The Truth Manifesto

Here in the United States, there has been a big lie perpetrated throughout the country’s history that faith is to be separate from the public square and politics in general. We are now at a point where the faith of Christians is shunned, downplayed, and vilified by efforts of Godless people who hate not just Christians but faith in anything people call God. Yet, the founders of this nation didn’t believe that whatsoever.

On the other extreme, you have people who call themselves Christian who have given in to this lie and feel that the church of Christ shouldn’t have anything to do with politics and are even uncomfortable talking about such things with other Christians. Such an attitude is wholeheartedly unbiblical and quite frankly, selfish.

The Founders’ Beliefs

I’ve had videos of David Barton of Wallbuilders on here on the Truth Manifesto. He’s a historian who gives history as it was, not how secularist would like it to be. It is evident by far that most of the men who were signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christians (click here to watch the video). They placed a premium on freedom because God Almighty places a premium on freedom. That is why man has free will. God doesn’t force anyone to follow or believe on His Son Jesus Christ. He implores man to to turn to righteousness and He warns man that there are consequences for his decisions. But He doesn’t force man to choose anything.

William Penn wrote to the czar of Russia:

“If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him….Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.”

What we’re seeing today is what happens when a man’s freedom is threatened. Innately, man rebels against that which threatens a God given attribute whether they realize it or not. Though man’s reactions can be good or evil, his response is nevertheless the same.

Rodney King Syndrome

There are Christians who believe that the church being involved in politics is not right and we shouldn’t have any place there. We should simply preach the gospel. They suffer from the Rodney King Syndrome, a malady that is always crying, “Can’t we all just get along?” Any friction with others over political laws and policies is considered un-Christian or useless.

In the book Faith and Freedom, Mathew Staver, founder of the Liberty Counsel, sums up the Christian attitude when it comes to faith, politics, and religious liberty:

I frequently encounter a great deal of apathy among Christians…Most would rather run than fight and lose their rights than struggle for them¹.

This attitude is not only utterly wrong in the sense that it’s unbiblical on all kinds of levels as I’ll outline soon, but the Founders themselves didn’t believe that by the sheer number of them that held seminary degrees and who were theologians. They understood as Staver commented:

The issue of religious liberty is not simply a legal right-it is the ability to continue to spread the gospel in a free nation¹.

Faith In Politics: A Primer

Because this subject is extensive, I’d like to just give a primer before we go further.

Understand that as Christians, our faith is what defines us if it’s true faith. Read that sentence over again because it’s pivotal in understanding the rest of what will be presented. It is the depth or lack thereof of our theology which will manifest through how we think and who we are. This is why God tells us:

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)

¹ Faith and Freedom; Mathew D. Staver; 1995; Foreward, page XI