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by Chi upsilon. . 24 reads.

Chi Upsilon

Society
Every worldview has an ideal society as its goal. What is the Christian worldview of the ideal society?

         First, the ideal society must begin with God. Because we were created to have a relationship with God, there is deep yearning for Him in all people, regardless of how hard they may try to cover it up or deny it. Without this relationship, we will always have a deep hole in our hearts, a deep yearning, lacking fulfillment and peace in our lives. Nothing else can fill this void. Therefore, making this the top priority in our lives and society is essential.

         The degree to which we get our relationship with God right will determine the degree to which we can get anything else right. Without question, this has proven to be a great struggle for mankind. Not only are there many religions, but within each religion there are divisions and conflicts. Christians also have many diverse opinions about who can approach and relate to God and how to worship Him. This struggle reflects how far we are from the ideal and how important this is.

         The second aspect of an ideal society is our relationship with fellow human beings. The first thing God declared as “not good” was for man to be alone. God said this when man had God. Many think, and some teach, that all we need for fulfillment is found in our relationship with God, but God said this was not true. Certainly our relationship to God is the most important thing, but He made us to need one another too. Man was created a social being. We all need people in our lives. As much as we may try to escape this, we need one another.

         Thirdly, an ideal society has a right relationship to the creation. The first job God gave man was to “cultivate” the garden in which God had placed him. This word “cultivate” could have been translated “tend, oversee, manage, care for, etc.” From the beginning, man was created to have responsibility—a job to do and a domain to watch over and protect. This too is fundamental to a healthy, balanced, fulfilling life.

         These are the three basic elements of what we are called to be and do as human beings. It is a “cord of three strands” that, when together in proper balance, cannot be easily broken. These tie together the three aspects of who we are as spirit, soul, and body. Therefore, what will it look like when the ideal society has these in right order? It will be The City of God.

         The City of God is the ultimate society. It was this vision that compelled Abraham to leave the greatest human culture of the time and his place in that culture as an obvious member of its aristocracy. He was willing to go to places he did not know to be a part of what God was going to build. This is the same vision that has compelled every true sojourner since.

         Seeing this city is the core purpose of building our worldview. A Christian worldview is to see this world as Christ does. This begins with seeing it the way it is called to be. Then we can accurately evaluate the way things now are, how far we need to go to be what we are created to be, and the next step of the journey to get there.

         It is crucial that we build our worldview this way, seeing God’s purpose first, because our purpose is to point the world that has gone astray from its purpose back to the right road that will lead to us fulfilling our purpose. This right road is the highway described in Isaiah 40 that we are to build to prepare the way for the Lord, which is to prepare the way for His kingdom.

         Christ’s view of this world is one in which everyone is being and doing all they were created to be and to do, in perfect harmony with God, themselves, one another, and the rest of creation. This is the ultimate society that the church is called to demonstrate and a prophecy of the coming kingdom in which this will be true of all. How close are we to being this? How do we get there? These are questions every Christian should be asking until we have answers, and until we become a demonstration of those answers.

Government

Southern Baptist thinker Jonathan Leeman wrote a fascinating essay last month on God’s purposes for the state. He points out that Scripture commends no specific polity, admits that democracy has benefitted Americans, but warns against idealizing any form of government.

As Leeman notes, government’s proximate purpose is to employ the “sword to approve what is good and to punish that which is bad,” per Romans 13:1-7 (where Saint Paul announces that God arms rulers to chastise the wicked), and to render judgment, per Genesis 9:5-6 (where God tells Noah that murderers shall be executed.)

Leeman proposes the state’s more ultimate purpose:

The ideal government, ultimately, provides a platform for the work of the saints. It builds a stage for the drama of redemption. It doesn’t interfere with the church’s work, and it makes sure that no one else does either.

And he adds:

Two basic kinds of governments then show up in the Bible: those that shelter God’s people, and those that destroy them.

Leeman elaborates:

A good government relies on God’s wisdom and justice. Specifically, it employs the wisdom of God to do justice (see also 2 Sam 8:15; 1 Kings 10:9; Ps. 72:1-2; Prov. 29:4 Ezek 45:9). It employs the power of the sword to insist that people are treated as God-imaging ends not as means. And, again, perhaps the most important way it treats humans as made in the image of God is to provide the church with the freedom to do its work.

Here’s an extremely important point. A state that persecutes the church is highly unlikely to respect human dignity overall. And the state, in providing lawful order, and in opaquely foreshadowing God’s justice, facilitates the church’s work of redemption.

Although phrased differently, Leeman’s commentary correlates largely with IRD’s 1981 founding statement, Christianity and Democracy, drafted by the late public theologian Richard Neuhaus, which says:

Christians betray their Lord if, in theory or practice, they equate the Kingdom of God with any political, social, or economic order of this passing time. At best, such orders permit the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom and approximate, in small part, the freedom, peace, and justice for which we hope. At worst, such orders attempt to suppress the good news of the Kingdom and oppress human beings who are the object of divine love and promise.

And it says:

God has given us no one pattern for the ordering of societies or of the world. For almost two millennia Christians have pursued their mission within a variety of social, political, and economic systems.

It continues:

We readily acknowledge that democratic governance is unsatisfactory. Everything short of the consummation of the rule of Christ is unsatisfactory. For Christians, it is precisely the merit of democracy that it reminds us of this truth and sustains the possibility of humane government in a necessarily unsatisfactory world.

Adding:

Because they are not the government, and must always maintain a critical distance from the government, the churches must speak out boldly against violations of human dignity wherever they occur.

And it concludes:

We do not know whether democracy is the wave of the future. We do know that the future will be darker if the democratic idea is extinguished. We do know that the victims of freedom’s denial already number in the many millions. And we do know that one day, before the judgment throne of God, those who were voiceless will ask what we said on their behalf. What we say or do may seem to be of little moment. But in the face of every discouragement we will persist in hope because finally, as we said at the start, Jesus Christ is Lord.

IRD’s manifesto is longer than Leeman’s column and was written during the Cold War, in reaction against Christians who identified Christianity with liberationist themes of Marxism-Leninism. But I think Neuhaus, if still alive, likely would agree with Leeman that the “ideal government,” possesses a cosmological purpose whose ends are ultimately salvific by providing a “platform for the work of the saints.”

System of Government

God used Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery and bring them to Mount Sinai, where God gave them a set of laws. These laws formed the basis for a new government. That government was a theocracy. In other words, religion ran the government, and the laws were based on loyalty to the God of Israel.

Freedom

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” "For one who has died has been set free from sin." “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

Leadership

The passage in question, chapter 13 of the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Romans, reads, in part: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

War

Many people make the mistake of reading what the Bible says in Exodus 20:13, “You shall not kill,” and then seeking to apply this command to war. However, the Hebrew word literally means “the intentional, premeditated killing of another person with malice; murder.” God often ordered the Israelites to go to war with other nations (1 Samuel 15:3; Joshua 4:13). God ordered the death penalty for numerous crimes (Exodus 21:12, 15; 22:19; Leviticus 20:11). So, God is not against killing in all circumstances, but only murder. War is never a good thing, but sometimes it is a necessary thing. In a world filled with sinful people (Romans 3:10-18), war is inevitable. Sometimes the only way to keep sinful people from doing great harm to the innocent is by going to war.

In the Old Testament, God ordered the Israelites to “take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites” (Numbers 31:2). Deuteronomy 20:16-17 declares, “However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them…as the LORD your God has commanded you.” Also, 1 Samuel 15:18 says, “Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.” Obviously God is not against all war. Jesus is always in perfect agreement with the Father (John 10:30), so we cannot argue that war was only God’s will in the Old Testament. God does not change (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17).

Jesus’ second coming will be exceedingly violent. Revelation 19:11-21 describes the ultimate war with Christ, the conquering commander who judges and makes war “with justice” (v. 11). It’s going to be bloody (v. 13) and gory. The birds will eat the flesh of all those who oppose Him (v. 17-18). He has no compassion upon His enemies, whom He will conquer completely and consign to a “fiery lake of burning sulfur” (v. 20).

It is an error to say that God never supports a war. Jesus is not a pacifist. In a world filled with evil people, sometimes war is necessary to prevent even greater evil. If Hitler had not been defeated by World War II, how many more millions would have been killed? If the American Civil War had not been fought, how much longer would African-Americans have had to suffer as slaves?

War is a terrible thing. Some wars are more “just” than others, but war is always the result of sin (Romans 3:10-18). At the same time, Ecclesiastes 3:8 declares, “There is…a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” In a world filled with sin, hatred, and evil (Romans 3:10-18), war is inevitable. Christians should not desire war, but neither are Christians to oppose the government God has placed in authority over them (Romans 13:1-4; 1 Peter 2:17). The most important thing we can be doing in a time of war is to be praying for godly wisdom for our leaders, praying for the safety of our military, praying for quick resolution to conflicts, and praying for a minimum of casualties among civilians on both sides (Philippians 4:6-7).

Communism

Communism, a branch of socialism, is an experimental social system based on a set of ideals that, at first glance, seem to agree with some biblical principles. On closer examination, however, little evidence can be found that the Bible truly supports or endorses communism. There is a difference between communism in theory and communism in practice, and the Bible verses that seem to comply with communist ideals are in fact contradicted by the practices of a communist government.

There is a surprising sentence in a description of the church in Acts 2 that has led many people to wonder whether the Bible supports communism, and has led some people to defend strongly the idea that communism is actually biblical. The passage reads, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need” (Acts 2:44-45). This statement seems to imply that communism (which has, at its heart, a desire to eliminate poverty by “spreading the wealth around”) is found here in the earliest of Christian churches. However, there is a crucial difference between the church in Acts 2 and a communist society that must be understood.

In the Acts 2 church, the people were giving to each other out of their own good will to those who had a need, and they were giving freely, without regulation of how much they were to give. In other words, they shared what they had out of a shared love for one another and a common goal—living for Christ and glorifying God. In a communist society, people give because a system of government forces them to give. They don’t have a choice in the matter as to how much they give or to whom they give. This, therefore, does not reflect on who they are; it says nothing about their identity or character. Under communism, the cheerful, generous giver and the stingy man are both required to give exactly the same amount – namely, everything they earn.

The issue is one of cheerful giving (which the Bible supports) versus forced giving. Second Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” After all, the Bible contains a great number of references to helping the poor, being generous with what we have, and looking out for those who are less fortunate. When we obey in this area with cheerful hearts with the proper motivation, our giving is pleasing to God. What is not pleasing to God is giving out of compulsion, because forced giving is not giving out of love and therefore profits nothing in the spiritual sense. Paul tells the Corinthians, “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Loveless giving is the inevitable result of communism.

Capitalism is actually a better system when it comes to giving because it has proven to increase individual wealth, which allows its citizens to give out of their increase. Communism has proven to simply make all its citizens poor, except the very few in power who decide where the wealth goes. But even capitalism won’t work, by itself, as a system for aiding the poor. It depends on its citizens to be diligent (Proverbs 10:4) and generous with the fruits of their labor (1 Timothy 6:18) and to give out of love for God and neighbor. Thus, we see that God has designed for the physical and financial needs of the poor to be met by Christian individuals, rather than by any system of government.

Chi upsilon

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