By Michael Sitko
Facing Giants - Part 2 “Taking the Initiative”
“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil… For he is God’s minister to you…” Romans 8:1-4; ISV
What is the responsibility of the church when it comes to government? The way in which this question is answered will ultimately be determined by the understanding of the whole counsel of scripture on the matter.
I have repeatedly heard Pastors make statements from their pulpits such as “we need to obey our leaders, after all God put them in place.”. Although the mantra sounds good and theologically correct, unfortunately it is wrong and based on a poor interpretation of the Bible.
To avoid a long theological dissertation here of how the scriptures are interpreted lets simplify it to say this, “All scripture must conform to the whole counsel of scripture and our interpretations need to line up with the character and nature of who Jesus revealed the Father to be and the principles of His Kingdom.
In the words of Jesus “… if your son asks for bread would you give him a stone… How much more does your Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask…” Matt 7:9; or Peter in his address to the Pharisees “…Then Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men [we have no other choice].” Acts 5:9;
As I pointed out in my previous article, we’ve seen some of the greatest and most powerful prayer and worship movements in Canadian history in the past two decades. However during that time we have also seen Canada slip further and further into what Jesus would describe as lawlessness and hedonistic practices, policies and laws.
A main focus to many of those prayer initiatives have been petitioning God, “our Father”, for a righteous government that makes righteous laws, but in contrast what we have seen in response is more and more corruption as well as the passing of laws and public policies that not only violate His Word but have now also begun to outright make aspects of Christianity unlawful including the categorization of parts of the Bible as Hate Speech.
What’s the problem for the Christian you say? When you begin to consider verses such as those above that tell us that we must make ourselves subject to our rulers and obey them. The question begs to be asked, “what is the Christians responsibility when governing authorities begin to pass laws saying that what God says is good is evil and what God says is evil is good?”
I want to propose to you that we need to raise our understanding of God’s Word as well as bring an awareness of our responsibility as Christians who are living in and citizens of a democratically governed Nation. In case you were unaware, Democracy isn’t a human idea, as a matter of fact you can trace democracy and self governance all the way back to the Old Testament in the way in which God instructed Israel to setup its leadership.
Self Government and Democracy weren’t Canadian ideas first, it was God’s idea, and God has an expectation upon His children to be responsible and involved in their own governance.
If every position of authority as Paul states in Romans is instituted by God and His expectation is that they represent His authority, than it is incumbent upon us to conclude that He also has an expectation that those leaders govern with His heart, His principles and in alignment with His laws.
I would like to suggest to us, that without the influence of His Church in the political realm, in our Canadian democracy, it is a complete impossibility to secure His goal and intention of having leaders who “represent Him” in our government.
This brings us to the point of action for every Christian. In a democracy, it is the people who choose who will lead them. Further to that I want to suggest to you that it is the people who choose whether the leaders that they choose will be ones that will capture God’s heart for those positions of leadership, which is to represent Him and His authority to those who are being governed or whether those leaders will represent another.
Once we come to this realization then the only acceptable response is to conclude that the Church has a responsibility to engage with the mechanisms of democracy within our Nation to ensure that God’s ideas of Government are able to come forth.
So that leaves us with the final question, “what is my responsibility as a son or daughter of God?” Or in light of my previous article “what does it look like for me to pick up my 5 smooth stones and go face the giant?”
In the heart of Canadian Democracy the power of choosing government has been placed in the hands of the people, through participating in our respective political parties by taking out membership, involvement in your local riding association, attending party conventions where policies and governing platforms are created,running for political office and lastly by voting.
If the Church wants to see a positive change in Canada, the church needs to stop ONLY praying and needs to START taking the initiative when it comes to being involved in the mechanisms of our democracy. The result if we don’t is that those who are appointed to government will begin to use the authority that God has given to their positions to punish evil doers, to punish Christians for following his laws and values when our political mechanisms give place to an unrighteous government that begins to define evil as good and good as evil.
It’s time to “Take the Initiative and Do Your Part Church.”