“RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTS A NATION”
Dr. Walter Thomas
A SERMON ON A CHRISTIAN’S POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY
Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people”.
Summary: A Christian citizen is obligated to speak, vote and live-out the Kingdom God in the society in which we reside. That includes political action in the name of truth and righteousness. Our nation’s evil is becoming a reproach to its own people and to their God.
Fortunately, the Bible as well as history, offers sound counsel to people of faith to guide their political will and voting decisions. Because the Scripture unequivocally declares that “Righteousness exalts a nation,” then the issues that the Bible identifies as directly impacting national righteousness should be foremost in the Biblical voter’s minds as they vote on policies and candidates in a political election. This message encourages political action by the righteous.
Many Scriptural passages (such as Deuteronomy 28, I Chronicles 21, and I Kings 18) affirm that a nation’s righteousness is determined by its public policies and how well they conform to God’s standards. Only God-honoring policies and God-fearing leaders, which lead to God-honoring actions can exalt a nation in righteousness!
A person wrote me last week, stating they were very offended at my recent email in which I listed the platform positions for our two major political parties, indicating which platform planks agreed or disagreed with a Biblical worldview in a voting guide. This person writing me clearly demanded that I keep religion and politics completely separated and that that person had previously left a church they had attended for eight years because the pastor had sent out a voting guide based on Biblical criteria. I think I was reprimanded.
It is not my goal to offend anyone, but I suppose this sermon is a response to that email last week, and it reflects this pastor’s theological and Biblical reflections when I see the perplexing, baffling and unsettled political race that is coming to a voting day next week. What is a responsible Christian citizen to say and do in troubled times like these? How do we find righteous discernment when most candidates and proposals are problematic to the follower of Jesus?
Tragically, we are witnessing the rapid decline, and demise of the last Christian nation on earth! America is gasping its last Christian breath, as it intentionally rejects its Christian roots and recklessly chases secularism, humanism, pluralism and materialism. This is a nation established by citizen patriots who fully intended this to be a nation based on Judeo-Christian values and laws. Enormous prices were paid in blood and treasure to insure this nation be a Christian nation. However our own president recently went abroad among Muslim nations declaring that “America is not a Christian nation, but a pluralistic nation that embraces no one faith or religion.”
There have been dozens, if not more, nations in the last two-thousand years that were clearly Christian nations, who saw the law and commands of God to be the basis of good civil and social government. Western Civilization (as well as the Eastern Church) has been the historical evidence of that, and it has influenced the lives of people all around the world.
Let me say at the outset: the primary purpose of the church and of the individual follower of Christ Jesus is to bring the lost to repentance and to bring the Kingdom of God to bear on the affairs of men. Jesus said we should pray, “Thy Kingdom (Ruler-ship) come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Does this exclude politics and government?
Should religion and politics be separate? I do not desire to be a politician and I desire less to be religious. Neither, politics or religion is my personal passion or purpose in life. I really don’t like either one very much at all. In fact, Jesus’ most harsh comments were aimed at those who were very, very religious and who were very, very political.
I want to be a passionate follower of Jesus and an effective advocate for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
There is a secular belief that politics and religion should remain separate, and some church members and leaders embrace that misguided notion as well. That is an artificial standard and a myth,-- for the faithful follower of Christ Jesus. That is a standard which the Enemy of our souls supports (Satan and his demons) and he wants it mandated into law and a restriction upon the righteous. Unfortunately, even in a Christian nation like our own, there are actually some recent laws and regulations enforcing such an artificial distinction. They are intended to spiritual gag the mouth of the righteous from speaking truth into the degradation and corruption in government and politics. This degradation is exactly what happens when the church believes that artificial distinction!
Newsflash: Christians view the world and its governments through the lens of the Kingdom of God, and with the belief that Jesus Christ is the sovereign King of the universe. Christians know that ultimately God is in charge and even allows bad leaders to do bad things at times. He judges rulers and nations. History records well the fact that God raises up leaders and nations, and He brings them down.
Yes God is in charge; however, that Kingdom-worldview doesn’t absolve the individual Christian of personally opposing the Kingdom of this World (and opposing its King Satan). Quite the contrary, each Christian is a soldier in the Army of God and must engage in spiritual warfare and protest unrighteousness wherever it is found, including in government and in politics! The Christian Soldier of Christ cannot abstain or become passive, when righteousness and unrighteousness are at war; as long as the Kingdom of this World is opposing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is coming upon the earth, one believer- convert-at-a-time. Jesus does not now rule in every situation or in every government, although His sovereignty is immanent.
The Christian must engage the battle and take the truth and righteousness of God into the public square, into the schools and universities, the media, the entertainment industry, the industrial/military complex, the corporate world, to government and the political organizations that seek to run them. The individual Christian must oppose laws and support laws; they must oppose and support those in authority, based on what the Word of God says and the moral truth criteria God gives us in His commands. Every follower of Jesus Christ must campaign for those who know that “righteousness exalts a nation”.
TWO KINGDOMS. There are two kingdoms, and only two kingdoms: The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this World. There is no such a thing as religious kingdom and a political kingdom. Every kingdom and power is either part of the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Satan—no exceptions. There is no third or fourth kingdom. There is no human kingdom and spiritual kingdom. Jesus said, “You are either for me or against me.” There is no abstaining on that decision. Kingdom theology is a binary theology: one or the other.
As a person who passionately desires to follow Jesus Christ and who fully embraces a Christian and Biblical worldview, I am compelled to totally engage in Kingdom Warfare because that is the command of Jesus Christ, the prophets and the apostles. It is not a matter of “politics and/or religion”, but I’m either in one kingdom or the other. Jesus clearly teaches you cannot serve two masters or simultaneously embrace these two opposing kingdoms, because you will invariably serve one or the other. What does this truth say to the individual Christian in the middle of a political election?
WRONG KINGDOM! If someone tells you or me that we should not speak the Truth of God and the Biblical Worldview into the public square, they are usually speaking from the “Other Kingdom”, the “Wrong Kingdom”, as my old mentor would say. We must be concerned about which spiritual kingdom we serve.
The church is the army of God that fights the good fight of faith and righteousness. It must never run from the battle or become complicit with unrighteousness.
THE VOICE OF GOD AND THE TRUTH OF GOD MUST BE FEARLESSLY PROCLAIMED IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE.
The faithful follower of Jesus Christ must be part of the resistance movement and the protestant movement, when anything in the public square violates God’s laws and commands, or when it requires the Follower of Jesus Christ to violate God’s laws and commands. The follower of Jesus Christ must selectively oppose and/or support legislation, regulation and leaders based on their spiritual discernment and the application of Word of God to those practices and persons.
The pulpit must never be silent when political
will contradicts God’s will.
SILENCE GIVES CONSENT. When Christians are silent and passive, evil will triumph. When we fail to vote, when we refuse to intervene, when we choose to be silent or passive in the presence of evil, then we are actually condoning evil through complicity. That is called sin. One does not just do evil to be evil; one can become evil by being silent and complicit to the evil of others, including evil laws, evil regulations, evil deeds, evil people and evil leaders.
The Apostle Peter puts this clearly, when he said, “We cannot help but speak to those things we have seen and heard!” (Acts 4:20)
Five civil and social responsibilities for the Christian citizen:
1. THE CHURCH IS ALWAYS A PROPHETIC VOICE THAT SPEAKS THE TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUNSESS OF GOD TO THOSE IN POWER
2. THE CHURCH IS ALWAYS A PROTEST AGAINST SIN AND UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, BOTH WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE CHURCH
3. THE CHURCH IS ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE FOR THE POOR AND THE POWERLESS
4. THE CHURCH IS ALWAYS A RIGHTEOUS ARMY THAT AGGRESSIVELY ENGAGES THE FORCES OF EVIL AND CORRUPTION–ESPECIALLY IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE GOVERNMENT
5. THE CHURCH IS ALWAYS A MORAL CONSCIENCE FOR THE CULTURE IN WHICH IT RESIDES, USING THE LAW OF GOD AS ITS COMPASS
A PROPHETIC VOICE
The Biblical story is always the truth and righteousness of God engaging those in leadership and power, confronting them with what is right and true, calling out sin and unrighteousness, and calling them to follow God. Except when the leaders were all apostate, God calls the prophet to speak to the leaders in charge of God’s people (kings, priests, politicians, shepherds). The church is the conscience of the nation, as it declares the truth of God, the law of God, the love of God, the mercy of God and the judgment of God.
When the prophet Samuel confronted kings, he was fulfilling God’s command to confront sin in the lives and administration of political and governmental leaders. Truth must always confront power, because power without truth becomes tyranny. That is the prophetic calling. The prophet proclaims the truth and the righteousness of God regardless of those in the audience—and sometimes they proclaim it specifically because of those in hearing distance!
Joseph was God’s agent in mighty Egypt. Daniel was God’s agent in mighty Babylon (Iraq). Esther was God’s agent in mighty Persia (Iran). Jonah was sent to the greatest world power of the time (Assyria) and preached to the largest city in the world at the time (Nineveh—Mosul in today’s war) and the king and people repented. The Apostles were God’s agents in the nations and in front of the leaders of the known world. Jesus Christ was God’s agent in a sinful world. The church of Jesus Christ is the prophetic voice of the Kingdom of God. It is a change- agent everywhere and to everyone in the world. That is the Great Commission to make disciples of everyone, including politicians and kings.
The task of the church is to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom, bring sinners to salvation and preach righteousness to the pagan world around us, including government and politics.
There is no Biblical restriction on religious people or for the followers of Jesus being involved in the political world around them; quite the contrary, that is part of the Christian’s duty to confront, to involve, to resist, to protest that which is evil, and to support that which is good-- to be a force for truth and righteousness everywhere in the world—especially to the world of politics. Political correctness is not a Biblical value!
We are told to “Speak the truth in love”, meaning we are to testify to the truth while living out God’s love, grace and redemption. In the name of grace and love, we CANNOT discontinue testifying and witnessing to the truth of God.
Those who say that religion should not have anything to do with politics and government, are those from the Kingdom of this World who do not want to bring their ways and worldview into compliance to the commandments of God nor do they want to follow the ways of God.
THE PUBLIC SQUARE. The public square includes everything that is not in the private life of the believer and in the member life of the church. The public square includes everything and everyone in our communities, from local to global, and civil government as well. The right place of the Believer is to be in the public square!
“BUT KEEP IT TO YOURSELF”. Our humanistic and pluralistic culture prides itself in tolerance of those who are different in religious, ethnic and political characteristics. Diversity is very cool, sometimes. Our pluralistic culture also believes an individual has the right to have religious views. Our pluralistic culture says it is very appropriate to enter the public square and express your views and voice about anything, even for or against those in political and power positions. However, if you come back into the public square the next day with the same protest for the same reasons, our tolerant culture tells you to go back into your hole and keep your religion to yourself—especially if you keep coming back with your protest! Our tolerant culture can become extremely intolerant the fourth or fifth time! They will even pass laws and suppress your voice, if you persist on pointing out their errors and their sins. Political correctness trumps moral correctness. Political correctness now dictate you to keep your religion and your religious views to yourself! Your religion is to be a private, not a public thing.
JESUS DIED FOR SINNERS, “ESPECIALLY THOSE IN GOVERNMENT AND POWER”? Those in political power are especially dangerous to those who would dare declare the truth and righteousness of God. Those in power will eventually persecute the church and marginalize its voice.
SOME PRESSING ISSUES OF CONCERN TO THOSE WITH
A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW
The Christian unequivocally holds God’s Word, those words given to us in the Holy Bible, to be the standard for all moral truth, including political truth. When the policies, laws and practices of government contradict God’s moral truth standards or when government policies and practices violates God’s moral standards, the followers of Jesus Christ are compelled to speak God’s truth and righteousness into the public square, and direct it especially to those in political and governmental power.
History has called such an aggressive church, PROTESTANTS for a reason. We protest everything and anything and anyone who requires people to violate one’s own conscience and especially to violate the laws and truth of God. Are we to now apologize for our protest? The Bible contains the standards by which a Christian must live, and it contains the standards by which a Christian must speak and act—even politically when necessary. God’s truth and commands become the criteria by which we judge a thing to be evil or righteous, right or wrong. That includes the actions of governments and kings. I guess this position, makes the author a fundamentalist of sorts. The author holds the Word of God and the Truth of God as fundamental in directing the affairs of men and nations.
We see in historical Germany and Europe, what happens when the church is intimidated and restricted by a coercive Nazi regime, when the church goes silent and becomes complicit in heinous crimes against humanity.
Our own government and Internal Revenue Rulings attempt to walk the fine line between encouraging freedom of religion and freedom of speech, while at the same time, ensuring that religious organizations are not becoming political organizations. For that reason, the guidelines for churches in particular, require that it not to endorse or oppose particular political candidates per se. However, a church can openly speak to the issues and policies advocated by a political party or its candidates, while still not openly naming, endorsing or opposing particular candidates. Churches can oppose ideas but not oppose candidates. Churches can produce voter guides that identify the positions of parties and candidates, and can provide information to guide the voter in discerning which platforms and “platform planks” (specific policies or political goals) are in agreement or disagreement with a Biblical worldview and Christian beliefs. A Christian’s beliefs are to be based on God’s word and commands and laws. A Christian uses God’s Word to decide if a policy or political goal or practice is acceptable when measured against God’s Word. Current IRS regulations say that a church can provide such point-by-point analysis of political platforms and policy proposals. It can also report candidates’ positions on those issues and platform pieces as long as they are documented.
There are some pressing policy issues that are part of the Republican and Democratic Party platforms and are embraced by current political candidates. Without naming the names of particular candidates, a church can provide categorical analysis and voter guidance from a Christian perspective of the issues.
THE POITICAL ISSUES
Some of the issues facing the American voter are not merely political issues that deserve some kind a “religious pass”, but they are moral and righteous issues that deserve opposition or support by the righteous. When the laws and practices of the culture and of the government, violate the laws of God, then the faithful follower of Jesus Christ most oppose and protest those misguided laws and practices, or become guilty of their own sin of complicity and passivity. A Christian citizen cannot be a silent citizen, when moral sins are in play!
Some of those current moral issues are:
1. THE RIGHT TO LIFE-- vs a woman’s right to not be inconvenienced by an unwanted pregnancy.. The Bible is absolutely clear on the sanctity of each human life. An unborn baby is a living soul that is created by the Creator, and to take that life at any time is murder, and is specifically prohibited of humans taking the life of another human being. The taking of a human life at any time, even before birth, is a no-brainer for anyone who takes the Word of God seriously. The Christian must not take another life (except in conditions of mortal combat when one’s own life, or the lives of family and loved ones, are at risk—in which cases the Bible directs war and defense to happen) whether before or after birth or before natural death.
Consequently, any political party, any law, any practice or any candidate that advocates the wonton taking of another human life, must be opposed by the faithful follower of Jesus Christ, whether that be abortion of the unborn fetus or assisted suicide by another, including by a physician. The faithful follower of Christ must openly oppose any so-called “right” to take the life of another without Biblical cause. The faithful follower of Jesus Christ must also oppose any use of their own money, or the money of its church, or the money of its government, to be used for aborting the life of another or assisting in taking the life of another.
Our culture, and its government and its laws, have many rights that are protected by laws and are to be protected by the government when possible. Our culture has made personal rights to trump God’s laws, meaning, a person has the “constitutional right” (which is certainly not specified in the constitution of the USA) to take the right of one’s own unborn baby for no better reason than “I don’t want this baby or this pregnancy.”
The political platform of the Democratic Party supports the right of a woman to kill their own unborn child, including partial abortion, and abortion of an infant to full term. The Republican Party platform opposes abortion in any form except in the case of incest, rape and determined risk to the mother’s own life.
The Christian must oppose abortion in any form, except when the life of the mother, herself, is at risk. Abortion is murder of a human life.
The Christian must oppose assisted suicide in any form, because that is assisted murder of another or of oneself.
2. REQUIRED FUNDING OF ABORTION OR ASSISTED SUICIDE. There are policies and laws in place, especially as specified in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare to some), tht requires an employer to pay premiums (and in the case of a corporate self-insure programs) to fund abortions and assisted suicide. Any such laws and regulations must be vigorously opposed because it is an infringement on the conscience and religious beliefs of persons in business or in providing a charitable service. The courts have recently ruled in favor of Christian-owned businesses, (Hobby Lobby) from being required to make such provisions and payments in their health care programs for employees. The “Sisters of the Poor” religious order, and its case, are still pending.
Christians must also oppose their own tax money being used to abort unborn fetuses or to assist in suicides.
3. PUBLIC FUNDING OF ABORTION INDUSTRIES. The faithful followers of Jesus Christ must also oppose the use of public monies to fund organizations that take human life as a common form of their business and services. Planned Parenthood, in the name of women’s health and women’s right to their own body, systematically and in millions of cases, legally takes the life of unborn infants every day in thousands of facilities across America. As long as the law gives women the right to kill their own unborn babies, these organizations are legal in providing abortion services. However, Christians must never allow their own monies, including taxes paid to the government, to be used to fund these abortion industries.
Christians must oppose abortion industries and the public funding of abortion industries.
4. RESTRICTION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND RESTRICTION OF RELIGIOUS SPEECH. In 1954, in the beginning of the civil rights movement, Senator Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) led a movement to silence churches and Christian organizations such as schools/colleges/universities, from opposing or endorsing political candidates. Laws were passed. This law, and subsequent regulations, became part of the Internal Revenue Code and restricts 501-C-3 organizations from engaging in political behavior under the threat of losing tax-exempt status. This law has now given rise to numerous IRS regulations which have tried to silence the pulpit from engaging in the political process. The regulations became more prolific and restricting, when the Christian ministries headed by such notable Christian leaders as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell opposed public laws, public policies and public officials in such matters as the Vietnam War, segregation, suppression of religious voices and the like. Christian leaders and Christian organizations began having massive effect on the body politic and threatened government leaders, especially those liberal-leaning persons bent on a secularized state, progressive social policies and liberal politics. These regulations have become a legal-gag order on those religious persons who dare to enter the public square with their peaceful resistance and protest of evil in public places. Those laws have been challenged and those restrictive IRS regulations have been modified.
The Republican Party advocates repealing many of those restrictive laws and regulations put upon religious leaders and religious organizations. The Democratic Party advocates strengthening those laws and regulations and requiring religious/Christian organizations from speaking God’s truth and righteousness into the public square—or face the threat of losing tax-exempt status and tax deductions of supporters to their cause.
Some progressive leaders and socialism proponents don’t believe the bible should have anything to say to government, and their advocates adamantly believe that religion should have nothing to do with politics. They believe Christian leaders should never come into the public square and oppose or support political agendas of any kind, evil or good. They would disavow Biblical commands that require the Christian to speak out against wrong doing and wrong-headed practices. Again: WRONG KINGDOM!
It is now illegal in some jurisdictions, for a preacher to speak against homosexuality, transgenderism, LBGT rights and lifestyles, or same-sex marriages. What is the pulpit to do? Be silent, when God’s laws and commands are being violated? Is the church to be silenced from instructing its own people in how to follow God’s ways and obey God’s commands? What happens when the government and politicians seek to silence the voice of the church and control the decisions of Christian leaders and their businesses?
In the evening news yesterday, students on a public university campus, were being forbidden to distribute copies of the US Constitution to passers-by! The constitution protects this kind of practice, but even the constitution of the United States must be silenced, when it opposes the agenda of the political correctness and pluralism. Why is it that the US Constitution is too controversial for the public square?
5. SAME SEX MARRIAGE. Our society and our government have agreed that marriage between people of the same biological sex is a constitutional right. Our courts have upheld these new laws and many subsequent regulations. The subsequent laws and regulations are now requiring the pulpit to not speak against such laws or against homosexuality, transgenderism, LGBT rights, or same-sex marriages. However, the Bible and the commands of God are very clear on these same issues and laws. This puts the faithful follower of Jesus into conflict with the laws of the very nation in which the follower lives. Christians have businesses, churches have employees, and Christian universities have married-student housing and have policies that prohibit any sexual relationship outside of a marriage between and man and woman.
The Republican Party opposes same-sex marriage.
The Democratic Party supports same-sex marriage.
6. TRANSGENDER (AND LGBT) RIGHTS AND REGULATIONS. We now have laws and regulations pertaining to the rights of persons who believe their sexuality is different than their anatomy and biology attests. Governments may have those laws and regulations. However, is that something the faithful follower of Jesus Christ can support or tolerate? The Bible clearly speaks to one’s sexuality and sexual behavior. Can the church or Christian organizations be required to accept transgendered people into their colleges, ministries and services? Is the Christian to support policies, laws and people who are in direct violation of the law of God? Can the Christian be required to open their businesses and services to those they cannot serve in good conscience and because of religious beliefs? Does the Christian have to permit their daughter to use a public bathroom that is also being used at the same time by a man posing as a woman? Does a church have to let transgendered men use the women’s restroom in their buildings and organizations they operate? Can a Christian university forbid gay-married couples in college housing?
The Democratic Party supports the laws and regulations that protect transgendered and LGBT people, even when in facilities and situations operated by churches and Christians.
The Republican Party opposes those laws and regulations
7. There are many issues and proposals that are also very differently supported or opposed by the two political parties and their platforms, but are not discussed in this sermon. However they may reflect Biblical worldview concerns:
a. Individual gun rights for protection against government and criminals
b. Open or closed immigration borders
c. Abolishing government run and mandated health care
d. Giving nuclear arms and money to the government of Iran
e. Dealing with Islamic Extremism and Jihad against America
f. School vouchers allowing parents to choose the school for their children
g. Tax increases and enlargement of federal government
h. Increasing the national debt onto every citizen for years to come
i. Reducing or enlarging the size of our military and national strength
j. Common Core government mandated school curriculum
k. Regulations that restrict American businesses and energy independence
l. The appointing of justices to the courts of this nation
m. The appointing of leaders to departments and agencies of the Federal Government, that make and enforce policies and regulations
n. The support of the nation of Israel
This pastor believes it is the responsibility of every follower of Christ to speak the truth and the righteousness of God into every nook and cranny of society, including government and politics. The church has the prophetic mandate to confront evil everywhere, while it earnestly seeks to save the lost and bring sinners to repentance—even politicians.
WLT 11/16
