Christians need to hold a Biblical view of civil government. The Biblical view is that we are citizens of two kingdoms, a spiritual kingdom and an earthly kingdom. For Christians, the head of the spiritual kingdom is Jesus Christ. The Christian Church on earth is the visible component of the spiritual kingdom. The Church shares the Good News of Jesus Christ and offers mercy, grace, and forgiveness. The earthly kingdom, our civil government, is the country we live in, and it offers a stable environment of laws that promote the common good. Neither the visible Church or the civil government are perfect. They both have their problems because we are broken sinful humans. So as Christians and good citizens, we should make our Christian principles known for the betterment of the people.
Some Christians disagree with the idea of two kingdoms, but when we look at what the Bible says, the two kingdoms idea fits. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” to Pilate (John 18:36), and later Jesus also told Pilate, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11). This shows the two kingdoms, God’s spiritual Kingdom and the God instituted civil government. The Apostle Paul explains more about the role of the civil government in Romans 13:1-7. Note Paul, like Jesus, treats the civil government separately from the Church. We are to submit to the governing authorities because they are God’s servants for our good by punishing those who do wrong. We do good, pay our taxes, and give our civil authorities honor and respect. However, because the government is run by humans, there may be times when we have to obey God rather than the civil authorities (Acts 4:19-20), but I believe those cases in America are pretty rare.
There are those in the United States who endorse the idea that Christianity in America should be given preferential treatment and that Christianity in some form should be the official religion of the nation. This did not work out well in Europe. The Christian faith ended up as the secondary partner to the government and in my opinion Christianity was crippled. Having Christian laws and an official Christian religion did not change people’s hearts. Changed hearts is the work of the Gospel message and the Holy Spirit. It is found in the spiritual kingdom, the Church, not in civil government.
This does not mean as Christians we should sit back and do nothing. No, God has called us to be good citizens and to promote the welfare and wellbeing of the land (Jeremiah 29:7). This means we can promote Christian principles that would be good for our land. We are also called to pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2). And we also can seek the welfare of the land by becoming leaders and officers in government. We have the examples of Daniel (Daniel 2:48-49) and Joseph (Genesis 41:39-40), who were high ranking officials in pagan governments.
Today, many Christians are concerned with America losing its Christian roots. We can pray, humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7:14) and let God work. Our job is to share the Gospel message, the good news of what Jesus has done for us, and then let the Holy Spirit do the rest. Changed hearts, not more laws, will restore America.
Happy 250th Birthday, America!
I almost agree. But the problem with universal summary statements like “Changed hearts, not more laws, will restore America” is that they all too easily ignore the curbing effect that righteous laws do actually have on a lot of sinful behavior. Blunt statements like that can also lull Christians into still more apathy and fatalism and further encourage them to ‘hunker in the bunker’ and make them think, “See, it really doesn’t pay to push for more abortion restrictions, or to keep boys and men (who think they’re girls and women) out of women’s sports and locker rooms and bathrooms, or to prohibit schools from promoting, aiding and abetting the gender confusion of minor students and hiding it from their parents, or prohibit states from blacklisting Christian parents and preventing them from becoming adoptive or foster parents, or preventing lawsuits against Christian business owners who refuse to service or celebrate immoral, unbiblical, wicked lifestyles and ceremonies.
As trends, society, and technology changes, laws *do* need to keep up with all that, and that is precisely why we need Christian voters to vote, and Christian politicians who will fight for and vote for decency, common sense, and Biblical family values at every turn, because the fight from the godless left is relentless and coming from all sides. Yes, prayer is foundational, but the action often comes through what people actually do, say, write, promote, and legislate.
Ultimately, yes, a spiritual revival and rededication to the Christian principles our government was clearly founded upon is the only thing that will ensure the long-term survival of our nation and culture, but in the near-term we also need new protective laws to keep evil at bay until that revival and rededication actually happen.
I am all for laws that promote Christian principles, but forcibly passing laws that the majority of people are against is counter-productive. For an example, abortion is strongly promoted in Colorado. It was recently enshrined in the state constitution. Several times, I have over the years voted to limit or ban abortion in Colorado. The majority in Colorado has always voted those initiatives down, and recently voted the enshrine abortion in Colorado’s constitution. The only way to change the very strong pro-abortion stance in Colorado is to change hearts.
I think the Christian Nationalists, who believe that having the right laws will make America Christian again, are wrong. If you do not change the hearts, the laws that promote Christian principles will feel oppressive even if they are good for the person. Those laws without support of the majority are counter-productive. The culture needs to be at least a little supportive of Christianity, but today’s culture is at best neutral and in Colorado many times hostile to Christianity and Christian principles. We need to change hearts.
Yes, I did acknowledge previously that a spiritual revival and rededication to Christian principles is the only thing that’ll ensure that fundamental freedoms and biblically-founded morality will continue in our nation. But it’s all too easy to say we simply need to change hearts first. That has been the objective of the church (supposedly) forever, but due to a number of reasons which I won’t get into here, we’ve been losing more and more ground on changing hearts — although thankfully certain recent social statistics indicate that the tide may slowly be reversing to some degree.
So what do we do to change hearts, other than pray, which is always the simplest and easiest fallback that doesn’t involve much effort or any risk whatsoever? What substantive actions to change hearts do you recommend, and what should we begin doing?
Educating the public is a good start, but even groups like Christians Engaging the Public Square, and arguably even Winsome Ministries and others, have mostly been preaching to the choir, so to speak. Look who attends their functions — almost completely Christian already. These groups have not yet actually spoken in any public square, to my knowledge. We need a lot more people like Charlie Kirk who can speak to the unchurched masses in public venues outside church walls, and diplomatically challenge secular presumptions and falsehoods — as well as preach key Gospel truths whenever opportunities arise. Granted, that’s hard and sometimes dangerous, as Charlie Kirk will attest, but that’s the kind of thing the Apostle Paul took on constantly.
We also need to acknowledge the possibility that whole segments of the population (including whole states) may remain in stubborn opposition to biblical truths and tenets forever. But because we are a nation with an overarching federal government, which was founded on Christian fundamentals, we cannot simply give up on trying to pass legislation at some level (at the federal level if necessary) that will put the brakes on or even stop ungodly practices and laws. We can’t simply wait to “change hearts” and hope Christian conservatives will someday win super majorities in every state. I don’t think that will ever, ever happen. We just don’t have that option. The fight to pass or repeal laws that are in direct violation of our beliefs is always a fight that will be worth it no matter what the political climate is in the state we’re in. It’s like planting seeds. It may take decades of planting by several different people to lead someone finally and firmly to Christ.
Look how long it took to repeal slavery in this nation. It took William Wilberforce decades to move enough politicians to repeal it in England, and similar decades for John Quincy Adams and many other abolitionists to ban it here. In our time, I think the fight to wake people up from their willful blindness about the humanity of the unborn, and about what constitutes real, true, God-designed marriage and the best possible environment for raising children, and about the definitions of male and female and the implications of those definitions, are all similar fights that may likewise take decades to resolve, just like repealing slavery and enacting civil rights laws (the latter of which took another hundred years to enact after the Civil War had ended, amazingly). Evil does not give up ground willingly or easily. The one thing we cannot do is simply wait for all state majorities to become Christian first. These battles are here and now and are in our faces both legally and legislatively. If we don’t fight now on every front, we won’t even recognize this nation in another few decades.
The biggest battles within the Church are to wake parishioners and pastors up to what’s going on, and equip and embolden them to preach against the falsehoods that are trying to take as many people and the whole nation down.
I agree with what you are saying and I think we are on the same page. I am not saying we should do nothing, but the culture is not there. I will support any efforts to bring Christian values back to America. Protective laws would be nice, but unless we have the unlikely event of a dictator who supports Christian values, it is not going to happen with out changing the hearts.
I think America in the 21st century is much like the Roman Empire in the 1st century. There was a lot of evil happening back then, but Christianity was gaining a foothold and changing lives. It was a slow process, but God was at work. Today Christianity has lost its place in American society, even though about two thirds of Americans will say they are Christian, only about 4% have a Biblical worldview (according to George Barna). I like to think we have hit bottom and turned the corner, but even if that is not the case, God is still at work.
I feel a little bit like the Apostle Paul in Romans 9-11, who is just about brought to tears over the fact that the majority of his fellow Jews rejected Jesus Christ. Americans are hurting themselves and others by their rejection of Christian values and especially their rejection of Jesus Christ.
I don’t think we need a Christian dictator. All that’s needed are simple majorities to vote for what and who is right. That was the process that led to the repeal of slavery and emancipation of slaves, then the striking down of Jim Crow laws, and eventually the passing of several civil rights laws. And that was basically the same process that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 — which although not a total victory, was nonetheless a significant partial one, especially when considering that the spiritual climate in this country is much less Christian now than it was in 1973 when Roe vs. Wade was decided.
Some of the change on abortion stances can be attributed to public education about abortion and what it really entails, and a better knowledge of the fetus and its early development. And some of the rollback was the result of the appointment of conservative judges. So if this much progress can be made in the deteriorated spiritual state our nation is now in, then certainly progress in other areas is possible too … and all the more so as public prayer and ethics and moral instruction return to some states and public school districts.