The Church's Political Ideology

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The church is the community of those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and, by that trust, love and follow Him, Jesus Christ being the One whom the Spirit of God, through the Bible (which is the Word of God), reveals Him to be. With this understanding, it is evident that the church is both Christians throughout the world and Christians as local congregations (and that's not to mention the believers in Christ who are already with Him in His presence). This view also clarifies that, though not all who claim to be Christians trust Jesus in their hearts, the authentic church, in the eyes of the Omniscient One, are those who, in their hearts, believe in Jesus Christ as Scripture reveals Him.

With the meaning of the church now established, it is time to establish the meaning of this article's title and subject: the political ideology of the church. A political ideology is "a certain set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large group that explains how society should work and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order" (source: https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Political_Science_and_Civics/Texas_Government_(Lumen)/04%3A_Political_Learning/4.02%3A_Political_Ideology). A sidenote: by "myths," I think this definition essentially means "narratives." So, to talk about the church's political ideology is to talk about its set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, narratives or symbols of its social movement, institution, class or group that explains how society should work and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order. With this definition, the church's political ideology, although it is one, has two senses, the first lesser and the second greater. The first sense is what earthly governments, which are ordained by God (Romans 13:1-7), are to be and how they should function in this current age. The second sense is what and how governance in general is to be and how it should function. I know this is abstract, but it is supposed to be, so it can function as an intellectual outline by which Christians can think through, work out, and flesh out the political ideology that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us in His Word.

May God use this article to make Christians Christian in their political thinking!