Overview and review

1. Aliens & Strangers
or Culture Makers?

2. Public Theology:
“Careful, theological thinking about
why and how Christians should bear
witness in the public square. Included
here are questions about how a
believer personally relates to public
institutions, how Christians think about
the best way public order should be
constituted, how and to what extent a
Christian should strive to influence
public policy” John Bolt

3. What does God require and demand of
a society?
What should we expect to see in a
society in this current age?
What activities is the church as church
responsible for within society?

4. What does God require and demand of
a society?
What should we expect to see in a
society in this current age?
What activities is the church as church
responsible for within society?
Biblical passages? Theological
concepts? Life and ministry questions?

6. The argument in a nutshell:
“The Kingdome therefore of God, is a
reall, not a metaphoricall Kingdome.”
Thomas Hobbes

7. The argument in a nutshell:
“The Kingdome therefore of God, is a
reall, not a metaphoricall Kingdome.”
Thomas Hobbes
“Ultimately, the purpose of this book is
to understand the political nature of
the church.” (185)

8. The argument in a nutshell:
p22 “The primary claim of this book is that
the local church is… a political embassy.
Indeed the church is a kind of embassy, only
it represents a kingdom of even greater
political consequence to the nations and
their governors. And this embassy represents
a kingdom not from across geographical
space but from across eschatological time. In
other words, this book is concerned with the
biblical and theological question of what
constitutes a local church.”

9. The key question:
Who gives whom the authority to do what?
(153)

10. The context
“Generally we think of the public
square as the place for politics, while
the private domiciles of home and
church are reserved for religion… This is
the map I want to help throw out.” (13)

11. The context
“The public square is nothing more or
less than a battleground of gods. And
the church is a political institution
inhabited by citizens of heaven who
bear a distinctly political message:
Jesus is king.”
“The division between politics and
religion, I dare say, is an ideological
ploy.” (14)

12. The context
“Public conversation is ideologically
rigged. The secularist can bring his or
her god. I cannot bring mine because
his name starts with a capital letter and
I didn’t him up.”

13. The context
“To argue that ‘the conscience is
entitled to remain free’ is an over-
statement. It invests too much
authority in the individual. it presumes
too much about the rightness of the
consciences’ claim. And in the end it
will cave in on itself and undermine
true religion because it’s accountable to
nothing but the whims of whatever
ideologies rule the day.” 91

14. The key terms:
Politics: narrowly conceived refers to a
society’s governing institutions (which have
legitimate authority over a population)
broadly conceived refers to the sense in
which all of life is lived within the jurisdiction
of God’s comprehensive rule

15. The key terms:
Institutions “tell you how to act, and they
give you opportunities to act. They help
define relationships, giving them purpose
and direction.” (108)
marriage, the handshake, a B&B.
A political institution is one whose reach
extends to the whole populace, and is
recognised as having a legitimate right to
coercive force.

16. How is this helpful?

17. “Think of that phrase of Abraham
Kuyper overused by young preachers
and bloggers everywhere; ‘There is not
a square in the whole domain of our
human existence of which Christ, who
is Sovereign over all, does not cry
“Mine.””’ Such a statement rightly
affirms the universal nature of Christ’s
lordship, but it remains institutionally
underspecified.” (26)

18. The biblical covenants
“I will argue that (1) God rules over all humanity
after the fall as a king over subjects with the power
of the sword, requiring obedience and worship; (2)
that he uses covenants to enact and publicise that
rule; (3) that he specifically uses the common
covenants to command all people everywhere to
worship by acting as his image-bearing citizens; and
(4) that he specifically uses the special covenants to
create a people who will model true citizenship and
worship. They key lies in properly relating the
common covenants (the covenants with Adam and
Noah) and the special covenants (the Abrahamic,
Mosaic, Davidic, and new covenants.)” 180

19. The biblical covenants
1. Adam
Subjects created to be citizens
“Structurally, Adam was to represent, or image God.
Inwardly, he was to watch over the Garden since it
was where God dwelled, keeping it consecrated to
God and free of serpents. Outwardly, he was to work
the Garden and push back the borders of Eden”
(160)
“Humanity has been given the office of vice-regent
or priest-king for the sake of representing God’s own
rule throughout creation” (183)

20. The biblical covenants
2. Noah
Re-states the charge to humanity:
“Be fruitful and increase in number and fill
the earth.” Gen 9:1.

21. The biblical covenants
2. Noah
Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind. (Gen 9:6)
“These verses obligate all human beings, as a matter of
obedience to God, to ensure that a reckoning for
crimes against humans occurs. Humans in society must
do it because God obligates them to do it. Three times
in verse 5 God says “I will require it.” “By token of the
obligation, these verses also authorise a human to
stand in God’s stead: ‘by man’ shall this ‘reckoning’ be
enacted.” (187)

22. The biblical covenants
2. Noah
“The inevitable and unavoidable implication of these
two verses is that groups of people living in society
must form or support a government – an orderly set
of publically recognised institutional process – in
order to employ this God-given justice mechanism
justly.” (188)
cf. Bruce Waltke: Gen 9 is “the legislation that lays
the foundation for the government by the state”

23. The biblical covenants
2. Noah
“God lays down his bow of war here and promises to
not punish humanity presently for their wickedness
as he had done in the flood. But to ensure that social
chaos does not ensue, he licenses humans to protect
themselves against harm from one another with the
justice mechanism. what he specifically does not do
in this same moment is authorise humans to
prosecute crime (or sin) against him. There is no
authorisation to prosecute false worship, idolatry,
atheism and so forth, unless of course these ‘upward
crimes manifest themselves as crimes against
humans.” (198)

24. The biblical covenants
3. Abraham
“The Abrahamic covenant, in short, promises to
create a people, a people who will be God’s
treasured possession and who, by following in the
Lord’s ways of justice and righteousness, will embody
true citizenship and implement a true politics.
Through Abraham, the Adamic citizenship mandate
was to be put into effect. It was how God’s purposes
for Adam were to be fully realised.” (222)

25. The biblical covenants
3. Abraham
Gen 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be
fruitful and increase in number
Gen 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying
to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number
Gen 17:2,6 “I will make my covenant between me
and you and will greatly increase your numbers… I
will make you very fruitful”

26. The biblical covenants
3. Israel
“Since God elected Israel to be his model body politic, a priestly
kingdom whose citizens were consecrated to him, it is not surprising
that God’s law is articulated through the Mosaic covenant at a much
deeper and broader level than what the nations as a whole receive…
Nor is it surprising therefore that the Mosaic covenant would draw a
different jurisdictional line than was drawn by the Noahic covenant,
which authorised governments to bring the weight of the sword only
for crimes against humans and not for crimes against God. The
Mosaic covenant contains provisions for crimes exclusively against
God, like idolatry, precisely because this nation was to be set apart
as a nation of God’s assenting citizens – his ruled rulers. God’s
comprehensive rule was to be demonstrated not at the end of
history, when it will become manifest over all the nations at the final
judgment, but in the life of Israel now.”

27. The biblical covenants
3. Israel

28. The biblical covenants
3. Israel
“Those who possess authority under the common
covenants do indeed represent God’s authority but
they represent him like a delegate might. God has
charged with fulfilling a certain function, and they
will be judged according to whether or not they
maintain his standards. But God does not attach his
own name to every prince in quite the same way as
he does with the people of Israel (and, as we will
see, with the church.)” (227)

29. The biblical covenants
4. David
“The occupant of David’s throne was
expected to preeminently embody the values
of Sinai, thereby reflecting the kingship of
God as God’s preeminent citizen, deputy,
vice-regent, son.” (227)

30. The biblical covenants
5. Prophets

31. The biblical covenants
5. Prophets
“The new covenant establishes a model body
politic – a nation of righteous citizens – for
God by solving the self-enthronement and
self-justification problems, as well as the
objective justice problem.”

32. The biblical covenants
5. Prophets
“moving from the Mosaic to the new covenant, then,
is not about moving from corporate to individual,
from obedience-required to no-obedience required,
or from political to spiritual. It is about moving from
a political life dependent on their own strength to a
political life dependent on God’s Spirit: from
‘Circumcise your heart so that you obey’ (Deut
10:16) to ‘God will circumcise your heart so that you
obey’ (Deut 30:6)” (253)

33. The biblical covenants
5. Prophets
“Any system that applies or imposes God’s
new covenant rule to any person or part of
creation that has not been regenerated or
renewed by God’s Spirit is theologically naïve
and potentially tyrannical…” (261).

34. Political Church in outline
or, 10 Marks of a Political Church…

35. Political Church in outline
The church “is not the kingdom; it is an
embassy of that kingdom. What is an
embassy” It is an institution that represents
one nation inside another nation.”
“It is not an embassy presenting another
nation across geographic space. It represents
another nation from across time – from the
future. The local church is an eschatological
embassy.” (296)

36. Political Church in outline

37. Political Church in outline
What does the church jointly have the
authority to do: “preach the gospel,
celebrate ordinances, make disciples,
exercise the keys, and so on.”
What does the church severally have
authority and commission to do: “obey
everything Jesus commanded, love one’s
neighbour, do good, seek justice, glorify God
in all of life and represent Jesus in all of this.”
(381-2)

38. Political Church in outline

39. Political Church in outline
“Jesus does not commission churches to wield the
sword and challenge governments directly. But he
does commission churches to challenge the idols and
false gods that prop up every government and
marketplace, whether the gods of the Roman Empire
or the gods of the secular West.”
Acts 19: 29: the whole city was in an uproar.
Acts 26:31: “This man is not doing anything that
deserves death or imprisonment.”

40. Political Church in outline

41. Political Church in outline
Three biblical grounds of religious tolerance:
1. The state is not authorised to prosecute false
religion or worship, at least until that false religion
yields demonstrable harm to human beings.
2. The new covenant life cannot be coerced, it can
only come about by God’s work and human
repentance.
3. It belongs to the institutional church, not the state,
to formally distinguish true from false doctrine and
true believers from false.

42. Political Church in outline

43. Political Church in outline
questions of clarification?

44. Political Church in review
1. strengths
2. my questions
3. breadths
4. your questions

45. Political Church in review
1. strengths

46. Political Church in review
1. strengths
“The Christian entering the public
square has no other standard of justice
and righteousness than a biblical one.”
268.

47. Political Church in review
1. strengths
“Fidelity to Christian Scripture requires
that Christians join Polycarp in
declaring that Christ is our sovereign.”
Nicholas Wolterstorff

48. Political Church in review
1. strengths

49. Political Church in review
1. strengths
“Changing the definition of marriage… is
not an exercise in human rights and
equality. It’s an exercise in de-
authorising the Judeo-Christian influence
in our society.” (spectator.com.au, 7
September 2017)

50. Political Church in review
1. strengths

51. Political Church in review
Creation Mandate + Great Commission
Fill and be fruitful + Go make disciples
or
Creation Mandate = Great Commission
Fill and be fruitful = Go make disciples

52. 3. My questions

53. 3. My questions
“The state’s work is to build a platform
of peace and order and protection for
God’s people so that churches can get
on with their business.” (15)

54. 3. Breadths

55. 3. Breadths
Size and shape of the state
“The state is not authorised to
prosecute false religion or worship, at
least until that false religion yields
demonstrable harm to human beings.”

56. 3. Breadths
1. What does God require and demand
of a society?
2. What should we expect to see in a
society in this current age?
3. What activities is the church as
church responsible for within society?
Ibid., 243.

57. Political church in review
“It may be true that ‘God isn’t content to save souls; God wants
to save bodies too, and that ‘God wants to save economic
systems and social structures too. But Jesus’ inauguration of
the new covenant portrayed in the gospel does not lift the
curse from creation other than in his miracles and in his
resurrected body. The complete removal awaits the
consummation of the eschaton. As such, saying that God is not
content to save only souls but wants bodies implies a symmetry
between the two that is eschatologically insensitive. The new
covenant, in this present era of redemption history, is very
much concerned with what a person does with soul and body –
the new self’s purposes and actions. But is does not remove the
curse from the old self or from humanity’s rule of the present
world. People die. Buildings collapse. Just laws are overturned.
The futility of Ecclesiastes remains in full effect.”

58. Political church in review
“This world is not our home”
Find some passages & make some
distinctions.

60. Wider issues:
Exiles and strangers?
“This world is not our home” discuss.
Gather texts and make some
distinctions.