Pastor Aaron Brown

This should be required reading for every American who publicly claims to be a Christian… Specifically, followers of Jesus who is worried about the wrong political party gaining enough power to ruin our country, or outraged about pagan celebrations that (allegedly) mock Jesus, should seriously consider reading “Exiles: Church In the Shadow of Empire.” This historical exploration of how the early Church’s identity was established separate from, but in submission to, worldly empires is a prophetic word for modern Christians. It is a challenging look at where we put our hope, and what we trust in for security. 

It is tempting to let our nation’s political parties or our culture’s values define our identity and have our first loyalty. It’s also incredibly alluring to use worldly power to provide security for ourselves by legislating Christian values into systems of government. However, as followers of Jesus our first citizenship is in God’s Kingdom, our security is in His eternal and spiritual reign, and our people group is the multinational Church of Jesus Christ. While some governments might enhance the freedoms we have in Christ, none of them can truly replicate them or remove them. When they try, we who follow Jesus find our primary identity and security again in remembering that we have always been, and will always be, exiles until the return and reestablished reign of Christ on earth. Recognizing that our first identity is in God’s Kingdom helps us live in submissive resistance to the empires of this world while partnering with the Holy Spirit to build the eternal Kingdom of God.

This book has helped me find language for both appreciating the blessings of my national residency as well as disentangling the hope I have in Christ with my allegiance to secular power structures that govern our world. The latter chapters of the book also give very helpful categories for how to practically engage politics and Justice (detachment, transformation, and prophetic witness). Instead of choosing a side that will fight for security and control, Christians are called to embody the Kingdom politic that they want to see in this world, to practice church as a political revolution, and to be prophetic witnesses to the leaders and power structures of this world who are not in full submission to the values of Christ. I highly recommend this book!!

“To believe the Gospel of Jesus and announce it to others in the first century was a politically subversive act. The early church wouldn’t have recognized Gospel preaching that galvanized allegiance to one of Rome’s dominant political parties as having anything to do with the Christian Gospel. Because they used the same political language as Rome,

early Christians lived under constant suspicion that they were being unpatriotic toward the empire. Christians today don’t live in the same environment. There are many differences between Christians living under Roman rule and whatever fill-in-the-blank nation you live in today. And yet, Christians of every era should appreciate the fact the first century Gospel was designed to wrench people’s allegiance away from worldly kings and kingdoms and throw it onto the one true king, Jesus. Christians should be skeptical of the idea that secular politics and Christian theological claims live in two separates spheres, or that someone’s allegiance to Christ can happily coexist against their allegiance to the state. The very nature of the Gospel announcement that Jesus is Lord contradicts the claims of the empire.” –  Exiles, Chapter 6