Why The Church Must Reject Politics (Part II)
Peter knows that these teachers will be engaged in activity
that will lead to the Church being associated with evil action. In his second
epistle he also speaks of those who despise government and speak evil of
dignities.
For years I followed the typical stripped-down
anti-supernaturalist view that is common in Calvinist circles and I viewed this
as a reference to mere political agitation and resistance – in other words
resistance to Earthly government. Social conservatives use these verses to
browbeat and condemn street protests even while they hypocritically rest upon
and glory in the foundations that were erected by such rebels in a different
age. They have all their arguments and loopholes to work around the implications
of such verses and marshal many arguments to justify the sin of the American
Founders. I know them well and for years I employed them. But then I read the
Bible more carefully and was compelled to repent.*
But Peter has something more to say. Those who resist the
power are also speaking evil of dignities – a clear reference to angels as the
next verse (2 Peter 2.11) makes clear. This is also echoed in Jude. So then for
years I understood this as an exclusive reference to the angelic orders. These
unjust and wicked men (vv.7,9) were involved in some kind of supernatural
doctrine, some kind of pretentious claim to the heavenly realms.
But then I came to understand that both views are right, that
indeed they overlap. The false teachers' Hellenistic-Judaized conceptions
involve a vision of a heavenly kingdom that overlaps with Earthly power. In
other words what is being combated is a heretical form of chiliasm – a kind of
millennialism that involves the Church casting down the heavenly powers and
supplanting them, a millennialism which seems to embrace a triumphalist view of
grace and sin, a soteriology that produces antinomianism and rejects the call
to cross-bearing and holiness. They have an embraced a power-mammon ethic that
thinks godliness is gain (as Paul put it). Their soteriological and worldly
'liberty' is revealed to be idolatry and bondage.
The principalities, powers, thrones, and dominions referred
to in places like Colossians 1.16 and Ephesians 6.12 are lords (or elohim) in
the celestial realms but they also (it would seem) have Earthly allotments. The
'princes' mentioned in places like Daniel are these angelic entities, the
'gods' or elohim of Psalm 82 – which cannot refer to mere earthly rulers. This
is not to embrace polytheism but New Testament cosmology is in the end quite a
bit more complex and multifaceted than typical Evangelical (or even
Calvinistic) systems will typically allow for. Such admissions do not in any
sense challenge or lessen the authority wielded by God Himself. By no means,
and yet our God uses means (a largely lost concept in our day) and in the end
we must submit to what His Word reveals to us about realms and orders we cannot
understand – let alone relate to on an empirical (or even conceptual) level.
When we politically aspire and seek to cast down or seize thrones,
we are at the same time intruding into the angelic realm and order. We as mere
fallen men presume to challenge the authority of elohim, of beings that are of
a higher order. Fallen men do this and act as agents for these competing powers
but we as Christians must reject this conduct.
This is at the essence of the error both 2 Peter and Jude are
dealing with. Their concern isn't with gnostic-type hierarchies which were
common enough but rather the fact that these false teachers seek the power and
authority of these elohim-lords that have been placed (by God) over the
nations. It's almost as if they have taken the orthodox teaching concerning Christ's
resurrection (and the fact that all power and authority have been given to Him
and that He has spoiled principalities and powers) as a charge or imperative
for the Church to actualise this in pre-Parousia space and time. It is what
might be called rank triumphalism.
Here's where it gets a little confusing. Christ has defeated
these powers. This was proclaimed in His resurrection and for these fallen
angelic entities it is the sign of their judgment or doom but Christ has
delayed (as it were) the consummation of this reality as 1 Corinthians 15.25
makes clear. Everything is on hold while the Church fulfills its mission – the time-delay
expressed in Revelation 10 and elsewhere. Christ is reigning but He is not
fully exercising His power. Though these angelic entities stand condemned and
their power is eschatologically speaking broken, they still rule at the present
hour. Indeed Satan is still called the god of this world, of this present evil
age. This is true even though he and the angelic entities aligned with him
stand defeated and condemned – knowing the time is short.
We (as those in union with Christ) will in fact judge them
and replace them in the New Heavens and New Earth – things that are frankly
beyond our grasp (1 Cor 2.9). But we cannot assume that power at present. We
are in the age of cross bearing, the age of bearing witness. We do not
challenge their authority or war against them. Indeed it would be presumptuous
to do so.
Instead their master can no longer deceive the nations. The
nations are still his in a sense but their required allegiance to their idols
and their gods cannot go unchallenged. In the Old Testament epoch the faithful
were found in one small Kingdom where Jehovah had established his
altar-presence and the Kingdom was ruled by his Davidic kings in anticipation
of the True Davidic King whose Kingdom is heavenly and eternal. In the New
Covenant this is not so. The throne is in heaven, the true throne, but the
altar presence is (under this temporary arrangement) established in all nations
and in defiance of the elohim which rule them. We spoil their power by entering
their realms (as it were) and worshipping in defiance of their altars and
winning converts away from their claims over them.
We set up Kingdom colonies (or churches) as it were in their
midst, in the midst of the thrones. But this is not us warring against them per se or seeking to supplant their
thrones. Rather it is the Holy Spirit at work, whose presence is manifest in us
and in the gathering of the Church – and in the performance of the holy rites
or sacraments. This is a declaration to these powers that their kingdoms are
doomed. Our celebration of Communion – our uniting rite with the heavenly
Kingdom, the Divine Council and the holy congregation proclaims Christ death till he come, a proclamation to the powers,
a harbinger that their doom draws nigh. They can persecute us but that doesn't
change this truth. We are in their midst and it drives them mad and makes them
rage.
Such worship is also a proclamation to the lost world, a
message they often don't get because the Christian Church has confused it and
obfuscated it with political and cultural goals and aspirations.
Because the Kingdom we represent is heavenly and
eschatological we are not to engage in the sword-struggles for worldly power
and its symbol as represented by the coin. We don't fight in Saul's armour. That
would destroy the heavenly eschatological nature of our message, compromise our
testimony, and it would mean that our hope is found in this world and our hope
in men casting down the angelic thrones and supplanting them.**
It is at this strange juncture that we do well to be reminded
that the eternal realm is not 'out there' or in 'another place' so to speak.
The Scriptures indicate it runs parallel to and overlaps (as it were) with our
own realm. Words struggle to describe this. It's right there, right in front of
us if we have eyes to see – as Elisha's servant was momentarily granted at
Dothan in 2 Kings 6. The kingdoms of this world have their spiritual parallel
(as do the celestial bodies) and thus when we engage in the contest for control
of the nations – we are engaging angelic entities and this (in 2 Peter and
Jude) is forbidden and condemned.***
Again we are like the patriarchs living as pilgrims and
strangers in a strange land – seeking a heavenly country. On a spiritual-eschatological
level we war against them and challenge their authority. But again this is in
the Spirit and we act as agents of Christ.
When we take up the sword and the coin and seek control of
the same we war as beasts against beasts. We become like the fallen angels who
left their proper domain, like the Sodomites who broke with nature and sought
that which is forbidden. This is the point being made in 2 Peter and Jude. The
Christian political agitators of our day are spiritually speaking fallen sons of God and spiritual sodomites.
It's a form of apostasy and is condemned in the strongest possible terms.
This error was at work in the New Testament Church and
eventually it won the day – forcing the true and faithful remnant Church into
the underground, into the wilderness as it were. This was to be expected for it
was both prophesied in the New Testament and foreshadowed in the Old. It is a
theme that overshadows the Apocalypse or book of Revelation.
It is legitimate for us to expose the agents of the thrones
and their agendas. We don't cower. We are called to serve warning and provide
discernment. And on another level our spiritual combat is intensified when it
comes to the apostates who have left their proper domain and seek celestial
glory on their own terms and by means of the fallen world's tools and glories.
Not content to wait and abide for the eschatological Kingdom, not content to
bear the cross and live as pilgrims, they seek to recapture the fallen glory of
Babel. They've delved deep into the lore and sorceries of Shinar and they seek
those very thrones and using sword and coin they hope to capture them. And they
will not submit to either the rule of Providence or the martyr calling given to
us by the apostles. They won't have it.†
The condemnation of 2 Peter and Jude refer to both those who
conceive a new Eden in this age but also of those who seek to construct it by
means of challenging and casting down the authority or dominion God has granted
to the elohim 'god' entities. It is not for us to challenge them or seek their
thrones.
When things are understood in this light, the potency of
Paul's statements in Romans 13 become manifest, as are the poignancy of his
warnings and condemnations.
One wonders if these aspirants in seeking to play with things
and powers beyond their understanding have delved too deep, swum in waters they
cannot comprehend and indeed spiritually speaking they have been consumed and
overtaken by them. For indeed the agents of Satan run riot in the Church. They
have set up their banners and openly and without shame or hesitation proclaim
its doctrines and ethics as if they were the Word of God. In seeking to
transform the world they have thrown open the gates of the Church and allowed
the demonic forces to rush in and overwhelm it.
But while painful to grasp and terrible to contemplate, the
battle is real and souls are being won and lost – the True Church cannot fall.
Candlesticks (marking the presence of the Spirit) can be removed and
congregations can fall by the wayside. Individuals can fail to persevere and
fall from the faith but the true testimony cannot fail. We are assured of
victory though the cost may be greater than we can imagine. Indeed there be few
that are saved as the way is narrow.
We must reject their lies and false promises of liberty. They
are driven by base and covetous desires and yet they package their lies in a
manner that tugs at heartstrings and appeals to those who are grieved by the
state of the world. They would form an alliance with Babylon and yet lose their
souls in the process. Indeed, the very ideal they seek is exactly what we're
being warned against in the imagery of the Apocalypse.
All states will exhibit the sacral tendency and all states
will succumb to evil. There is no Christian state and no Christian statecraft.
Such notions are absurd and oxymoronic. We don't seek these things and thus we
don't fall prey to the myriad false arguments made by these Balaam-agents that
would convince us to vote, take up the sword, invest in the system and flourish
within its parameters – all in the name of good 'stewardship' of course. Sadly,
even this term they have perverted.
At best we can hope for a tolerant state that allows wide latitude,
a state distracted by other concerns. We must be content to live as second
class citizens. We seek no rights nor do we claim them. A close study of Paul's
actions and interactions with regard to the Roman state reveal once again how
the false teachers of Christian Sacralism and Dominionism pervert the
Scriptures and make Paul into something he's not. He was not afraid of the
state, nor afraid to shame it and even use it to a degree as a foil against the
plotting of his apostate enemies (who wickedly used the state to their own
ends) but he did not endorse it, invest in it, call upon it for justice or
claim rights.
We can never absolutise social pluralism and yet it is the
New Testament ideal in This Age. This is expressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5
when he absolutises 'us and them', the Church and those who are outside and
thus in no uncertain terms condemns the assumptions and aspirations of
Christian sacralism and its quest for a monistic order – the order history
knows as Christendom.
Thankfully pluralism will not exist in the Age to Come. We
are not theological pluralists who treat all religions as equally valid in
their metaphysical claims. But as pilgrim-exiles meant to bear witness and
glorify God through worship, cross-bearing martyrdom, and the spread of the
Gospel, social pluralism is the best we can hope for in this age – and yet we
do not labour for this either. We are not liberals. If it's providentially
granted we rejoice but it will never last and seeking to attain it is hardly
worth compromising our message or testimony.
We do not judge those who are 'outside' nor do we entangle
ourselves in the affairs of this life. We are soldiers in a war that transcends
the circles of the Earth and yet we do not war against the angelic entities
which govern this age. Instead we infiltrate their realms and proclaim the
heavenly Kingdom. The weapons we bear are spiritual. In terms of the physical
they can persecute and crucify us but we are not here to challenge their
earthly thrones and authority as the Kingdom we serve is not of this world.
Their defeat has already been proclaimed and their fall is certain but it's not
our task as men made lower than the angels to bring railing accusation against
them or seek to usurp their God-granted authority. This is hard thing for many
to understand especially given the post-Enlightenment Confessional and
Evangelical milieu which has suppressed and all but eradicated these doctrines.
All too often Christian truth is buried under their heretical syncretisms and
defended by seemingly impenetrable walls of false argument and tortured ideal.
We are called to non-resistance and conscientious objection.
We should not vote or be political in any way. And this extends to our use of
and investment in Caesar's coin – for the two realms are not easily separated.
We do not serve in government though we grant its validity and purpose. We
don't rail against it, agitate against its authority or seek to supplant it. We
go about our business and hope they leave us alone. If not, we suffer or flee
but we will not worship their idols, bear their sword or become slaves to their
coin.
The exception would be with regard to a False Church that has
allied itself to the state. Its teachers entice God's people into spiritual
whoredom and other sins like theft and murder and the approval of those who
commit such deeds. It strengthens the hands of the evildoers. In such cases we
must bear witness against this grave error even if it means the False Church
will turn the state against us – as it inevitably will. History testifies to
this. It is in this realm – the struggle against the False Church that our
primary theatre of combat is to be located. This is plain enough in the New
Testament but today's politicised Church finds its enemies in the secular realm
– as if Nancy Pelosi or some al Qaeda terrorist presented any kind of real
threat to the Church. These people are no real threat to us. As pilgrims what
can they do? Kill the body? Take our money? These things don't matter to us.
No, the real threat is found in the so-called Christian politicians and the
ecclesiastics who line up behind them and bless and encourage their sin. We are
engaged in an existential battle with them. They are the face of Satan at work
in the Church. They are his agents, his spies and his shock troops.
We fight a multi-faceted war but the primary enemy sits in
the pews and mounts the pulpits, making merchandise of God's people and
teaching that it's okay to steal, kill, lie and trample the weak, that the
Church is called to power, riches, and earthly glory. Some of these figures are
comical and absurd and take in only the most simple. Others are quite serious,
and aligned with powerful interests, they are very dangerous to the Church and
its testimony – and even at times to the wider world. The scope of their evil
is not fully understood – few have begun to properly grasp it.
This message is desperately needed at this hour but few will
hear it as for the most part the Church is given over to heretical frenzy,
violence, avarice, and apostasy. The Church grasps at the wind and has
destroyed its testimony in the process. The need for New Testament reform is
dire as lines have been crossed in recent years, breaches have been made that
are not easily repaired. The call is to come out – break with the whorish false
church that has formed an alliance with the beast and come to the spiritual wilderness
where the faithful remnant is to be found.
----
*Whether the street protestors (or even 18th
century rebels) are absolutely wrong in every sense is really immaterial. Let
the dead bury their dead. Either way we'll submit to Providence and we won't
and indeed cannot participate in their actions. We cannot sanction them. To
what degree and in what manner we condemn them will vary – but our speech is
not political and we must be careful to communicate that – a testimony we cannot maintain when we vote,
participate in government, invest in Wall Street, wear the uniforms of state
and bear weapons in its name.
** Interestingly a case could be made that such attempts
result not in Christian kingdoms but merely a reiteration of the bestial (what
is sometimes referred to as demonic) framework and impulse. One fallen throne
is cast down only to be replaced by another of the same order – not Zion but a
pseudo-Zion.
*** This now largely lost understanding of parallelism is
also manifest in ancient religions and the traditions of god-kings and kings
said to be descended from the gods. In many cases these are but modified
reiterations of the Genesis 6 episode that were retained in primeval memory. In
other cases there is a legacy of divine-human interaction and many of the
ancient kings and dynasties rooted their claims of nobility (and noble blood)
in connections to the gods – the gods which in many cases were patrons of a
certain place, tribe, or kingdom. Kings would reflect these claims in their
onomastic traditions and in many of the accoutrements. Much more could be said in this regard.
This is to venture down a strange and sometimes bizarre road
into the ancient and 'mythic' past, but it shouldn't surprise us that ancient
claims to kingship were often rooted in supernatural claims of connections to
the gods. In Biblical terms it makes perfect sense and once again casts the
nature of bestial power in a very interesting if disturbing light.
And in addition to being understood by other religions, this
general cosmology and framework was embraced by the ancient Church. This is not
to say they were always correct or viewed things in the same terms as other
religions but it cannot be disputed that the Christians that lived closest to
the apostolic age fully embraced the cosmology of apocryphal works such as
Enoch. Such books cannot be reckoned authoritative or inspired but they
represent a general cosmological understanding which the Church embraced and
upon closer examination the cosmology is not only present in the epistles but
even in the gospels. There's far more there than most Evangelical and
Confessional exegetes will grant and as these realities seem only to frustrate
coherence-driven theologians – the tendency is to downplay or ignore them. For
such men they are puzzles and problems at best.
†King Saul in many ways symbolises these people, their thinking,
disobedience, treachery and dissent into evil. Saul is an antichrist figure, a
man of sin claiming the prerogatives of God – a manifestation of the prostitute
or whore descriptions of the apostate covenant people that permeate the Old
Testament. Jeroboam of Dan and Bethel fame also comes to mind.
In the Apocalypse this imagery is represented by the
apostates persecuting the Church in chapter 11 and certainly in the whore of
chapter 17. It's also interesting to note that while Israel was enemy to the
Philistines, to David and his band, the greater enemy was Saul. The same is
true today as David's wilderness combat in many respects is echoed in the
struggles of the Church.
And as Saul fell into sorcery, likewise we understand that
Samuel's equation of rebellion and witchcraft (1 Samuel 15) also makes sense in
this framework. Sorcery and magic are attempts to seize power and manipulate
the natural order for one's own purposes. To question the order (by whatever
means) is a form of this witchcraft – in other words it is pursuing the same
purposes even if it is not openly using what we call sorcery and magic. The
false teachers condemned by the apostles (and those who dominate in our day) are
just such rebels – guilty of witchcraft and forms of sorcery.
And in terms of the aforementioned celestial parallelism the
concept of the wandering star (mentioned in Jude) is also of interest – a
celestial body or power that has deviated from a proper course and has embraced
and sows chaos. These concepts are all part of the same imagery.
Babel was itself a sorcerous and rebellious attempt to re-create the holy mountain-heavenly gateway imagery of Eden, an attempt made by man on man's terms to reconstitute the heavenly kingdom on Earth and claim the Divine prerogative and presence. Today's Christian leaders repeat this and think they can sanctify their unholy project by topping the metaphorical dark tower with a cross of gold.