Jamin Bradley

When we get overwhelmed by politics, we often resign ourselves to making some kind of generic theological statement to deal with our anxiety. Because voting is a grey space, we resort to such platitudes to remove ourselves from any culpability we might feel for choosing our candidate. I’d like to address a few such platitudes here.

“God’s Not Surprised by Any of This”

God is not omniscient in the sense that he’s written everything exactly as it’s happening. God is omniscient in the sense that he sees all possible futures and knows all the possible ways things can go down. That being said, nothing is a surprise to God because he knows it all. But at the same time, we might be able to say that he could be surprised that we ended up taking one particular path forward over another. Such a dynamic makes sense of why God regretted making humanity after he saw what they did to the world before the flood and why he regretted making Saul a King after Saul turned his back on him. Could God conceive of these worse timelines? Yes. Did he create such timelines? No. The idea that God is not surprised is true and faulty at the same time. In many cases, this platitude gives us peace when we feel none. But in some cases, like politics, it’s an attempt to remove ourselves from responsibility.

God’s Still in Control

While God is omnipotent and no one is more powerful than him, he does not typically exert the fullness of his power over angelic beings or human beings. When God entrusts power to others, he does not typically take it away when they mess up. Rather, he usually delegates power and authority and then leaves the world in our hands. And because our hands are faulty, the world is not as it should be.

From start to finish, the Bible shows us what it’s like for Sin to rule over us. According to Psalm 82, the little-g-gods assigned to care for the nations of our world have turned against God. The Book of Revelation paints a picture in which politicians are like marionettes for these fallen gods. Nowhere in Revelation does John recommend we view politics as though God is in control of it. Yes, politicians can do good things for God, but Revelation depicts a cycle where the spiritual realm of politics repeatedly goes south. While God is not threatened by such situations, such threats are entirely real for us.

God Chooses Political Leaders

To combat John’s view, many will quote Paul’s words: “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.” There are a few things we should note about this statement: (1) People only quote it when their candidate gets elected. Otherwise, they say, “Not my president.” (2) Remember that the Paul who made this statement is the same Paul who got in trouble with the authorities and ended up in jail quite a bit. (3) Balance this statement with historical books of the Old Testament, where kings consistently deny God and kill his prophets. By and large, the kingdom of Israel was a complete disaster when it came to Godly politics, just like God warned it would be. “They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not,” the prophet Hosea cried out on God’s behalf.

With all of this in mind, we can recognize that Paul did not think that politics were perfect and Godly and that politicians were God’s chosen people. If we continue reading what Paul says, we realize that his focus is on justice. God has set up authorities to ensure that wrongdoing is stopped and rightdoing is carried out. This is Godly and right, and God requires such a dynamic lest the world fall into the chaos of the gods. But because authorities can be corrupted and not care about rightdoing, perfect obedience to them is not always the answer.

Recognizing Faulty Platitudes

Want a simple rule of thumb for recognizing bad political theology? Don’t make religious statements that would have approved of Hitler or belittled his impact. “God’s not surprised by any of this,” would have driven German Christians to inaction and tried to remove their culpability with what was happening around them. “God’s still in control,” would have done the same thing. “God chooses political leaders,” would have only made Hitler stronger and given Christians the space to join his movement (which they did). If your sweeping political statements can apply to Hitler, it’s time to stop making them. And that includes trying to biblically justify the actions of modern-day leaders like Trump by calling them a “modern-day Cyrus.”