Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Tim's avatar

Very much appreciate your recommendations, thank you!

Can I suggest an alternative to Wright and Bird? "Principalities, Powers, and Allegiances: Interpreting Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17, and Revelation 13 within a Deuteronomy 32 Worldview" by Will Ryan, Matt Mouzakis, Brian Zahnd.

The introduction by Zahnd is a masterpiece in the way it summarises how the kingdom of God interacts with earthly government (and you can read that for free in the sample on Amazon)

The key difference between Wright/Bird and Ryan/Mouzakis is the answer to the following question: can the principalities and powers be redeemed? So much turns on the answer to this question!

Wright thinks they can be. In fact, as an anglican bishop he has taken an oath of allegiance to the British Crown which would be a huge problem for him if that turns out to be an oath of allegiance to unredeemable hostile spiritual powers. He would have rendered to Ceasar what he should be giving solely to God: viz his allegiance.

Alas for Wright, Ryan/Mouzakis develop a compelling biblical line to demonstrate the the principalities and powers are implacably hostile to God and will be judged.

I'll quote a couple of experpts from Zahnd's introduction:

"If we look to the Early Church Fathers for guidance, we discover that the Ante-Nicene Fathers mostly had a shoulder-shrugging disinterest in the political machinations of the Roman Empire— it simply wasn’t the kingdom to which they had pledged their allegiance. They would pay their taxes and pray for the emperor and other political authorities as the New Testament exhorted them to do— perhaps regularly praying they would be granted reprieve from periodic persecutions— but they had no vision or aspiration for bishops becoming senators." (Wright was a member of the British House of Lords for the time he was Bishop of Durham)

"When the church aspires to harness political power for its own ends, it fails to realize that it is attempting to harness what Paul calls the rulers and authorities and cosmic powers of this present darkness for a redemptive end. Obviously this is a devil’s bargain that is fated for disaster. Modern Christians in particular often suffer from a stunning naiveté, not only regarding the corrupting nature of politics, but also regarding the reality of what Paul calls the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” that are associated with the principalities and powers that rule this fallen world. As John the Elder soberly observes, “the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.” When the church attempts to change the world through the apparatus of the state, it doesn’t so much change the world as it becomes the world— the fallen world in Christian guise. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, if you will."

Just before reading the Ryan/Mouzakis book, I posted something on my own substack about the impossibility of a christianised polity and the massive opportunity cost that arises when the church takes the "devil's bargain" to become an agent of political change in the world. You are most welcome to take a look. https://tsg3142.substack.com/p/the-victory-of-jesus-christ?r=14nco7

Expand full comment
Tyler Thompson, MD's avatar

Definitely take a look at the podcast “Truth Over Tribe” if you haven’t already! I think you would appreciate their backlog of episodes.

Expand full comment
2 more comments...

No posts