The Jesus Christians put forward their case for not trusting political solutions.
Should Christians be involved in politics? This question has stumped many Christians. But sooner or later, most have found themselves justifying political activity of one sort or another; and we feel that it has been to their spiritual detriment.
Of course much depends on how you define politics, since voting, signing a petition, even expressing an opinion can all be political activities. And in that sense, we are all political creatures.
But we can be easily deceived into thinking that the kingdom of heaven can be brought to earth on a ballot paper; and thus we become caught in the depressing whirlpool of litigation, back-stabbing, financial competition, patriotism, and even promotions of war itself because of the "good" it can achieve. When this happens, we believe that an individual or group has gone well and truly off the rails spiritually.
It seems that most people are able to see the error in trusting political solutions in some areas, but that they are inclined to overlook the error in other areas.
For example, those who believe greed cannot be conquered through socialism often think that lust can be eliminated through censorship. Conversely, those who believe that lust cannot be eliminated through censorship, believe that greed can be conquered through some form of socialism.
At best, good legislation only keeps people from killing each other long enough to work on the real solutions, which lie entirely within each of our hearts. And even if there was no legislation against murder (and, as a consequence, people WERE going to start killing each other before we could get people to accept the truth as we understand it), it should not stop those of us who have found something worth dying for.
That is the biggest deception of war, i.e. that we must kill to stop others from killing, that we must fight fire with fire. And this is the problem with politics: that it always brings us down to the level of the enemy.
Daniel said, "God controls the countries of the world and he appoints the worst people to rule over them." (Daniel 4:17) If you rub shoulders with politicians for very long, you will discover how true this is. (And the worst of the worst are often those who first appear to be the most sincere!)
One of the first temptations of Christ was that of taking a political short-cut to the kingdom of heaven. The devil said that he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if only he would do things his way. But Jesus resisted that temptation and showed that his kingdom is best symbolised by a cross.
We should guard against becoming callous about injustices in the world; but we should also seek to express solidarity with the oppressed by sharing in their sufferings rather than by sharing, and possibly encouraging, their outrage.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5) This principal (like so many other principals in the kingdom of heaven) is entirely foreign to human politics.
(See also The Blood of the Lamb.)
Register or log in to take the quiz for this article
