Review – King Of Kings: A Reformed Guide To Christian Government

What About The Politics Of My Soap?

I remember getting hired for my first job bagging groceries at age 16. The importance of friendliness and simple conversation with the customers was a focus point of the company I worked for. So, during the training for how those conversations should go, I was taught the simple principle of what topics to avoid: religion and politics. That was how it was in 1998.

Oh how times change. 

Now, it seems some companies are dying for you to know where they stand and who they stand for. Their politics are now in your face. I must now reckon with the political stance of the company that makes this hand soap? As I search for a coffee shop, I’m lost in a deluge of virtue signals and reminders of who “owns” this or that business.

What about the church? What about Christians? How then should we faithfully make the Gospel known? Ignore politics completely? Or dive head first? 

If you’ve wanted a book that: 1) gives biblically-based thinking on these topics and 2) is only about 100 pages – then friend, I have the book for you.

So join me on this “Man-owned” blog and let’s look at King Of Kings by James Baird.

The Simple Syllogism

Baird puts forth plenty of cogent context and clear thinking as he spends the early part of the book setting up key definitions and principles. Then, he arrives at the “argument” at the heart of the book: a simple syllogism. For a syllogism to work, the premises that are given must be true. Then the conclusion must follow as valid – it naturally flows from the premises given.

Baird’s syllogism works like this:

First Premise: Government must promote the public good.

Second Premise: As the only true religion, Christianity is part of the public good.

Conclusion: Government must promote Christianity as the only true religion.

If the premises are true and the conclusion follows, there is a sound argument to deal with. This is where Baird excels in making the complicated actually easy to grasp.

Please don’t think the book just only leans on this one idea. There is much more before and after that I can’t/won’t cover in my short review. As I stated above – he really front loads the book with establishing the terms and definitions in play and where the Bible intersects with it all.

Additionally, Baird is coming at this from a Reformed perspective and while that is not where I stand, I think his work here is thought-provoking and necessary in today’s world.

But Wait!!

Some of you may read those premises and want to raise objections one way or the other. You’re ready to fire off that political opinion RIGHT NOW! To that, I would say: that is why the short book demands your fair and FULL reading. Don’t merely stop here with me only presenting his key argument. Go read the whole thing! That is the case I’m making here.

Baird faithfully brings the Word of God to bear on the key definitions, principles, and thinking that gives the firm foundation for each premise and the conclusion. Not only does he do that…he also includes much writing from the founding fathers and other political leaders (Christian and certainly non-Christian) of that time. There is rich historical context here.

The book is clearly the result of a man of God who dedicated time to serious thought, historical research, and good sense to a topic that is so volatile in the Christian community today.

Before you jump to a conclusion of your own, at least consider mine: this book is worth your time!

Have you read King Of Kings? What did you think? Let me know in the comments…

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