Jesus Spoke to Cultural and Political Issues of His Day
R.C. Sproul on Christians and Politics, Part Four
“The minute a culture or a government claims independence from God, it becomes godless. It is the responsibility of the church to have a prophetic voice in the culture, to call sin ‘sin’ wherever it emerges in government or anywhere else in the public arena. There are many within the church who believe the church has no right to criticize the government. I couldn’t agree more profoundly, in light of the history of sacred Scripture. When King Ahab used his power to confiscate the private property of one of his subjects, Naboth, God sent Elijah the prophet to call that king to repent. Isaiah was commissioned by God to go to the palaces of antiquity and speak to king after king, calling them to repent of their godless practices. John the Baptist was beheaded because he dared to come into the public square and call the king to account for his illicit marriage. He paid for it with his life. Our Lord went into the temple, the place of rulers, and overturned the money changer’s tables. He called Herod a fox, and He spoke to cultural and political issues of His day. At the heart of the proclamation of Christ and of John the Baptist was the proclamation of a new kingdom, the kingdom of God, but we are told to be silent in the public arena. The Christian community is perhaps the last disenfranchised minority in our country today.”
R.C. Sproul, Acts: An Expositional Commentary (Sanford: Ligonier Ministries, 2019), 223.
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Christians and Politics: Biblical Insights from R.C. Sproul