Christians in Politics pt 2

Yet you criticize me for believing my view is correct?

 

Ultimately. But we did not consider it enough an issue to go to war.

 

Do you believe we are to become entangled in the affairs of the world?

 

Then where we should stand is abstaining from being a part of worldly powers. That is why I abstain from secular politics.

The early church did baptize those in government (as did the ECF's I quoted). They had no qualms about it. But when someone was baptized, when someone became a member of the Christian community, they were expected to end their involvement with worldly powers and to instead be a witness to the world.

So I do agree that Scripture is not silent about the sinner ending his or her position in regards to worldly powers. My point is that YOUR argument is one of silence. You have ignored my argument (and the early church's argument) based on Scripture (that we are called out from the World, that the World is hostile to the Kingdom, that the Worldly powers are enemies of Christ, that Christians who involve themselves in these powers are not fit for the Kingdom of God, that we are to refrain from being a part of the World system and instead are to be a light to those who remain in this system...etc.

All of those passages support the position of Christians from the time of the early church until the Roman Catholic Church. And I agree with their interpretation of those passages. I agree with how they applied those passages. Once someone is saved they are to live holy lives, lives set apart, lives not entangled with the World, while remaining in the world as a Light.

BUT you have offered absolutely no interpretation to the contrary. You just acted as if those passages did not exist. You have failed to provide even one example in Scripture to the contrary (you talked about how John the Baptist told Jewish people they were to act as they anticipated the Messiah, you talked about people who were in the world being saved....but that's it.

 

I am interpreting it to mean that the sinner once saved stops living in sin. Scripture teaches to "expel the wicked man". If a porn star is saved it is reasonable (and I believe expected) to require that he or she quit the industry prior to being baptized into the church. Peter baptized Cornelius. We do not know what the future held for the man. I think we all know the guy could not just quit. So there are considerations that have to be taken into account.

I see no reason a Christian could not serve in the military. This is not a political office. I do understand the concern regarding serving in combat.

 

Probably because I served n the Army for 23 years.

Origen's defence of Christianity (explaining why Christians do not vote or hold office) was 248 AD.

 

The world is the world. For centuries Christians were politically involved in Rome. How did that turn out?

We cannot bypass the gospel in order to save the world. We are not called to make the world a moral place but to be the body of Christ calling for men to come out of the world, to repent and believe, to be re-born, to die to the workd

You asked before if it can be both - the World and the Kingdom. It cannot.