Here is the introduction to the collection of WORLD magazine columns that I thought suitable for providing citizen-wisdom in the months leading up to the 2016 general election.
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I was recently interviewed by a Brooklyn media
outfit on how evangelicals see the current election. Several times I was asked,
“So who is God’s candidate?” I didn’t give a straight answer because it’s a
complicated question. Nonetheless, it’s one that Christians are required to
ponder.
On one level, “God’s candidate” means the
one who intentionally and perfectly conforms his policies and judgments to the
mind of God. But there is not, and cannot be, such a candidate. Only King Jesus
fits that description. On another, quite unavoidable level, God’s candidate is
the one he will raise up by our democratic republican system to govern us. But
that, of course, is his business. “The secret
things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed
belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this
law” (Deut. 29:29).
The question can also be asking, however,
which of the candidates—given what God has revealed of himself—does God want us
to select. In the past, that question has seemed deceptively easy to answer. I
say deceptively easy because it is never as easy as we think it is, as though
in a given contest no serious examination of the candidates were necessary and
no careful investigation of Christian principles and sober anticipation of
natural consequences were in order. And as though that itself were easy.
In 1976, the Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter
seemed to be the evangelical choice. In 1980, his opponent, the Moral Majority
backed Ronald Reagan seemed an equally clear choice, despite his divorce and
irregular church attendance. Or perhaps just looking back it seems that way. In
2000, it seemed to be George W. Bush, the born again Reaganite. And yet today
many conservative evangelicals are lamenting—this side of their humiliating
defeat in the culture wars, from fighting the feminist ERA to defending the
DOMA citadel—how those battles and devotion to those champions distorted the
gospel not only in the public eye but even in their own understanding.
Yet the Christian is inescapably a citizen
not only of Christ’s heavenly kingdom but also of this earthly republic of
laws. And by God’s great mercy, government in America is not just something
other people do in faraway places and impose on us, though sadly that is
increasingly so. It is still the beauty of what Lincoln described at Gettysburg
as “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
If a Christian people is to govern itself
and choose wisely those who will represent them in their decision-making
responsibilities, then Christians need to be properly informed. They need godly
wisdom. They certainly need to understand, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism
says (Question 3), what the Scriptures principally teach, i.e., “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God
requires of man.” But the Book of Proverbs teaches
us,
I, wisdom,
dwell with prudence.
And I find
knowledge and discretion
The fear of the Lord is hatred
of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
I have counsel
and sound wisdom;
I have insight; I have strength.
By me kings
reign,
and rulers decree
what is just;
by me princes rule,
and nobles, all
who govern justly. (8:12-16)
Christians in their capacity as free
citizens have a responsibility to seek and grow in civic wisdom. This wisdom
fits them to participate helpfully in the tasks of self-government for the
common good and the glory of God. Though this certainly begins in the fear of
the Lord, it culminates in making wise and prudent judgments concerning
difficult matters that confront us in a world clouded and twisted by sin. This
wisdom requires us to clear our heads, inform our minds, and chasten our hearts
for distinguishing Christ from the world and the love of God from infatuation
with the world, the flesh, and the devil—the lust of the eye, the lust of the
flesh, and the pride of life, as the old King James Version rendered the
beloved disciple’s warning (I John 2:16).
This book is far from sufficient for that
task. Ideally it calls for a life’s worth of learning in the Scriptures, the
insights of those greater than I, and as complete a knowledge of current
affairs as one can reasonably muster. But if the reader is urgently occupied
with family, business, church, and community and needs a handy help for
understanding the times, perhaps this book will do.
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