Column: Kingdom Politics—Returning God To Government: The Concept of Kingdom Politics

By Pastor Tony Evans (Part I)

Pastor Tony Evans, is founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas and president of The Urban Alternative, and former chaplain of the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Mavericks. He is the first African American to earn a doctoral degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and the first to publish a study Bible and whole-Bible commentary. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 US radio outlets and in more than 130 countries. He is the author of Kingdom Politics—Returning God to Government (Moody Publishers, 2022).

Intro: Politics And The Kingdom Agenda

You cannot read the Bible and ignore the political realm. The Bible is thick with politics. You have four books (1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles) that deal with the rule and reign of government leaders. Scripture is packed with political concerns including laws, statues, ordinances, kingdoms, empires courts, judges, kings, queens, taxes, and so much more.

God is active on virtually every page engaging in the political affairs of humanity for both blessing and judgment. You might say that the Bible is a political textbook since God is seen setting up nations, writing constitutions and by-laws. He both establishes governments and dismantles them. He places people in strategic political roles and removes other from their political perches.

Given this reality it is unfortunate that God and politics are far too often disconnected from each other as though connecting them too closely is anathema. The failure to protect God’s relationship to politics based on His Word has left individuals, political leaders, and nations void of the knowledge needed to govern society as the Creator intended.

It is time for believers to make a radical return to God’s Word as it relates to politics (and every other area for that matter). While we should do so with a respectful attitude, we must equally do so without apology.

Chapter 1: The Ruler Of The Nations

We have chaos on every continent and confusion in every nation. We have a global health pandemic, a racial pandemic, a spending pandemic, a debt pandemic, a military pandemic, and more wherever you look.

A Spiritual Pandemic

Beneath these pandemics though, lies the greatest pandemic of all. It’s a spiritual pandemic. The Bible makes it clear that everything physical and visible is preceded by that which is invisible and spiritual. If you want to correct the physical and the visible, you must identify and address the invisible and spiritual.

What you and I are seeing today in our broken culture is a society that has been progressively imitating deity. We are witnessing a culture that has sought to define itself for itself, and not under God. Decisions and allegiances are made based on what people think, feel, or say are no longer base do God’s solid Word. God rejects national and international covenants and alliances that leave Him out.

If God allowed humanity to become globally unified, independent of Him as God and ruler over all, the rebellion and damage that would take place would be enormous. The chaos on earth would be unstoppable due their sinful, anti-God global unity agenda. What we are witnessing today in America, and possibly even throughout the world is what it looks like when humanity gets together in order to rebel against God.

You and I have a decision to make in our land right now. We can either continue in the rebellious tend of our nation apart from God’s rule and His favor, or we can challenge our political leaders to return to God willingly and help bring healing to our land.

God’s goal is for an international theocracy under the lordship of Jesus Christ (Ps. 2:1-12; 1 Cor. 15:24-25). Until then, God will not allow unbelievers to form a world coalition independent of Him. Yet unfortunately, as we have seen, we have lost God as a nation and international community. We have lost the very connection we have to purpose, meaning, and progress. As a result, everything seems out of order. Everything seems challenging at best. Everything is off. It doesn’t make sense. The only way for us to experience redemption as a country and peace in our land is in returning to God. He is not far if we will just recognize His sovereign rule (Acts 17:27). 

God wants nations to un back to Him. He wants us to find Him. He wants us to turn from our wicked ways and acknowledge His rightful rule over our lives and societies. God Himself has created a divine disruption because He is giving us a chance for a divine reset. We had better take advantage of this opportunity to return to Him while we still have time so we can advance His kingdom agenda throughout the world. We do this by pursuing a relationship with Him that includes submitting to His ultimate rule. God has been and always will be the Ruler of the nations and He desires that all nations, languages, and people groups praise Him (Rev. 7:9, Ps. 2:10-12).

Chapter 2: The Link Between God And Government

In God’s kingdom, He has four covenantal relationships. These are:

1. Personal Covenant (where you pledge fidelity to Him as an individual)

2. Family Covenant (where a couple and family place themselves under His rule)

3. Church Covenant (where a body of believers declare loyalty and alignment to Him)

4. National Covenant (where a country pledges to exist as one nation under God)

In this last covenant, there would be an assumption that if the nation remained undivided, functioning as one, then it would similarly be filled with both liberty and justice for every citizen.

A covenant is a divinely created relational bond. It exists as an agreement between any of the above-mentioned entities and God. The benefit of this covenant is that those who align under God will be covered by God, because a covenant is designed to provide covering and social advancement (Deut. 29:9).

Civil government that is rightly related to God should mirror His trinitarian nature of unity and diversity. Within the Godhead, there is unity of purpose and authority but not sameness of function (i.e., the three branches of government). Governments should reflect this reality as a constitutional republic administered through its just and righteous representatives that consistently reflect biblical standards.

No matter how much you pray as a nation or how much you use God’s name or appeal to His mercy if God has been removed from how a government functions, the character of its leaders and the values of its citizens, those prayers will often go unanswered. Leaving God out of the equation also removes God’s intervention and blessing on the nation. God’s principals are  never to be separated from the overarching governance of a land.

According to Romans 13, the biblical role of civil government is to maintain a safe, just, righteous, and compassionately responsible environment for freedom to flourish. Biblical freedom can be defined as the unimpeded opportunity and responsibility to choose to righteously, justly, and legally pursue ones’ divinely created reason for being.

Keep in mind, the separation of church and state is not the same thing as the connection of God and government. The Bible already declares that the world is a theocracy. That is a given. We read in Psalm 22:28, ‘For the kingdom is the Lord’s and He rules over the nations.’

Unfortunately, in our effort to defend against organized religion and its potential governmental rule, we have also pushed God’s rightful rule, His universal theocracy, out the window. Yet whenever a society removes God and His influence form its midst, you wind up with a homocracy whereby mankind seeks to replace God in the name of government (i.,e., statism). If societies refuse to rule by God and His principles, then they will inevitably be ruled by men and civil staues that will seek to be God.

When we choose to leave God and the dominant perspectives of the nation, both the government and its citizens will be at risk. If you and I want to live in a country flourishing in the area of safety, justice, righteousness, and compassion, we will have to align ourselves under God Himself. The idea of government is to mirror, or reflect, the image of God for the well-being of a society.

Government is not only a political enterprise. Government is a sacred enterprise, because it was initiated by God. It is a spiritual enterprise.

Since government was established and created by God as part of His covenantal rule over His creation, and since He alone is the standard by which laws are right and wrong (James 4:12) what He says on any and every subject ought to be the highest concern of Congress.

When we formed our nation, we declared that we would operate as “one nation under God.” God alone declares what makes good laws and a good behavior and what is evil (Ezek. 44:24, Ezra 7:25-26). That’s what the Ten Commandments did. They sit the standard under which all would fall.

The Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 4:8 that nations become great when they follow God’s righteous laws. If we are going to invite in help and healing in our country we need to strive toward enacting and following God’s righteous laws.

Our problem today is that our people and our politicians have sought to usurp God’s rightful role as Potentate over our land. 

God must be included in government in order to have government function in the way God designed it to function. He must be included if a government is going to promote good and keep evil from proliferating Psalm 72:11 says, “And let all kings bow down before him, all nations serve him.”

(Editor’s Note: To participate in a 6-Session Bible Study by Pastor Tony Evans with videos go to: Kingdom Politics—Government from God’s Perspective published by Lifeway Press, 2024).

–Condensed by Michael Hernandez