Posts from October 2018
The Mission of the Church
Over the last few weeks, we have studied three principles that run throughout all Scripture to help orient us in the political realm: the sovereignty of God, the Lordship of Christ, and God’s people as a holy nation. Now we want to turn our attention to application, not encompassing specific scenarios, but in terms of the overall attitude of the church and Christians toward the state. A number of points could be made, but we will limit ourselves to two:…
The State of the Church
For several weeks, we have considered Biblical principles that help guide us politically. We examined the sovereignty of God and the Lordship of Christ. Now let’s turn our attention to the political status that accompanies being God’s people. The church is God’s holy nation (1 Pet 2:9-10),the place where the Lordship of Christ is recognized. Christians live in this world as strangers and aliens (1 Pet 2:11)– those who define their reality as rooted in God’s empire rather than any earthly…
The Lordship of Christ
We are in the midst of a series of articles considering Biblical principles that should orient us politically. Last week, we saw the Jewish conviction that God was king. But the great, prophetic hope of 1st-century Israel was that God would come and inaugurate a new age, liberate his people, and establish his kingdom. For Christians, that event transpired in Christ. We cannot comprehensively discuss the kingdom of God here, but we can observe a few points. First, note the…
The Sovereignty of God
The sovereignty of God is the bedrock of Scripture and Christian faith. Specifically, his power as the source of all political authority is attested in both the OT and NT. This does not divinize any particular government or make their acts ipso facto the will of God—in fact, their acts are often explicitly contrary to his will in Scripture; rather, governmental authorities are created through the existence of human society, but God orders them so his purpose is finally accomplished. Ultimately,…