by - Michael Sitko
“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil… For he is God’s minister to you…” Romans 8:1-4; ISV
Have you ever heard you Pastor say “we need to obey our leaders, after all God put them in place.”? Although the mantra sounds good and theological unfortunately it is far from the truth. To avoid a long theological dissertation of how the scriptures are interpreted lets simplify it to say this, “All scripture must conform to the whole of scripture and our interpretations need to line up with the character and nature of God as our Father and the principles of His Kingdom.
In the words of Jesus “… if your sons asks for bread would you give him a stone.. How much more does your Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask…”
As I pointed out in my previous article we’ve seen some of the greatest and most powerful prayer and worship movements in Canadian history in the past two decades all the while seeing Canada slip further and further into darkness. A huge component and focus to those prayer initiatives have been petitioning God, our Father, for a righteous government that makes righteous laws, but we have seen only more and more corruption and the passing of laws and public policies that not only violate His word but have now begun to outright make righteous behaviour unlawful.
This is a very problematic issue for the Christian when you consider verses such as those above that tell us that we must make ourselves subject to our rulers and obey them. Then begs the question of “what do you do when governing authorities begin to pass laws saying that what God says is good is evil and what God says is evil is good?”
I want to propose to you that we need to raise our understanding of God’s Word as well as bring an awareness of our responsibility as Christians who are living in and citizens of a democratically governed Nation. In case you were unaware, Democracy isn’t a human idea, as a matter of fact you can trace democracy and self governance back to the Old Testament in the way in which God initially setup the leadership of ancient Israel.
The Psalmist states “…the Heavens even the heavens belong to the Lord but the Earth he has given to mankind.” Psa 115:16; If you begin to study the Old Testament and realize that Self Government and Democracy is God’s idea, and you consider verses like this one from the psalmist you will begin to understand that God has an expectation upon His children to be responsible and involved in their own governance.
If every position of authority as Paul states in Romans is instituted by God and His expectation is that they represent His authority than one has to also conclude that He also has an expectation that they govern with His heart, His principles and in alignment with His laws.
I would like to suggest to us, that without the influence of His Church on the political realm in our Canadian democracy, that it is a complete impossibility to secure His goal and intention of having leaders who “represent Him” in our government.
This brings us to the point of action for every one of His sons and daughters. Because our system of government is setup as a democracy then we begin to understand that it is the people who choose who will lead them. Further to that I want to suggest to you that it is the people who choose whether the leaders that they choose will be ones that will capture God’s heart for those positions of leadership, which is to represent Him and His authority to those who are being governed or whether those leaders will represent another god.
If this truly is the case then the Church really has a great responsibility to engage with the mechanism of political leadership within our Nation to ensure that God’s ideas of Government are able to come forth. So that leaves us with the question, “what is my responsibility as a son or daughter of God?” Or in light of my previous article what does it look like for me to pick up my 5 smooth stones and go face the giant?
In the heart of Canadian Democracy the power of choosing government has been placed in the hands of the people, through participating in our respective political parties by taking out membership, involvement in your local riding association, attending party conventions where policies and governing platforms are created, running for political office and lastly by voting.
If the Church wants to see revival in Canada, the church needs to stop ONLY praying and needs to START taking the initiative when it comes to being involved in the mechanism of our democracy. The result if we don’t is that those who are appointed to government will begin to use the authority that God has given to those positions to punish evil doers to punish the sons and daughters of God for following his laws and values when an unrighteous government begins to define evil as good and good as evil. It’s time to “Take the Initiative and Do Your Part Church.”