Shepherds – how is your flock doing?

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The failure of the New Zealand church through the pandemic ought to be clear to all except the most blinded by now. I suspect that when we eventually get back to normal, the church won’t look like it did in 2020. Many individual churches have been weighed and found wanting. The rot that was already in some of the timber but painted over with nice glossy paint so that the average Christian didn’t notice it has been exposed for just about all to see. It turns out paint over dry rot counts for nothing when someone comes along and squeezes that timber hard. So what has happened to the flock?

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The Biblical Role of Government

For too long now, Christians in the West have not really had to think too hard about the biblical role of government. We have lived in the afterglow of a civilization raised up by Christian presence in the past. Thus tyranny, where the gospel shone its light was eventually destroyed. It is unfortunate for us that we have forgotten the lessons learned through centuries of persecution and tyrannical governments. If we are not careful, we are set to learn them again; the hard way.

The all too common response of pastors and Christian leaders in the evangelical church at least in my experience in New Zealand is to assume since state government is ordained by God there are really very few biblical limits on what it can do. Christians are told to submit unless we are told to do something that is a sin. This seems a little too simplistic to me.

In the evangelical church, this naivety is regrettably combined with a dualistic worldview. The gospel is seen as about personal salvation rather than the universal kingship of Christ. Faith is expressed in the private sphere through prayer and Bible reading. The standard held up of faithful Christianity often involves giving up ‘the things of this world’ like a difficult job in order to spend more time helping out in ‘Christian’ (church) activities. Living out the Christian faith at work is equated with sharing the gospel of personal salvation, or perhaps ensuring personal integrity and honesty in one’s business dealings, or perhaps starting a work Bible study meeting. None of this is bad per se, but it is an unfortunately truncated view that neglects the application of the lordship of Christ to 90% of the average Christian’s life.

Consequently, many Christians have not thought through a Christian view of (among other earthy subjects) politics. So it is, that we have Christians who view politics as dirty and unworthy of Christian interest, and simultaneously take for granted the default socialist statist approach to governance. Thus, the role of state has continued to grow and grow unchecked with little or no Christian opposition. This should not have been.

Education is a case in point. In New Zealand the 1877 education act was passed into law. It established ‘free’, compulsory and secular education for all Pakeha New Zealand children. Well-grounded and Biblical Christians should never have supported this legislation, but around the world acts like this were supported with very little outcry from Christian leaders. R.L. Dabney’s prescient opposition being one prominent exception. Little by little the state’s appetite for control has grown and expanded. As each successive generation passes away, a new generation grows up assuming the current approach to government is normal.

So it is, that we have a state that believes it is responsible for our children’s education, our health, our economic well-being, our housing, our media and the information we receive, our charity and so on, right down to managing our interpersonal actions to ensure we don’t offend each other. We are slowly but surely being enslaved. What we need is a Biblical worldview of government. And given the pandemic and government actions as a response to this, we had better figure out what we think and how we must act toward government quickly.

In posts that follow, we will explore some Biblical passages that will help us develop our thinking on government and its role.