So, How Did You Do?

Check Out the Correct Responses Below.

1. The U.S. Constitution is a secular document made to serve the needs of a secular nation.

1. FALSE. Contrary to common belief, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” That was said by John Adams, America’s second president and a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Learn more when you read Truth 1, “The Foundation of Government and Politics Is Religion.”

 

2. Governments should not legislate morality. Morality is a matter for people to decide as private individuals, not for governments to impose upon them.

1. FALSE. This view, endorsed by former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, and others, is at odds with the fact that all governments legislate morality all the time. Laws against theft, murder, drug use, and prostitution, to list just a few, all impose morality on the public. All law, like it or not, arises from a view of morality and is rooted in religious values. This is both unavoidable and indispensable. To quote John Adams once more: “It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.” Learn more when you read Truth 6, “All Governments Legislate Morality.”

 

3. The U.S. Constitution mandates a complete separation between church and state.

1. FALSE. The American Civil Liberties Union helped convince the U.S. Supreme Court that it does in 1947 but God and government have gone together in America since the Declaration of Independence and before. Historian David Barton reports, for example, that almost half of the signers of the Declaration (24 out of 56) held what today would be considered seminary or Bible school degrees. Learn more about the necessary link between God and government when you read Truth 1, “The Foundation of Government and Politics Is Religion.”

 

4. Pastors and churches are called by God to save souls, not to clean up the political life of the nation. We, as believers, have a much higher calling than to be involved in the messy, corrupt, and packed-with-compromise world of politics.

1. FALSE. All believers are called by Christ to preach the Gospel, but our responsibility does not end there. God told our first parents to “have dominion … over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). This “Cultural Mandate” from God does not divide the spiritual from the material. As a result, no area of life, including government and politics, is exempt from God’s command given in Genesis. Christians are called to exercise proper dominion in this arena just as much as in any other. Learn more when you read Truth 7, “Retreat or Rule: Neither Is an Option.”

 

5. The early church was entirely focused on spiritual concerns. Personal salvation and Christian growth, not the moral transformation of the surrounding Greek and Roman culture, was its sole concern.

1. FALSE. The early church transformed the ancient world. Christians worked to outlaw child exposure and abortion, both widespread in the ancient world. By introducing the principles of Scripture into civil government, they laid the foundation for the rule of law and the liberties we now enjoy. Learn more when you read Truth 2, “Christianity Makes the Best Foundation for Law and Politics.”

 

6. The key to harmonious and effective government is to leave questions about God and morality out of public deliberations. The machinery of government functions best when theology is kept separate from civics.

1. FALSE. Nazi, fascist, and communist regimes of the twentieth century, all of which rejected God and religious belief, have shown, again, that once religion is removed, a door opens into the abyss. The death toll from Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and their fellow communist henchmen is nearly 100 million people. Learn more when you read Truth 4, “Without God, Government Is a Fearful Master.”

 

7. God wants Christians to read the Bible, pray, witness, and attend church. He does not require them to take action to address the moral condition of the culture in which they live.

1. FALSE. Pietism, a purely “spiritual” Christianity, is both unbiblical and paves the way to cultural irrelevance. God told the nation of Judah not just to repent for personal sins but to “seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17). Likewise, he told Jewish exiles in Babylon to “seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace” (Jeremiah 29:7). The exiles were to seek the city’s peace or shalom—a Hebrew term also translated as “welfare.” Learn more when you read Truth 9, “God Holds His People Accountable for Their Civic Stewardship.”

 

8. When Christians speak out on moral and political matters, encourage others to vote, and even run for office, they come dangerously close to violating the separation of church and state and turning our nation into a theocracy in which government is used to impose belief in God.

1. FALSE. Christian civic involvement is not the first step on a slippery slope leading to the Inquisition. It is obedience to the command of Christ to be salt and light (Matthew 5:16). Christ’s followers are to bring the flavor of God’s grace and the healing and preserving power of His Word into every area of life—including the world of politics. Learn more when you read Truth 7, “Retreat or Rule: Neither Is an Option.”

 

9. The law prohibiting churches from getting involved in politics has a long tradition in American life and is grounded in the First Amendment’s requirement of complete separation between God and government.

1. FALSE. Tax law restrictions on political activity in churches date to 1954 and have nothing to do with the First Amendment. In fact, church free speech is a primary reason behind the First Amendment. The whole purpose of the First Amendment, according to American University Professor Daniel Dreisbach, was “to create an environment in which churchmen and moral spokesmen, in general, could speak out boldly without restraint or fear of retribution on matters of public morality.” Learn more when you read Truth 8, “Christians Have the Duty to Speak Truth to Power.”

 

10. The purpose of the Bible is to tell us how to get from here to heaven. It is not a “political handbook” and does not address civic or political questions.

1. FALSE. Actually, the Bible has a great to deal to say about politics. Its central figure is the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” and many of its lesser characters—Moses, Joshua, Samson, Deborah, David, Solomon, and Daniel—were all political leaders. The Bible gives us both the Mosaic legal code—a detailed set of civil laws designed for ancient Israel, but with clear applications for modern states—as well as a set of first principles to guide our thinking about civil government. Learn more when you read Truth 3, “The Bible Gives Guidance for Governments and Citizens.”

 

11. The leaders of the Protestant Reformation were opposed to the separation of church and state. They thought that the state should be used to require conformity to God’s laws.

1. FALSE. The Reformation rejected the idea that the power of cross and crown should be held in the same hands. As Martin Luther said, “The temporal lords want to rule the church, and, conversely, the theologians want to play the lord in the town hall. Under the papacy, mixing the two was considered ruling well, and it is still so considered. But in reality this is ruling very badly. . . .” Learn more when you read Truth 7, “Retreat or Rule: Neither Is an Option.”

 

12. America’s Founders understood that one cannot and should not use the principles of Christianity to build a nation. The Founders were rationalists who used reason, not holy writ, to forge a new nation.

1. FALSE. Most of the Founders were self-consciously Christian. Historian George Bancroft called John Calvin the “father of America” because of the widespread Colonial embrace of his ideas. And French observer of America, Alexander deTocqueville wrote in the 1830s: “It must never be forgotten that religion gave birth to Anglo-American society.” Learn more when you read Truth 5, “America Was Built by Biblically Literate Citizens.”

 

13. Ancient Greece and Rome bequeathed to the Western world not just a legacy of law and government, but a model of private moral character that has served Western civilization extraordinarily well over the past 2,000 years. To the Greeks and Romans we owe our liberties and our moral tradition.

1. FALSE. Christianity, with its belief in one God, biblical moral standards, and an unwavering respect for life, stood in sharp contrast to the ancient world. Child exposure, slavery, and blood sports marked the old, corrupt Roman culture in which Christianity arose. As Billy Graham wrote many years ago: “Christianity grew because its adherents were not silent . . . . They stormed against the evils of their day until the very foundations of decadent Rome began to crumble.” Learn more when you read Truth 2, “Christianity Makes the Best Foundation for Law and Government.”

 

14. The French Revolution is a powerful example of what can happen when the principles of reason, as opposed to the standards of Christianity, are applied to a nation.

1. TRUE! The short-lived French Revolution (1789-1799) was so thoroughgoing in its rejection of Christianity that it even established a new calendar without Sundays. During its infamous Reign of Terror, the streets of Paris flowed with blood and tens of thousands of people were guillotined. As Ernest Renan, a nineteenth century French agnostic, stated: “If Rationalism wishes to govern the world without regard to the religious needs of the soul, the experience of the French Revolution is there to teach us the consequences of such a blunder.” Learn more when you read Truth 1, “The Foundation of Government and Politics Is Religion.”