Living the Christian life in a Babylon World

Living the Christian life in a Babylon World:
Thoughts on Political Theology for the Church


“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” 1 Peter 2:11

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” Hebrews 13:14
 

Beloved church:  I am concerned over the cultural direction of our society and even that of reformed and evangelical Christians in our society. When I look around at the landscape of professing Christians in America, what I frequently see are Christians who struggle to distinguish their Bible from their newspaper. They struggle to distinguish their theology from a political platform. Why is this concerning? Because news and politics change. Constantly. But the Word of God is forever (Isaiah 40:8). News and politics are, by definition, worldly and temporary. While politics and culture matter (to a degree), it is not the thing by which we latch our hope and faith.

In Ephesians 4, Paul discusses the way by which the disciple knows Jesus which will help the us to “no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Eph. 4:14). When we anchor our faith to a mission of cultural change, we anchor our faith in something which will blow us about by every wind of doctrine that might come our way. There is a good reason Scripture often warns us not to hope in the things of this world (1 John 2:15-17, 2 Corinthians 4:18, James 4:4, Colossians 3:1-2).

In 413 AD, Augustine wrote the behemoth of a book The City of God. In this book he describes two groups of people. One people group is the people of God. They desire God and are destined for the City of God. The other people group are the people of the world. Their affections are set on themselves and on worldly things. These two cities represent the present conundrum for the Christian. While we live in the world, we are not citizens of the world. This is why Jesus would say of His followers in His high priestly prayer in John 17:16 “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

While we live in this world, we live in it as exiles, as sojourners, as those in dispersion (1 Peter 1:1, 1:17, 2:11).

It is said that “good distinctions make good theology”. This is ‘case in point’. If we fail to distinguish the heavenly city from the earthly city, we will end up lost in our faith. We think that cultural reform is the same as spiritual reform. We think we must "earn" a better world by which Jesus can enter. This type of legalism is what happened to Christian in John Bunyan’s book Pilgram’s Progress. Christian was misled by Worldly Wiseman to go to the Village of Morality instead of the cross. Christian was told by this false teacher that the Village of Morality will help him to remove the burden on his back. Yet when he arrived, what he found were only laws and commandments which he could not bear to keep in order to have the burden removed.

Here is the deal: If our Christian hope is set on improving this world, then we have blurred law and gospel together and entered into legalism.

We might ask ourselves how Scripture presents these two cities that Augustine speaks about. How do people in Scripture live in the world while following the true heavenly city? In the book of Genesis, what did Joseph do while he was the second most powerful man in all the world (Genesis 41:40-43)? Did he command Egypt to worship the true God? Of course, the answer to this is a resounding “no”. He governed with an understanding of distinction between these categories. Jospeh performed his duty of preserving the food supply. What about Daniel? In Daniel 6 a law was established where no man could pray to any god for 30 days, except to the king himself. Daniel blatantly disobeyed this law (Daniel 6:10-12). Later in the book, as Daniel is an influential person in the government, do we see Daniel reverse this law to command people to only pray to the true God? Of course, this answer again is “no”.

But what about the New Testament? As Jesus was being led to His slaughter, does He try to win over worldly nations and gain influence over worldly leaders? He was asked if He was a king, and His answer was “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (John 18:36). Repeatedly, the expectation of the Messiah was to become an earthly king and He rejects the idea over and over again. But how do the Apostles handle this issue? Maybe we think… after the Great Commission this must be different, right? Except it is not. The Apostles and Christians in the New Testament Church labor to win souls, not to win governments. There is not a single example of the New Testament church attempting to instate a government or to become culture warriors. Instead, they operate within Jewish and pagan cultures to testify to Christ.

As we see in Scripture, living in these two kingdoms presents the Christian with the need to be nuanced in their approach to matters of this world. This does not mean we are defeated here; but it does mean that God’s final judgement is yet to come. When we look at politics, we know we will vote according to our beliefs, as we should. But our hope is not in the outcome of elections, or public policy, or celebrity pastors/politicians. Our hope is in the living God (Psalm 62:5). He never changes (James 1:17).

While it is wrong to say, “we shouldn’t polish brass on a sinking ship”, it is equally wrong to deny the ship is sinking at all. We should not be indifferent about the world. But we need to not put it on a pedestal either. This broken world is not your trophy. We desire a reward in heaven. Having a proper balance in our approach to the world is difficult because we are a people of extremes.

As a Christian living in a Babylonian type of world, our job is not to make Christian nations. Historically speaking, this has never ended well. Jesus told us that the world will hate us, and if the world starts to love us then we should be concerned (John 15:18-25). So, we do not long to make Christian nations, our job is to make disciples from those nations (Matthew 28:16-20). Our job is not to win the world, but to win souls out of the world. One day the Lord will give His bride a new heaven and new earth to occupy (Revelation 21). We long for that world, not this one (Hebrews 13:14).

“Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" Revelation 22:20


If you are interested in exploring the intersection of our faith and politic, join us for an 8-week class on Political Theology at Rock of Christ starting 5/5/24 at 9:00 (before the 10:30 service).
Join us @ 1406 W 18th St, Wichita Ks, 67203