Article 3.5 – Should Christians be Involved in Politics and Government?
By Bryan & Janice Snyder and Pastor Chuck Temple – 2016
This is often a very difficult topic to discuss, because many Christians believe, and indeed have been told, to keep their faith out of the public/government arena, and that once they have been saved, they are citizens of God’s government (Heaven) and that is all that counts.
There is another broader view that encompasses our Christian lives while we live on earth:
Our Founding Fathers believed that there would always be a need for “civic virtue,” and this would only be possible if people were religious and moral in both their public and private lives. This civic virtue the Founders were talking about is not about the role Christianity plays in the saving of souls for eternity. It is about the role Christians MUST play in helping to make better citizens with better moral and religious values. This includes citizens we elect to public office. George Washington wrote that, “Religion and morality are the very pillars of civil society.” David Barton, in his video “Keys to Good Government” also emphasized this need for moral and religious people to be elected to public office.
If we have trusted in Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, we are citizens of BOTH HEAVEN AND EARTH. While we are still on earth, God expects us to do His will and make known the truth of the Gospel. If we do not have a government and laws that allow us to do this freely, we cannot faithfully accomplish these earthly expectations He has for us. We, therefore, need to work and help maintain a government based on individual freedom and Biblical principles (what our Founders called “The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” in the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence). In the 2012 national elections, nearly 4 million Christians stayed home and did not even bother to vote! THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE if we Christians are to do God’s will on earth!
The next two articles included in Lesson 3 are also on this subject of Christians and Civil Government: (1) #3.6 – Explanation of Romans 13, by Pastor David Whitney, Senior Instructor for the Institute on the Constitution, and (2) #3.7 – Hope and Change – Time to Reboot, by Ricki Pepin, leader of the Ohio chapter of the Institute on the Constitution.
Who is better equipped to preserve the pillars of religion and morality – Christians with a Biblical worldview or non-Christians? Therefore, who should be involved in politics and establishing moral government? Ultimately, it is up to each one of us to decide.
If you get discouraged, remember the words of Edward Everett Hale:
“I am only one, but I am one.
I can’t do everything, but I can do something.
The something I ought to do, I can do.
And by the grace of God, I will.”