Genuine Faith

The nature of genuine faith fits with Jesus' condemnation of any request for "fire from heaven" to compel people to follow him. The underlying reason is that true faith in God must be voluntary. If faith is to be genuine, it can never be compelled by force. This provides another reason why governments should never try to compel adherence to any particular religion.

A clear respect for people's individual will and voluntary decisions is seen throughout the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. They always taught people and reasoned with them and then appealed to them to make a personal decision to follow Jesus as the true Messiah (see Matthew 11:28-30; Acts 28:23; Romans 10:9-10; Revelation 22:17).

Genuine religious belief cannot be compelled by force, whether by fire from heaven or by the force of civil government, and Christians should have no part in any attempt to use government power to compel people to support or follow Christianity or any other religion.

But what about the laws God gave to Israel in the Old Testament, especially in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy? Those laws required people to give tithe money to support the Jewish priesthood and temple services, and they required people to make certain specified sacrifices to the Lord every year (see Leviticus 23). They even ordered severe punishments for anyone who tried to teach another religion (see Deuteronomy 13:6-11).

But these laws were only for the nation of Israel for that particular time. They were never imposed on any of the surrounding nations. They were part of the Old Testament system that came to an end when Jesus established a "new covenant" for God's people in the New Testament. Such a system was ended by Jesus' teaching that some areas of life were "things that belong to Caesar" and some areas of life were "things that belong to God". Such Old Testament laws enforcing religion were never intended for people after Jesus established his "new covenant", or for any time after that.

- Wayne Grudem, Politics - According to the Bible

Amen! I would just add that if God does not ordain governments to compel faith, how much more does God Himself not compel faith (by means of irresistible grace)!

(Incidentally, Calvin believed that God does ordain governments to compel faith. But that's a different story.)

To be sure, Christ's love compels us to believe. However, Christ's love does not compel our belief. Grace is compelling but resistible.

"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died." - 2 Corinthians 5:14 (NIV)

Moreover, Christ's love compels all to believe precisely because Christ died for all, not only for some. (The alternative is to say that Christ only died for some, and therefore only compels some to believe.) The atonement is unlimited in extent and limited in effect.

Again, the question is not whether the atonement is limited in effect. (It is.) Rather, the question is why the atonement is limited in effect. Is the atonement limited in effect because it is not given to all, or is the atonement limited in effect because it is not received by all? In other words, is the atonement limited in effect because God does not want all to be saved, or is the atonement limited in effect because not all want to be saved?

"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." - Acts 17:30-31 (NIV)