City on the Hill

Politicians and their cheerleaders invoke the name of “god” to validate their programs and power, and they employ popular religious ideas when doing so. Just as rulers in Western-style democracies pay lip service to “Judeo-Christian values.” Likewise, Emperor Augustus Caesar appealed to traditional Roman morality and deities for divine approval of his regime and its conquests.

Too often, patriotism and religious faith become intertwined and even synonymous in popular thinking. Any lack of nationalistic fervor becomes religious heresy and treason.

[Photo by Pablo Orcaray on Unsplash]

Far too many church leaders participate in this idolatrous practice, especially when partisan feelings run high during elections. The inevitable result is the attempt to ally and even identify God, Jesus, and Christianity with the nation-state, culture, and government.

To maintain this fiction, presidents, kings, members of Parliament and Congress, and dictators claim their country is the “shining light set on a hill” illuminating the rest of the world to show humanity a higher way, an idolatrous assertion to which many church leaders voice a hearty “Amen!”, at least if their preferred political system is the chosen nation.

Politicians are rarely morally upright or selfless men, so we can understand their self-serving efforts to hijack the faith of Jesus Christ in the pursuit of power and popularity. However, it is an entirely different matter when “Christian” leaders join this blasphemous chorus, proclaiming their nation, its form of government, and political ideology as the “light of the world” and the representative of God’s Kingdom on Earth.

The controversy is not whether a country, culture, or government is good, bad, or indifferent, or whether God champions democracy, autocracy, or socialism over other forms of government. However, idolatrous claims of this kind contradict the teachings of the New Testament, especially the declaration that Jesus of Nazareth is “the Light of the World.”

His light is reflected by his local assemblies and disciples, not by any political party or regime of this fallen age. His light beckons all men and women to be reconciled with God and become his followers. Jesus gave his life for the entire world, for “all nations.”  The Bible labels him the “Light of the World,” not Western civilization, democracy, socialism, or free-market capitalism.

When church leaders and organizations embrace ideas about the nation or political system being the “light”, only demonstrates how far from the biblical ideal popular “Christianity” has strayed in its pursuit of political power and influence.

ONE TRUE LIGHT

There is no true light, liberty, peace, or lasting prosperity and life without Jesus. His church transcends all national, cultural, and ethnic boundaries, or at least in theory if not present reality. He summoned his people to become a priestly kingdom that mediates his light to a dark world. Super patriotism and other forms of state idolatry will hinder if not derail his people from accomplishing this mission.

Jesus did not establish his Church to propagate the political ideologies of this age, but to proclaim the Good News of his Kingdom and Salvation to every nation - “To the uttermost parts of the Earth.”

His disciples are pilgrims and sojourners in this sinful world, and their citizenship is in God’s Kingdom. To be a loyal citizen of His realm means giving total allegiance to its Sovereign. That leaves no room for “dual citizenship” or divided loyalties. Sooner or later all the existing regimes of this world will cease to exist. They are “perishing meat.”

No existing government has ever officially or directly acknowledged the absolute lordship of Jesus, let alone submitted to his authority. Whatever else they are good or bad, they are other than Christian. They are part of the world order judged on Calvary, therefore, they are, even now, “passing away.”

The immersion of Christians into partisan politics has distracted them from their paramount task, proclaiming the Gospel to all nations. When they do so, their “lamps” fade as they cease reflecting the light of Jesus and instead demonstrate who their true lord is, Caesar and his empire.

This is not a call to passivity or disengagement from the world, but for followers of Jesus to reengage their fellow men with the methods described in the Bible, including prayer, self-sacrificial service for others, and teaching the Word, and above all, by becoming shining lights and witnesses of Jesus of Nazareth.

His Kingdom will not be advanced through the ballot box, military might, economic dominance, or political power. Only men and women living cruciform lives submitted to his absolute Lordship can reflect his bright light, thereby pointing men and nations to the truth and life found only in Jesus Christ.

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RELATED POSTS:

• Christendom? - (‘Christendom’ is the idolatrous term employed to invoke God in support of national and political institutions, programs, and ideologies)

• A New Message - (Jesus summons his disciples to proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God in every inhabited corner of the earth)

• Kings and Emperors - (God allows evil rulers to govern nations and uses them to accomplish His purposes, and He summons believers to show them due respect)