Religion and Politics: We
must talk about them! Kelly Durant
Nov. 2016
John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not
of this world. If My kingdom were of this world,
My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews;
but now My kingdom is not from here.”
2. Why is
it that amongst families and friends there is the old adage that they have told
you, that no one should ever talk about religion or politics? I think repeating
this phrase is part of what our problem is today in society; too many of us
limit our sharing of knowledge, wisdom, and blessings to others because we
don’t want to have to deal with all the ignorance, anger, and commotion
surrounding these two extremely important subject matters! But to withhold
God’s view is to allow ignorance to prosper!
Here is a
conclusive truth I deduct: if you are concerned about politics and who governs,
it means you are concerned with this life and all that influences you, your
children, and your community for generations. And if you are passionate about
religion, it means you are concerned about the future and where the soul of a
person will go for eternity. The Christian should be concerned with both, but
keen wisdom is essential concerning what you say, the tone in which you say it,
and to whom you say it.
So was
Jesus political? I think some people think that He was while others may think
not, but we should inform ourselves better from His teachings on what was, is,
and is to come regarding politics and religion with the intent of obeying God’s
will no matter who governs. He taught to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven”.
3. What we
know from John 18:36 is that Jesus holds rule over a kingdom that is not of
this world, it is in that world where Jesus has total political power forever
and ever. The reality is Jesus could exercise total power over this world if He
wanted, not just a partial power for controlling kings or storms, healing the
sick or feeding the multitudes, but He chooses not to use this omniscient power.
Why? Because He is allowing man throughout the ages to learn the lesson of the
consequences of not exalting Him to rule in authority them and over all things
above and below. And since many of us as prideful humans (the people of the
world) keep rejecting Him, everyone then suffers under the rule of horrible
despots.
Men and
women throughout history and of all cultures due to pride and greed have always
had the same universal Satanic tendency to place Kings, Caesars, Sultans,
dictators and Presidents to rule over them and 95% of the time we learn about
the disastrous consequences of their rule with deeds of betrayal and murders,
war, and human exploitation. We can conclude that man governing man never
functions with authentic justice, righteousness, mercy, and compassion. If any
one of us exalts or fears any person above God, one who is in a position of power,
political or religious, then this person is making a big mistake because only
Jesus is to be exalted above all! Jesus is to be worshipped and obeyed taking
into account that all others are not to be trusted as they will use and will
abuse you and maybe even kill you! Man was never created to be respected as a
god because He is carnal and unworthy!
The less a
person worships God the more they will worship man but…
Proverbs
29:25 The fear of man brings a snare,
But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.
4. In John 18:16 I find it fascinating that Jesus has and had
the power to call on servants not from this world, to fight, but He chose not
to as He respected His mission to be the ultimate sacrifice for the redemption
of sins. For this very reason Jesus is due honor and glory forever and ever!
What mercy! But his wrath and judgment will come soon at the right time.
Jesus has
always eternally had authority in the Kingdom of God, or in heaven, and
considering that this Kingdom theocracy exists in some parallel universe, we
must fear and respect Jesus for his supernatural power. He came into this world
supernaturally inhabiting in a flesh body as ours, and this feat is far beyond our
technology. We as weak humans are so limited we cannot penetrate into His world
or even transport to the adjacent Andromeda galaxy in our current disastrous unworthy
condition both physically and spiritually degenerate. Mankind is corrupted and
only the redeemed are worthy of ruling with the King of kings when His world
opens up to receive the souls who reverence Him as Lord over all.
Here is the
good news, when our spirits leave our bodies, Jesus promised His faithful that
we would be able to unite with Him in that heavenly kingdom in a resurrected
body, and that we would live forever there with Him sharing in the beauty,
love, and perfection of a Kingdom with justice and righteousness. This being
the case, our investment must be for there and then and not for the here and
now in this temporary decaying world of competing corrupt political figures.
5. So I
invite you to conclude with me that our current politics are somewhat
irrelevant compared to the scale of eternity where our souls will reside
forever. We are but a hair thin slice in the timescale of eternity. For the
true Christian, as in the case of Jesus, we proclaim that our kingdom is not of
this world and God expects us to not lay up our treasures or power here but
rather in heaven. If Jesus had wanted to take over the political power in the
world in His time of the Sanhedrin and the Caesars He could have done it but He
did not because they still would not have learned to honor God. Jesus is all
about real and enduring spiritual power, not temporary authority over prideful
unworthy rebellious people.
However,
from the entire Old Testament we conclude that God is very much interested in the
political powers that be and that He is involved in what happens to His people.
If it had not been for God’s supernatural intervention aiding Moses, Ester, and
Daniel, (along with countless others) God’s people would have been totally
annulated by the political powers of their day. While you and I live in this
current moment being just a chapter of history, we must work within it to
influence it to be as Godly as possible.
God throughout
history reveals He is involved in the world powers and politics in relation to
how it affects His people and I believe He cares about each government allowing
what the people deserve be it good or bad. Proverbs 21:1The king’s heart is in the hand of the
Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. And, as
revealed in the Bible, God raises up His servants/prophets in crisis times to
be influencers inside the governments for the protection of His people.
6. Definitely
God wants His righteous servants involved in taking advantage of any of the
current political situations to spread His gospel of the good news. Moses was
raised up by God as a spiritual and political opponent to free God’s people
from their slavery. Ester defied the king’s orders and interceded for God’s
people and they were spared. Joseph and Daniel
were brave enough to interpret the king’s dreams and then they were placed in
high power to govern. But notice the king’s people persecuted over religion and
politics these and others of God but God protected them even with miracles. God
raises up His man or woman of the hour wants His people in power for the
protection and good of all.
Here is another
example but in the New Testament, Do you recall how Paul wanted to go spread
the gospel in Rome? And Rome was the political center of the world! Romans 1:15 So, as much as is in me, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. He had the right vision to attack the
very center of Satan’s kingdom of perversion knowing that he was called to
preach to everyone great and small. This example proves that you and I should
be involved in our governing powers.
Notice that
Paul would usually reach out to the main religious and political leaders of the
cities in his travels so they would hear the gospel first. This was wise to
prevent them from being upset when the people would inform these leaders that
some new guy in town was preaching about a Jesus they had never heard and about
His coming Kingdom of God. The thought of the Kingdom of God provokes fear and
anger in Satan’s earth rulers!
7.
Political people are easy to dislike as they are the ones who want to
intimidate you and hate on you for not being subjugated to their low level of
man or woman worship. They want your head if you do not submit to all their
diabolical agenda! Here is the dynamic, those who do not have God first in
their lives will always exalt some perversely cruel person, usually a political
figure, as all wise and worthy. Notice also how these usurpers of God’s
authority always demand that you abandon your worship of your ‘stupid God and
Jesus’! They want to set their selves up as your god and they implement the
persuasion tools of humanism, socialism, communism, or atheism to accomplish
the destruction of your faith.
Did Jesus
recognize rulers? Luke 20: 23 But He perceived their craftiness, and
said to them, “Why do you test Me? 24 Show Me a denarius. Whose image and
inscription does it have?” They answered and said, “Caesar’s.”
25 And
He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and
to God the things that are God’s.” Amazing reply, right?
It seems
clear here Jesus recognizes the fact that we will have to deal with the local politically
correct authorities and their demands. To deny Caesar his honor would have
meant a death sentence! We will always have to deal with those, even the
religious ones, who feel they have to defend their despotic “Caesar” or defend some
corrupted stance that they think is important. But what we learn from Jesus is
we will always need to bring others with this type of ignorant focus back into
the spiritually correct perspective. This example of Jesus is that God must
have His deserved honored place despite whoever governs.
8. When we
look back in history we see that it always seems to repeat itself. We observe
the process of a freed people of God who earning their freedom from political
oppressors by their faith, dedication, and religious devotion stood up with men
and women of God to fight evil. Then over time in their prosperity and
spiritual degeneration they fall again into being oppressed by the political
powers that be. Political powers always demand your submission, and your
submission should be to Jesus Christ alone, and if you do not resist them you
and everyone ends up as a slave to their oppression.
Jesus,
being spiritual, could still not avoid the political challenges of his day, the
challenges of those in power wanting Him to recognize them as powerful. These
powers have and had their place to prevent anarchy but Jesus established that
he is above all of them. All powers are always temporary and limited to this
material plane within political and geographical borders and timeframes, but
Jesus power transcends all time, all limitations, and all worlds! Recall in
Revelation 17 that God’s view of man’s horrible politics is that of a murderous
woman riding on the back of a beast (the governing power), and they hate her
(and destroy her). This is often interpreted as describing the user
relationship between religion and politics, both using each other to advance
their lusts for power.
All of us
could live in a beautiful world, much better than what any man or woman has to
offer, but due to corruption this dream of a peaceful loving world will never
happen! A perfect world will only happen when Jesus returns to set us free from
the world’s systems and set up His Kingdom for ever and ever over our
degenerate rulers! In the meantime, God’s children must fight, and if it needs
to be with spiritual power or with political influence we must be willing to do
anything for God’s glory to alleviate suffering as Jesus and all servants of
God did. So as Salvation Army soldiers we must deal with all of the results of
the sins of governing man offering Jesus power and love as the solution! Let’s
review our mission:
“While women weep, as
they do now,
I'll fight
While little children
go hungry, as they do now,
I'll fight
While men go to
prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now,
I'll fight
While there is a
drunkard left,
While there is a poor
lost girl upon the streets,
While there remains
one dark soul without the light of God,
I'll fight-I'll fight
to the very end!
By William Booth
