A Call to Faithfulness for Magistrates and Citizens
“God, the Supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under him, over the people, for his own glory and the public good, and to this end hath armed them with the power of the sword, for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evil-doers.” - Westminster Confession of Faith, XXIII.1
I recently read James Baird’s 2025 book King of Kings: A Reformed Guide to Christian Government, published by Founders Press. Baird wrote the short book (less than 100 pages) as a summary overview to help Reformed Christians understand and embrace a traditional position which he himself had previously not understood but eventually came to embrace. As he recounts in the introduction, it was reading old works of theology that led him to change his perspective. Baird is not the first person to change his mind after reading old works, and hopefully many others will follow suit.
Baird puts forward the simple thesis that governments (i.e., civil magistrates) have a duty to support and promote the true religion, which is Christianity. In ten short chapters, he seeks to explain his terms and reasoning and show how this position is supported by the Bible and by the Reformed theological tradition. The book is “a straightforward argument for the classic Protestant view of the role of civil government in religion, particularly as that tradition developed around the time of the American founding” (p. 10). I believe Baird’s book can be a valuable primer for Reformed churches and classical schools.
Religion and the Public Good
Baird wants to make sure we understand what he means by public good: “It is a synonym for other phrases like the common good, the general interest of the community, public benefit, or the people’s welfare” (p. 5). If we understand the public good rightly, we can see that religion and piety toward the Divine are part of the public good. To assert that the public good is only material and temporal is to deny that man has a soul and is oriented toward communion with God. Instead, we should recognize that religion is an area of human life which the government cannot neglect or be indifferent towards, for religion and morality can either help or hinder the public welfare. Religion is part of the perfection of man’s nature, so it cannot be excluded from the concept of human flourishing which governments are to protect and promote.
Furthermore, we must understand that political power is a natural good, something good by nature which God created. To be sure, Adam’s Fall and the ubiquity of human evil now render political governments indispensably necessary to restrain evil, but hierarchy and rule are themselves ordained by God as good and natural antecedent to the Fall. In order to be virtuous, a man must govern himself according to reason. Right rule and hierarchy in human affairs are likewise necessary for human flourishing—even apart from the notion of human depravity. The presence of human corruption actually makes it more imperative that good men fulfill the vocation of civil government and thereby restrain evil and promote justice and truth.
Baird is clear that asserting the goodness of human nature in this world and the goodness of political power does not amount to idolizing them or diminishing spiritual realities. The eternal and spiritual realities are still greater, but we should avoid a kind of gnosticism (the appropriation of this term is mine, not Baird’s) whereby we treat the temporal and physical world as evil and insignificant while seeing the spiritual realm alone as truly worthy. This kind of gnosticism manifests today when some claim that the reality of an invisible church and spiritual salvation invalidates the natural goodness of nations, political regimes, political power, different natural vocations and hierarchies, or temporal existence in general. Baird explains the proper ordering of the natural and supernatural: “Political power is good because it is natural, and God made nature good, but the very best things in life aren’t natural. They’re supernatural” (p. 9). Thus, to assert that civil magistrates ought to serve God by their office is not to suggest that political power is the most important thing there is. Rather, if divine beatitude in the life to come is the most important thing, then the civil government should create and support conditions in which citizens are directed to the truth of divine revelation and salvation and simultaneously restrained from committing grave evils. As Baird argues in chapter 3, Christianity serves the public good because it makes men moral, teaches them their duties toward God and others, and orients them toward divine salvation in the life to come—even if the civil government cannot guarantee or accomplish their salvation.
Baird says that we must understand the “fundamentals” (chapter 2) of political theology. God is sovereign over all His creation, and He has ordained civil government for the good of man. Civil government is a vocation from God with attendant duties, which include enforcing justice and honoring God. How can civil magistrates truly fulfill their vocation if they do not honor God? This is not to say that, for example, cops cannot be effective unless they are Christians, or that all Christians will be good cops. Far from it! Rather, it is simply the argument that, just as every natural vocation is most fully complete when done with the knowledge of God and to the glory of God, so too with civil government. Being a Christian should make a man a better husband, a better father—and a better magistrate if that is one’s vocation. As Christians, we should want the salutary influence of Christianity to pervade every aspect of human life. While only God can ultimately convert sinners and sanctify believers, God uses human means. We should want our rulers and our fellow citizens to become Christians if possible, or to at least not be hostile to Christianity. As Baird explains in chapter 8, for civil government to promote the true religion is actually a way of loving our neighbor and our enemies because we want them to come to the truth and to be chastened from evil ways.
As ordained by God, civil government includes the powers of coercion and violence, for these are indispensable for ruling in a world corrupted by sin. In general, Christians should obey the civil government and seek to live peaceably, though many theologians in the Reformed tradition have long recognized the justifiable right to revolution in cases where the government egregiously violates justice. The topic of the right to revolution is far too big a question to examine in this essay—or in Baird’s book—but I simply want to assert that, as Baird affirms, many Reformed Christians have upheld the right to revolution and disobedience where justified. Ordinarily, civil government should be obeyed when it fulfills its proper function. Even if our magistrates are not Christians, we are to honor magistrates to the extent they fulfill the vocation and function of magistrates.
Baird argues his case from Scripture, citing biblical evidence for the claims he makes. The most important argument he makes here (especially in chapter 4)—and this point is consistent across the history of Reformed theologians—is that the magistrates’ duty to honor God by doing justice and upholding the true religion is consistent across both the Old and New Testaments. It was not merely or exclusively in Old Testament Israel that God intended magistrates to honor and obey God, even if the Mosaic juridical law was given particularly and exclusively to Old Testament Israel.
Baird also cites samplings from the tradition of Reformed theologians and writers to demonstrate the relative unanimity on this point across church history until quite recently. He cites notable theologians including John Calvin, John Owen, the Puritans, John Witherspoon, American founding era ministers, and the most important Reformed historical confessions. Baird’s position on the relation of church and state is essentially that found in the Westminster Confession of Faith, particularly its chapters XIX – XXXI. It is helpful to demonstrate this historical pedigree to counteract the critics who will claim that this argument is somehow novel, innovative, or dangerous for the church.
Promoting the True Religion?
What does Baird mean that the government should support and promote the true religion, which is Christianity? Baird explains: “By ‘promote’, I mean the activity of encouraging, supporting, advancing, or furthering the progress of something” (p. 3). Baird quickly qualifies this: “I remain relatively neutral on how officials should promote Christianity.” (p. 4) If civil government should support the Christian church, then one of the worst things magistrates could do would be to attack, persecute, or suppress faithful Christianity. To be clear, there are many kinds of unfaithful religion which might claim the name of Christ to justify unbiblical things; I am not speaking about this. I simply mean that civil governments should leave churches free to do their spiritual work and should not try to usurp the authorities Christ entrusted to His church, such as ordaining ministers, excommunication, administration of the sacraments, or preaching the Word.
Relying on the language of the principles of “general equity” (from WCF XIX.4), Baird explains what he believes it means for magistrates to follow God’s law in governing: “civil officials must rule with principle and prudence. In principle, they must follow the substance of God’s plan for government. They must uphold the ‘general equity’ of God’s law. In prudence, they must craft a wise strategy for how they follow God’s plan. They must work within their particular context and with their particular people” (p. 45). Lest we misunderstand, Baird does not want us to invoke “wisdom” while genuinely practicing cowardice: “Too often, people cite wisdom as an excuse to take no action because they’re concerned about stirring up the pot” (p. 77). Wisdom does not mean we can disregard God’s law, but we should make the most prudent judgments about how to follow and uphold God’s law in our real-world circumstances and contexts. Many political regimes will not honor God’s law, and we should always seek to determine how we as Christians can best uphold God’s law in the context in which we find ourselves. This requires prudence, which is the quality of making good judgments in action about how to do what is virtuous.
Baird further explains prudence in action: “As a result, we must not simply throw our support behind the most Christian-sounding candidate [e.g., an ardent Christian candidate who has no chance of winning nationally or state-wide]. Instead, we should support candidates and policies that will advance the cause of Christ with power, love, and prudence” (p. 80). The details and complexities of this must be fleshed out, which is far beyond the scope of what Baird can do in such a short work. Yet I think Baird’s main emphasis is that Christians should learn to think about politics as an arena for good works (Eph. 2:10). In the U.S.A. in 2025, we are far from being a “Christian nation” in the sense that every American citizen is a practicing Christian attending a faithful church. Yet as much as we can, we should support political candidates and policies that help the true church to flourish even if those candidates or policies are not explicitly Christian.
Furthermore, as Christians, we also should never neglect or disregard nature, reason, and justice in politics; grace perfects but does not destroy nature. So, being a Christian does not exempt us from making judgments grounded in the facts of nature, facts which are discernible by human reason and judgment. Being a Christian does not allow us to overleap the physical truths of the world, human nature, and politics just because we possess the divine truth of salvation. Rather, while aiming at the eternal homeland (Heb. 13:16), Christians should be the best citizens in this world: “[The] supernatural helps us become more useful in the natural, not less. When you join God’s family, you receive the grace to become a better husband, wife, parent, or child (Eph. 5:22-6:4). Likewise, our heavenly citizenship helps us become better citizens of our earthly nation (1 Peter 2:13-17). Grace restores and perfects nature. It does not destroy nature” (p. 81).
Many ministers and Christian teachers are fond of pointing to the role of Christians as exiles in this world and the inevitable persecution Christians will endure. Baird helps remind his readers that, while God may use persecution and tyranny for His inscrutable purposes, we are not to seek these out or further them. Rather, we should resist them and try to prevent them from occurring, even if God can grow His church in adverse circumstances. God wants us to use reason to provide for our flourishing, which would include avoiding suffering if we can do so honorably. We will still be sanctified through suffering just by existing in a natural, fallen world—regardless of how good our regime is. Lastly, Baird points out with some irony that “if you want to experience trials and tribulations today, then there is no better way than to advocate for Christian government. Our modern society hates the idea” (p. 84).
America and Religious Liberty?
In chapters 6 – 7, Baird takes up the American experiment to show how this Protestant position was understood and enacted at the time of the American founding in the early states and colonies. He cites representative evidence from the state constitutions and founding era documents and laws. He helpfully corrects the oft-mistaken analysis of the First Amendment, showing that the First Amendment of the U.S. (federal) Constitution is about preventing federal establishment of religion, which would be the establishment of a particular Christian denomination for preferential treatment or government support. However, the First Amendment was not aimed at preventing states from doing this, and it was explicitly adopted to protect the states’ rights to establish state churches if they so desired. Some states had established churches favored by the state governments; others just had general preference for Protestant Christianity with no one denomination elevated above another.
Baird also briefly explains from the American founders how they understood liberty of conscience as liberty to not be coerced in Christian doctrinal beliefs, which is not the “liberty” to believe or do anything whatever. For example, child sacrifices, pagan rituals, killing for the sake of religion, or just wanton licentiousness were not understood as included within liberty of conscience. The law should be conducive to virtue and true liberty, not licentiousness. Baird summarizes: “Although foreign to most Americans today, the idea that the public good includes religion is a very American idea” (p. 7). In general, the American founders did not want the government to persecute religious dissenters, but they did not think the government had to be neutral about the Christian religion. In fact, they wanted the government to support the Christian religion as a basis for public virtue and ordered liberty. The pattern of the American founding at least provides us with a model and inspiration to look to as we seek to recover an understanding of how civil government can promote the flourishing of Christianity as good for society.
Conclusion
Throughout the book, Baird helpfully eschews the theoretical debates about classifications of various theological-political positions and different philosophical camps. He seeks to make the arguments as broadly and as simply as possible for the general reader. Yet he includes extensive footnotes, which demonstrate the breadth of his research and provide evidence for his claims. However, the footnotes provide a path for those who might want to follow some of those debates or dig further into the arguments or go ad fontes to the historical sources.
I would highly recommend this book as a resource for pastors, church members, heads of school, upper school teachers, and upper school students. It could make for serious reading and discussion for a high school class in a classical school. Many Christians do not know how to talk and think about politics or political theology at all, and this work is a small step to help repair that deficiency in our churches and schools.
In our day, we have witnessed decades of moral, cultural, and political decline in the United States. This has many causes, but one key reason is the decline of public support for Christianity and the embrace of a secular, Leftist religion by our government, universities, elites, and even many allegedly “Christian” institutions. We have experienced public support (not merely vocal support, but abundant taxpayer dollars) for the religions of sexual revolution, LGBTQ+, feminism, abortion, scientism, DEI, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, globalism, and more. Every political regime will indeed have a religion and will enforce certain pieties and honors: which will ours be? This book should help Christians think more seriously about this question, and I hope it serves to equip Christians for faithfulness in all their vocations.
