John the Baptist, Political Activism and Military Service

I ran across a post on a popular Dominionist satire page that used John the Baptist's confrontation of Herod as an illustration to shame what the author probably thinks is Two-Kingdom Theology. Such thinking seems to prevalent in Evangelical circles in general wherein it is taught that John's actions are a call to New Covenant Christians to engage in political activism or that John's injunctions to soldiers to be just and content is an endorsement of military service for Christians. Such readings show the importance of reading the Word of God in its context and its specific application. These are preconceived notions that are already widely held in the politically charged Christianity in the West, for which they turn to find Biblical justification, willing at times to ignore the covenantal context of Scripture.

The Dominion Mandate After the Fall and Noah

God's people do not have a command to take Dominion of the physical world and/or to mix with the heathen nations of this world to engage in temporal cultural experiments. This goes back to understanding the very purpose of the command to take Dominion. Its not restated because it is impossible for those who engage in the command to fulfil its original purpose in the present state of the world.

Christianity and Culture

Let us then like the Early Church and the Christians during the apostasy of Rome accept persecution, suffering and the reality that we will always be a remnant saved by grace (Rom 11:5) and not a conquering majority. Indeed the Apostle Paul has called us more than conquerors in our Lord (Rom 8:37). Yet our conquest and success is not visible in materialistic terms and would never be considered success by the standards of depraved man. The Apostle never asserts that our conquest lies in the establishment of a Christian State but posits that it lies in all the afflictions we face for being part of the Kingdom of God while living in a world filled with darkness. We are more than conquerors because the Light has already triumphed over the darkness. Christ is victor, we have no need to establish a Christian Country. The only Christian Country that ever will be has already been established, it is the Church, the Kingdom of God, with Jesus Christ as King.