wars are frequent, whether in large conflicts involving many nations or in smaller combats involving only a few nations or ethnic groups. In such wars, whether large or small, often the worst in man’s sinful nature comes out, and atrocities are committed which they justify by the end that is served. The name of God is brought into the picture to justify all this, often by both sides, for each sees himself as having right on his side. Even if atrocities are not knowingly committed, yet the very act of making war, especially in these days of sophisticated weapons, results in awful carnage that can scarcely be imagined by those who have not experienced it.
Involvement in Setting Things Right
For believers living in a professing Christian nation, war has proven to be a difficult matter to face. On the one hand, when we see unrighteousness and injustice in the world, it is tempting to want to become directly involved and set things right. If this involves war and bloodshed, we may seek to justify it on the basis that it is necessary to deal with evil in order to promote good. This is particularly true of Christian nations, such as Britain in the nineteenth century and the U.S.A. today. On the other hand, many believers wonder how this can be reconciled with God’s message of love and grace in this dispensation and the command of the Lord Jesus to “love your enemies” (Matt. 5:44).
As always, we find the answer in the Word of God. It is true that God set up government in the earth, for there is no other way to curb the sinful impulses of fallen man. For this reason Paul reminds us to “be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1). In keeping with this, he goes on to say that “he [the government] is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Rom. 13:4). Government by man will continue until the Lord Jesus comes and reigns in righteousness, and until then no government will be perfect, because it is administered by fallen man. Nevertheless, government is still “the minister of God,” and the believer is called to submit to it, even if, as Daniel reminded Nebuchadnezzar, God is pleased at times to set up in government “the basest of men” (Dan. 4:17).
The Christian’s Place
However, Scripture is clear that the Christian has no place in government today, for Christianity and government do not mix. For the same reason, the believer really has no place in war, either. Because we have a new life that delights in righteousness, we are constantly burdened by the rising tide of evil in this world and may be tempted to try and straighten things out. To do so, however, is to be like the Corinthians, to whom Paul had to say, “Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us” (1 Cor. 4:8). It is not the time for reigning or to set things right, for our blessed Saviour has been rejected. Until He has His rightful place, nothing will be right in this world. We are not to reign before the time.
More than this, to go to war and seek to “right the wrong” is to compromise our position as heavenly citizens and spoil our testimony to the love and grace of God. Nearly 150 years ago, a godly servant of the Lord was crossing the Atlantic on a British naval vessel. The sailors somehow found out that he did not believe in Christians going to war, and one day a number of them surrounded him on deck, wanting to know why. In those days Britain was recognized as an important “policeman” of the world, a role that has largely passed to the U.S.A. today. His reply was excellent, and in language which they understood. He said, “Boys, I believe in fair play. Suppose I go to war, and meet up with an unbeliever on the enemy side. We fire at each other: He kills me, and I kill him. He sends me straight to heaven, while I send him straight to hell. Boys, I don’t call that fair play.” Worse still, how serious to think that a believer going to war might find himself fighting a fellow-believer from another nation.
Heavenly Ambassadors
If we as Christians understand our heavenly calling and understand our role here in this world as ambassadors, we will readily see that we have no place in this world’s conflicts. We will be thankful for any measure of law and order that we experience, for “righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34). However, we will not seek to be identifying ourselves with our country of natural citizenship, whether in its righteousness or its sin, but rather will see ourselves as those called out of this world and part of the church which has been formed from every nation. We will seek to promote Christ’s interests down here, preach His message of love and grace, and wait for the Lord to come and take us home.
The Day of the Lord
Scripture tells us that God will deal with evil when our Lord comes back in power and glory to take His rightful place. The bloodshed and destruction of that day will be terrible, and unlike today, none will escape. Concerning that time, we read that “the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs” (Rev. 14:20). Furthermore, we read that the Lord Jesus will “smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Rev. 19:15). When the judgment is finished, God will usher in the millennium, where righteousness will reign. At that time, “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isa. 2:4).
The Weapons of Our Warfare
But is there no warfare for the believer today? Indeed there is. Paul could tell Timothy to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12), and he could also tell the Corinthians that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God” (2 Cor. 10:4). Then, in Ephesians 6:11 we are told to “put on the whole armor of God” in order to carry out both defensive and offensive warfare.
In particular, Paul tells us to have “your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15). This might seem to be a contradiction, for a warrior is not normally a man of peace. However, the contradiction is only in appearance. The gentlest Christian must be a stern warrior, and his power in conflict with the enemy will be in proportion to his power as a peacemaker. Unless he is a man of peace, he cannot be a man of war. The Christian must first be governed by truth — “having your loins girt about with truth” (Eph. 6:14) — and must walk in integrity of heart. This results in consistency of conduct, and he will seek the happiness of others, whether sinner or saint. Then the believer, as a man of peace, will be ready for war against “the wiles of the devil,” against “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” against “spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:11-12). It is this kind of warfare in which the believer should engage today.
We may rest assured that God will judge evil, but our part is to be a witness for Christ in the midst of the evil, as He was during His earthly ministry, while we wait for His return. W. J. Prost
Government on Earth
Government was instituted after the flood when God said to Noah, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed” (Gen. 9:6). This was not an idea that originated with Noah, but a divine command, and by it God placed the sword of government on earth in the hands of man. Prior to the flood there was no government on earth, and man became utterly lawless; corruption and violence filled the scene (Gen. 6:11).
The human race had followed a downward course from the day that Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden; this climaxed in a world of horrible moral corruption and human blood-shedding. Hence God intervened and cleansed the earth with the deluge, while He preserved Noah and his family alive in the ark. By them God gave man a fresh start, and the moral government of the earth was henceforth to be exercised under divine decree. This has never been abrogated, and “the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1).
The Christian’s Place
While the placing of earthly government in the hands of man has never been rescinded, it is rather remarkable that nowhere in the New Testament is there any instruction how the Christian should conduct himself in the place of authority. Not once is the Christian exhorted how to govern as a Christian. Surely this is no oversight. On the other hand, the Christian is exhorted how to behave himself toward those who are in the place of authority. He is to submit to every law for the Lord’s sake, to obey magistrates and to be subject to the powers that be. He is to pay his taxes, not because he cannot avoid doing so, but for conscience toward God. He is to recognize in the administrator of the law the minister of God to him for good (1 Peter 2:13-14; Rom. 13:16). He is also to pray for all those in authority (1 Tim. 2:2). (We must always, however, keep in mind that our first allegiance is to God and that should the government demand us to do that which His Word forbids us to do — for instance, to deny Christ — we must obey God and suffer the consequences.)
A Time to Reign
While there is no New Testament instruction how a Christian should govern now, it does suppose a day when the Christian shall reign: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you. . . . Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” (1 Cor. 6:23). It is evident from the Scriptures that God did not intend for Christians to seek to judge the world, but to be law-abiding subjects, just waiting for the Lord Jesus to come and take them home. When the Apostle Paul sought to correct the life of leisure and indulgence in which the Corinthian saints were living, he said, “Ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you” (1 Cor. 4:8). The day for the Christians to reign had not come, for if it had, Paul would be reigning with them. The Christian who seeks to straighten out this world and engage in politics has missed this important lesson. He is as much out of place as Lot was when he sat as a judge in the gate of the city of Sodom. Lot had his righteous soul “vexed . . . from day to day.”
Judaism and Christianity
It is true that there are Christians in the place of authority who seek to act righteously before God, but their conduct in the exercise of power, if governed by scriptural principles, must be done on the basis of the Old Testament and not of the New. In the latter, the saint on earth is looked at as a stranger and a pilgrim, just passing through the world. The more that Christians seek a place in the world where they can exercise power, the more they have mixed earthly government and Judaism with the heavenly calling of the Christian, and then the distinctive character of each is lost.
We should not fail to discern the signs of these times when everything indicates the close proximity of the coming of the Lord. The world is being readied for those dreadful closing hours of man’s day, but our release here and our being with Christ is ever drawing nearer.
P. Wilson, adapted from
Christian Truth, 9:164-168