Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Sheet 542
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Sheet 542

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

Guidelines for
CRUCIAL ISSUES IN CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP

SECTION ONE
The Christian and Government

I. The Creator instituted government as a means
whereby He wills to preserve and order life in com-
munity among fallen men. It is an interim structure,
designed to direct and regulate the political relationships
among men during the interval between the Fall and the
Lord’s return. (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2: 13-17)

Il. The institution of government belongs to God’s
kingdom of power. Its symbol therefore is the sword
(Rom. 13:4). Its work is to be distinguished from that
of the church. (Cf. Mark 12:17 and Augsburg Confes-
sion, Art. XXVIII: “. .. the power of the church and the
civil power must not be confounded.”)

Ill. The institution of government was created to
uphold order and to provide justice. Our Scriptures
assign to it the twofold task of rewarding the good citi-
zen and punishing the evildoer. (Rom. 13:3-5; 1 Peter
2:15)

IV. The primary ingredient in the Christian’s atti-
tude toward government is expressed by the New Testa-
ment term “subordination” (Rom. 13:5; 1 Peter 2: 13-14).
This word signifies the responsibility of ranking one’s
own needs under those of others. Its practice in one’s
attitude toward government is a specific manifestation
of the general stance of Christians toward their fellow
men. (Cf. Eph. 5:21; Rom. 12:10; Phil. 2:3-4)

V. The opportunities for carrying out the responsi-
bilities of Christian citizenship vary according to the
strength of the church in a given society. (E.g., before
the publication of the Edict of Milan in A. D. 313, Chris-
tians were declared to be followers of a forbidden re-
ligion; accordingly they had very few opportunities to
influence the direction of government. Their situation
changed when Christianity became the official religion
of the Roman Empire. A current illustration might be
the difference between the position of the church in
India, where Christians constitute a minority, and its
opportunities in the United States, where Christianity
is a majority religion.)

VI. These opportunities also vary according to the
form of government under which Christians live (e.g.,
the difference between living in a totalitarian nation
and in a society that is reasonably open).

VII. Christian citizens have maximum opportunities
for service in an open society, which is here understood
to be that kind of nation whose citizens have some
meaningful control over their political destinies. Such
opportunities for service may be broken down into two
categories; those that confront individual Christians as
citizens and those which they undertake as members

of the church.
A. As individual citizens —
1. They share in the responsibility (cf. Jer. 29:7) of

5it

government, especially where it operates as a govern-
ment “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

2. They seek political office, pay taxes, and exercise
their right to vote as ways of manifesting their convic-
tion that government is the servant of God. (Cf. Augs-
burg Confession, Art. XVI, in extenso)

3. They participate in the life and work of voluntary
associations, such as service clubs, political parties, civic
improvement organizations, in the awareness that they
contribute to the preservation of an open society. For
the chief characteristic of such a society is to be found
in the influence of the work of such associations on the
direction taken in the exercise of political authority.

4. They help to shape the content and activity of the
“marketplace.” That is to say, they make known their
own views in community discussion and activity with a
view to influencing public opinion in such a way as to
reflect a concern for the application of moral principle
to political issues. They do so on the conviction that
only where the political climate is infused with ethical
standards can justice and freedom be preserved and
extended.

B. As members of a church body —

1. Christians engage in public prayer for govern-
ment. (Cf.1Tim. 2:1-2 and the General Prayers given
in The Lutheran Hymnal)

2. They contribute to the strengthening of the two
foundation principles of an open society: respect for the
individual citizen as a person and the limitation of politi-
cal power by means of various checks and balances. This
they do by —

a) teaching the specific content of the Moral Law
and so preventing the concept of a “higher law”
from becoming a mere abstraction;

b) alerting themselves and others to the role of the
“higher law” in the process of preserving and ex-
tending justice and freedom on the basis of the
moral principle;

c) sharpening consciences to respect law and so
strengthening the bases of civic order;

d) encouraging respect for persons in positions of
authority (Ex. 22:28; Acts 23:5);

e) furthering justice by serving as responsible critics
of the social order;

f) preserving the proper distinction between the
things of Caesar and those of God (Mark 12:17;
1 Peter 2:17);

g) reminding rulers that they are under God and
the Law and that they too must give an account
of their stewardship (Rom. 13:4-5);

h) reminding all men that governments belong to

those arrangements which will prevail only until
the return of our Lord and that therefore the
pursuit of justice and freedom is properly inter-