The battle today is over lordship. The issue of politics today is the issue of sovereignty. Who is the Lord of all of life to whom man must give his total allegiance, Christ or Caesar? The answer to this question is the difference between liberty and slavery, justice and tyranny.
The critical issue of our day is the relationship of Jesus Christ and His Word to our political and legal system in the United States. Who has jurisdiction over every aspect of American society, Jesus Christ or the State? Is this to be a nation founded on the precepts of the Bible or one founded on the shifting sands of humanism? The only faithful answer that a Bible believing Christian can give is this: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12). “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; He will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). Benjamin Franklin, addressing the Constitutional Convention, quoted Psalm 127:1: “Unless the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain who build it.”
The Christian’s study of God’s Word must bring with it the desire and the ability to make application where Scripture makes application. If Scripture speaks to civil government then civil government must be called upon to acknowledge the Lord of Scripture and be reconstructed according to His demands. A. A. Hodge’s words are to the point and just as applicable today as they were a century ago:
If Christ is really king, exercising original and immediate jurisdiction over the State as really as he does over the church, it follows necessarily that the general denial or neglect of his rightful lordship, any prevalent refusal to obey that Bible which is the open law-book of his kingdom, must be followed by political and social as well as moral and religious ruin. If professing Christians are unfaithful to the authority of their Lord in their capacity as citizens of the State, they cannot expect to be blessed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in their capacity as members of the church. The kingdom of Christ is one, and cannot be divided in life or in death. If the Church languishes, the State cannot be in health; and if the State rebels against its Lord and King, the Church cannot enjoy his favour. If the Holy Ghost is withdrawn from the Church, he is not present in the State; and if he, the only “Lord, the Giver of life” be absent, then all order is impossible, and the elements of society lapse backward to primeval night and chaos . . . I charge you, citizens of the United States, afloat on your wide sea of politics, there is another king, one Jesus: the safety of the State can be secured only in the way of humble and whole-souled loyalty his person and obedience to His Law." [1]
The political choice before us is Christ or chaos. Is Jesus “the King of kings and Lord of lords”? That is the question before American Christians. The issue is anything but peripheral.
God and Government
Relying on clear historical and biblical research, author Gary DeMar demonstrates how America has been great and how she can be great once again. God and Government has become a staple in the Christian curriculum. For decades, in the hands of countless teachers, parents, and students, this book has educated minds young and old in the Christian history of America, the origin and foundation of government, the biblical principles of authority, and the basis and necessity of Christian political activism.
Buy NowToday’s podcast is the first part of a series of lectures Gary gave to a high school class last year. Beginning with foundational principles for any worldview, Gary forces the students to think about their own assumptions and why they believe what they claim to believe. Facts are important, but worldview precedes facts and interprets the facts.
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[1] A. A. Hodge, Evangelical Theology (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, [1893], 1977), 246-248.