If you want the advancement of the Gospel and the growth of the Church to get significantly smothered in your state or your city all you have to do is to let your state go blue. This is not my opinion. This is what the data shows. If you show me a map of the most progressive areas of our nation followed by showing me a map of the regions in our nation that have the fewest churches you’ll discover quickly that you’re looking at the same exact map.
What this teaches us is that a Red State that has a law order structure that reflects to one degree or another a Biblical ethic/morality will be a State whose law order is serving as a significant and powerful tool for for what we might call pre-evangelism. In such states the laws of the state are creating in people what might be called a “plausibility structure” that serves the purpose of creating a context wherein Christianity is intuitively understood — because of the law order context — to be the carrier of the good, the true, and the beautiful.
This should not be difficult to understand nor controversial. If a child is reared in a societal Sharia law-order context, then Islam is going to be the religion that the child is pushed towards. If a child is reared in a societal Talmudic law-order context, then Judaism is going to be the religion that the child is pushed toward. If a child is reared in a societal Marxist law-order context then Marxism is going to be the religion that most readily makes sense to the child. Finally, if a child is reared in a Christian societal law-order context then the Christian faith is going to be that religion that the child is going to be pre-evangelized by.
None of this is to say that a societal Christian law order will automatically make converts to Jesus Christ. It is only being said that a societal Christian law-order will saturate the citizenry in the parameters of a Christian world and life view thus resulting in the Gospel proclamation having a Christian societal context that will serve the end of making the Gospel more readily understood.
Now, there are dangers here to be sure. The chief danger in having a societal Christian law order is that the citizenry may well think that this cultural Christianity that is driving the societal Christian law order will be the very definition of being a Christian. It is possible that citizens dwelling in a society shaped by a Christian law order will be satisfied with their own righteousness resulting in the refusal to own their own personal rebellion against a Holy God. However, that rebels might continue to rebel is no reason to be opposed to the building of a societal Christian law order.
This leads us to suggest that if we are serious about the Great Commission we need to understand that part of what it means to “disciple the nations” is to not only to do the work of Evangelism but also it means to do the work of advocating for a societal Christian Law order that will reflect the beauty and justice of Christianity in the larger social order. This reflection of Christ in the Law order will itself have the effect of doing the work of pre-evangelism.
This explains, why I hate R2K so thoroughly because R2K is opposed to Christian clergy, as God’s spokesman in the pulpit, advocating for a societal Christian Law order. R2K insists that the clergy be silent about such issues, arguing instead that only Christian laymen can be involved in such advocacy as members of organizations that may well push for Christian laws in this or that area. The problem here though is that R2K will then allow that theoretically they could also have laymen who are members of their churches who belong to organizations that advocate for “Christian” Marxism. As another example R2K churches could have laymen in their churches who are members of organizations that advocate for the 2nd amendment and as well as those who advocate for stricter gun laws. All of these people could exist in one R2K congregation because the clergy never gives a “thus saith the Lord” from the pulpit on the issues that have been used as examples. R2K, by ignoring cultural issues promotes the de-Christianization of the social order.
So, the real live data is showing us that when political conservatism spreads more people become Christians and when political progressivism spreads more people become adamantly opposed to Christianity.
This really isn’t that difficult to understand since Christians have always understood that law has a tutorial role in shaping the way people think and act. Christians have always understood that the law has a didactic function. The legislating of laws, in marking out right and wrong, in any social order, also teach the citizenry what is good and evil. A nations Law-order, therefore, is a tuning-fork that will work to resonate in the citizenry to the end of fine-tuning their conscience(s).
A Biblical Law-order provides the opportunity for the citizenry to reverse engineer that Law-order and so arrive at the person who is the ultimate foundation of that Law-order – The Lord Jesus Christ. So, a Biblical Law-Order calibrates the mindset of the citizens of a nation by saturating that citizenry via its laws with a Christian content and context. By providing this plausibility paradigm pre-evangelism occurs.
Of course the opposite is true as well. If a conservatism that is anchored in Biblical principles pushes people towards the God of the Bible, then a Progressivism that is anchored in cultural Marxist principles pushes people away from the God of the Bible. The truth of this is seen in the people that our Government schools produce. Because our Government schools are built upon a Cultural Marxist paradigm students are inclined to hate the sound of Christianity.
Because there is no such thing as neutrality, as Christians we must either support Law-Order systems that are explicitly Christian are we will support Law-Order systems that are explicitly anti-Christ. We will either prime the pump of the conscience(s) of the people towards Christ or we will prime the pump of the consciencs(s) of the people towards anti-Christ.
That this same principle applies to not only questions surrounding Law-Order but other areas as well is readily seen. The way we educate, the Art we put forth, our family structures, etc. will either push people towards Christ or push people away from Christ. The whole cultural apparatus is pre-evangelism and either we pre-evangelize people towards Christ and His Gospel or we pre-evangelize people towards anti-Christ and that damnable anti-Gospel.
All of this begins to explain why evangelism cannot be solely individualist and atomistic. Evangelism does have to set forth to all men everywhere but evangelism also must be done as “discipling the nations.”