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by Andrew Sandlin

The National Reform Association stands for the dominance of Christianity in a nation's political life. If Christ is de jure Lord of all things, it is the responsibility of Christians to make him de facto Lord of all things--including the state. It is a mistake, however, to assume that politics is the initial or primary sphere of Christian activity. To assume that it is, is to fall into the liberal lair of thinking that social change is implemented principally by political means.

Not surprisingly, when political liberals and other statists observe the activity of the NRA, Christian theocrats, Christian reconstructionists, and others dedicated to applying the Faith in the political sphere, they immediately assume that we are committed to a top-down, bureaucratic Christian politics, a surreptitious right-wing political coup. Nothing could be further from the truth. A top-down bureaucratic Christian politics is by definition not Christian. The Christian--that is to say, the biblical--approach is godly sanctification in the individual life, in the family, in the church, working its way outward to the wider society, including the state. Liberals are convinced that Christians involved in politics are dedicated to a Christian political coup because they are dedicated to a non-Christian political coup. In other words, since they are convinced that social change can be accomplished only by political means, they thereby assume that when Christians get involved in politics, they are committed principally to a politically coerced social revolution. Since liberals have abandoned hope in regeneration and in the power of the Holy Spirit in men's lives, they adopt the hope of revolution--social change by means of coercion. We see examples of this policy in China, Cuba, and the old Soviet Union. This notion of social change by revolution creates earthly dystopias.

Christians, by contrast, are committed to Christian civilization. As Christopher Dawson observes, Christian civilization naturally occurs when men live genuinely Christian lives:

The only true criterion of a Christian culture is the degree in which the social life is based on the Christian faith. However barbarous a society may be, however backward in the modern humanitarian sense, if its members possess a genuine Christian faith they will possess a Christian culture--and the more genuine the faith, the more Christian the culture.... [H]owever widely one separates the Word and the World, Christian faith and secular activity, Church and State, religion and business, one cannot separate faith from life or the life of the individual believer from the life of the community of which the individual is a member. Wherever there are Christians, there must be a Christian society, and if a Christian society endures long enough to develop social traditions and institutions, there will be a Christian culture and ultimately a Christian civilization.¹

An irreligious society is a contradiction of terms. What we usually mean by irreligious society is a society dominated by something other than a traditional religion--like Christianity. Modern American society is committed to the religion of secular humanism, which increasingly requires religious allegiance. A prime goal of a full-orbed Christianity (that is, legitimate Christianity) is to replace this secular humanist civilization with Christian civilization. It does this not by revolutionary political means, but by supernatural religious means. Biblical preaching, comprehensive evangelism, and covenantal obedience produce, by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, regenerate individuals who, with proper biblical teaching, begin to reorient their own lives, families, churches, and entire spheres of influence in terms of the Holy Scriptures. They create Christian culture first in the family, then in the church, then in vocations, and elsewhere. If we are committed to the view that Christ's kingdom will gradually advance in time and history and create a Godly Golden Era before Christ's Second Coming,² we will also believe that efforts of Christians to operate on an explicitly biblical basis in every area of life will eventually pervade the entire culture. Those embracing this hope need not rely on political coups and coercion--we can afford to wait.

This is a summary of the decentralized vision of Christian civilization that Christians should strive to establish. It begins by acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, submission to the Lordship of Christ, and reorientation to the Sacred Scriptures. It is not attained by a monolithic Christian bureaucracy (which is not Christian at all), but by Christians in their individual lives.

By this consistent work, Christians can reestablish Christian civilization.

Andrew Sandlin is an ordained minister and the president of the National Reform Association. He also serves as the executive director of the Chalcedon Foundation and editor of the Chalcedon Report and The Journal of Christian Reconstruction. He is the author of The Reign of the Righteous and A Postmillennial Primer.

Endnotes

1. Christopher Dawson, The Historic Reality of Christian Culture (London, 1960), 14, 32.

2. Andrew Sandlin, A Postmillennial Primer (Vallecito, CA, 1998).

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