Thursday, May 15, 2008
How You Should Vote
The following text is the outline for the video which appears above.
1) God created governments
2) God created governments to execute righteousness on earth
3) God’s righteousness is evinced in the Law – the OT Law
4) Other nations are held responsible for disobedience to God’s Law in the prophets
5) There is no normative ‘moral Law’ outside the OT Law – every time conscience/natural law is mentioned it’s negative and subjective
6) So the purpose of government is to uphold God’s Law
7) That includes everything in it – including just war, capital punishment, wisely taking care of the poor to an extent, and even the worship of God. – some things more important than others.
8) That will never actually happen until Jesus returns
9) But we have some authority in our government – and thus responsibility to make sure our government conforms to God’s Laws.
10) We also have the responsibility to be honest with our presuppositions – we don’t start from the position of pragmatism – we start with a belief that God owns us, and that his Law is an expression of love to bring us to Jesus.
11) We also have to start with the presupposition that international or national law (Geneva convention; Constitution) aren’t ultimate. We have to submit to law given, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek to change them.
12) Practically, I typically vote republican. Morally, I believe they are closer to God’s Law. Economically, no one is advocating we stop taking care of the poor. And quite frankly, someone whining about poverty in our country, I believe, is myopic – and probably has never been out of the Western world.
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So would you say that our obligation as Christians (subordinately to the Great Commission) is to work for human governments who fully enforce the Old Testament law in its totality, e.g. laws about sacrifice, beard trimming, stoning, etc.? Or are there adjustments made in light of the past death of Christ and the movement of the gospel to the Gentiles?
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting. I've thought some about the interaction of Christians with secular governments and hostile governments, but it never occurred to me to consider what a government in conformance to Scripture would look like!
Brett - great observations and questions. Typically, the Old Testament Law is divided into three sections - moral, civil, and ceremonial. The moral is what we're guilty of and points us to Jesus, as well as being the standard for holy living.
ReplyDeleteThe ceremonial laws (beard trimming, temple, etc.) were symbolic of Israel's special covenant/elect status - pointing us to Jesus that way.
The civil laws are what I'm talking about - how does the government enforce the moral law? Now, I differ on this with post millenialists, because I don't think we'll ever get CLOSE to actually being there - so I'd say that we, as part of our role in bringing in the Kingdom - should try for it, knowing that
a) it ain't really gonna happen (just like we're not going to eliminate poverty)
b) this is way lower on the list of priorities than the great commission. The Kingdom is here - but it ain't totally here and it won't be til Jesus returns. We need to act like we believe in the already AND not yet.
Okay, so Christians are to live according to the moral law and to strive for governments that enforce the civil law, but the ceremonial law is no longer applicable because the sacrifices are ended in Christ, the temple is now the people of God, and the elect are not just from Israel but from every nation...am I following? I'm wondering how we distinguish moral, civil, and ceremonial, since those distinctions aren't clear in Scripture. And would the ideal human government enforce all the death penalties of the law?
ReplyDeleteBrett,
ReplyDeleteYup, you're following.
As for the distinctions, there are some debates about how to distinguish the different parts of the Old Covenant. However, the distinctions are there. The moral law is cited as authoritative in the NT and assumed to be such. The ceremonial laws are abrogated, because the thing they signify is fulfilled - Jesus. And the civil laws are the laws that govern the land - typically the moral laws applied with applied governmental force, i.e. execution.
And yes, since I do think it is the responsibility of government to bear the sword, and to have as its standard the law. This includes the executions.
Great questions!
I can not see voting this year for either candidate. I would not call myself democrat or republican. I tried to choose a candidate that runs the government much like the Christian worldview would be like. This is not even close to the case.
ReplyDeleteBy the way Derek, I have created my own blogger to stay up to date. Check out my site.
http://completelyrandom-jeremy.blogspot.com/
It's to help reach others with the gospel and to introduce topics that confuse both Christians and non-Christians.
Update me on how New Zealand is going.