[This is part 1 in a series on “False Dichotomies in Political Theology.” See part two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight]

Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

Whenever people accept a false dichotomy—a set of choices that are either false themselves or that do not exhaust all the available possibilities—the decisions they make about which road to go down will inevitably be a false one. They will frame one bad idea as the answer to another, all while this supposed solution is merely another error, often which excludes the only true choice! 

This is the case with those who seek to “Christianize” the kingdoms of the world. In their view, human civil government is an inescapable fixture of human society. The only question is whether it will be (1) a “Christian government” or (2) a “secular government.” It is said by these men that abandoning the politics is of the world is thus the equivalent of handing over a government that could be Christians to the pagans, secularists, and socialists of the world.

If you’re a professing Christian who is easily persuaded into accepting the false dilemmas of wolves and other foolish men, the (false) choice seems “obvious”: of course you want a “Christian” government. You’re a Christian, right? Why leave it in the hands of non-Christians? “Do you want ungodly men to rule you?”

The false dichotomy 

The problem is that this is a false dichotomy. The real divide is not between a “Christian” state or a “secular” one. Neither option actually exists. There is no such thing as a Christian government—save the Kingdom of God—and nor is there such thing as a “secular” government. Every system of human civil government is inherently religious, demanding a faith, loyalty, and allegiance that belongs to God alone. They all represent an alternative method (socialism) of meeting the needs of people than God’s Kingdom method of private, decentralized charity administered through a network of servant-ministers (the “church”) whose purpose is to feed the sheep of the families of God that are congregated for the express purpose of loving and serving one another.

This means that any Christian who supports the worldly-political methods of social organization by force is actually buying into another religion that is contrary to the pure religion and Way of Jesus Christ. Human government cannot be “Christian,” because it is altogether a different method of serving others through the covetous practices of legal charity by men who exercise authority over others, as opposed to the freewill offerings that fund the government of God.

Furthermore, this means that so-called atheists are not off the hook either: their “secular” state is simply another religion with its own false gods, gospels, promises of salvation, and methods of supplying goods and services to society. We see here just how much this implicates both the “Christians” who believe human government can be compatible with the Christian religion or the “atheists” who think they can remain non-religious.

The contradiction

No amount of trying to baptize Babylon with crosses and professions of faith and official state religions can change the fact that human government is fundamentally opposed to the government of God. Those “Christians” who partake in the statist practices of the world do not avoid this charge just because they profess to be men who have come to make human government “Christian.” The statist Christian—a contradiction if there ever was one—who imagines he is on a holy crusade to “make civil government Christian” has only succeeded in converting to a rival religion in statism itself. Worldly kingdoms do not become “Christian” when their officers wear cross pins on their lapels or slap Jesus-fish on humvees and tanks.

The immediate assumptions of this false dichotomy where either “godly” men or ungodly men are going to rule—take your pick and cast your ballot—are fallacious. All rulers are ungodly men. Christ’s disciples, by His clear command, are servants — not lords, kings, or politicians who exercise authority over others. They are people who reject the worldly political methods of organization society and believe instead in the perfect law of liberty. They are people who know it is sinful to raise up false gods in political office or to seek these positions ourselves. As God has always commanded, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). (It might be noted that not only are men putting other gods before the Lord when they vote men into the offices of worldly governments, but that state rulers themselves also demand exclusive allegiance and loyalty and want to be “before” God).

The issue is never that human civil government lacks “Christians” in its offices, as those who operate within the false dichotomy believe. It is that these systems are structurally opposed to the Kingdom of Christ, operating on force, taxation, and authoritarian decrees as opposed to voluntary association, freewill offerings, and mutual service to one another. It is not that there is one version of human government that is God-honoring while another is not. All States are antichrist, not just the ones that fail to take the Lord’s name in vain, which is the most that a human system of government could ever do. 

There a significant irony in this false “Christian vs. secular government” dilemma that you’re either for a “Christian” government or you support handing it over to pagans, socialists, and secularists. Its “Christian” proponents are asserting a classic false dilemma that “you’re either with us or against us,” ie., that you can either join the “Christian” nationalists or you’re not a Christian at all and believe in letting non-Christians take over. Jesus, however, gives us a true dichotomy: “Whoever is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30).

This means that, far from standing with Christ while they work to “Christianize” political power structures, these men who imagine they are Christians as they advocate for human government (as opposed to God’s Kingdom) are actually counted among His enemies. Anyone who does not have total allegiance to the Kingdom of is in opposition to it. Far from the “Christian” nationalists’ false distinction where anyone not participating in the politics of man is not serving Him, Jesus presents a dichotomy where everyone participating in man’s kingdoms is working against Him and scattering His flock. The false dichotomy presented by statists is contrary to Jesus’s dichotomy. Whereas Jesus says you’re for His Kingdom or against it, these men turn around and draw a line of their own: you’re either for a system of human government that draws crosses on its flags, or you’re handing the country to the pagans.

The idea of “reforming” human government 

We see how the presentation of a false dichotomy—in this case two entirely mythical choices—can lead men down a wicked path of sin or keep them on it. As long as people believe a truly “secular government” can exist or that there is a “godly” variant of this system, they can then believe that the only thing wrong with human government is that it’s merely “secular” and just needs to be made “godly” again (say, by installing the right “godly” men in power). On the other hand, self-described atheists can believe that everything is fine with human government so long as it remains “secular” and doesn’t get into any of that mythical/religious stuff like placing your faith in false gods (presidents) whose gospel (political promises) you believe is going to save you (bring freedom and prosperity) — oh wait!  

These false dichotomies, which always work to manipulate decision-making by obscuring other possibilities, leave the entire statist system unchallenged and merely propose a rebranding of these inherently ungodly institutions. Men are then driven into a futile and sinful attempt to reform an institution that is, by its very nature, set in opposition to God, rather than to abandon it entirely and seek first His Kingdom—not the political offices of man’s kingdoms—as our means of having all things added unto us (Matthew 6:33). They are led to believe that human government can be staffed by “Christian politicians” who will “advance Christianity” and that this is the only problem.

Statism as rebellion

The reality is that these worldly political systems are erected in direct rebellion against the rule of God and function as the primary evidence of man’s organized attempt to support rival kings and kingdoms against Jesus’s instruction that a man cannot serve two masters without abandoning his devotion and allegiance to one. Far from calling us to make human government “serve God” again, God saw the mere quest for human rulers and said “they have rejected me from being king over them” (Samuel 8:7). Before they ever even had a chance to supposedly deviate from the law and order role that God supposedly ordained these men for, God said the people were rebelling against Him as their King. He did not even need to wait to see what these men would do for society; the prophesying of their plunder and destruction came up front (Sam 8:11-17). He did not need to wait to say that they had gone astray from their “true purpose” of preserving law and justice in society, as if this was the only issue with human government: whether it would keep God’s Law or go “secular.” He said, up front, that these men would pervert His Law and that it would be so as a judgment for turning to human rulers rather than the Lord their God.

It is no light matter that professing Christian men today tell us that human government can be reformed and made “godly” with the right people in power or the right laws. The statist mission of raising up systems of human government and supporting them once they’re raised has always been what sin and rebellion are all about. Setting up kings, presidents, congressmen, and other politicians in political office has always been the characteristic way that men go behind God’s back and turn away from His call to make the Lord their only God. “They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not” (Hosea 8:4).

The contradiction of a “godly ruler”

These people think the only real flaw with human government—setting aside the fact that it is erected in opposition to the order of God’s Kingdom—is that it simply lacks enough “Christian rulers” who could seize the thrones of human government and “fix it from within.” Yet the very idea of a “Christian politician” is a contradiction in terms, as Jesus Himself made plain when He contrasted the authoritarian rulers of the world with the way of His disciples: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Yet it will not be so among you” (Mark 10:42–45). Christians serve one another, not rule over their fellow man as the lords of the people of the world do. 

Human rulers can only at best take God’s name in vain by clothing an inherently coercive system in pseudo-Christian language, which is actually worse than the pagan statists who make no pretense of being godly men at all as they rather consistently and non-hypocritically support worldly systems of human rule in their estrangement from God. Without abandoning human government itself, which can never be an instrument of furthering the Kingdom of God, the “best” one can get out of this is authoritarians who take the Lord’s name in vain. 

This is all that many “Christian” nationalists and other statists who profess to be Christians really want: to preserve the same authoritarian system of human government—which by its very nature stands opposed to the voluntary order of God’s Kingdom—while staffing it with men who merely profess to be Christians with their lips while contradicting it with their actions. Since they maintain the statist idea rather than part with it, all they’re really asking for is a confession of the lips, without actually seeking another Kingdom. This is why they are thrilled when members of presidential administrations mention the Lord, but aren’t concerned that they don’t abandon their posts and seek another Kingdom. They were only ever looking for the same old kingdoms of the world, only to be decorated in weak proof texts and theological rhetoric (or in the case of Joel Webbon and his reference to the “will to power,” Nietzschean philosophical themes will suffice too). 

The true dichotomy

The true dichotomy is not between a “Christian” State or a “secular” one, but rather between (1) human civil government which is always ungodly or (2) godly civil government which is never human. Unlike the false dichotomy where “Christians” and “atheists” are competing together to decide whether the fate of human government will be “godly” or “secular,” the true dichotomy is two distinctly different Kingdom models that men must decisively choose between, not which they should blend together. The true dichotomy is between (1) the kingdoms of the world that are never God’s means of social organization and (2) the Kingdom of God that has nothing to do with them (John 18:36). This line is never crossed. All human government is ungodly, and all truly “godly government” (to cautiously use that tainted word) stands sharply opposed to the authoritarian political systems that men have erected in their rebellion against the government of God, which is not statist at all. 

The true political dichotomy—the real choice that men must make—is not between a system of human civil government that is either “Christian” or not, but rather a choice between the Kingdom of God and all forms of human civil government, which are always ungodly. The true dichotomy is between anarcho-theocracy—where the Lord alone is King—and statist-theocracy, where men (whether false Christians or false atheists) play the role of gods.

This false dichotomy has largely dominated political-theological discourse though. The vast majority of professing Christians have never considered that statism contradicts their claims to Christianity, and the vast majority of atheists have not seen how they share a god in the State with these false Christians who they imagine themselves to be so different from. This has corrupted everyone’s understanding about the true choices we face between a Godly society which is always anti-statist or a statist society which is always anti-God. These false converts and false atheists have excluded both options entirely and frame our only political choices as “godless statism” or “godly statism.” In their view, the only real question is whether or not human government will be “Christian” or “pagan” — which is really only a question of whether the government of the devil will pretend to be a “Christian” institution or whether it won’t hide it.

Too many Christians fall into a trap of thinking that the choice is either “Christianizing” worldly-human governments or letting non-Christians take over them. But these systems are always inherently ungodly and contrary to godly civil government. They are always enemies of God’s Kingdom order. There is no such thing as “Christian” human civil government, nor “Christians” who occupy seats of power in the man-made kingdoms of the world. All statists are non-Christians and all true Christians are non-statists. There is no such thing “Christian rulers” who take over and reform the kingdoms of the world; this is exclusively the job of ungodly men. 

It is not that we need to make man’s government “Christian,” but that we must seek the Kingdom of God entirely outside these institutions. These are two separate kingdoms altogether, not one kingdom that simply needs “godly” men running it or will be taken over by “secularists.” All those who put their trust in human government are ungodly men who are already walking on the wicked path of sin — how much more so those who pursue seats of power! The idea that the problems of human government will be solved with the “right” and “godly” men in power runs contrary to all of scripture. These are men who have never read or never understood God’s warnings to “put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 146:3). They are men who never knew the voice of the Lord, saying that  “cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:4). 

The Kingdom of God vs. the kingdoms of man 

For men to reduce the issue to nothing more than who controls the man-made systems of government—whether “Christians” or “pagans”—instead of recognizing two distinct kingdoms that never overlap has been the central error. All the kingdoms of the world are pagan by nature; they are all raised up against God. There is no such thing as getting “Christians” in political office. Everyone who rules over his neighbor is a non-Christian per Jesus, while every true Christian is a servant or member of God’s Kingdom rather than a ruler. A pile of feces no more turns into a gold nugget by having a cross stabbed into it than human government becomes “Christian” simply because it is run by men who “go to church” or claim to know the Lord.

By and large, men have either failed to distinguish these two kingdoms at all, or they have relegated the Kingdom of God to a purely “heavenly” realm that arrives only in the afterlife or at some point in the future, while treating the kingdoms of men as legitimate earthly tools that may be seized and used “in the meantime” to institute “God’s law.” This is the same sort of idea of “theonomists” and “Christian Reconstructionists” who don’t seek to abolish human civil government and seek the Kingdom of God in its place, but rather call to keep the worldly political structure and slap what they believe to be God’s law-order on top of it. 

The anti-worldly ways of God’s Kingdom

The lust for political power shows just how much all statists who claim to be Christians are divorced from the reality of the way that God operates, who blesses those who seek His Kingdom and curses those who seek man’s. Indeed, they completely fail to realize that they are under judgment for the very sins of statism that they are still trying to remedy through those same methods. Scripture and history tell us a different story than the worldly ambitions of men who think that controlling political power will provide them with the means needed to further their “Christian” goals. It was never necessary that men gain control of worldly governments to further the work of God, and always necessary that they didn’t do this if they wanted to further God’s Kingdom. The early Christians had their own literal Kingdom in the heart of the Roman Empire, and they never needed to vote for new Caesars or have a “Christian senator” in their corner in order for God to meet their needs and further the work of His budding Kingdom order. The early Christians began to thrive and grow with zero political power and were even persecuted by the State for their refusal to have anything to do with their systems of worldly power that, like God who wants to see Him and their only King, demand exclusive allegiance and loyalty. If God intended political dominion (ie., conquering the kingdoms of the world) to be a path for advancing His Kingdom, He would have told us directly to do so, the early Christians would have been on it, and Jesus himself would have been an example to this mission. Instead, Jesus turned down worldly kingship (John 6:15) and said that His Kingdom was not of this world.

Contrary to the “Christian” nationalists who pervert a few scriptures here and there to try and make a case for applying the dominion mandate to conquering human government—something God never instructed us to do—the Great Commission is carried out by preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and baptizing men into this Kingdom as co-laborers, not by electing politicians and passing laws. God’s Kingdom is furthered through gospel evangelism in the streets that agitates the masses out of their sleep and shows them they are living in sin (the first mode of abolitionism), and by forming a network of assistance and charity to bring them into (the second mode of abolitionism. It has nothing whatsoever to do with worldly politics, except to make them obsolete and abolish them. The early Christians never prayed to false gods (emperors) to save them or asked for “better” rulers; they busied themselves about the Kingdom-work of God outside of these statist institutions all while they persecuted them. The New Testament never once suggests that our mission includes reforming Roman law or seizing Caesar’s throne as a means to make society “Christian” and further the work of God on earth; this work was always done outside of these systems and in spite of them.

The idea that these systems just need to be reformed assumes, like every socialist has before in history, that man-made political systems are “neutral” and just need better operators — again, as if men of upstanding and Christian character seek to rule over others. The idea that liberation will come through voting or getting “Christian” men into office completely forgets the salvation of the Lord. These are the notions of men who have no faith in the power of God to save men from the kingdoms of the world, because they believe that these kingdoms are their source of salvation. They are men who have forgotten the Lord their God who brought His people out of Egypt and gave an exodus to those who began to seek His ways again and repent. They are men who don’t see that these things begin as soon as individuals and families begin congregating for the express purpose of furthering God’s Kingdom and ordering life by the Kingdom principles of the Lord. They are men who fail to see that Jesus was pointing to another way of life altogether than the kingdoms of the world, that He never taught us to go after them and reform them but said, rather, “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19). 

The sharp contrast of the two kingdoms 

The true picture of God’s Kingdom is a literal, earthly one that exists in direct contrast and enmity to the earthly (and worldly) kingdoms of man. It is not some purely afterlife or spiritual kingdom that permits us to participate in man’s kingdoms in the meantime while we’re waiting on God’s to drop from heaven, but rather a Kingdom we are to seek today, which grows opposite to the kingdoms of the world. There is no cause to delay this work or to work through the governments of the world as if we were given nothing else. Jesus has already called us to plant seeds, water them, and repent and seek to expand this Kingdom of His. God’s Kingdom is to be sought now and at the complete exclusion of man’s kingdoms. It is to be sought not merely as some otherworldly idea where “seeking the Kingdom of God” means looking to the heavens, but as a real, earthly way of ordering society in the here and now according to the principles of Christ. The Bible is not merely a “religious” text about saving our souls for heaven when we die; it is a civics textbook of anarchist political science that proclaims salvation from man’s kingdoms through Jesus Christ—our only King and Savior—who blesses on earth those who repent from man’s kingdoms and seek His.

There is all the difference in the world between the governments of this world and the government of God. The former runs on compulsory taxation, authoritarian rule, monopolistic control, and the centralization of power. The latter runs on freewill offerings, servant-ministers, and leaders freely appointed to distribute charity across a decentralized network of families gathered for mutual service.

It is this distinctive mark—freewill offerings or the voluntary tithes that families happily give to their servant-ministers who look after the flock—that sets God’s Kingdom model utterly apart from the kingdoms of the world that have their origins and subsistence rest on the theft of taxation that is enforced with the threat of the police baton. God’s Kingdom is instead based on voluntary and cheerful giving (2 Corinthians 9:7), not violent expropriation of property by ruling authorities. It is based on brothers serving brothers, not princes and kings ruling over their subjects. 

Any government that funds itself by compulsory taxation stands in direct opposition to the Kingdom God calls us to seek, no matter how loudly its rulers profess the name of the Lord. Any government that operates by ruling over other men rather than serving them is not the government of God, no matter how many “Christians” are in its offices. Indeed, this is the distinctive mark of a people who have rejected God as their King and have found themselves plundered as a result (1 Samuel 8:11-17). 

Godly civil government is not about reforming human civil government, but is another Kingdom model altogether. The problem with human government is not the character of its rulers but the model itself, which is never just reformed by getting “good men” into office. Good and godly men don’t rule over others and all those who do are not good and godly men. Human government must be abandoned altogether by those who genuinely seek a Christian political order, which is never accomplished through the “politics” of the world as we understand the term today (voting, running for office, or appealing to the rulers for favorable legislation). Rather, everyone who desires a godly society must repent from all service to and support of man’s kingdoms and seek the Kingdom of God instead. It has only been through a thinned-down and softened idea of sin—the same done with the concept of a gospel and salvation—that men have been able to think that repentance does not include repenting from the sin of statism and allegiance to worldly kings and kingdoms — the very thing Jesus meant when He said to repent and seek His Kingdom. 

God’s Kingdom as the only godly government

The true political dichotomy is between godly civil government and human civil government, not two supposedly different flavors of the latter. These two Kingdom models (man’s on one side, God’s on the other) do not overlap at all. We are not talking about a system of human government that somehow gets transformed into a “godly” one through voting, campaigning, or seizing office, but about an entirely different Kingdom that displaces and abolishes the other. We do not read about a day in Scripture where the systems of human government of man are remade in God’s image with enough “Christians” hurling themselves into worldly politics, but rather a social order where “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed” and which “shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end” (Daniel 2:44). We are not talking about “transforming” human government into godly government, but of a rival Kingdom that demolishes the old one and replaces it. 

The real political-theological dichotomy we face is not man-made kingdoms that are merely “Christian” or “secular” and depend on the men who occupy these seats of power, but the divine government of God versus the man-made kingdoms of the world. Every system of human government, no matter how much it presents itself as “Christian,” rests on the same ungodly foundation of taxation and force that is antithetical to God’s Kingdom model. These worldly kingdoms and the Kingdom of God are irreconcilable models that do not overlap an inch. They are entirely mutually exclusive. To seek one necessarily means to abandon the other — whether one is pursuing man’s at the expense of God’s or God’s at the expense of man’s. Choose ye this day which one you will serve.

These two kingdoms—the godly and the human—cannot be anymore different and set apart from each other. One runs on freewill offerings of godly families that are voluntarily joined together in an adhocratic network of servant ministers who comprise the “government” of God but who do not exercise authority over the men they serve. The other is based on compulsory taxation over people who are plundered in a centralized system of human rulers who enforce their legal decrees with violence against anyone who dares to seek another way. One is not of the world and its system at all. The other is the very essence of what Scripture calls “the world,” ie., the statist systems of Babylon, Egypt, Rome, and America that have always been raised up against God’s Kingdom order. (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines world as “an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order”). 

The Kingdom model of God is not a matter of rebranding Babylon and having “Christians” become the tax-collectors who exercise authority and pass legislation and “promote Christianity,” but of doing things another way entirely. God’s Kingdom order doesn’t have presidents, politicians, police, soldiers, prisons, tax-collectors, or any of the other evils funded through taxation at all; it has elders of families who give what they want to servant-ministers because they love their neighbors and want to sustain a society on charity and love rather than taxation and force. 

The false dichotomy of our choices being limited to having a “Christian” state or a “secular” one conveniently erases the Kingdom of God from the board (whether ignorantly or by design), so that a choice in various brands of the same evil system of statism can be presented as the only conceivable way to order society. In this false dichotomy, men are able to imagine that human government can be turned “Christian” simply by installing the right men in office and passing the right laws — similarly to the tired old socialist fantasy that salvation through politics is always just one more election and one more “good” ruler away. They are men who are only reenacting the same sins of the Israelites who asked Samuel for a human king to save them and fight their battles; God’s people do things a different way. 

The myth of neutrality 

The basic idea behind the false dichotomy of a “Christian” vs. “secular” system of human government is this institution is “neutral” and exists merely as a useful platform whose nature depends upon the operators — again, the same idea of communists that the only issue with the State is that it is currently a “capitalist state” and needs to be turned into a “socialist state.” 

Contrary to this false dichotomy that treats human government as morally “neutral” rather than intrinsically ungodly and evil, the true dichotomy—God’s distinct and separate Kingdom versus man’s always-sinful kingdoms—draws the sharp contrast between the two kingdoms that Jesus Himself drew: His Kingdom is not of this world, is not derived from it, and does not operate by its methods (John 18:36). Those who imagine that the United States—or any other man-made state—can be turned “Christian” through mass political participation, a few strategic elections, and some surface-level reforms are not merely mistaken; they are sinfully chasing the wrong kingdom altogether. Neutrality is a myth. Every system of human government is already a religious institution with its own forms of worship, praise, creeds, laws, welfare, sacraments, gospels, and temples. Both the false Christians and atheists are mistaken to think human government could be made to serve them without betraying God or without adopting gods and religion in the process. Neutrality is impossible: every society will have a god; the only question is whether that god is the Lord or the State.

The real choice that men face is not shaping-up a “neutral” institution and keeping it from being run by “secularists” or (if you’re an “atheist”) keeping it from being run by “Christians,” but between seeking God’s Kingdom or man’s kingdoms, period. All those who seek the latter are in the same camp, despite thinking of themselves as enemies working on opposite causes. They are both statists whose gods are men, despite one camp claiming their ruler-gods are “Christians” and the other claiming they are non-religious. 

Men must choose this day which one of these kingdoms they serve, not which form (Christian or secular) the kingdoms of man should be made into. They cannot do both. If you’re not building the Kingdom of God, you will be building a rival Kingdom. There is no such thing as a form of human civil government that is “Christian” or “secular.” This system is opposed to God no matter what it calls itself. It is not just a blank slate waiting to be shaped by either righteous or unrighteous men, by conservatives or socialists — whoever gets a hold of it first. All those who rule over their neighbor are unrighteous and evil men. 

Godly government as the only godly government 

The only “Christian government” (which many vainly pursue through worldly-political means) is godly civil government, in clear opposition to human civil government. To have a Christian government does not mean reforming the kingdoms of the world; it means abolishing them and seeking the Kingdom of God in their place. Human civil government cannot be “Christian” or act righteously. These systems always stand opposed to God’s Kingdom model—not merely because of the people who occupy their high offices, but as a fundamental matter of principle, regardless of who runs them. It is the political structure itself, based on taxation and violence, that is the rebellion; changing personnel only changes the face of the rebel from a messy-haired socialist to a well-groomed one who claims God. A so-called “Christian State” would still be one that demanded taxes under the threat of violence, still send out law enforcers to back its decrees at the barrel of a gun, and still claim a throne that belongs to Christ alone. It makes no difference at all that these men would claim to be Christians while plundering their neighbors for a living, as probably half of police officers in America do already.   

Those who imagine that the Egyptian-style systems of this world can be Christianized without abandoning their allegiance to the Lord and His Kingdom are just as deluded as the “atheists” who believe they can engage in these practices without embracing a religion themselves. Statism is a religion—and a thoroughly ungodly one at that (though, for clarification, we should add that it does have gods, just not the God of the Universe). It cannot be made Christian. There is no such thing as “Christian Pharaohs.” Egyptian thrones cannot be sanctified because the man who sits on it says he is a Christian. Those who pursue these systems are always men who run from God. They are the people from the Bible who God says “carry out a plan, but not mine…who set out to go down to Egypt without asking my direction” (Isaiah 30:1-2). They are people who stay behind in Egypt and hope it can be redeemed, rather than follow the pillar of cloud and fire to freedom. They are people who are tempted by the perceived peace and prosperity of the kingdoms of Pharaoh’s that keep them running back into their arms, rather than men ready to put their full faith in the providence of God. 

The real choice is between God’s Kingdom and man’s, not between some imagined “Christ-centered” version of human civil government (which is always a contradiction) and an openly ungodly one (which is simply what human government always is). The politics of this world are never the means by which the Kingdom of God advances. “Christians” who look to worldly political action as a way to bring in the Kingdom are just as idolatrous as the “atheists” who believe they have managed to reject all religion when they have merely embraced the religion of statism. They are arguably even worse than the “atheist statists.” For whereas the latter make no claims of God and worships the State openly, the false Christians claim the Lord’s name while doing it. Neither realize they’re engaged in a false religion, on the same team as one another, sharing a god in the State. The “Christian” who champions the statist method of furthering God’s Kingdom does not realize that every vote of theirs believed to be cast for “Kingdom progress” is really just a prayer offered up to false gods. They do not realize that seeking legislation in the place of preaching, evangelism, and gospel-agitatation of the community and its ability to regenerate hearts and change people, is replacing the gospel-means of social change with the political means of men. They do not realize that they are the very people of the world who the Lord specifically called us to be set apart from. 

There is no reason that one must turn to the statist methods of the world to further the Kingdom of God, which is not of it. The characteristic mark of a “worldly” person—a term that gets thrown around too loosely to refer to anyone who enjoys material pleasures or a good time—is best exemplified in the statist. The word for “world” in Scripture (kosmos) is not referring to the earth, but precisely to its political institutions. To be a friend with the world means to be a friend with Romes, Egypts, and Americas, which means that statists are the very enemies of God and His Kingdom spoken of in His word (James 4:4). 

Conclusion 

When Christians believe they must plunge into the kingdoms of this world—as voters, candidates, or activists—lest the whole apparatus fall into the hands of ungodly men (which is the only kind of ruler it ever produces), they are only giving into the ways of the world that stand opposed to the Lord. By believing in and supporting the system of human government at all, they are responsible for even creating the seats of power that men who hate them could occupy. If they truly wished to avoid being ruled by pagans, atheists, socialists, secularists, or any of the enemies they fear will seize power in their absence, they would do the one thing that actually works: repent of worldly politics entirely and seek God’s Kingdom to the complete exclusion of man’s.