This is likely to step on some toes. Especially if you live in a southern state of the US or consider yourself a conservative Christian. Religion and politics are very much intertwined here.
Growing up in various churches, I was raised with certain amount of respect and awe for the government. While campaigns were off limits every other form of government was a part of even church services. Pledging, patriotic songs, pressure to vote and be a “responsible” citizen were common place topics even in sermons. Along with the citizenship expectations were the critiques of how poor of a job our government, legislature, judiciary and president was doing. It seems that Ronald Reagan got a somewhat free ride, but all others since have been fair game. Granted I was younger when Reagan was president so maybe I just missed some of the critique of him.
Honestly, I’ve always thought of myself as a good citizen. I voted based on the little information I had about candidates. I pledged and sang the patriotic songs. Doing those things gave me a supposedly “God given” right to be critical of the government. “You can’t criticize if you don’t participate.”
Of course, we all knew the government was only going to get worse. That is what the book of Revelation says isn’t it? That the government tyrannizes the world bringing about the end times. As a child in Southern Baptist and Independent Baptist churches I didn’t even know there were other ways of interpreting the book of Revelation. The idea of the “Left Behind” series was prevalent in the churches I was in.
It wasn’t until I begin to seriously question everything I had been taught in church that I looked at the “Christian Citizen” idea. What does the Lord require of us as citizens in relation to the government? That is quite interesting to study but it takes a lot of time and work. It also takes throwing out preconceived ideas.
However, books such as The Hunger Games can lead us off track of the appropriate Biblical response by playing with our emotions and directing our thinking to worldly responses to government. What is the theme in The Hunger Games concerning the government?
~ The government has all the power. The average man is powerless. There is no God that is Sovereign.
~ The government gets rich while the masses starve.
~ Government is bad–really bad. Ordinary folks are good but manipulated and driven to do bad things by desperation.
“The Capitol is hateful, and cruel, and distasteful, and obnoxious, and decadent, and icky . . . but not evil, as measured against any external standard. The Capitol is to be disliked because the Capitol is making people do things they would rather not be doing. But nowhere is there a simple refusal. There is a desire to have it all go away, but everybody participates with an appropriate amount of sullenness. ”
The story is told with enough detachment and distance that you feel like the participants really do have to cooperate. Resistance is futile . . .
…
in terms of helping Christian young people set their minds and hearts on that which is noble and right, we can’t even give it one star. We would have to assign, in this last category, one burnt out asteroid.
http://www.credenda.org/index.php/Reviews/christians-and-the-hunger-games.html
The government in The Hunger Games plays right into the concept of the government is “evil” and always abusing the citizens. The AntiChrist view of government. Satan is in control and seeks to destroy the people through the government. Man is just an abused pawn in the hands of big government. Man is forced to kill, cheat and steal in order to survive.
1 Corinthians 6:1 “Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?”
“Better to be wronged than to do wrong.” Thomas Watson
But how should we as believers look at the government? Is government the ultimate evil manipulated by Satan?
Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Government is instituted by God for our benefit. God has placed our government over us for our good.
1 Peter 3:13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
Yet The Hunger Games portrays the government as the source of all the evil. Government is not the enemy but is used by God for His purposes.
The other false view of government presented in The Hunger Games is that the right government and / or the overthrow of the bad will lead to saving the people from evil. Katniss is put forward as a savior of the people, the common ‘good’ people. She is the ‘political candidate’ that will turn things around and over throw the evil. Then of course with the right government in place everything will go well.
Neither view of the government is accurate. Government is not the AntiChrist nor the Messiah. Government is a tool of the Lord to fulfill His purposes either to punish the evil or to reward the good.
What is your view of government? Is it Biblical?
Tags: AntiChrist, Government, Savior, Sovereignty, The Hunger Games











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