SBC Anthropology Pt 5: Man and Government A

SBC Anthropology, Pt 5

Man and Government A

Introduction to Topic

As a human grows up, he learns there’s just not himself!  He awakens to the presence of family.  If things are going well, his religious community.  And then…hold on, who are these people that remain strangers and yet exert so much influence?  The State!  

What do the Scriptures have to say about that relationship?  Did God ever mandate it, or might it be an optional arrangement?  How far does it authority extend and how binding is its authority?  What if the State doesn’t honor or even reference the God of Scripture – is it thereby disqualified?  

Should a person be loyal to his government?  Is that different from being a patriot?    

Before the 1940s the Pledge of Allegiance didn’t include the phrase “under God.”  Was it a good thing for that to be included?  Should there even be a pledge of allegiance?   Around that time a segment of the National Association of Evangelical’s was pressing for “God” to be more specifically named as “the Lord Jesus Christ” – good or no?  Should laws be based on the opinion of the majority, or should Christians only comply with biblical standards?  If so, on what basis?  Is the government opposed to the people of God, by definition or historically?  If Christ is Sovereign over all, should Christians care about the political process?  A lot or a little?  

Well, in our treatment of government in our study of biblical anthropology, I’m afraid that for sake of time many of these questions will go unanswered.  But hopefully they’re getting your brain moving in the right direction.  

*With gratitude to David Van Drunen

Plan

• The Noahic Covenant: The Origin of Human Government
• Natural Law
• Religious Liberty

From the Scripture, Four Important Characteristics of Political Institutions, including Civil Government

Before we begin with some inductive reasoning from the Scripture, it’d be helpful to fly over the Scripture and take away some observations about government.

Legitimate – a right and obligation to carry out its proper work, which is to promote justice.  The Spirit bears witness to the legitimacy of government by direct exhortation and by plenty of examples that show governing agents doing helpful things.

1. New Testament Witness
   1. Direct Citations
      1. Romans 13 – the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
      1. 1 Peter 2: 13, 14 – submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme…
      1. Titus 3:1 – be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work
      1. 1 Timothy 2: 1,2 – I exhort prayers be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence
   1. Indirect references in Acts
      1. Paul never challenges the offices or the governing laws
      1. Acts 16:37 – Paul argues from established law
      1. Luke often presents the government acting reasonably and within the bounds of laws – 16:38,39; 18:14-16; 19:35-41; 22:25-29; 23:16-35; 27: 42,43
   1. Holding office is allowed – Zacchaeus, Cornelius, Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:6ff)
2. Old Testament Witness
   1. Pharaoh offers protection – Genesis 47
   1. King of Moab protects David (1 Samuel 22:3-4)
   1. Nebuchadnezzar’s reign affords some good (Jeremiah 29:5-7)
   1. Cyrus the Persian is a friend to God’s people
   1. God’s people make covenants with gentile rulers/governments
      1. Gen 21:22-32
      1. Genesis 26:26-31
      1. David & Solomon – 2 Sam 10:1-2; 1 Kings 10:1-3; especially Hiram of Tyre (1 Kings 5
      1. (some governments were off limits – Deut 7:1,2)
   1. Some of God’s servants held political office
      1. Joseph
      1. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego
      1. Nehemiah
      1. Esther
3. Implication and Application – 
   1. Christians shouldn’t assume an opposing posture to the government.  Neither should they dismiss out of hand that there are people – perhaps plenty of them – of goodwill in the government.  
   1. The government is by definition coercive, and that’s as it should be.  The teaching of Jesus on ‘turning the other cheek’ doesn’t nullify this.  
   1. It does no good to act as if the government isn’t real or important and an important way by which God is ruling the world, and instead refer only to the kingdom of Christ.
   1. Christians can serve in the government

Provisional – set in place for a limited time and purpose until something greater arrives.  The Spirit bears witness to this by imagery and by demonstrating the limitations and even evils of government/rulers.

• Daniel 2:31-35 – the governments of men are shattered by the kingdom set up by the God of Heaven (2:36-45)
• Rulers/governors have limited capacities – they cannot forgive sin, bring people to God, usher in the new creation, handle the keys of the kingdom
• The saints to whom we look as examples were “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God…” (Heb 11:10)
• The Scriptures present rulers as having a fragile hold on power (Exodus 7-12; 2 Kings 18-19; Daniel 4; Daniel 5; Acts 12).  God brings princes to nothing/and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness/ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown/ scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth/ when he blows on them, and they whither/ and the tempest carries them off like stubble.  Isaiah 40:23-24
• Scripture doesn’t shy away from presenting the evil that rulers do
  • Genesis 6:1-4
  • Revelation 18:9-10; 19:17-19
  • Exodus 1:8-22
  • Daniel 3
  • Daniel 6
  • Esther 3
  • Matthew 2:16
  • Acts 4:27
  • Acts 12:1-5
  • Act 16:19-24
  • Luke 4:6; Ephesians 2:2
• Implication and Applications
  • There’s a lot of controversy just at this point.  How involved should the church gathered or the church scattered be in gaining political influence in order to produce a more righteous government?
  • At the risk of being charged with Platonic idealism, the church gathered is mainly and ultimately waiting for a future kingdom, and not attempting to bring in that kingdom through the political process.  
  • It’s appropriate for the church gathered to critique the government where political, moral, and religious issues OBVIOUSLY overlap.
  • Political process, grasping for power, shouldn’t concern the church gathered, and should be taken up carefully by the church scattered.
  • We should be careful that the salvation of souls should never be de-emphasized; nor should present day political activity be linked at all directly to the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Common – Civil governments wield authority for the benefit of the entire population, and not just for one particular group.

• Romans 13:1  – Let every person  Of course, he’s speaking to the church here and could just mean every person within the church.  But 13:4 the scope of what Paul is saying seems to include everyone:  the governor is a servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer (obviously not just the wrongdoer in the church)
• In the OT there are, of course, many examples of governments ruling various gentile populations.  ®Government isn’t only for God’s people.  As we’ve already seen there were occasions when God’s people lived under pagan rulers and there were points of commonality (Genesis 20:9; 34:7). Moreover, the times when OT believers were in pagan governments, there isn’t record of them turning the government toward a Yahweh theocracy.
• Application 
  • Someone once said something like, “Every Christian who cares about religious freedom should care about religious freedom for all.”  
  • Governmental coercion is never appropriate in matters of special revelation but is in matters of natural law.

Accountable – a government should deal with people of various religious convictions, but that doesn’t mean it should be morally neutral, steering away from a specific morality toward reason; or appeal to the majority conviction, etc.  Because government is accountable to God.

• Romans 13:4 – rulers are servants of God to respond to good and evil; and not their own constructions of good and evil, but God’s.
• There are many instances of God judging nations and rulers for their wickedness, and warning of the same.
  • Genesis 19
  • Isaiah 13-23
  • Jeremiah 46-51
  • Ezekiel 25-32
  • Amos 1:2-2:3
  • Though notice that God doesn’t judge these gentile nations for their idolatry
• Implicit in these judgments is an objective moral order known to all people, even if they haven’t read the Bible
  • Fear of God: Genesis 20:9, 11; Genesis 42:18; Exodus 1:17
  • Wisdom: 1 Kings 4:30; Jeremiah 49:7; Obadiah 8; Ezekiel 14:14, 20)
  • Wisdom materials in Proverbs sourced outside of Israel (Proverbs 22-24 [possibly]; 30 [possibly], 31)
  • Romans 1:19-21; 32; 2:14,15;
• Implications and Applications
  • Work to keep your polis out of the way of the wrath of God.