CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP

     By Clyde Autio
      MAJGEN USAFR

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16, KJV)

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)

Should citizenship be a primary topic for the ministry of the church?

Can a Christian ignore citizenship duties and fulfill the Great Commission?

The more I have studied and read about the Bible, the church, and the culture, the more I am convinced that Christian Citizenship should be at the very core of the preaching and ministry of the church and reflected in the lives of every member of the body of Christ. Merriam-Webster says the following about citizen and patriot:

citizen: 1: an inhabitant of a city or town 2: a person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to its protection - citizenship n

patriot: one who loves his or her country - patriotic adj - patriotically adv - patriotism

Random House is a little more expansive in their definition:

citizen: – 1. a native or nationalized member of a nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection. 2. an inhabitant of a city or town.

patriot: – a person who loves, supports and defends his or her country.

Most typically, when the words Christian, citizenship and patriot are used together, the conversation generally becomes very emotional, animated or antagonistic. Such a response can happen because the participants either do not want to have their lifestyle or culture controlled by some outside person or group’s religious beliefs, have their political views controlled by biblical standards or they do not want to become involved in earthly issues.

However, are we not all a citizen of some neighborhood, community, state and nation? Do we not all expect some form of services and protections from those entities? Should we expect to receive benefits from our citizenship if we are not willing to contribute to and preserve those entities? If we do contribute and assist in the preservation of those entities, what should be the measure of our performance in doing those duties? Does Christ ever tell us that our focus should be so much upon our heavenly home that we should neglect our earthly home and duties?

In fact, Christ repeatedly tells us that our community, citizenship, duties far exceed those who are not called by Him to eventually share living in His Father’s house. In Luke 10:29-37 Christ’s response to the lawyer’s question about who was his neighbor related the story of the Good Samaritan. Certainly, from this story it was Christ’s expectation that His people would always be prepared to reach out and provide for the needs of any person that happened to cross their path. And in Matthew 22:17-21 Christ instructed the crowd that they were to render unto Caesar that which was due him. Other passages from the epistles give us directions on how we should relate to the communities in which we live:

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: (Romans 13:1-3, KJV)

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared. (Titus 3:1-4, KJV )

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. (1 Peter 2:13-17, KJV)

As with many deliberations, the character and direction of the content is based upon the premise and presuppositions that establish the initial terms of reference. As an engineer, I tend to be more analytical and look for a variety of views to assist in gaining a better insight into the underlying goals and consequences of the issue at hand. In the case of citizenship and patriotism, I can find nothing that excludes Christians from those categories of responsibilities and much that tells me they should be absolutely the most active, and should strive to have an influential role. After all, shouldn’t they be about the care of that which their professed Father created? They love to walk about saying how the book they read is the source of all truth and contains the totality of the wisdom of the ages. They also have a tendency to let everyone know that their Father is so powerful He can move mountains, bring down kingdoms, raise up legions of angels to fulfill His will and establish governments that will serve His desires. Yet, those same people seem to be helpless about solving the problems that confront them and are willing to yield to those who know nothing of their great God to formulate the laws that will govern the land, be the executor of those laws and ultimately sit in the seats of judgment over them. Those same Christians will chafe under what they believe to be a corrupt and ungodly government that is creating wicked laws and meting out unjust justice and refuse to intercede in the governmental process for the purpose of bringing about changes that will yield just laws, honest enforcement and honorable justice.

Yes, God is absolutely sovereign and has sovereign purposes concerning each human being. His purposes for Clyde Autio, born in the United States in 1931 are different from his purposes for Ivan born in Russia in 1931, Chang born in China in 1931, Muhammad born in Iraq in 1931 or for Mukaila born in Uganda in 1931. Just by our country of birth we have radically different talents, potentials and responsibilities. Yet, before God we stand accountable for how we lived our lives in the location God placed us and how we used the talents He made available to us as we served Him by visiting the sick, feeding the starving, clothing the naked and giving a cool drink to the thirsty. Christ mentioned these attending tasks as being our expression for serving Him.

Clyde had the opportunity to participate in the determination of the nature and character of the government where he lived. He also had complete freedom to worship the god he chose and how he would like to witness about that god. In his country, he had excellent educational opportunities and virtually unlimited prospects to secure a financially secure future. He did not know anyone who was starving to death or had to live with the fear that adequate health services would not be available. None of the others mentioned above born in 1931 had all of those blessings. Clyde had complete freedom to choose how he would use not only the talents that were derived from his personal attributes but also the talents inherent to his culture, station in life and national resources. For Clyde, the fulfillment of the great commission and the obedience of being a good Samaritan had far greater implications than for his foreign contemporaries. Yet, with all of his affluence and freedom from fears, his relationship to God was none the better and too frequently not as good as was the relationship established by those same foreign counterparts. Why is that so? One answer might be that Clyde did not accept his citizenship duties with the same fervor as did Ivan, Chang, Muhammad or Mukaila.

It would seem that if the Bible is Truth, God is Sovereign and His principles for life are correct, we should be able to confirm the truth of the Bible in and from other sources. For example, the Bible speaks about our resurrected Saviour being the source of goodness, life, righteousness, love, joy, peace, gentleness, meekness, temperance and longsuffering. If that reference is true, we should be able to find evidence of those attributes in those people who are living their lives in accordance with the precepts given by the resurrected Lord. Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 15 that if there is no resurrected Christ all of our hope for the fruit of the spirit is vain because there is no god to fulfill an empty promise. Further, it would seem that the evidence one has of righteousness and holiness the more evident would be the resultant fruits of the spirit.

If God had not intended for us to have an impact on the world in which we live, why did He say that we should be salt and light? If He did not believe in the supremacy of His preferred lifestyle being evident in the church, why did He say the gates of hell could not prevail against it? In both of these cases, it seems that God has set forth a belief, if not a command, that His people were to live such that they would have a positive influence upon their surrounding world and that in any confrontation between His church and the powers and principalities of the Prince of the devils, His faithful church would prevail. But wait, is that happening, and if not why not? Are we able to make any kind of an analytical assessment of how effective God’s church is fulfilling its salt and light role and prevailing against the gates of hell?

By any of many measures, the impact of Christian principles on the American contemporary culture has significantly diminished over the past 228 years. One only has to quantify a few of those many measures to show that the church has lost the ability to control the marketplace of ideas, standards and conduct. Following are just a few of the current topics that provide a limited view of the 21st century cultural landscape that would not have been tolerated when America was founded:

The very open and public display of homosexuality with the advent of homosexual marriages.

The inability to persuade courts to either curb or control pornography.

The increasing frequency of successful court cases that deny the display of Christian symbols in public facilities.

The governmental protection of abortion as a means of birth control.

The high rate of divorces in both Christian and non-christian families.

The dismissal of prayer at public gatherings.

Both an entertainment and a news media that are openly hostile to values associated with either the Bible or traditional American standards.

Since these cultural indicators are more representative of the presence of sin than of righteousness, one must conclude that the church has voluntarily retreated from establishing and maintaining the cultural standards. Sin cannot overtake and displace righteousness. The dominance of sin can only occur because of the diminishment of righteousness. The initiative is always on the side of the source of energy. Dark cannot suppress light nor can cold suppress heat. Dark exists only in the absence of light and cold exists only in the absence of heat. Likewise sin can only exist in the absence of righteousness and God’s people are the custodians for righteousness.

What appears to have happened is that America’s pulpits have become too politically correct. The history of God’s chosen servants throughout the Bible and down to this day reveals that those who have been most faithful in presenting the gospel have also been the most persecuted or martyred. That was true of prophets in the Old Testament, Apostles in the New Testament and numerous saints in the last two thousand years. Their persecution was not so much for preaching the gospel as much as it was for directly confronting sin and sinners with a gospel message that condemned their lifestyle and bared their depraved souls. These ministries were confrontational, standing on their toes and going eye-ball to eye-ball.

Data storage has been both a blessing and a curse. It has allowed us to record all of Spurgeon’s notes, as well as thousands of other great sermons, but it has only allowed us to read and recite the words without the passion that gave the words life. Spurgeon’s greatness, as well as the other great pastors, was not just in the words but, more importantly, in his passion for lost souls that made those words leap from his tongue with a desire and passion to see the lost saved, the back-slider regained, and a flame lit in the cool-Christian.

Remembering Spurgeon’s words, getting Paul’s epistles doctrinally accurate and properly understanding the meaning of the law will not bring about revival nor keep a church warm. The pulpit has to come to the place where it believes that it has the only true answer to the problem of child abuse and not some lofty politician who knows nothing of God’s Word. The pulpit has to be prepared to take the lead in setting the standards for the culture and not relenting on the chastisement of sin and sinners for politically correct reasons. The church has to decide that it knows more about the educational requirements for children to have a long and full life and not a group of educrats that know nothing about the long term consequences of immorality and theories that have no scientific basis or factual content.

The church has to decide that the true fulfillment of its ministry is to challenge the body to be the exemplars of citizenship by removing pornography from their neighborhoods, relegating homosexuality to the debased lifestyle that it is, refusing to tolerate the continued murdering of infants in the womb, stamping out all forms of child abuse and bringing about a government that understands the intent and purpose of America’s founding fathers and documents. No longer should the church be content to sit by and waste the truth and wisdom God has placed in their hands to be the salt and light of the world by letting people ignorant of those truths and that wisdom dominate the cultural and governmental regimes.

God brought about a wonderful creation, put a being created in His image in charge, and provided his descendents with a perfect users manual on how to keep it going the way it was designed. And yet today that creation is in such disarray that it reminds us of the following story: Recently a man walked into a very expensive motor home agency. While he was looking at several of the many multi-thousand dollar motor homes, he noticed a large wrecker pulling in a unit that had been terribly smashed. With much curiosity, he inquired as to the reason for so much damage. The salesman told him that the owner had just purchased one of the most deluxe versions and started on a trip. Once he got onto the interstate he decided he was going to have something to eat. He then put the machine onto cruise-control and went back to fix himself a snack. You can imagine the rest. That is analogous to the Body of Christ, His salt and light, leaving the driver’s seat of the culture and letting those who know the least about truth, consequences and depravity free to determine the cultural values and standards.

One of the more noteworthy works of Samuel Miller, a Presbyterian clergyman, Princeton professor, author and a co-founder of the Presbyterian Princeton Theological Seminary, was his book, ‘Thoughts on Public Prayer.’ He revealed in that book that his pastoral duties included the oversight of education in his community. If today’s schools were under the oversight of pastors and Christians what would be the influence on the quality of the student’s education, their demeanor and citizenship standards? How many pastors and members of your churches do you know that are on local school boards? How many school boards does a Christian majority control? Why not? My 1992 public election race for the Xenia City School Board was successful because of the support of many fundamental Christians. It was not a pleasant race. I found that professors at Christian colleges, who also pastored churches, were not registered to vote; other Christians would not place my yard signs on their property because of the local teacher’s union opposition to my position on the method of teaching about morality issues; and the regional newspaper had identified me as a Christian that was not to be trusted.

A recent poll taken by George Barna’s Barna Group reveals that only 18% of the adults want the Ten Commandments removed from public buildings, 13% of the adults want to remove "In God We Trust" from our coinage, 15% of the adults want to remove "One Nation Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and 59% of the adults want to have creationism taught in the government schools. Yet, with increasing frequency we are hearing of courts directing that long standing Ten Commandment objects, and other Christian artifacts, be removed from public facilities. How can such judicial decisions be so out of step with the public? Can it be the result of Christians not fulfilling even their most basic citizenship duty of voting for right thinking officials? Charles Colson reported in BreakPoint, Number 040513 dated 13 May 2004, that only one-third of the Evangelicals would vote in 2004. Dr. James Dobson wrote in the Oct/Nov 2004 edition of Focus On The Family that only one-fourth of the Christians would vote. Can there be any clearer evidence that the church has failed to communicate to the body the importance of their civic duties? Has the body fulfilled the command from Moses to select good judges? Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. (Deuteronomy 16:18, KJV). Can the church escape God’s judgment for not obeying His warning to be watchmen for the nation? But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. (Ezekiel 33:6, KJV)

We do not serve God by serving God. We serve God by using His Truth, resources and blessings to heal the wounds and fulfill the needs of those He has placed around us. That means being the best citizen one can be by always having a burden to serve others and to save the lost.