Using Politics for Spiritual Illustrations: Political Science

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In this post, I will utilize the first illustration I will draw from politics as a metaphor for the Christian life. I’ll note here that none of the illustrations will be in any particular order; rather, each week, I will just use the political topic that I’ll feel like making an illustration of. That said, let’s begin this post!

For this post, the topic I will make an illustration of is political science! “Science,” though it has acquired (what is, in my opinion) unnecessary definitional baggage over the centuries, simply means “knowledge.” And “political” is the adjectival form of “politics,” which, as I defined it in the introductory post of this series, is governance and all things pertaining to governance. With this information in mind, political science is knowledge concerning governance and all things pertaining to it.

Now, with our topic, “political science,” defined, let’s see how it serves as a picture of the Christian life! A human heart is a country, wherein whatever rules is the god/king of the man. The god’s revelation, or king’s constitution, is the medium through which it exercises its reign over its realm. Think of this revelation/constitution as the man’s “bible.” The man’s bible (again, lowercase “b”), being the word of his god, is the source from which he seeks knowledge concerning how to govern his heart and life, or, in other words, political knowledge. So, in addition to the role of king, a man’s god fulfills another role in his heart: source of political knowledge and wisdom (the latter being differentiated as the application of the former). Of course, as the Christian/Bible-believer knows, there is only one true God, the God who has revealed Himself in the Bible, the 66 Books of the Old and New Testaments. Since the Biblical God is the only true God and all other gods are false gods, 1) only the God of the Bible has the right to sit on the thrones of the hearts of all men, His creations, and 2) only the Biblical God is the Source of genuine political knowledge. Indeed, saving conversion is withdrawing one’s trust from whatever has been governing his heart up until that point (repentance) and placing one’s trust instead on the Lord Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and King, as well as Savior (faith). Consequently, the convert to Christ no longer seeks political knowledge and wisdom from his former god[s], but from the one true God, who, by repentance and faith (as previously described), as his own God. That is, the Christian convert seeks knowledge and wisdom for governing his life from the Word of God, and God’s Word alone, untainted by the poisoned waters of unbiblical and extrabiblical teaching. This is how political science can be a picture of the Christian life!

There is a final note I must make here! The Bible is also the sole reliable Source of political knowledge and wisdom when it comes to politics in the ordinary sense we think about it, as applied to the governance of nation-states, as well as churches and families. While this series will not be about how God’s Word functions as the Source and Authority for political science in that sense, it is still a true and legitimate role of Scripture, the Law of the King of all things, which He has created!