With the 2024 presidential election still seven months away, political conversations are as heated as ever – including in the church. Dr. Tony Evans of Dallas' Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship and the Urban Alternative seeks to be a voice of reason.
In his book Kingdom Politics: Returning God to Government, Evans highlights the importance of seeing government from God's point of view and offers a biblical path through one of the most divisive issues of our time.
"All points of view should start with God's point of view," Evans shared during an interview on CBN's PrayerLink. Truth is God's view on any subject matter, and God has spoken endlessly in his word about politics. Of course, the most well-known passage is Romans 13 where God says that he is the author of civil government. Since he is the author of civil government, we ought to find out what he says about civil government to make sure that our definition, explanation, and application of civil government is consistent with his definition, application, and implementation of civil government."
The popular pastor also discussed his reason for tackling the contentious issue of U.S. politics.
"What motivated me was the chaos, confusion, and divisiveness that I was seeing among Christians where we were allowing the political landscape to inform our biblical worldview rather than our biblical worldview informing the political landscape. And whenever you see the church of Jesus Christ being divided, you have exited God from the environment. And what Christians don't understand is that our discourse has marginalized God because it has divided God's people and God will always exit illegitimate division," Evans said.
***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters and download the CBN News app to ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***
He also offered advice for talking to people with whom we disagree politically.
"Believers should always speak with grace," said Evans. "We should always speak with a spirit of love without compromising truth. But we always start with truth because that's God's perspective. We want to make biblical points, which should always be done with the spirit of humility, grace, and love."
It is a love, said Evans, that is not partial to one political side or the other.
"God is not a Democrat or a Republican. He doesn't ride the backs of donkeys or elephants. So, he is the consummate independent."
Evans stresses how Americans vote is often tied to issues from their own lives.
"If we were back in slavery and there were two candidates running for office and one was for abortion, but against slavery, and the other one was for slavery and against abortion, if you're a slave you may be against abortion but you're going to vote for the one who's against slavery because that is your situation in life," Evans explained. "People's situation in life will affect what they prioritize and what they prioritize will determine how they vote."
Listen and subscribe to CBN’s newest podcast, DC Debrief with John Stolnis:
A priority that he cautions should not be placed above one's Christian faith.
"When you look to politics as a solution, you have idolized that institution above the God that created it. And so, we, unfortunately, today we have Democratic and Republican Christians who are political idolaters."
These are all reasons that he points to a spiritual solution.
"What we're experiencing now in our culture is what I call the passive wrath of God. What we are seeing today is chaos. You can't solve what's wrong in our culture today by Air Force One. Second Chronicles 15, verse three to six says, 'There was chaos in the land for God troubled them with every kind of distress.' If God is your problem, it doesn't matter who you elect. If God is your problem, you better get that straight."
In the end, Evans says only one thing really matters.
"You should pray for local and national leaders that they will be influenced to make the right decisions," he said. "But prior to praying for them, we need to pray for us. If we are not getting right, if we are not unified, if we are not biblio-centric in our focus, if we are not applying consistently God's regulations, guidelines, and governances in where we live and the influence we have, that we can't expect the culture to change."
"To put it another way, until God can fix the church, he won't fix the nation," Evans said.
Did you know?
God is everywhere—even in the news. That’s why we view every news story through the lens of faith. We are committed to delivering quality independent Christian journalism you can trust. But it takes a lot of hard work, time, and money to do what we do. Help us continue to be a voice for truth in the media by supporting CBN News for as little as $1.
Support CBN News
