Why Christians must engage politics
The lordship of Christ over the public square, the Wilberforce precedent, and answering "just preach the gospel".
DRAFT — awaiting editorial review.
Christ is Lord of the public square too
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Kings and parliaments are commanded to “kiss the Son” (Psalm 2), and the civil magistrate is God’s servant for justice (Romans 13:1–4). There is no neutral square: every law enforces someone’s morality. The only question is whose.
“Just preach the gospel”
We hear this constantly, and half of it is right: the gospel is the power of God for salvation and nothing else is. But the objection proves too much. Nobody says “just preach the gospel” about laws against burglary, or child abuse, or modern slavery. Preaching the gospel and pleading the cause of the fatherless (Isaiah 1:17) are not alternatives; the prophets, John the Baptist (who lost his head for a political-moral rebuke), and the Lord Himself did both. A church that will not name the bloodshed of 299,000 children a year has not risen above politics; it has capitulated to it.
The precedent: Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect
British evangelicals have done this before. Wilberforce’s forty-year parliamentary war on the slave trade was explicitly Christian, explicitly political, and explicitly immediatist in its final form. The same generation built schools, reformed prisons, and preached the gospel — the “Great Change” in Wilberforce’s own life came first, and the politics flowed from it. We are not innovating; we are remembering.
Church and state, done biblically
The church as an institution wields word and sacrament, not the sword; the state wields the sword, not the keys. Distinguishing them is biblical. Divorcing the state from God’s moral law is not. We do not ask Parliament to enforce Christianity; we ask it to stop licensing the killing of innocent human beings — a duty every government owes under God whether it acknowledges Him or not (Genesis 9:6).
What this means for you
Vote, write, stand, speak — our Act section gives you the tools. But do it as a Christian: praying, truthful, unpurchasable, and more afraid of God than of any party whip.
Check yourself
3 questions on what you have just read. Answering is what makes it stick.
1How does the article answer "just preach the gospel"?
- By agreeing and dropping the political case
- By showing the objection proves too much — nobody says it about laws against burglary or child abuse — correct
- By denying the gospel is central
- By appealing to public opinion
Half the objection is right: the gospel is the power of God for salvation and nothing else is. But preaching the gospel and pleading the cause of the fatherless are not alternatives — the prophets, John the Baptist and the Lord Himself did both.
2What distinction does the article draw between church and state?
- The church wields the sword, the state the keys
- The church wields word and sacrament, not the sword; the state wields the sword, not the keys — correct
- Neither has authority over the other
- The state should enforce Christianity
Distinguishing them is biblical; divorcing the state from God’s moral law is not. Parliament is not asked to enforce Christianity, but to stop licensing the killing of innocent human beings.
3What precedent does the article appeal to?
- The Reformation
- Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect — correct
- The American civil rights movement
- The temperance movement
A forty-year parliamentary war on the slave trade that was explicitly Christian, explicitly political and finally immediatist. "We are not innovating; we are remembering."