With the upcoming presidential election, I decided to purchase Politics According to the Bible by Wayne Grudem. Here are my reflections.
Grudem argues that there are five wrong views concerning government.
1. Force Religion
The first wrong view is that government should compel religion. In other words, the nation should follow a specific religion. An extreme case is Muslim countries who practice Sharia law. This is not the view of the Bible.
2. Exclude Religion
This view states that religion must be completely excluded from the public sphere. The Ten Commandments should be removed from government buildings, holidays such as Christmas must be removed, prayer in classrooms, etc.
3. Government is Evil
This view states that government is of the devil. We should have nothing to do with government because it is ruled by Satan.
4. Do Evangelism, Not Politics
This view states that the church has nothing to do with politics. In other words, preach the gospel and let the nation burn.
5. Do Politics, Not Evangelism
This view goes to the opposite end of the spectrum of the previous view. It states that salvation will come from political involvement. This is the theology of the "social gospel" or "liberation theology".
The view Grudem endorses is that Christians should influence the government. In other words, we must be responsible citizens in seeking the well-being of society. Jesus did not only preach the gospel, but he healed people physically. God has instituted government as a divine institution to punish evil doers and enforce justice (see Rom 13). There have been many historical examples of Christians influencing government for good: (1) abolition of slavery, (2) the Roman Gladiator games, (3) education reforms, (4) infanticide in the Roman Empire, etc.
A common question gets raised during this election among Christians: Should Christians vote for a non-Christian? John MacArthur and even Wayne Grudem have argued that it is ok to vote for a non-Christian because you are not voting for the pastor of a church, but an official who will exercise justice for the nation by punishing evil.
