GOD’S PLAN FOR
CHRISTIANS IN GOVERNMENT
A Call to Action
By
Gary Ray Branscome
The idea that Christians should have no say in
government, or that those in power should not even consider what the Bible says,
is a satanic lie! What the Bible teaches is just the opposite. It is those who
reject God’s authority, those who persecute believers, those who promote murder
and immorality that God wants excluded from government.
Having said that let me make it clear that as long as
the nations of this world are ruled by sinful men, there will be rulers who do
evil. In fact, God sometimes allows evil men to come to power as a judgment
upon those who reject Him (Proverbs 29:2, Leviticus 26:15-17). However, He is
fully in control. That is why He does not want us trying to overthrow those in
power (Romans 13:1-5). Nor should we rebel by disobeying the law as long the
law does not require us to disobey God (Acts
GOD’S
God set forth His plan for church and state in ancient
God wants the church separate from the state because he does not want the
church trying to force people to convert (2Corinthians 10:4), trying to force
them to agree with church leaders (Matthew 7:15), or trying to force them to
support the church through taxation (Mark 12:17). At the same time God does not
want the state controlling what is taught in the church (Matthew
Christ warned His followers to expect persecution, and we all experience a
certain amount of persecution in our lives. However, whenever the Holy Spirit
of God is active in bringing an entire nation to Christ the persecution is much
greater. When God brought the
At the same time, when the portion of the
The persecution of Christians by our government is already
widespread and intense. However, because the punishments are monetary the
general public tends to ignore it. If believers were beaten and jailed the
public would notice, and public sympathy would begin to favor Christians.
However, instead of being jailed Christian professors and teachers who openly
testify to their faith, or even speak out too strongly against government
condoned wickedness or the religious myth of evolution are likely to loose
their jobs. At the same time, Christian legislators who try to pass legislation
that will put and end to such evils as abortion can expect to be ignored,
ridiculed and vilified. Those who have positions in government where they can
put a stop to such persecution should try to do so. However, more often than not
they are held back by a totally twisted and unbiblical doctrine of the
separation of church and state.
At this point, some who are reading this are going to
be saying: “Wait a minute, doesn’t the Bible teach that church and state should
be separate?” And, it does. However, what is being crammed down our throat in
the name of “Separation of Church and state” is not the Biblical doctrine of
“Separation of Church and State,” but the Atheist doctrine of “Separation of
Church and State”. Atheists in government simply call their doctrine
“separation of church and state” in order to disarm Christians and impose
atheist religious beliefs on the nation. It is atheists who want all Christian
influence excluded from government, not God!
WHAT SHOULD CHRISTIANS DO?
In answering this question, let me begin by saying that Christians should not
use the power of government to force their beliefs upon others, nor should they
pass laws with the aim of making people righteous (Romans 10:4). God instituted
government to condemn and punish crime, not to prevent it from happening
(1Peter
Christians in government should seek to provide the nation with a government
that is fair and just: a government that punishes crime while leaving its
law-abiding citizens alone; a government in which those in power are not
allowed to take bribes; a government which makes every effort to see that the
guilty, not the innocent, are punished. [Proverbs 29:4, Deuteronomy 27:25,
1Timothy 2:2] And, if the Christians in government would do just that, then
non-Christians would prefer to be governed by Christians. However, even though
that is the will of God, history has rarely if ever seen it. Far too often, men
who call themselves Christian are more interested in feathering their own nests
than standing up for what is right. However, all that aside, I believe that
Christians totally miss the mark when they pass laws aimed at making the people
of a nation righteous, instead of passing laws aimed at making the rulers of a
nation obey the Ten Commandments.
We would have a much greater impact on society if our emphasis was on making
rulers behave, instead of on legalistic attempts to promote works righteousness
(Hebrews 11:6). What our nation direly needs today is legislation requiring
rulers to follow the Ten Commandments, and specifically the second table of the
law (commandments 5-10). If the entire nation was at least nominally Christian
there would nothing wrong with requiring office holders to be Christian.
However, as long as the nation is religiously divided that would be a very
foolish thing to do, for it would only breed opposition and division. That is
why we should start with the second table of the law.
We should begin by asking, “What is a tyrant other
than a ruler who openly transgresses God’s Ten Commandments: a ruler who murders, rapes, falsely accuses, and robs those
under his authority”. History is full of examples of such tyranny. Pharaoh’s
order requiring the male babies to be put to death was tyranny. Another example
of tyranny has to do with the story of Naboth. Ahab’s
desire for Naboth’s vineyard was covetous, Jezebel’s
plan to have Naboth falsely accused and executed
involved both false witness and murder, and Ahab’s confiscation of Naboth’s vineyard was theft (1Kings 21). So in this example
of tyranny four commandments were transgressed.
The Bible also tells us that David committed adultery
with Bathsheba, and had her husband Uriah murdered to
cover it up (2Samuel 12:9). Athaliah had the heirs to
the throne murdered (2Kings 11:1). Manasseh filled
The crimes against humanity listed above are just a
sampling of the tyranny and oppression that could be eliminated if rulers were
only required to follow the second table of the Ten Commandments. If you are
one of those who believe that basing law on the Ten Commandments would result
in tyranny, you need to think again. Our English-American system of law began
with King Alfred (871-899 A.D.), whose legal code included chapters twenty through twenty-two of the Book of Exodus (which includes the
Ten Commandments). Of that fact lawyer and columnist
David Limbaugh once said:
“In the Book of Exodus following the Ten
Commandments are further laws, sometimes collectively referred to as the Book
of the Covenant. As a lawyer I was fascinated to discover just how much
of our law - torts, contracts, property and criminal law - is obviously
traceable to this section of scripture."
Therefore I
am not calling for something new or unusual, but for a return to the system of
law that is the foundation of free government: the system that (in every state
outside the South) would not allow white citizens to enslave black citizens,
the system that would never have allowed slavery, to begin with, if rulers had
been required to follow it. And, the system that would not allow the murder of
unborn infants, the promotion of sexual perversion, and rulings that would let
sex perverts use the same restrooms as little girls if it was being followed
today.
CONCLUSION
"Luther wanted neither autocracy nor mobocracy, but 'lawocracy' book law, a constitution. He admired the
ancient republics and
Where the Ten Commandments are respected as the law of the land, rulers are not
free to commit murder, nor are they free to give others (namely abortion
doctors) a license to commit murder. Where the Ten Commandments are respected
as the law of the land, rulers are not free to live sexually immoral lives, nor
are they free to promote sexual immorality, or force Christians to accept that
immorality as normal. Where the Ten Commandments are respected as the law of
the land, rulers are not free to attack our religious beliefs, nor are they
free to force us to finance schools where our beliefs are ridiculed, or to send
our children to schools that work to undermine the faith of our children.
To that end let us keep in mind the following words from
Our fathers’ God to Thee, author of
Long may our land be bright, with freedom’s holy
light,
Protect us by Thy might, Great God our king.