POLITICS & RELIGION

 

Politics & Religion

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Whoever came up with the idea that we should never bring up politics or religion in conversation is a genius, an evil genius! Let’s see, we’re not supposed to talk about what the best way is for people to live together as God has revealed it to us in His Word. Why? Because it may cause division? In other words, we’ve just to shut up about these things! But I put it to you, it is precisely because of this ludicrous idea that there is so much tension, yes, even among some Christians.

I did a random online search for the words religion and politics. Here’s a typical generic definition for both:

 

Religion: The belief in and worship of a god or gods, or any such system of belief and worship.

Politics: The activities of the government, members of law-making organizations or people who try to influence the way a country is governed.

Let’s see if I’ve got this. I’ll try to summarize those definitions of religion and politics in one brief sentence: As a Christian, I’ve not to discuss how the Triune God of the Bible wants me to influence the way my country is governed! Why not? Oh, its because it may interfere and even hinder the way that the evil genius who invented the daft idea that religion and politics ought to be avoided in conversation. This is anti-Christian! Yet, tragically, even some Christians apparently believe this kind of tosh.

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As you may or may not know, Christians are magnificent at complicating the simple. Staying on our subject of religion and politics, let’s consider a couple of lines from the “Great Commission.”

Jesus says to His Church, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20 NIV. I used the NIV because that seems to be the most popular version used today).

Talk about making the simple complicated? That word “baptizing” has caused endless disputes among Christians over its meaning and its related mode. However, let’s focus on the words “disciples” and “nations” seeing as this relates directly to those two verboten subjects, religion and politics, i.e., the belief in the God of Scripture and how He wants countries governed.

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First, disciples. Is this word simply referring to the word nations in the Great Commission or the more complicated idea of people who comprise these nations? Is it about making all nations disciples, just as Jesus had done with the nation of Israel back then? Or does Jesus mean that His Church is also to make the rest of the nations into what He had made the nation of Israel, i.e., a discipled nation, (you know, the olive tree that already is Israel and now the simple idea is that the other nations are to be discipled too, i.e., ingrafted into the same tree? Or is this too complicated?)

Second, nations. Like the Hebrew nation, the ethnics, the Ethnoi, i.e., the non-“Jewish” nations, are to become part of the same entity, as the Gospel goes forth from Jerusalem also into the various nations of the world to leaven the whole batch of dough as it were.

Bottom line? We’ll let that great Bible commentator Matthew Henry (1662-1714) help us to keep it simple. We’ll let him sum it up for us. (Please look up Matthew Henry’s Commentary online for the full version of the following on Matthew 28):

 

The commission which our Lord Jesus received himself from the Father. Being about to authorize his apostles, if any ask by what authority he doeth it, and who gave him that authority, here he tells us, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; a very great word, and which none but he could say. Hereby he asserts his universal dominion as Mediator, which is the great foundation of the Christian religion. He has all power…

How far his commission is extended; to all nations. Go, and disciple all nations. Not that they must go all together into every place, but by consent disperse themselves in such manner as might best diffuse the light of the gospel. Now this plainly signifies it to be the will of Christ, First, That the covenant of peculiarity, made with the Jews, should now be cancelled and disannulled. This word broke down the middle wall of partition, which had so long excluded the Gentiles from a visible church-state; and whereas the apostles, when first sent out, were forbidden to go into the way of the Gentiles, now they were sent to all nations. Secondly, That salvation by Christ should be offered to all, and none excluded that did not by their unbelief and impenitence exclude themselves. The salvation they were to preach is a common salvation; whoever will, let him come, and take the benefit of the act of indemnity; for there is no difference of Jew or Greek in Christ Jesus. Thirdly, That Christianity should be twisted in with national constitutions, that the kingdoms of the world should become Christ's kingdoms, and their kings the church’s nursing-fathers…

What is the principal intention of this commission; to disciple all nations. Matheteusate —“Admit them disciples; do your utmost to make the nations Christian nations;” not, “Go to the nations, and denounce the judgments of God against them, as Jonah against Nineveh, and as the other Old-Testament prophets” (though they had reason enough to expect it for their wickedness), “but go, and disciple them.” Christ the Mediator is setting up a kingdom in the world, bring the nations to be his subjects; setting up a school, bring the nations to be his scholars; raising an army for the carrying on of the war against the powers of darkness, enlist the nations of the earth under his banner. The work which the apostles had to do, was, to set up the Christian religion in all places, and it was honourable work; the achievements of the mighty heroes of the world were nothing to it. They conquered the nations for themselves, and made them miserable; the apostles conquered them for Christ, and made them happy.

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Matthew Henry, would no doubt be familiar with the Geneva Bible first published in 1560 and with the more up-to-date (at least for him) 1599 translation which spells out what Henry has just elaborated on, “Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, until the end of the world, Amen.” (Matt. 28:19-20).

So, before the simple became sooooo complicated, the idea was that Christians were commissioned to bring Christ’s religion and His politics to all the nations. Notice that Jesus says that we are not doing this on our own or in our own strength, for He says, “Lo, I am with you alway (sic), until the end of the world. Amen.” It is Christ who building His Kingdom. (We’ll leave what is meant by the “end of the world” for another time!) This is the simple easy-to-understand meaning of Christ’s Great Commission, make all nations disciples of Christ. Now, here’s a brief description of some of the complicated versions.

·       Why bother with the Great Commission. The whole world is going to burn up anyway!

·       What’s the use? Everything is going to grow worse. Tribulation!

·       Quick, try to make some converts because we are about to Raptured any day now and the pagans are going to be Left Behind, (as has been said since the early 1800s)!

·       Christ has two Kingdoms, one for the pagans and the other for Christians. Don’t ever confuse them! The former can rely on Natural Law and the latter God’s Law (but only the good bits!)

·       Separation of Church and State. Stay in your lane. Alter the Westminster Confession of Faith 1648 (especially the original Chapter 23, paragraph 3 Of the Civil Magistrate), which, with the Westminster Standards, united the four kingdom nations of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales so that they were one in religion and politics, i.e., a United Kingdom under the rulership of Christ. We can’t have God’s justice minsters agreeing with God’s gospel ministers now, can we?!

And on and on it goes as the books written defending these positions pile up smothering the simplicity of Christ’s Great Commission.

Bottom line? Don’t listen to the suggestions of Satan to keep silent about “religion and politics.” Instead, clear out the clutter and get back to the simple understanding of the Great Commission, the same as the likes of Matthew Henry: “Do your utmost to make the nations Christian nations.”

Therefore, sorry dear Christian brothers and sisters but you’re going to have to talk to people about religion and politics. Christ has commissioned us to.