Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Here are two questions I wish Christian citizens would learn to ask their public servants and political candidates. Then, listen to the answers.
A new believer who has been reading the Bible for a month could give the right answers. Politicians either cannot or will not, and what they do say will be highly instructive with regard to what they intend to do to you.
The first is, “What is the purpose of government?”
The Bible’s answer is that civil government is ordained by God to punish the bad guys and reward the good guys. (See Romans 13:1-7.) If you get an answer that involves proactive government initiatives aimed at doing the most good for the right people, be very afraid. And, hold onto your wallet.
Remember, government has no resources of its own. The only way it can give good things to one person is by first forcibly removing them from another person. This is a practice known as theft, and the fact that many people might vote in favor of it doesn’t change the morality of the action.
The second question to ask your public servant is, “Where do rights come from?”
Currently in America, we have lots of noisy groups demanding this and that, and that they receive whatever it is for free, because it’s their “right.” Is it? Who’s to know?
The signers of The Declaration of Independence affixed their names and thus pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the idea that rights come from the Creator.
Politicians are terrified of that answer. They have no better one, however, and if they did, they wouldn’t risk anything for it.
This is why the arguments about who has a right to what will continue, and will eventually come down to who has the power to enforce their own will. Historically, the scarier, more intimidating group always gets to say what rights it has. Funny how that works.
From a Scriptural standpoint, God gives certain rights to his creatures. We can see this primarily from his commandments. You have a right to life because God commands everyone not to kill you. (Exodus 20:13) You have a right to private property, and we know this because God outlaws stealing your stuff. (Exodus 20:15) No one has a right to lie to you, because God has told them not to bear false witness. (Exodus 20:16)
Recalling the first question, another way to state the purpose of government is to say that God has established it to protect the rights of its citizens. If our elected officials can’t even tell us for sure what rights we have, in what universe would it be logical (or even reasonable) to trust them to protect those rights?
Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at: