The Canadian House of Commons, after voting down a measure that would reaffirm marriage as “the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others,” voted for a measure adding sexual orientation to the country’s hate propaganda law.
Christianity Today noted, “While Christians of course oppose the promotion of hatred against anyone, including homosexuals, and abhor any calls for violence against gays, many Canadian Christians are worried that yesterday’s bill, C-250, limits their freedom to oppose homosexual behavior.”
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada said, “Bill C-250 has the potential to silence reasonable debate on issues like marriage and school curricula and restrict the legitimate expression of moral and religious views on sexual practices.”
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May we never find ourselves in that position, but I would not be surprised if we did. And this leads me in this message to say, Politics and religion may not mix, but biblical faith and human government must! If we are silent where God has spoken and lose that right, we will regret the day we did not speak.
Let’s look across the sacred texts and identity four biblical ideas that define the relationship between the believer and human government.
Dominion
The first word that defines the relationship between biblical faith and human government is dominion.
By dominion, I mean that which we find in Genesis 1:26-28: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26).
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
This dominion is to be exercised over creatures. Man is preeminent in the created order, and he is to exercise authority and governance and dominion over the earth.
However, we find that dominion is not just over creatures; for instance, look at 2 Corinthians 10:5.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:5).
