Lawful Christian Resistance, Part VII

Doctrines, Focus and Tactics: Lessons From Wilberforce

We have been considering the political and social philosophy of lawful Christian resistance to tyrannical government.  As persecution of Christians increases in the West--an inevitable outcome of militant secular and atheistic doctrines--this is something that Christians will have to bone up upon, fast.

There are some factors working to our advantage in this up-schooling process, however.  Firstly, there is plenty of instruction and counsel within the Scriptures on these matters.  Those professing Christians who revere the Bible as the very Word of the Living God will find much to teach, instruct and counsel them as they work through the issues.  Secondly, the history of the First Christendom--centred in Western Europe and then latterly in the modern  and post-modern Anglo-Saxon world--reflects a great deal of the principles of rule, government, law, justice, and freedoms derived from the Scriptures.  Thus, in general Western political history provides a work book of faithful Christian doctrines of the State and lawful government, on the one hand, and the opposite notions, on the other--together with their respective outworkings and consequences.

The watershed issue, however, which divides the Christian doctrine of government from all other political ideologies is this:
the Christian doctrine of the State holds that all officers of the State, magisterial, civil, executive, legislative, administrative, and judicial hold their appointment from God, and to God they are ultimately and finally responsible.  All competing doctrines hold that all State offices and their particular occupants hold their appointment from Man--and Man alone.  The intrinsic atheism of  modern Western political philosophy and doctrines has grown in strength as the culture of secularism has advanced.

It is essential that Christians divorce themselves from the political ideologies arising out of Unbelief, and stand resolutely for the truth--that is, the Truth, Jesus Christ Himself as the absolute Overlord of the heavens and all states and nations upon the earth.  It is essential that Christians continue to assert that the State owes its allegiance firstly to Jesus Christ Himself, risen from the dead, and appointed Judge over all individuals, families, ethnicities, nations and states--past, present, and future.   Our Christian witness to the local official--elected, or otherwise--is that he holds his appointment firstly from Christ the King, and to Christ the King he will give an account on that Great Day of Judgement for the conduct of his office and duties.  In the light of that unchanging reality, we Christians will then plead for certain outcomes or the resolution of particular issues.

Naturally there are some watershed issues in our day around which Christians must coalesce.  These issues are so fundamental that the centre most definitely cannot hold unless the Christian position is heard and, adopted.  The first is abortion.  The second is marriage.

In our day these issues are like the issue of slavery as faced by Wilberforce and the Clapham sect in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in England.  It was Christians taking up the cause, in the name of Christ, that eventually shamed the nation into outlawing slavery in the UK and in all her ships and dominions.  "Polite" society was more than content to resist the abolition of slavery--just as elites in the US and the WEst in our day are tolerant of abortion.  One of the clever things undertaken by Wilberforce and his confederates was to host a boat ride for aristocratic and entitled men and women on the Thames and pull up alongside a docked slave ship and give a vivid account of what actually went on in those hell-holes.  The overpowering stench alone was convicting.   "Polite" society became aghast.

With respect to abortion, the unconscionable evils of Planned Parenthood exposed in secret videos have made a similar impact in the United States and much of the Western world.  The spirit and soul of Wilberforce will doubtless be smiling and commending the tactic.  Around these two salient issues (marriage and abortion) we must coalesce.  Because all officials of State are first and foremost servants of Christ and hold their appointment from Him, and only then ratified and confirmed by the people, we Christians must give the authorities no peace nor rest until they banish such wickedness from the land.  In particular we Christians must stand with those elected representatives, judges, officials and all bearing secular authority who conscientiously oppose abortion and homosexual "marriage".