How Now Shall We Vote?

Do you think that society could be transformed if we only had the right government? My last blog touched on the difference between neo-Kuperian doctrine, and the Two-Kingdom doctrine that many Lutherans and Reformed Christians hold to. Basically the Two-Kingdom doctrine holds that while God rules over everything in this world, he does not rule over everything through his church. Therefore, we cannot force non-Christians to live up to the same standards as Christians. Neo-Kuperians believe that Lordship of Christ needs to be manifest in every area of life, including politics, in order to transform the culture.

But how does this debate apply to the current election campaign going on in Canada? Christians need to decide whether to vote for the Christian Heritage Party (CHP) or for one of the mainline parties. The decision becomes even more complicated when the candidate from a mainland party is a confessing Christian. If we decide to vote for the Conservatives are we sacrificing our principles and giving in to pragmatism? If you accept the Two-Kingdom approach you would be reluctant to use politics and earthly government to promote the Christian faith as you would see that as the churches role. Does that mean that a vote for the CHP would be more in line with a neo-Kuyperian view? Not necessarily, since a perusal of the CHP platform illustrates that they have many policy ideas that even many non-Christians would find workable. In addition the CHP purposely has no connection to any particular denomination and that implies that its goal is to promote good government and leave the preaching of the gospel to the church.

Another question to consider in this debate is whether it is advisable or even possible to try to impose Christian ethics to civil life. If most of the citizens of a country are not Christian, will we ever be able to elect a government which operates on Christian principles, and if we do, would it be able to impose its ethical standards on the citizens of the country? Moral improvement will only happen if it is worked from the bottom up, rather than imposed from above, unless above is heaven itself. The kind of moral improvement that God desires, is a reaction of thankfulness for salvation through our Saviour, Jesus the Christ, and is worked in through the Holy Spirit, not through good government, but through His Church.

Regardless how we vote we need to remember that earthly government is necessary because of sin, in the same way that we have locks on our doors because of sin. Being a locksmith is an acceptable job for a Christian, and we can even glorify God by doing it well, but it would be difficult to transform society by doing it, and in eternity we will have no use for it.

The Role of the Church in Society

If, as Abraham Kuyper pointed out, every square inch of this world belongs to Christ, does it follow that the church should be involved in every sphere of life? This is an especially important question as Christians in Canada consider who to vote for in the upcoming Federal election on May 2, 2011. I believe the answer is both “no” and “yes”.

I believe the answer is “no” because the church as an organization has been mandated by God to focus on the Great Commission found in Matthew 28. History has shown that when the church, as an organization, starts to focus on areas such as politics, culture, and education it does so at the expense of its God given mandate. This view, of limiting the church to ecclesiastical matters, is expressed well in the Martin Luther’s doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, which was also espoused by John Calvin.

Some Reformed Christians who disagree with the Two Kingdom approach, such as neo-Kuyperians, espouse that Christians ought to work hard to make the world a more God honouring place. For a good discussion of the debate between the Two Kingdom doctrine and the ideas of the neo-Kuyperians see Kevin deYoung’s blog, DeYoung, Restless and Reformed. Personally, I think that the differences between these two views is a false dilemma, and that they are not that far apart. I agree with the neo-Kuyperians that the church ought to say “yes” to involvement in all areas of life, but not under the authority of a consistory or even classis or synod. Individual Christians should band together with other Christians, or even non-Christians, to transform society.

Nevertheless, the Church as an organization has been mandated by Christ to focus on the announcement of the gospel as Dr. Michael Horton, from Westminster Theological Seminary, points out in the video below.