One of the besetting sins of professional intellectuals as a class is believing that, because they have a particular depth of knowledge or strong ability in a given area, they can then generalize their narrow knowledge and ability into the notion of their own superior wisdom and judgement for life in general. Frequently disregarding the everyday, non-theoretical and mundane knowledge of ordinary people in the real world, central socio-political planning is taken on by the ‘experts’ – a particular kind of intellectual – as part of a broader intelligentsia who believe they alone are qualified to guide and shape society.
from “Ruler of Kings: Toward a Christian Vision of Government” by Joseph Boot
Calvinist Political Theory
In his study of Puritan political theory, Richard Flinn discusses the important work of Samuel Rutherford and his classic work, Lex Rex. Rutherford was confronting in his time a similar question about the source of law. Some of the papists of his day had argued that the king as a man was subject to God, but in the practice of his office as king, he was not subject to God’s law. Rutherford saw that this meant that the king was either above God, or co-equal with God, which are both “manifest blasphemies.” Flinn points out that at the heart of the Calvinist view of biblical political theory is that the civil government must be under God’s law, or be blasphemous. Furthermore, “unless we are willing to grant this doctrine and build upon it, there can be no Christian politics; there can only be humanistic politics, which, when practiced by Christians, is idolatry.
Joseph Boot on Richard Flinn’s study of Puritan political theory in The Mission of God
Theonomy or Autonomy?
The choice is theonomy (God’s law) or autonomy (man’s self-law), and autonomy leads inexorably to either anarchy or totalitarianism.
Joseph Boot in The Mission of God
Vocations and Kingdom Life
Instead of laying before men their calling in Christ to minister God’s Kingdom life in every area, in their families and vocations, as priests unto God, they are told that their family, work, money, the education of their children and leadership in society and culture is merely a ‘creation mandate’ that is not related to our redemptive calling – it is ‘law’ not ‘gospel.’ Men are drilled instead to believe that the kingdom work is the work of churchmen in their institutions (the sacraments) and that their ‘secular’ role in life is to be kind and ‘loving’ at work, to be a sanctified husband and father in personal piety and then pray for the return of Christ, and if possible, on route, snatch a few brands from the burning.
Joseph Boot in The Mission of God
Evangelism and the Lordship of Christ
Evangelism, like apologetics, should be pursued as an expression and outgrowth of the lordship of Jesus Christ over all things, extending his reign through the witness of the Christian believer.
Joseph Boot in The Mission of God: A Manifesto of Hope for Society
Wilberforce and Modern Christians
When Christopher Luxon gave his maiden speech, I was astounded by how many Christians were excited by what he had to say. I was disappointed. Yes, he pointed out the difference his faith has made to his life. He pointed out that it was helpful having something bigger than oneself.
Yet he then went to show how ill-thought-out his theology of politics was – a shameful thing in a Christian seeking to lead in civil government, but unsurprising given the weak state of the church in New Zealand. In his maiden speech, Luxon praised and highlighted the work of Christians like William Wilberforce who worked tirelessly for the abolition of the slave trade. Yet in a contradictory fashion, he continued by explaining his faith was personal to him and that he didn’t think religion should dictate to the state, and that politicians shouldn’t use their political platform to force beliefs on others.
Read MoreThe Church, the Clergy, the Laity and the Kingdom
“[The] church is more than the local building and congregation. The term is closer in meaning to the kingdom of God. It has reference to the called-out people of God in all their work together for the Lord.”1 This means that the structures of the church institution are never to be a limiting factor in extending the reign of God and pursuing the work of the kingdom – the work of ordained clergy and elders in their institutional role does not exhaust the calling of church, leaving the laity to merely ‘secular’ tasks. Neither is the church to become self-serving by becoming a wealth and power center for its own sake. The church is to be a servant institution that equips, empowers and sends out every Christian in terms of God’s glorious kingdom purposes.
Joseph Boot in The Mission of God
1. Rushdoony, Systematic Theology, vol 2, 670
Why Modern Christians Separate Faith and Politics
In every culture, law is religious in origin and so it must be recognized that in any social order the source of law is the god of that society and that to which the people have bound themselves. To change the law order is then an implicit or explicit change in religion – revealing a change of gods (allegiance) in that political realm. This further implies that no absolute disestablishment of religion is actually possible in any society. A culture can certainly disestablish one faith or church, but it merely replaces that faith with another one, be it Islamic, Buddhist or any other humanistic faith. This is clearly what has taken place in the modern West. We have traded the God of the Bible for the god of the state (man enlarged), where the ‘will of the people,’ personified by an elite bureaucracy, now redefines law in the name of the people, the new god. This has been in no small part due to a faulty theology amongst Christians and the consequent abdication of responsibility by the church in the socio-political sphere. Due to the philosophical dualism that has so greatly influenced the church (discussed in chapter two), modern Christians have tended to separate God’s law and covenant from real history and implicitly assumed that the state is not actually accountable to God’s standards.
Joseph Boot in The Mission of God: A Manifesto of Hope for Society
Should We Seek a Secular Public Sphere?
What most modern Western people (including many Christians) are asking for in the name of ‘freedom’ is in fact a new slavery, when they attempt to secularize the public sphere and pursue freedom without the Lordship of Christ. To object to this by saying that non-believers are not accountable to God’s covenant law (moral law) is finally to say that we have no basis for presenting the gospel to the unbeliever – since Scripture defines sin as lawlessness and only lawbreakers need the gospel!
The Mission of God: A Manifesto of Hope for Society by Joseph Boot)
Eternal Fire Insurance Marketing
The modern evangelical tendency to reduce evangelism to a form of ‘eternal fire insurance marketing’ seriously impoverishes our ability to capture a vision of the Messianic kingdom that the evangel is meant to announce and embody.
“The Mission of God: A Manifesto of Hope for Society” by Joseph Boot