Three Faulty Views of Government

A variety of perspectives exist within the Christian community when it comes to political power, political issues and political involvement. In our day, these perspectives come packed with a lot of passion. The Bible tells us we are citizens of both a sovereign country and an eternal kingdom. So what should the relationship between government look like?

What follows is a condensed summary of three mistaken views about Christian influence on politics that Wayne Grudem has described in his books Politics According to the Bible. At 600 plus pages, this one is quite the doorstop. However, if you want to go deeper into these ideas about government and religion, this book is one of the best and surprisingly most readable introductions you will find.

1. Government Should Force Religion

This view sees the government compelling a particular religion upon its people. This view is ultimately about state-sponsored religion. Advocates for this view would say, “This is the religion of England. This is the religion of France. This is the religion of Iran. This is the religion of Saudi Arabia.” And so on and so forth.

Historical Problems

One of the greatest practical problems with this view is political turnover. For example, when Henry VIII came to power in England and started the church of England, he effectively beginning state-sponsored Protestantism in England. His daughter, Queen Mary, takes the throne after him. History remembers her as “Bloody Mary” not because she really liked tomato juice but because she re-instituted state-sponsored Catholicism and started persecuting Protestants. Well, after Mary died her sister Elizabeth came to power and switched everything back to Protestantism and starts persecuting Catholics!

So because of this type of madness over the centuries, this view has been largely rejected in Christian thinking. Most, with the exception of some crazy of course, would hold that the best hope that people who love God’s Word and love God’s people and want to freely experience them booth is freedom of religion.

That’s in large part why the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission filed a friend of the court brief for the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge in Bernards Township, New Jersey in 2017. The Islamic society met all the requirements and permits but the city kept voting down their application to build a mosque, so the ERLC along with the National Association of Evangelicals and others, wrote a letter to the court supporting their right to build a mosque.

Why would they do that?

Simply because if the government can prevent Muslims from building mosques in New Jersey, its not a very far step for the government to prevent Baptists from building churches in Boston and San Francisco.

Now, was that episode controversial in our circles? You bet.

Do I personally want to see mosques go up in our community? No of course not. However, if history has taught us one thing, its that we do not want a state-sponsored religion.

Spiritual Formation Problems

Another problem has to do with the process of spiritual formation itself. Simply put, heart change can’t be legislated. Contrary to popular Christian opinion, morality can be legislated. A speed limit will keep some from going 95 on Grand Parkway. DUI laws will deter some from driving drunk.

However, that doesn’t create worshippers. Is a person saved because they don’t drive drunk? Or because they don’t cheat on your taxes? Or because they don’t murder people? Is a person saved because they don’t do those things and follow the law?

No. A person saved by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit of God so for someone to say that the government should force religion on it people is absurd. Taking it even further, to say that we are a Christian nation is absurd.

A nation can be built on Christian morals. A nation can be built on a Christian worldview. A nation can be built on Christian ideals. However, a nation cannot be defined as a Christian nation because there will be those in that nation who will not be believers in Christ and if you create an environment like that, not only will there an anti-biblical persecution for those who do not hold the government’s view as we have seen throughout history. But further, the very essence of salvation would be diluted to a broadly cultural Christianity.

So the government should force religion upon its people…we reject that view.

2. Government Should Exclude Religion

This view sees religion as totally separate from government altogether with no overlap whatsoever between the two. This is overall the dominant view of secular society.

This is the water in which we’re swimming. Barna Research Group found in August 2015 that when given this statement, “People can believe whatever they want, was long as those beliefs don’t affect society,” 79% of US Adults agreed. And catch this, 61% of practicing Christians agreed.

This is the view that would say its fine for you to believe whatever you want to believe, but let’s keep it in the private realm so that we can all live together in peace and harmony. Let religion give you strength and inspiration in your private life but don’t bring it into the public square and don’t argue your point of view or values based on that religious belief. The reason is that we have to go with what works in society.

There’s a big problem with this though. It sounds plausible but it’s actually incredibly shortsighted because it is impossible to separate deeply held beliefs with the way one interacts with the world.

So think about religion itself. What is religion?

You say, “Well religion is a set of beliefs. You go to a service each week and you sing songs and listen to a guy drone on forever…”

No, what’s really religion in the fullest sense?

Religion is simply a set of answers to the big questions in life: Why are we here? What is right and wrong for human beings? What’s wrong with the world and what will fix it?

Nobody can operate in the world without some semblance of answers to those questions and those answers are inherently religious. Someone can’t prove those things in a lab. Whatever your answers are, it is essentially a religious belief. People may not see it as a religious belief but by what defines religion, it is. So its actually impossible to functionally have government and religion as totally separate.

Tim Keller has a really interesting illustration for this in his book Reason for God. He says to think about something in the realm of government like divorce laws. Most people in a secular society would say that if you're working on divorce laws, you don’t bring your religion to work.

But here’s the thing — it all depends on what you think is the purpose of marriage.

Anyone’s view of the purpose of marriage is rooted in deeply held beliefs about human nature and happiness.

For example, according to someone in an individualistic, Western society, they will most likely believe that the needs of the individual is more important than the needs of the family. So they will most likely see the purpose of marriage as the happiness and emotional fulfillment of the adults who enter into it. Accordingly, when a person holds these views, divorce laws will be lenient and easy.

However, traditional societies typically believe that the family is more important than individual happiness and the purpose of marriage is to create safe, secure spaces for nurturing of children. So if a person believes that the family is more important than the individual, divorce will be more difficult.

Make sense?

A person can’t come to any conclusions about what will work in something like divorce except on the basis of deeply held beliefs about human happiness and fulfillment. Therefore, it’s actually impossible for a person to keep their deeply held religious beliefs and the government totally separate.

3. Government is Inherently Evil

This view typically understands all rulers and authorities in power to be influenced by the corrupting nature of power. As Lord Acton reminds us, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men..." While there very well might be a great deal of truth in that statement, a Christian understanding of government sees rulers and authorities established by God Himself.

The Bible teaches that government has what is called derived and divine authority. This means that any lawful governing authority has that authority on account of God — the only absolute, supreme authority.

Now of course, some have no problem with that statement. However, for some that might sit a little uncomfortably because of our American democratic tradition. Because, as we all know from 12th grade civics class, in our American democratic tradition the government derives its powers “from the consent of the governed.”

And yes, of course it does. American citizens vote in elections, giving their consent to the government as people who are governed. However, the Bible teaches that there is something deeper going on that is beyond using the little stylus they give you in the voting booth.

Consider Romans 13:1: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed…for [the one in authority] is God’s servant…he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath.

The text is pretty clear. Government represents God. Governments are His servants. No government exists outside of the larger realities of God’s sovereign control.

Jesus Himself said as much when He told Pilate in John 19:11: “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.”

In fact, to view government as inherently evil is not only to deny key biblical texts, but is fundamentally a reductionistic view of the Gospel. Historically, Christians serving in government have done the world an incredible amount of good. Because of Christian influence in government, the killing and abandonment of unwanted children was outlawed in 374 AD. Gladiator contests were done away with in 404 AD. Christians instituted prison reforms in 371 AD. They stopped human sacrifice among the Irish, Germans, Aztecs and Mayans. They began public school initiatives in the 16th century and worked to end the slave trade and slavery in Europe and the United States. Oh and what’s that big hospital a lot of us go to in Sugar Land? Methodist. Yeah, historically it has been Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and other Christian denominations that have been responsible for a majority of the healthcare provided in this country.

So these are more categories but these are three of the most common, mistaken views of how government and religion should interact. Now, check out this post on how Christians should interact with the rulers and authorities of the government.