A A Hodge argued Christ is king over the state every bit as much as the church, and warned what would happen if Christians abandoned the pursuit of an explicitly Christian politics:
“And if Christ is really King, exercising original and immediate jurisdiction over the State as really as he does over the Church, it follows necessarily that the general denial or neglect of his rightful lordship, any prevalent refusal to obey that Bible which is the open lawbook of his kingdom, must be followed by political and social as well as by moral and religious ruin. If professing Christians are unfaithful to the authority of their Lord in their capacity as citizens of the State, they cannot expect to be blessed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in their capacity as members of the Church. The kingdom of Christ is one, and cannot be divided in life or in death. If the Church languishes, the State cannot be in health, and if the State rebels against its Lord and King, the Church cannot enjoy his favor. If the Holy Ghost is withdrawn from the Church, he is not present in the State; and if he, the only “Lord, the Giver of life,” be absent, then all order is impossible and the elements of society lapse backward to primeval night and chaos.”
Hodge then gave several examples of what was happening because Christians failed to be salt and light in the public square:
“Who is responsible for the unholy laws and customs of divorce which have been in late years growing rapidly, like a constitutional cancer, through all our social fabric? Who is responsible for the rapidly-increasing, almost universal, desecration of our ancestral Sabbath?
Who is responsible for the prevalent corruptions in trade which loosen the bands of faith and transform the halls of the honest trader into the gambler’s den? Who is responsible for the new doctrines of secular education which hand over the very baptized children of the Church to a monstrous propagandism of Naturalism and Atheism?
Who is responsible for the new doctrine that the State is not a creature of God and owes him no allegiance, thus making the mediatorial Headship of Christ an unsubstantial shadow and his kingdom an unreal dream?
Whence come these portentous upheavals of the ancient primitive rock upon which society has always rested? Whence comes this socialistic earthquake, arraying capital and labor in irreconcilable conflict like oxygen and fire? Whence come these mad nihilistic, anarchical ravings, the wild presages of a universal deluge, which will blot out at once the family, the school, the church, the home, all civilization and religion, in one sea of ruin?”
Sadly, not many heeded his warnings 140+ years ago and we see the result in our culture today.
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In 1886, A A Hodge asked how fellow Presbyterians, “Who is responsible for the new doctrines of secular education which hand over the very baptized children of the Church to a monstrous propagandism of Naturalism and Atheism?”
It’s still a pretty good question….
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A A Hodge on America’s Public Schools, from the 1880s:
“It is capable of exact demonstration that if every party in the State has the right of excluding from the public schools whatever he does not believe to be true, then he that believes most must give way to him that believes least, and then he that believes least must give way to him that believes absolutely nothing, no matter in how small a minority the atheists or agnostics may be. It is self-evident that on this scheme, if it is consistently and persistently carried out in all parts of the country, the United States system of national popular education will be the most efficient and wide instrument for the propagation of Atheism which the world has ever seen….
I am as sure as I am of the fact of Christ’s reign that a comprehensive and centralized system of national education, separated from religion, as is now commonly proposed, will prove the most appalling enginery for the propagation of anti-Christian and atheistic unbelief, and of anti-social nihilistic ethics, individual, social, and political, which this sin-rent world has ever seen….
It is no answer to say that the deficiency of the national system of education in this regard will be adequately supplied by the activities of the Christian churches. No court would admit in excuse for the diffusion of poison the plea that the poisoner knew of another agent actively employed in diffusing the antidote. Moreover, the churches, divided and without national recognition, would be able very inadequately to counteract the deadly evil done by the public schools of the State with all the resources and prestige of the government. But, more than all, atheism taught in the school cannot be counteracted by theism taught in the Church.”
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Was A. A. Hodge a “Christian nationalist”? Did the Presbyterian church form a study committee after he delivered his lecture (from which the quotation below comes) in 1886? Did they call him a “menace”? Did Banner of Truth get challenged for republishing Hodge’s dangerous political opinions in 1976 (reprinted in 1990)?
Note that in this same lecture, he attacks the public school system, arguing that “a centralized system of national education separated from religion…will prove the most appalling enginery for the propagation of anti-Christian and atheistic unbelief, and of anti-social nihilistic ethics, individual, social, and political, which this sin-rent world has ever seen….The prevalent superstition that men can be educated for good citizenship, or for any other use under heaven, without religion, is as unscientific and unphilosophical as it is irreligious….morals are impossible when disassociated from the religious basis out of which they grow.”
Can anyone deny, almost 140 years later, that he was right about education?
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Once upon a time, American Presbyterians had backbones. This is from A. A. Hodge in 1890:
“If Christ is really king, exercising original and immediate jurisdiction over the state as really as He does over the Church, it follows necessarily that the general denial or neglect of His rightful lordship, any prevalent refusal to obey that Bible which is the law-book of His kingdom, must be followed by political and social as well as moral and religious ruin. If professing Christians are unfaithful to the authority of their Lord in their capacity as citizens of the state, they cannot expect to be blessed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in their capacity as members of the Church. The kingdom of Christ is one and cannot be divided in life or in death. If the Church languishes, the state cannot be in health, and if the state rebels against its Lord and King, the Church cannot enjoy His favor. If the Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the Church He is not present in the state, and if He, the only “Lord and Giver of Life,” be absent, then all order is impossible and the elements of society lapse backward to primeval night and chaos.
Who is responsible for the unholy laws and customs of divorce which have been in late years growing rapidly like a constitutional cancer, through all our social fabric?… Who is responsible for the new doctrines of secular education which hand over the very baptized children of the church to a monstrous propagandism of naturalism at atheism? Who is responsible for the new doctrine that the state is not a creature of God and owes him no allegiance, thus making the mediatorial headship of Christ an unsubstantial shadow and his kingdom an unreal dream?…
In the name of your own interests I plead with you; in the name of your treasure-houses and barns; of your rich farms and cities; of your accumulations in the past and your hopes in the future I charge you – you never will be secure if you do not faithfully maintain all the crown-rights of Jesus, the King of men. In the name of your children and their inheritance of the precious Christian civilization you in turn have received from your sires; in the name of the Christian Church — I charge you that its sacred franchise, religious liberty, cannot be retained by men who in civil matters deny their allegiance to the King. In the name of your own soul and its salvation; in the name of that adorable Victim of that bloody and agonizing sacrifice whence you draw all your hopes of salvation; by Gethsemane and Calvary — I charge you, citizens of the United States, afloat on your wide sea of politics, THERE IS ANOTHER KING, ONE JESUS: THE SAFETY OF THE STATE CAN BE SECURED ONLY IN THE WAY OF HUMBLE AND WHOLE-SOULED LOYALTY TO HIS PERSON AND OF OBEDIENCE TO HIS LAW.”
Hodge makes most of today’s “Christian nationalists” look like pansies. We have a long way to go to recover what we have lost.
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Presbyterian and Princeton theologian A. A. Hodge, explaining in the 1880s how the American public school system is bound to destroy education and turn us into a nation of nihilists:
“…the atheistic doctrine is gaining currency, even among professed Christians and even among some bewildered Christian ministers, that an education provided by the common government should be entirely emptied of all religious character. The Protestants object to the government schools being used for the purpose of inculcating the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and Romanists object to the use of the Protestant version of the Bible and to the inculcation of the peculiar doctrines of the Protestant churches. The Jews protest against the schools being used to inculcate Christianity in any form, and the atheists and agnostics protest against any teaching that implies the existence and moral government of God.
It is capable of exact demonstration that if every party in the State has the right of excluding from the public schools whatever he does not believe to be true, then he that believes most must give way to him that believes least, and then he that believes least must give way to him that believes absolutely nothing, no matter how small a minority the atheists or the agnostics may be. It is self-evident that on this scheme if it is consistently and persistently carried out in all parts of the country, the United States system of national popular education will be the most efficient and wide instrument for the propaganda of Atheism which the world has ever seen.”
Hodge was not a prophet but I’d say in this case his prediction most certainly came true.
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