Cal Thomas: The kingdom of God and politics of Earth

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, November 7th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming up next, WORLD commentator Cal Thomas considers the nature of God’s kingdom and what it means for governments and nations of the world, including our own.

CAL THOMAS: Perhaps the greatest church-state moment ever recorded was when Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate and Pilate asked him if he was a king…after all, he’d been called “King of the Jews.” Jesus replied, “yes, it is as you say, but my kingdom is not of this world.”

There is no way around that statement. It can’t be “yes, butted.” Jesus is king over a different kingdom. But scripture also says we are to pray for those in authority. It doesn’t make a distinction between the people you voted for and those you did not vote for.

Paul writes in Romans 13:1: “for all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.”

That’s another tough verse for many believers. What if someone is placed in authority who stands for things you don’t believe in? Again, it’s difficult to get around the word “all.”

Then there is the prophet Isaiah who wrote that God regards all nations as a drop in the bucket and less than nothing. Again, there is that word “all,” which must include the United States. Sobering, isn’t it?

When David was king over Israel, he wrote in Psalm 146: “do not put your trust in princes, in human beings who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the god of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God.”

Does that mean we shouldn’t vote? No, because we are temporary citizens of this country and we long to live in a nation at peace, with liberty, justice and economic prosperity for all. It does mean though, that we should keep the right perspective.

In 2016, a prominent evangelist said about Donald Trump’s victory: “God showed up.” I wondered what God was doing when democrats were elected?

We can’t try to fit the will of God into the will of man, for his purposes are higher than ours, and his ways are not our ways.

The first commandment should remind us that God demands we set no gods before him. Politics, for some, has become a kind of god. It’s a false god, because like those Canaanite idols the ancient Israelies worshiped, politics can’t solve our innermost problems, which are not economic and political, but moral and spiritual.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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