Divine Science Part 2: Why Christians Should be Involved in Politics
Divine Science Part 2: Why Christians Should Be Involved in Politics- “Christianity is neither a scientific system, nor a philosophy, it has yet a world view of its own… ”
by Bill Lockwood
John Adams was not the only Founding Father to classify the realm of politics as “Divine Science.” Another signer of the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution, James Wilson, explains to the modern generation why it is that Christians should be interested in the political sphere.
“Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed these two sciences run into each other….All [laws], however, may be arranged into d=tow different classes. 1) Divine; 2) Human….But it should always be remembered that this law, natural or revealed, made for men or for nations, flows from the same Divine source: it is the law of God….Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that which is Divine.”
Wilson was of Scottish descent who attended universities in Glasgow, St. Andrews, and Edinburgh before immigrating to America at the age of 21. He studied law under John Dickinson, another signer of the Declaration of Independence. Wilson served as the original justice of the Supreme Court.
Religion and Law: Twin Sisters
It is clear from Wilson’s writing, that his view of Christianity and the Bible would be greatly shocked to hear modern-day Bible students opine that the doctrine of salvation has nothing to do with any view of man or government. Quite the opposite is the case. There are only two systems of laws. God-based or Man-based. A third alternative does not exist.
One has only to ask the question: Whence arises the rights of man? From God or man? Right to life, property and liberty do not stem from a human-oriented worldview wherein man alone determines what is right and what is wrong. Misguided are masses of Christians at this point which believe that religion and law are on two separate planes and never intersect.
From the vantage point of a God-centered worldview, Wilson notes: “All men are by nature equal and free. No one has a right to any authority over another without his consent. All lawful government is founded on the consent of those who are subject to it. Such consent was given with a view to ensure and to increase the happiness of the governed above what they could enjoy in an independent and unconnected state of nature. The consequence is that the happiness of the society is the first law of every government.”
If the above be true, it naturally follows that no governing authority has the right to remove the labor or property of one person and give it to another. On an individual basis, this is slavery. On a society basis, this is socialism. Both systems are built on beliefs that contradict both Divine and Natural Law.
The socialistic principles that govern much legislation today is as antagonistic to a God-centered worldview as is slavery. Just as well argue that the issue of slavery is off-limits Christian thinkers on the grounds that it is an “economic theory” of government and Christians should have nothing to do with economics. Socialism is nothing more than slavery at a civic level.
An Entire Worldview
All political systems flow logically from a particular worldview. The great theologian James Orr (1844-1913) when discussing the worldview of evolution, observed the following in his The Christian View of God and the World, “What now, it may be asked, has Christianity to do with theories, and questions, and speculations of this sort? [evolutionary concepts] As a doctrine of salvation, perhaps, not much, but in its logical presuppositions and consequences a great deal indeed.
Christianity, it is granted, is not a scientific system, though, if its views of the world be true, it must be reconcilable with all that is certain and established in the results of science…. Christianity is neither a scientific system, nor a philosophy, it has yet a world view of its own, to which it stands committed, alike by its fundamental postulate of a personal, holy, self-revealing God, and by its content as a religion of Redemption—which, therefore, necessarily brings it into comparison with [other] worldviews…” (p. 8).
Earlier he noted, “He who with his whole heart believes in Jesus as the Son of God is thereby committed to much else besides. He is committed to a view of God, to a view of man, to a view of sin, to a view of Redemption, to a view of the purpose of God in creation and history, to a view of human destiny, found only in Christianity” (p. 4).
Christianity is much more than a doctrine of the salvation of mankind. It is an all-encompassing conception of the world that includes a doctrine of mankind. Logical consequences proceed from it, including the nature of man and how he is to be governed. It incorporates an entire worldview that is entirely in contrast to philosophical opinions such as anarchism or economic theories of man’s development such as socialism, Nazism, communism, fascism or philosophical speculations such as the general theory of evolution posing as science.
With the same vigor a Christian must stir to oppose evolution or communistic philosophy or slavery is the same sturdiness which must withstand a socialistic system. Christians who shy from these tasks are not viewing it in a correct light.
Much of America’s current woes stem directly from either non-involvement by Christian people who have deserted the field to atheists, humanists and the like; or to the swallowing of the false doctrine which supposes that socialistic redistribution is somehow taught in the Bible. One has only to peruse the National Council of Churches website to witness how this lie has corroded pure biblical truth.