Muslims, Politics, and the Kingdom of Christ: Blessed with a 3-day weekend, I’ve had some extra time to think this weekend, and spent plenty of time tossing about thoughts on paper. What follows is simply a handful of those thoughts – some still a little unraveled, but perhaps worth considering. After touching on some political considerations on Friday, I tried steering my mind in other directions. It didn’t work. There were still too many loose threads dangling, and I’d like to see if I can reel in a few of them. The more I turned them over in my mind, the less this seemed to be about politics, and the more it seemed to be about the church. Somewhere along the way, much of what passes for Christianity in America has become difficult to distinguish from political conservatism. The conversations revolve around elections, court decisions, immigration, cultural battles, and preserving “our way of life.” It’s difficult to find any of those concerns occupying the forefront of Christ’s ministry. Yet the apostles turned the world upside down without possessing any of them.
The latest conservative war cry I hear over and over again is that the Muslims are taking over. But if that happened, what then? Would the visible influence of Christianity in our culture diminish? Perhaps. But would the kingdom of Christ? Would the gospel suddenly lose its power because it no longer enjoyed a cultural advantage? It may be that one of the worst things that ever happened to Christianity in this country was the illusion that it needed political strength and conservative influence in order to survive. Perhaps the little light we have been given to hold forth would no longer be squandered trying to prop up a political movement or preserve a national mythology. Instead, we might finally be forced to ask whether the kingdom of Christ advances through political power or by the power of God alone. And perhaps we would find ourselves back where the church has often been at its strongest: small, weak, outnumbered, and having nothing to lean on but Christ.
That opens another question: religious freedom. What exactly do we mean when we speak of religious freedom? It’s a tremendous blessing, and one I’m grateful for. However the founders understood the Constitution, Christians ought to have a fairly simple desire. We should not want anyone coerced into a religion or driven out of one by the power of the state. We believe Christ is the truth, and we want men and women to believe in Him. But no government has ever been able to produce genuine faith. Truth has never needed the sword in order to remain true. John 18:36.
The whole idea of a Christian state has always made me a little uneasy. The New Testament never presents the church as a political society preserving a civilization. It presents believers as strangers and pilgrims, citizens of another kingdom. Perhaps we’ve misunderstood the battlefield. The New Testament repeatedly reminds us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Yet flesh and blood seem to occupy almost all of our attention. We fear Muslims. We fear secularists. We fear governments. We fear political parties. Meanwhile Scripture reminds us that none of those are the real enemy. Isaiah 31:1.
Read through the New Testament and notice what you don’t find. Christ never prepared His disciples for persecution by telling them to organize politically. The apostles never instructed churches to boycott Rome, overthrow Caesar, or regain cultural influence. Instead they were told to put on the whole armor of God. Ephesians 6:13. The battle was spiritual because the enemy was spiritual. If what we call Christianity has become nothing more than a political movement wearing Christian language, then perhaps that version deserves to disappear. Let that version die. Christ doesn’t need it. Christ will continue building His church long after every nation and every political movement has passed away.
Here’s another thought – perhaps a bit of hyperbole, so don’t press it too far. Suppose the Muslims really did take over and every Bible in America was outlawed. Our first instinct would be to call that a tragedy. But I sometimes wonder if our greater danger isn’t losing our Bibles at all, but becoming so accustomed to having them that we’ve forgotten how precious they are. We can carry the Scriptures in our pocket and search them with a few taps on a screen. Yet possessing a Bible is not the same as hearing Christ through it. John 5:39-40. Never have the Scriptures been more available, and perhaps never have they been more neglected. Familiarity has a way of dulling wonder.
Think of believers in earlier generations. They met in secret. They copied portions of Scripture by hand. Some hid their Bibles beneath floorboards or risked imprisonment, and even death, simply to hear God’s Word read aloud. They treasured the Scriptures because they understood what they possessed. Jeremiah 15:16. We possess the same Scriptures, yet their very availability can make them seem ordinary. The Word of God has not become less glorious; we have simply grown more accustomed to it. And what becomes ordinary to us is often no longer treasured. Perhaps the greatest threat to the Bible is not persecution from without, but indifference from within.
One final thought before I wrap this up. It wouldn’t surprise me if the coming generation became increasingly skeptical of religion altogether. As information becomes more accessible and institutions lose credibility, many of the systems people have trusted for centuries may continue to erode. Secular humanism – or something like it – may become the dominant worldview in much of the West, not because it has all the answers, but because confidence in competing systems continues to fade. If that happens, it need not alarm the believer. Christ never promised that religion would endure. He promised to build His church. Those are not the same thing. In one sense, the disappearance of cultural Christianity might actually make the church more visible. When following Christ no longer carries social advantage or cultural respectability, those who remain will be there for one reason only: because they belong to Him. John 10:27.
Every human institution eventually crumbles. Every civilization passes away. Every kingdom of this world gives way to another. Why, then, should the believer place his hope in preserving what God Himself has declared to be temporary? Christ’s kingdom alone cannot be shaken. Perhaps that’s the question we ought to be asking ourselves. What if the greatest contrast isn’t between Christianity and every other religion, but between every form of religion and the gospel of Jesus Christ? MPJ
PostScript: “Muslims will rape and murder your children. THAT’S WHAT WILL HAPPEN! ISLAM IS A POLITICAL IDEOLOGY, not just a religion. They are a genuine threat to our country. Everything else I agree with.” Thanks. I’m actually glad not everyone agrees with me. Again, I’m just tossing some thoughts out there and trying to think through them biblically. I certainly don’t deny that there are dangerous people in the world, nor do I deny that evil exists in every form. My concern is simply that the church can become so consumed with earthly threats that we quietly lose sight of the kingdom Christ called us to proclaim. Whatever dangers may come, our greatest need – and theirs as well – is still Christ. — Moments later: Wow… I just got an earful from my wife. I wish I’d never read your comment to her. She’s firmly on your side. So yes… there are definitely other perspectives on this, and I don’t want to pretend there aren’t. I’m still thinking my way through some of it. In the meantime, I’d better get back to my own little corner of the world, where I’m far more comfortable talking about Christ than politics.
Postscript 2 – Comment: “I would never vote for a ‘Christian’ politician. Even if they were a biblical believer. They know very little about the world as it is. It takes a son of Adam to move in the world and know the things of the world. Not our kingdom. Looking for a city made without hands. There has never been a leader that was a believer as far as I know. The LORD ordains whoever is in power for our good. If the Muslims were held back that would be a good thing as far as I know. But HIS will, WILL be done.” Reply: I really appreciate this comment. The thought that especially stood out to me was, “It takes a son of Adam to move in the world.” There’s a lot of wisdom packed into that simple statement. It reminds us that civil government belongs to this present world, while our citizenship is elsewhere. Whatever rulers rise or fall, we’re still looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Thanks.
PostScript 3: I think there’s a great deal of truth in what you wrote. It’s usually not what a man possesses when the sun is shining, his belly is full, and everything is going his way that reveals much. It’s what remains when everything else has been stripped away. And really, who amongst us truly knows what we have until we’re brought into those places? I certainly don’t. We often discover the reality of our faith only when every other support begins to give way. Another thought about the word extreme. Perhaps the followers of Christ ought to be extreme – not in anger, fear, or political passion, but in their love for Christ, their devotion to His Word, and their compassion toward others. If people are going to accuse us of being extreme, I hope it’s because we speak too much of Christ, forgive too freely, love too deeply, and treasure the Scriptures too highly. Those are the kinds of extremes the New Testament never apologizes for.