A THEOLOGICAL APPROACH TO POLITICS

Politics is an important issue in the world today. And we are surrounded by the presence of politics in the news and in our daily lives.  How should Christians approach the issue of politics? What issues need to be made important? Should we stick with a party vote? Can we serve God by working for the values of His Kingdom in our country’s politics? In this paper I will look at what theological methods we can use to begin answering these questions.

            What authorities should Christians use to tell us how to vote and live in our political world? For Christians the ultimate authority is God. He has the first and the last say in our lives, and how we should lead them. God has given us several sources of authority in order to study Him. According to teachings of John Wesley, God has given us four different sources of authority for doing theology: the Scriptures, the Church, reason, and our experiences. This is referred to as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

God has given us His Word in the Scriptures to guide and teach us. Thus, God’s Word, the Bible, is the authority many Christians turn to first (and with good reason). The Bible is God’s specific revelation to us. It is “God-breathed.” We can use the commands given in the Bible to guide us in how we vote and interact in politics. For example, one can know that one of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shall not kill.” A person who believes we must follow this command and who believes in the sanctity of human life because we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) might use this authority to form their opinions about the issue of abortion.

            Scripture also has words to say about how we should respect our government. Romans 13:1 says, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (NIV). In Jeremiah, God is speaking to His people who have been exiled to a pagan land (which some may compare to the United States today…) and He encourages them to support the government there anyway. “And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7 NLT). Even when we are living in a godless nation, we are commanded to pray for our nation. But there are instances where we are given the example to defy the authority of government when it clashes with the authority of God (Acts 4:19, Exodus 1:17). God’s authority must come first, but in the majority of cases we are to submit to the authority of our government.

            According to Wesley’s quadrilateral method of theology, another source of authority is the Church, and the traditions held within it. When we are seeking guidance for politics, it is difficult to find straight answers in our churches in these modern days. Churches are just as divided politically as any other group. And if we look to the tradition of the church, this doesn’t really help because back when the Church was united, the political system wasn’t anything like what it is today and they don’t really deal with the same issues. But a person can always turn to their church for guidance on issues, drawing on the knowledge of spiritual leaders who might be able to direct them towards God’s will on a matter.

            Another source of authority is our sense of reason and logic. This is a big one in politics, because for many in the secular world, reason is the ultimate source of authority. Christians should use their reason to back up the authority of Scripture and the Church, but we must remember that the authority of God (as passed down through the Scriptures and His Church) must carry a greater weight in our decisions than our reason, which is ultimately flawed because we are fallen creatures. But reason is still a gift from God and a valid source of authority. For example, one could use their powers of reasoning to arrive at an opinion about an economic issue. We may see all the options and use our reason to anticipate the implications of all the alternatives in order to arrive at the best one. Reason can lead us to the decision that would be best for our nation and most honoring to God.

            The last source of authority in Wesley’s quadrilateral is our experience. This is the most subjective and personal source of the four, so although it is a valid source of authority, it is probably the one we should be most wary of. Many people will vote on a certain issue because of how it directly pertains to them in the workplace or in life. In this case, they are using their experience as a basis for their political view.

One can also turn to natural theology to direct their political views. Natural theology is how God has revealed himself to the world in general, through nature or anything else in His creation. For example, we see God’s creation all around us—that which He called good. These observations may influence our views about environmental issues. We might see God’s beautiful creation and know that it is something that needs to be preserved.

As we have seen, we have been given many different sources of authority by God with which we can use to form our opinions about many different issues. Even still, Christians may disagree on a number of issues, because they may try to solve them with different sources of authority. Or even using the same kinds of authority may still lead to differing opinions. It is up to us to discern what God’s will is for a situation based on all the decision-making tools he has provided us with. Maybe we will never know what is ultimately right for an issue in this life. But we can certainly use all our resources to try to discover that.