They often excluded themselves because participation and
membership in these organisations meant worshipping Caesar. All too often
simple rituals, prayers, libations and other elements of the pagan cult were
part of the warp and woof of daily life in these institutions. Christians could
not in good conscience participate in even these seemingly harmless, even trite
rituals. As a consequence they were decried as anti-social.
We must remember that exclusion isn't quite the same as overt
persecution. For Christians this is the norm. It's just the expected and even
necessary opposition of the world, the fruit of Biblical antithesis, and a
reminder that we are but strangers and pilgrims on this earth. Exclusion is a
type of small-scale persecution that we should both expect and embrace. And yet
some forms of social polity can lessen the burden.
One of the blessings of modern secular culture is that many
of these elements, these sacralised, religiously coloured rituals have been
removed from many institutions and aspects of daily life. I know, you're not
supposed to think that way. According to the leaders of Evangelicalism we're
supposed to lament secularisation and the separation of Church and State. In
fact the paradigm actually represents the New Testament ideal, a socially
pluralistic society in which we can function as the Church and live in peace
among our pagan neighbours.
It must be lamented that pluralism is being eliminated by
both the Secularists and the Sacralists. Secularism like all social forces is
necessarily dynamic and devolves into a type of Sacralism. That's the nature of
fallen man. He makes idols and tries to build Babylon and he worships what he
creates and what gives him power. Sociologically the tendency is to consolidate
power and transform society into a social monism wherein everything takes on a
religious meaning. The anti-Scriptural Judaizing Constantinian tradition
embraces this within a Christian framework.
Secularism in the end is just as much a religion and
dependent on 'faith' in the transcendent and unseen as any other religious
system. Though true secularism is a myth, from the standpoint of Scripture, it
can (if restrained) be a desirable social polity. Pluralism, even the
liberalism of the classical tradition is desirable. It's not remotely Christian
or even moral, but creates a helpful environment facilitating the peace of the
Church. Like any social system it is inevitably unsustainable being subject to
dynamism and perversion. But at present, instead of preserving this pluralist social
order, both camps (the Secular and the Christian) are aggressively working to
destroy it. The Founders of the American Experiment would be both baffled and
dismayed by these factions that claim their legacy.
As Christians we live our lives as martyr-witnesses, living
as strangers and pilgrims among the lost. Pluralism generates a degree of
tolerance though even under such a system we will still be socially ostracised
and ultimately disenfranchised. Such a situation is completely compatible with
the Church's place in the world as envisioned by the New Testament. On a
pragmatic level we can embrace the concept of social pluralism while at the
same time reject any claims of moral relativism. We're not 'on board' with the
project or its philosophical foundations, it's simply the best we can hope for
in This Age while remaining faithful to New Testament ethics.
We vigorously reject theological pluralism, we don't accept
the claims of its various cults nor grant them equality of fellowship or extend
to them eschatological hope. They will find this offensive, but the social
contract (when genuinely pluralistic) affords that we can still be neighbours
continuing to live and work side by side.
Christian Sacralism seeks to destroy this arrangement and
create a Pseudo-Kingdom on this earth, one in which the gospel is wed to the
violence and vengeance of the state and the unbeliever is compelled to keep an
outward form of Gospel obedience. This destroys the testimony of the Gospel,
Christian ethics and in the end corrupts and destroys the Christian Church, leading
it into apostasy.
Rome, Magisterial Protestantism and modern Evangelicalism
have embraced this path. Even Secular Sacralism, the religion of Materialism
falls into the same course. It has forged a religion with its own
(anti)-metaphysical narrative, epistemology and ethic. The Sacralisms are at
war, and we are (as it were) caught in the middle. Sometimes I don't know which
is worse but one thing is clear... false Christianity is a greater threat to
the Church than anti-Christianity. To the worldly-wise that's counterintuitive
but it is nevertheless the case and it might be added, the viewpoint of the New
Testament.
Christians were and are second-class citizens. That's our
calling, our vocation as it were vis-รก-vis the world. We seek to live at peace
with the state, obey its laws, pay our taxes and be productive members of
society. We are not at all hostile to the state. In fact we can be thankful for
the relative peace of society which necessarily involves some form of authority.
We do not buy into the Libertarian lie and its anti-Christian philosophies
regarding the state nor its sub-Christian anthropology. Libertarianism has not
only shifted politics in the United States, it has (like a cancer) worked its
way into Christian theology and ethics. The resulting hermeneutics and exegesis
are leading Evangelicals down some very bad (and even dangerous) theological
and ethical paths.
Though we embrace the state as a temporary outworking of
Providence, we don't use their courts and we don't call upon their forces of
violence to help us in Kingdom tasks. We don't expect the police or armies to
aid us in our holy endeavours and we don't help them either. They serve God's
purpose in restraining evil but not for godly motives. Christians participating
in these organisations have been deluded and their consciences have been
compromised if not seared. Thinking they are ministers in an aspect of God's Kingdom, they have in fact signed up with the
forces of Babylon and they need to extricate themselves and repent. Their 'ministry'
as Paul describes it in Romans 13 is in the realm of Providence not the
Covenant. In that sense Nero, Nebuchadnezzar, Tiglath-Pileser and Cyrus were
all 'ministers'. This 'service' is not wed to the Kingdom. It is not a holy
vocation. Providentially the state falls under God's Reign to be sure, but it is not part of His Holy Covenantal Realm.
Just because it's non-holy, it doesn't mean the office is
necessarily un-holy, though it often becomes that. We're not against the state
but we're not for it either. We pray for them, even for the peace of the city,
but we don't bless their endeavours nor encourage them in their lies and
trickery.
There is no ideal political order. All man-made polities are
false, built on false foundations and doomed to fail. If living under a
Capitalist system, we will have to bear witness against it. If we live under a
Socialist system we will have to bear witness against it as well. This is true
of Monarchy, any militarist construct and those that argue for no government
but would in reality hand governance over to corporations, profiteers and/or
mafia bosses and warlords.
We operate within the state's parameters as long as its
policies don't cause us to sin. We don't have to try and hide from it, resist
it or avoid supporting it with taxes. Both Christ, Paul and Peter affirmed that
Christians were to pay taxes to Rome even as Rome used those monies for wicked
deeds, evil policies, wars of conquest and pagan temples.
As residents and citizens we can claim tax credits. The
social order seeks stability. We don't expect justice. Virtually every
government devolves into criminality at some point. We need not evaluate the
tax policies in light of justice or theoretical validity. If the government
wants to tax one group over another, so be it. Stability and order are what we
seek. In a modern society, streams of revenue and taxation are complicated.
While we might have a 'progressive' tax when it comes to income, we don't when
it comes to other forms of wealth. In many cases the tax system can actually be
'regressive' benefitting the wealthy. It should come as no great surprise. The
entire system is rigged, criminal and exploitative. We're not going to fix it,
nor are we called to. Content with our daily bread, we should expose their lies
and we certainly shouldn't 'sign on' with the corrupt system and profit from it
and its exploitation of others.