Answers to Objections #5

Post date: Dec 07, 2016 6:53:0 PM

Aug 13, 2011 by Buddy Hanson

Answers to Common Objections are a regular column on Explicitly Christian Politics. These answers were written by Buddy Hanson and published in the appendix of his book, The Christian Civil Ruler’s Handbook. Buddy has written a number of books on applying God’s Word to culture, civil-government and politics and we are grateful for the answers he gives to common objections we hear all the time. Check out his website here.

Objection #5: “I’m a Christian, but I’m not attempting to force my beliefs on others like those Christians on the radical right.”

Often you will hear people say, ”I have nothing against Christians or anyone else getting involved in politics; after all, I’m a Christian.” They suppose that such a statement adds credibility to their indictment of Christians in public office, but what it really does is demonstrate their misunderstanding of Scripture. Their god is little more than some undefined dispenser of salvation for the hereafter. The more undefined their god and the less time they spend thinking about their god the better, because then they can imagine that they aren’t accountable to act in any specific way toward him (or her, or it). This type of thinking, however, is completely unbiblical. The Creator God has revealed His inerrant Word and preserved it throughout the ages so that everyone can understand the proper way to live and interact with others.

A common reaction is, “You can’t have certain people as spokesmen for God.” Since humanists don’t believe in the one and only true God of Scripture they see all “gods” as equally irrelevant. To their way of thinking, to seek any god’s counsel is to seek every god’s counsel—which would result in chaos and confusion. Such thinking not only exhibits an ignorance of Christianity, but an ignorance of America’s beginnings, which did not grow out of religious plurality, but out of the worship of the one true God of Scripture. When someone says, “You can’t have certain people as spokesmen for God,” the Christian response should be, “Why not? Any Christian, aided by the Holy Spirit, has the ability to discern God’s will from Scripture. Besides that, we have been commanded to be ‘salt and light,’ and there is no way to obey that command without pointing out God’s laws.”