Republican, Democrat, or Christocrat?
By Buddy Hanson The Covenant News ~ October 15, 2009
The founder of Pennsylvania, and America's first great champion of liberty and peace, William Penn, proclaims how we should avoid substituting partisan principles for biblical principles:
Men must choose to be governed by God or condemn themselves to be governed by tyrants.
Penn's statement was clearly made in the context of the charter of his province:
Whereas the glory of Almighty God, and ye good of mankind, is the reason and end of government, and therefore government in itself is a venerable ordinance of God...to make and establish such laws as shall best preserve true Christian and civil liberty, in opposition to any unchristian, licentious, and unjust practices, whereby God may have His due, Caesar his due, and the people their due...
As former Georgia Senator, Zell Miller writes: "It's not who's team you're on, its whose side you're on." Miller's point is critically important. There are some good Christian legislators on both sides of the isles, but whether they are Democrats or Republicans should be of secondary importance. Of primary concern to voters is whether a candidate is a Christocrat!
Benjamin Rush, a member of the Continental Congress, had the attitude we should be looking for in our legislators: "I have alternately been called an aristocrat and a democrat. I am neither. I am a Christocrat." Whether a Christian legislator refuses to factor-in biblical principles to his decision-making because he is ashamed of his Lord, Savior, and King, Jesus Christ, or because he has never been trained to, he should realize that in either case he is apostatizing from the Christian faith. Put another way, he is denying God!
By not "imposing" Christian beliefs on others, we allow them to "impose" their beliefs on us.
For America to avoid becoming a third-world country, we must get over the current attitude that it is not right to impose our beliefs on others. Had earlier Christians acted like we have for the last few generations, we would still be sacrificing children (instead of baptizing them), and rather than having someone over to supper, we likely would be having them for supper.
The reason we should not feel guilty, or be hesitant about promoting God's laws is that all law is "religious." Someone may object: "Wait a minute, law is law, and religion is religion." But it should be remembered that a religion is nothing more than a system of beliefs and values, and that a society's laws simply reflect its beliefs. For example, if law is based upon man's reason, then man's reason is the god of that society. Regarding this point, we should remind our non-Christian neighbors that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled "Atheism is religion..." The court ruled an inmate's First Amendment rights were violated because the prison refused to allow him to create a study group. In 1961 (Torasco v. Watkins) the Supreme Court said a religion need not be based on a belief in the existence of a supreme being, describing "secular humanism" as a religion.
When we say we believe in God, but conform our daily decisions to another god (i.e., man, science, the state, etc.), we're breaking the first commandment by worshipping multiple gods and being blasphemous toward the one, true, triune God of the Bible (Exodus 20.3). Our duty and calling from God is to "...continue in the things we have learned and become convinced of." (2 Timothy 3.14) This optimistic long-range outlook of the apostle Paul reminds us of his words to the Galatians: "And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary." (Galatians 6.9) In other words, there is absolutely no need to compromise with a "movable" kingdom (Daniel 2.21; Job 12.23), when ours is the Kingdom that "cannot be moved." (Hebrews 12.28)
If we live by man's rules, we will receive man's results. If we live by God's rules, we will receive God's results.
Isn't it time your church held a seminar for local legislators on how to govern according to the biblical truths in which they profess to believe? And, if you don't have Christian legislators, isn't it time your church trained Christian candidates in how to bring honor to God through their legislation? If your church refuses to do this, what biblical basis are they citing for not so doing?
Next week's topic is, "God hates our non-Christian culture."
Buddy Hanson is President of the Christian Policy Network and Director of the Christian Worldview Resources Center and has written several books on the necessity of applying one's faith to everyday situations, circumstances and decision-making.