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THE POL I T I CAL ORDER
THE CHRISTIAN AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY
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starting point of the Christian’s understanding of the
political order is the belief in the radical monotheism of Judaic -
Christian faith. It is belief in the one God who is the Creator of the
ends of the earth, the present Ruler of the nations, and the active
Lord of history. As we have seen, He is a God who demands justice
and righteousness of men in their dealings one with another in tin-
social order at large—in economic affairs, in the exercise of the
authority of the king, in the dispensing of justice in the courts, am!
in the dealings of nations with each other. This conception of the
universality and righteousness of God was the great contribution oi
the Hebrew prophets of the eighth-to-the-sixth centuries before Christ
Amos (5:24) and Micah (6:8) perhaps expressed the divine demand
for justice in the life of the community most unforgettably, but Hosen
and the Isaiah of the Exile were at one with them in calling both
the individual Israelites and the nation as a whole to repentance ami
to a renewal in righteousness. Each prophet addressed his message
both to kings and to subjects, for each saw all men standing under
the divine judgment and the community as a whole as responsible to
the divine will.
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As we turn to the New Testament, we are impressed with
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different attitudes which we find reflected there in relation to the
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