Political Theology

Via Emmaus on the Road: Romans 13

/ davidsschrock

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Romans 13 (ESV)

Submission to the Authorities

13 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. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Fulfilling the Law Through Love

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Soli Deo Gloria!

To Whom Will You Give the Sword? Seven Moral Arguments for Donald Trump

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment

How should I vote for the glory of God?

That is a question that Christ Over All answered in a variety of ways in September of this year. And it serves as the background to this article, where I want to offer a more personal word regarding something that has changed in my own thinking over the last few years, and may help others thinking about their vote this week.

In 2016, when I was still under the sway of Russell Moore, I believed the Leftist media about how bad Donald Trump was, is, and will be. Though he promised to appoint conservative judges, I didn’t believe he had the track record to merit a vote. Likewise, as a 10 year student of Russell Moore at SBTS, and a ERLC research fellow, I largely accepted the line that Donald Trump was immoral, racist, misogynistic, you name it.

Fast forward to 2020, Donald Trump had kept his promise to appoint conservative judges.  Economically, until Covid, he had rebuilt the economy with benefits for working class families. And despite his unseemly (and often unwise) use of Twitter, he withstood endless assaults while seeking to put America first. For these reasons, and more, I voted for Donald Trump.

Following the same line of thinking that made Albert Mohler change his mind about Trump, I put my previous Never Trump interests aside, and voted for the business man from New York.

As Mohler framed it in his 2020 article, “In terms of presidential action, Donald Trump has been the most effective and consequential pro-life president of the modern age.” And this was before Roe v Wade was struck down!

Long story short, I shifted from Anti-Trump in 2016 to pro-Trump (with ongoing reservations) in 2020. Though Trump’s character (e.g., his marital record, his vulgar speech, and his Twitter discourse) continued to be a stumbling block, I voted for Trump in 2020 not based on his personal accolades but his political decisions and the promise of policies that would.

In 2024, I would vote for Trump for the same reasons. Yet, in 2024 I would also say that it has become apparent that the character of the man is not everything that it was made out to be by legacy media or evangelical pundits like David French and Russell Moore. And it is this moral dimension of Trump that impels me to write this reflection.

But first a word on voting itself. Continue reading →