LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
REFLECTION ESSAY:
CHRISTIANITY AND THE STATE
THEO 650: D05
Public Theology
Submitted To
XXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXX XX, XXXX
This essay will focus on this week’s reading of McQuilkin and Copan chapters 29-32. We are
learning the differences between Christianity and State from a biblical and secular viewpoint.
Should Christianity and the state be separate, or can they co-exist?
Biblically Jesus told us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s, (ESV) We
read and know that God created all things including the government. The people cried out for
Kings and leaders and God gave them what they asked for so now we are under law and
legalism. We are to obey the laws but not to the extent of disobeying God. McQuilkin and Copan
quote Acts 5:29, which states “We must obey God rather than men.”1 We are as Christians called
to go into the world sharing the Gospel and leading the lost to Christ.
The government has the job of looking out for all people and they make decisions that will
keep them in office without obeying the laws of God. The state has its own agenda that does not
conform to the image of God. McQuilkin and Copan state, “But human government as a divine
ordinance is clearly affirmed in Scripture: “Let every person be subject to the governing
authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted
by God” (Rom 13:1 RSV).2 We know from Scripture that God created all things including the
government. God is the high authority and rules over everything. We are told that in the end
nations will rise against nations.
So, we should not be surprised when the leaders follow after the empowering desires of the
secularist over the religious rights of the Christians and the laws of God. As Christians, we are
being pushed aside and down by the evil of this world. We must stand up and lift the world to
God and pray that things change while at the same time knowing that things will only get worse.
1 Robert McQuilkin and Paul Copan, An Introduction to Biblical Ethics: Walking in the Way of Wisdom, 3rd ed.
(IVP, 2014), 561.
2 Ibid., 555.
Regardless of what is going on in this world, we are told that we are in this world but not to
conform to this world. We are to be salt and light to this world pushing back the darkness and
sharing the gospel by letting our lives and the light that is within us shine within the darkness.
McQuilkin and Copan paraphrase a quote from Scripture, “The church’s primary responsibility
involves proclaiming the good news of the gospel and making disciples (Mt 28:18-19). By God’s
grace, the church should seek out people in the kingdom of darkness to bring them into the
kingdom of light.” 3
The government and church can coexist, but the government should not be allowed to dictate
the laws that go against our religious freedoms. Recently the government has passed immoral
laws that go against God’s law. The government is enacting laws that mutilate and allow secular
societies to brainwash our children, going against our moral beliefs.
In many countries in order to evangelize and share the gospel we must go against government
authority and laws that forbid us to do this. In these cases, we are following God’s command and
not man’s laws. When it comes to saving a man’s soul and in general, we are to always follow
God’s laws as man’s laws man not coincided with God’s law. God gave man the choice to choose
right or wrong. We have a choice whether to follow the laws the government lays out for us. If
they are against God’s law, then we should not follow them. God did not order the government to
redefine marriage and family. God did not tell the government to allow laws that would mutilate
our children or to kill our unborn. The government, whether they believed it to be right or wrong,
went with the popular vote of the people that put them in office. They are not following after the
church but after what keeps them in the office. The government was set up to protect us and set
up laws to preserve order. In the Old Testament after years of crying and whining God gave us
judges, leaders, and kings. We are told to submit to the authority of our leaders that God has
placed over us, but not when it goes against God’s laws and the moral laws. We are part of this
world, but we are set apart. We should work with those in authority. But we have become a
society afraid of speaking out and preaching against these laws. We as Christians should stand
for our rights and not lie down and let the immoral overrule us. The song God is fighting for us
pushing back the darkness does not give us the right to lay down and take whatever is dished out
to us in order to keep our nonprofit status. McQuilkin and Copan state, “Topics of abortion, gay
marriage, sex trafficking, or helping the poor can easily be ignored in our pulpits. Too often
churches are cowed into silence by their non-profit status, which means not being politically
partisan.”4
God has been taken out of schools, out of our homes, and out of our families. We voted the
government servants in, and the government has pushed God out. No longer is there a separation
of church and state. Christianity and God are being pushed aside. The end is upon us, and we
know it will not get better. This gives us more cause to pray and share the gospel with the
unbeliever. Many people and nations are lost. They have been blinded by those within the
government and legalism of secular and other religions that do not follow Biblical moral laws
and beliefs. The government being wrong on certain issues does not give us the authority to rebel
and cause chaos.
We see all around us that things are getting worse. We were told about this in the Scriptures so
this should not surprise us. God wants us to live peacefully with all people and the government.
We are to respect our government. We are subject to the government leaders, but we are more
subject to the authority of God. God’s authority is above all. God alone is our high authority and
4 Ibid., 546.
ruler. The main thing is to serve God and to try to live a peaceful righteous life. Our main call is
to carry the gospel to the world.
Bibliography
McQuilkin, Robertson, and Paul Copan. An Introduction to Biblical Ethics; Walking in the Way
of Wisdom. 3rd ed. IVP Academic, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 2014.
