Whatever biblical framework the Canadian church thought she had for addressing issues of church and state, it took a two-year cold bath to reveal the full extent of its disrepair. We thought we had a robust structure. It turns out what we actually had was simplistic, vague, and fraught with mistaken cultural assumptions. This came as a shock to many — after all we had our historic confessions, denominational systems, and sprawling libraries; we had our seminaries, “Gospel-centered” conferences, and periodicals.
In fact if you’d asked the average reformed seminary teacher in 2019 what the biggest danger facing the church was, few would likely have said anything about state encroachment. Most would probably have said liberalism.
The funny thing is, if we’d actually been on guard against liberalism, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now. The danger of liberalism isn’t that it smashes through the wall like a Kool-Aid man and starts tearing the place up; the danger is that it spreads like a cancer. Subtly, slowly, it works to cast doubt on the authority of Scripture over all areas of life: science, politics, education, health, and culture. From this perspective, we can see that liberalism has been at work in the church for many years, with the full extent of its corrosion only recently apparent in the almost total route of “orthodox” institutions.
It turns out there was a lot that affluence and the rise of impractical theology let us forget about — which is strange, since issues surrounding church and state have resurfaced at dependable increments throughout the history of the church. Decades ago, laser-eyed prophets such a Francis Schaeffer had repeatedly warned a complacent church about what happens when the immanence of God over all of life is abandoned.
We called them alarmists. And now we’re paying the price.
The First of Many Vessels
One of the many obstacles we face in coming to terms with a topic like this is the sheer breadth of it. Attempting to compile, understand, synthesize, and articulate the issues — while allowing due space cushion for nuance — soon feels like an Everestine task.
Nevertheless, our hope in the coming week is to attempt a cautious-but-steady advance towards base camp. And I use the word “towards” intentionally. Implicit here is the assumption that as we move forward, we will need to readjust, reshuffle, and improve things as we go. This is all as it should be. If Luther taught us anything (other than 500 ways to insult the papacy), it’s that you can’t reform something that doesn’t yet have a form.
What we are proposing is carving off that first lump of clay and starting somewhere. By God’s grace, maybe we’ll eventually end up with a collection of vessels that ordinary Christians can drink from. They might start out looking like ashtrays; but again, we need to start somewhere.
What Christians need to stop doing is pretending there are categories of thought that are exempt from captivity to Christ. The world is full of thoughts — fluttering around like manic, unhinged butterflies. Not a single one of these is off limits for Jesus’ collection. As Christians, and as stewards, we have the privilege of being his Lepidopterists.
It should be said that this series is not, at least not intentionally, directed to “THE INTERNET” at large. Rather, it is for a specific group of believers that make up a specific congregation. That being said, feel free to use and disseminate whatever material you find helpful here.
Some Dangers
Are there obstacles en route to such an end as ours? Sure. Three immediately come to mind:
The Beautiful Slough of Centuries
The good news is that Christians have addressed issues of church and state from a myriad of vantage points throughout the centuries. The hard (not bad) news is that this also means there’s now enough literature to fill the living room of a war-time bungalow. You would need several centuries just to compile a working biography alone.
Where does one start? Can’t we spend the next few decades shoring up the walls before jumping into the fray?
The problem is that the fray has already cleared the first floor and there’s now angry shouts coming from the stairway. In the words of a famous wizard — “They are coming.” Though I’m sure we would all agree that it’s better to be prepared, at times we’re called to respond even when the ducks we would have liked to be in a row are still doing half-pikes from the chandelier.
We array them as best we can with the time and resources we have.
Overeager Pitchforks
The other danger is that the consequences of doing theology badly can be dire. It is possible, through delusions of grandeur and the misuse of Scripture, to inflame a Münster Rebellion. It is also possible, entirely through not fault of your own, to start a Peasants’ War — some people are going burn down houses as soon as you teach them how to make fire.
And yet here we’re forced back to that old argument. The fact that misuse, misapplication, and misunderstanding are crouching, like lunatic arsonists, at the door of every difficult discussion doesn’t mean we get to avoid difficult discussions. It just means we have to give them less chaff to start fires with.
Above all, from the outset we must all commit ourselves to rugged, Berean rigor. And a fistful of brotherly love.
One-Size-Fits-None
The third danger is that the exact response to church/state issues must be worked out in every successive generation. There are no spandex solutions when it comes to application. We cannot simply reach back to the Huguenots, Geneva, or the Schmalkaldic League, and neatly apply their schemes to our own day. We can borrow lessons and principles — but we need to think very carefully about what we should take, and what we should leave behind.
In short, we must quit ourselves like men, commit to rigorous Bible study, read our history books, and having done all: to stand.
It won’t be easy. We’ve gotten too used to taking shortcuts to granny’s house. We’ve gotten too used to skipping around wildflower meadows instead of applying ourselves to the “Point A to Point B with as little nonsense as possible” strategy. We’ve assumed too much of our flabby play structures, and too little of how careful Biblical application can work to revive the mission and mandate of the church.
The good news is that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. The equipage we find in his word is sufficient to clad every Saint — from the feeblest to the most stalwart — for the battle at hand.
In Conclusion
We will all inevitably respond in some way to issues of church and state. We will run and hide up a tree. We will compromise where we shouldn’t. We will defend our negligence in the name of piety. We will throw open the door to the trifecta of arsonist lunatics.
Or we will respond on biblical principle.
The good news is that God is able and willing to bless even our blundering attempts for the good of his church and the praise of his glory.
So we start this discussion, and every discussion, where we start every step of obedience — by faith. We chop down that first gopher-wood tree, plane it down, nail it up, and seal it with tar.
One day this thing might even float.