Should Christians Stay Out of Politics?
Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason makes a case for Christians being involved in politics.
Listen to the entire podcast here: https://www.str.org/w/should-christians-stay-out-of-politics-
Related article:
Not a Hint of Politics: https://www.str.org/w/not-a-hint-of-politics?inheritRedirect=true
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We need more Christians in every area of life.
The answer is yes and no. On one side we should not be bothered a lot with politics. For instance, NAR proponents will tell you we have to cease power. This is absolutely not true. We are not called to change the world. We are called to preach Jesus. No where in the bible we see our lord or his Apostles involved in politics. They were consumed proclaiming the gospel. On the other hand, we shouldn't be passive about what happens around us. We are part of the community and we have to actively participate.
ANSWER IS NEVER EVER! STAY OUT AND CALIFORNIA WILL BE THE FUTURE…. NO BIBLE STUDY, NO WORSHIP, NO GATHERING AND NO CHURCH/CHRISTIANITY BECAUSE THE WAYS OF THIS WORLD IS HOSTILE TO THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST!
May the Church soon return to presenting a clear view of the Kingdom of God in CONTRAST to the kingdoms of men. Shalom
No.
You can't divorce theology from politics. People's political views are usually based on their theological beliefs.
Hi Greg, You state
"what is politics? Well, politics involves the right use of power, OK? So you have the government who has power, which uses that power to accomplish certain tasks"
Later you state
"what is politics? I'll tell you what is politics – everything now"
and you repeat that politics is everything later and emphasize it by saying that getting out of politics means getting out of the culture. I'm wondering if you could do a corrected version of this video without this logical error in it? Thanks. 🙂
We need to get out and vote as Christians. Many do not vote because a candidate isn’t “perfect”. We have a candidate right now that is very imperfect but stands on about every Christian value we would want our candidate to stand on. We are throwing the baby out with the bath water! Also about 30% do not vote partially because of this. There will never be a perfect candidate as long as we are living in this time.
Republicans = Pharisees. Democrats = Sadducees. Libertarians = Atheists/Pantheons. Change my mind. And don’t talk about “pro-life” unless you talk about the millions of people without healthcare, homes, and a fighting chance. And shocker… the lgbt issue pops up. Well I guess Jesus would have sent them all packing into the wilderness. The problem is most Christians don’t have a clue how to play the politics game. They just hear those two big issues and automatically side with the fascist right wing party that wants to end the separation of church and state (Revelations spoiler alert.) All I’m saying is tread lightly if you’re new to this. Oh, and for the record I’m a Christian for Socialism. Uh oh… here they come 😁😇
If you want the laws of a nation to change you need to be politically active.
That can be very passive eg voting, or active eg starting a party, or influencing a party from within, or running for office – and anywhere in-between.
In some nations one can join a local party branch, recruit like-minded people to the branch(es), and quietly infiltrate and take over the branch when you have enough numbers to vote on who will run for that seat. This can take 2-10 years to achieve and it is done by stealth but once you nominate your candidate he/she has a chance of winning and sitting in state or federal government and making a difference. Local government works a little differently in the nations I’m thinking of (non-USA).
God created his perfect government structure in the Old Testament but the Israelites wanted a king instead and it didn’t work and God abolished it and put the Israelites under the rule of other kingdoms. God is pro-government and it would be great if we had Christians striving to bringing us closer to Gods structure. Realistically, we will never get there as the world is too far gone but we can slow things down and make a difference in some areas eg abortion, religious freedom just to name a few.
Answer: no
Who is he arguing against here? Why am I listening to ten minutes of this guy tearing down his neat bundle of strawmen? If you want to offer a reputable case for an idea, at least offer it up against some valid argument that exists. Bring on an opposition, or make your point specifically against the Paper mentioned in the beginning with a reference link in the description. This whole video is a blithe waste of time.
Personally, I agree that Christianity is, and ought to be preformed as comprehensive, and Christians should not shirk from any topic because someone slaps a "political" label on it. Obviously not. I have never heard this argument made.
4:15 you make the point that If Christians aren't the ones making decisions in politics, then it will be secularists, and that's not the way it's supposed to work. But I can't think of any part of Jesus ministry where he urged political activism. In fact I think one of the key elements of his ministry as messiah was the fact that he was specifically NOT leading the Jews to stand up against the secular, authoritarian, oppressive government. If anything, I think one of the key messages from the new testament on this topic is that we submit to the authority of the world we're in, while boldly keeping and discipling in the Christian way of discipleship to Jesus.
I don't think this means we don't speak into the politics of the world. And in democracy I don't think this means we don't vote as Christians according to our convictions. But I strongly believe it is not in the purview of Christianity to give a focus to the political realm. Jesus came to save lives, not ballots.
As a Christian, I wonder if I would be too honest to ever be a politician. I recently spent three years as a teacher in a Muslim country, wondering each Sunday if I might be thrown in jail, serving at the church services there.