The Church, Politics, and Public Truth

In his book Foolishness to Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), Lesslie Newbigin wrote:

“While the church can never identify itself with the kingdom [i.e., any nation] and must seek only the role of a servant, witness, and sign of the kingdom, yet the church can never admit any limitations of its role to the private sector. The church witnesses to that true end for which all creation and all human beings exist, the truth by which all alleged values are to be judged. And truth must be public truth, truth for all. A private truth for a limited circle of believers is no truth at all” (page 117).

Indeed, the church as an institution must remain focused on the gospel and protect itself from being coopted for particular political parties and purposes, however, the values of the church, since they are rooted in the eternal God of truth, must bear upon public matters, political or otherwise. We cannot, therefore, allow ourselves to be pushed to the margins of society under the assumption that religious convictions are private convictions. This assumption may be true for false religions but it cannot be true for those who believe in the true God who is Lord over all.

Therefore, let the church proceed wisely and humbly, but let her proceed boldly, proclaiming and defending the public truth of God wherever she goes.

Comments

Reflective Glory: How the Moon Displays the Mercy of God

Our sun is a fitting metaphor for the glory of God. In the context of our solar system, it is massive, bright, beautiful, powerful, self-sufficient, heat-producing, life-giving, and dangerous. It is, by far, the dominant feature of our solar system and without it the system would fling apart and all living things therein would die. On the other hand, our moon is a fitting metaphor for human beings, especially for those who believe in Jesus Christ. First, compared to the sun, the moon is tiny and dim. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, its mass is 27 million times greater than the mass of the moon, and from our perspective its light shines 450,000 times brighter than that of the moon. The sun is so much greater than the moon that it’s difficult to quantify and express the difference. Likewise, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is so much great than each and all of us that it’s impossible to quantify or express the difference. Indeed, the Lord is very great and greatly...

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...

Rejoicing in the Wrath of God: Part 1 by Pastor Charlie Handren

This Sunday we resume our study of the book of Revelation and within the first eight verses of chapter 6 we will encounter the wrath of God being poured out upon the world. In one sense, being confronted with the reality of God’s wrath is uncomfortable at best, but in another sense, it fills the believing heart with joy. One of the first essays I wrote in college was on the wrath and love of God, and probably the main effect it has had on my life is to cause joy to rise up in my heart whenever I contemplate God’s wrath. Sometime ago I shared this with a pastor friend of mine and though he said nothing in response, he looked at me as if to say, “If you knew anything about the wrath of God, you would not rejoice in it.” At the time, I wasn't sure how to respond, but I knew that the joy in my heart was not stemming from a belittling of the horror of the wrath of God. Then several years ago, as I was reading through Revelation, I came across a couple of passages in chapters 15 and 16 ...

Glory of Christ Fellowship

Search This Blog