Politics 101 from a Christian perspective part 3: The formation of the political sphere

Politics 101 from a Christian perspective part 3: The formation of the political sphere               

Previously, I left off describing God’s covenant with Noah and how it provides the rationale for the existence of the city-state, citing the protection of God’s image as the reason for the existence of the state, or a governmental body. In other words, through a divine imperative God mandates the death penalty for the unlawful taking of human life, which is murder. It is a collective imperative, where the life of the murderer is to be taken by his fellow men.

At the time of the covenant, the state did not yet exist. However, beyond Genesis 9:6, God does arrange governmental forms, delegating such roles in order to defend His image, as we shall see. But as the covenant with Noah make apparent, life and justice existed before the state was specifically ordained to defend it. Therefore, the purpose of this writing is to elaborate upon that.

The word “ontology” consists of two Greek words. The first is “ontos,” which means “being.” It refers to “being,” or “that which is,” “that which exists.” The second term is “logos,” which is translated as “word,” as in John 1:1: “In the beginning was the word [logos], and the word [logos] was with God, and the word [logos] was God.” It is interesting to note that John goes on to describe that in Him—the logos—is life, which is the light of men. Logos refers to the reason for something, or the explanation of something. Therefore, the term “ontology” refers to the study of being.

God created the universe by His word (cf., Genesis 1-2, John 1:1ff). All that exists came into being through the logos and for the logos. Therefore, there is an order to the being of the entire universe, which begins with God. Indeed, the very word “universe” means “one word.” And the term “university” is the study of all things as a part of one, coherent system.

So why am I telling you this and how does this bare upon our conversation about politics?

The order of being, its very ontological nature, can be summed up in the statement: “essence precedes being.” The eternal essence of things comes before their being. They exist as thoughts in the mind of God prior to their expression, their coming to being, in the universe. So, when I talk about the ontological flow of things, I am referring to the flow of reality, how things come out of God as their source AND their purpose. God is both the source AND the purpose to all things. It is for this very fact that the apostle Paul writes:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:18–23, ESV)

In these verses, Paul refers directly to this ontological flow—this order of being. Let us consider it for a moment:

Creator–> Creation

Invisible–> Visible

Eternal–> Temporal

Spiritual–> Material

Necessary being–> contingent beings

What we see above, is that the universe, which is visible, temporal (having time and boundaries), material, created, and contingent (relying on something else for its existence), comes out of that which is invisible, eternal, spiritual, not-created but creating, and non-contingent or necessary. When Paul writes about men turning away from their Creator, and turning to things which are created, he is clearly referring to the distortion and perversion of the order of creation, or the ontological flow. It looks like this:  “God’s attributes–>creation (including man, God’s image)–> images of creation/images of men. But those who pervert this claim otherwise, confusing God for things which are merely creations.

In the political sphere, it is God who gives rise to politics and all the things within it or having to do with it. We have laws because God is lawful by His very nature. The very images which those laws seek to protect, receive their likeness from God. It is God who acts, and we who are acted upon, and not the other way around. It is God who is the objective thing, and us who are the subjective thing. We were created in His likeness by Him, through Him, and for Him.

So why would God create and organize the political sphere? Well…for the same reason He creates and organizes everything else: For His glory!

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” (Psalm 115:1–3)

God does all that He pleases, and for His own glory. The image-bearer receives this message of His glory, generally from that which God has created, but specifically from Scripture, and seeks to glorify Him. This is called “worship.” So from Scripture, it is written:

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.” (19:1–3)

““Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”” (Isaiah 6:3)

God’s glory is the object to which man sees, comprehends, and either subjects himself to it or suppress it in his unrighteousness. But all of mankind sees it and knows it intuitively. He sees the vast beauty of the deep sea, the unsearchable reaches of the heavens, the hopeful warmth of the rising sun. Therefore, God’s glory is the object, or the objective thing, being revealed by His creation. Man’s response, by design, is the subjective thing. He is to worship the God illuminating and emanating His glorious light through creation. Worship is a subjective act, responding to God’s objective glory. Worship is the noticing of and the basking in that glory, as we are a personal reflection of His glory.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

So this is the created order of all things. 1 Corinthians 10:31 is the fundamental principle of all Christian ethics. Whatever we do, we do unto His glory. God is not glorious because worship exists. Rather, worship exists BECAUSE He is glorious. The image-bearer, which is you and me, receives this message of glory through the things which God has made (Ro 1:19-20).

For His glory, God gives dominion over the things of the earth to His image-bearers (Gen 1:28, 9:5-6). Mankind is instructed to subdue the earth, giving man his vocation and his reason for work. The word “dominion” comes from the Latin word “domine,” which means “lord.” The commandment does not mean to “lord” things over one another, but it does mean that mankind is given lordship over the earth—it’s plants and animals, the soil that is to be trampled and tilled, the natural resources that humankind extracts from the earth.

From all of this activity mankind receives a vocation from his Creator. Someone must harvest; someone must plant. Someone must cut; someone must bind. It is from out the earth that we receive our sustenance, our medicine, our clothing, housing, and everything else. One person cannot do everything, so we are given our division of labor. Someone must gather or hunt for food, grow crops, make herbs and remedies, build homes, and so forth. This is the basis for the economic system. We have the division of labor: the tiller, the hunter, the builder, the medicine man, etc…. There must also be a system of cooperation, in order to work together to make such things. This involves education, culture and language. The young must receive their education from their elders, where they learn language, how to cooperate with others, and are taught trade skills. Arranging such matters is precisely what politics is. Where, how, and why people gather and cooperate, dividing labor and assigning tasks, has everything to do with economics, the polis…in short, politics.

The role of the state—of the government—is to protect the image-bearer, or the citizen, who engages in the vocation of subduing the earth, as Genesis 9 commands. The state is not a separate entity from the rest of the citizenry. Rather, it is simply another role delegated to certain individuals for a particular purpose. When God spoke to Noah, He commanded that the murderer be put to death BY HIS FELLOW MAN. The state consists of those who are called out to ensure that this mandate be followed. In other words, the state is our “fellow man,” drawn out of the citizenry in order to uphold the law.

We need guys that have the ability and the authority to uphold such laws. God ordains it. This is not just some obsolete command that God uttered to Noah in the Old Testament. It is also not something irrelevant to the modern-day church. Indeed, it is thoroughly reiterated in the New Testament to the church:

“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, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.” (Romans 13:1–7)

Here, we see God’s affirmation of the state. Nowhere does Paul refer to it as a “necessary evil,” but as God’s handiwork, which is good. These authorities are ministers of God, called to their offices, their vocations, for the distinct purpose of bearing the sword against the evil-doer, the law-breaker, for the glory of God.

I understand that many of us, Christians especially, are tempted to read this, and with an eye on our current administrators, reject it as irrelevant to our current system and modern conditions. However, Paul wrote this to the church in Rome, exhorting the church to be subjected to Caesar. Nero reigned in Rome from AD 54 to 68, at the time Romans was written. He was a secular authority and was no friend to Christianity. When Paul penned this letter to the church, the state was a place of murder and intrigue. Nero was a murderer, well known for his great evil, and thought of himself as “the savior of the world.” Indeed, some Christians today believe that Nero was the Antichrist, a belief, perhaps, with a reasonable degree of merit.

So was Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, who wrote massive chunks of the New Testament, just blinded by his own optimisms about the state? Or one could argue the other way, claiming that Paul was well aware of evils of the state, but endorsed them anyhow. Believe it or not, both of these explanations are used, even by Christians. However, both have their problems. For one thing, anyone who’s read Paul’s writings beyond Romans 13 knows full well that Paul saw the struggle of the Christian as a spiritual war against ‘the rulers and authorities of this present darkness’ (Ephesians 6:12). Being a Pharisee and a Jew, Paul was no stranger to evil rulers in Old Testament Scripture. He read about Nebuchadnezzar, King Saul, Abimelech, and so on. His own people even lived under the Roman state as vassal slaves, paying homage to Caesar. He was anything but blind. On the other hand, Paul also did not condone evil…ever. Indeed, Romans 13 does not regard the authority of the state as a “necessary evil,” but as a God-ordained institution, a servant of God, given to us to punish the evil-doer.

Paul was neither naive nor a promoter of “necessary evils.” He knew about the Antichrist  that this man of lawlessness would be an official of the state; and he also knew that government was in the hands of the devil, doing the bidding of the devil. However, Paul also knew that the government was in the hand of God, and that it was designed by God. He did not confuse the temporal distortion of this present darkness with the eternal design. Romans 13 is about the DESIGN. It tells the Christian his appropriate response to ruling authorities as well as why God has ordained the state and given the statesman His authority. In other words, this section in the Bible does not just tell people to submit, but also why God instituted the state, and why they bear the sword. God gives them power FOR something, a creational cause.

Here’s what I am getting at: The rulers, which God has ordained to uphold the law, are under the law themselves. When a ruler murders, he is to be put to death, since Genesis 9 is a command to ALL people, not just a few. It is not a rebellion or a revolution, since such a label legitimizes the sins of the ruler, but a police action. The ruler is the one who is usurping God’s throne, and rebelling against God. When the people, the images of God, kill the tyrant for murder or treason, as a collective police action, they are upholding God’s command. Indeed, when Saul sinned against God’s rule, God rose up David to take the throne. It is God’s authority to give; and it is also God’s to take away (1 Sam 9.16; 16.1; 1 Ki 2.15; Dan 4). God’s law applies to the evil-doer, not to those who do what is right. When the authorities are the doers of evil, they are also subjects of divine law:

“When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.” (Deuteronomy 17:14–20)

So, once again, we see that ontological flow: Divine Law–> civil laws. Divine Authority–> civil authorities.

I leave you with some food for thought: When the leaders commit evil atrocities in the land, God punishes not just the leaders, but those nations as well. The reason is because God has given ALL of us a command to protect His image. When we fail to bring the murderer, the lawless man, to justice, God’s wrath falls upon the entire nation precisely because we have failed to uphold His commandments.