5 ways God’s providence should impact how we approach politics

By Rob Schouten - Posted at Reformed Perspective:

God is in control.

It’s a simple enough truth, but if we understood it, really understood it, I think it would change the way we approach politics. So I want to look now at government through the lens of God’s providence.

God’s providence means that He governs and upholds his creation, all of it, from little rocks to whole galaxies, and plants and animals too. His providence also encompasses the flow of history and the decisions of individual human hearts. In short, God’s providence means that God rules, and that because He rules nothing comes about by chance. Nothing happens apart from God’s will. Nothing surprises God or ever presents God with an unsolvable problem. Nothing is every beyond his control. At some level, everything happens because God wants it to happen in fulfillment of his good and perfect plan.

That means when a nation is blessed with good government, we know this is by the will of God. Good governments don’t arise by chance. They don’t come from nowhere. Instead, they come to us a gift of God’s goodness and mercy. They are from the hand of the Lord.

At the same time, when a nation endures a period of poor government or when the Christian Church endures oppression at the hands of government, this, too, is from the hand of God. Also in such times, God is in charge. In all the adversity experienced by the Church, the Lord is still advancing his own good purpose to eventually unite all things under one Head, even Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:10).

So let’s consider now how working with the doctrine of God’s providence will have some blessed effects for those engaged as Christians in the work of politics.

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