Savior or Servant?

Putting Government in Its Place

This unique work by Pastor David Hall is an attempt to define the role of the state: Shall it be a minister or a Messiah? Using ancient but timeless information, Dr. Hall has surveyed the Bible and arrived at a coherent theology of the state.

This study succeeds in identifying the responsibilities that the civil state is mandated to do, permitted to do, and prohibited from doing. Along the way, it is discovered that all political schemes and issues are fraught with theological value. Moreover, the most enduring grid to keep government in its rightful place is found in the Bible.

Drawing upon thousands of verses and hundreds of thinkers, this volume is comprehensive yet readable. Theologians from Augustine to Calvin and from Aquinas to Barth are studied and presented in a non-technical manner. The Christian who is interested in politics should absorb these summaries before launching out into unstudied political activism. Rather than adopting a "politics as usual" posture, Hall challenges partisans from the right and from the left. He summons Christians to the old paths, which God's Word has occupied for centuries.

Discussed in these chapters are perennial matters of practical importance, such as: taxation; resistance to evil governments; methods of influence; the escalation of rights; limited government; moral qualities for leaders; separation of powers. This book will provide excellent fodder for discussion and guidance. It returns spiritual principles to their place, while seeking to put government back in its.

Savior or Servant? Is a revival of a classic approach to limited government. The scriptural view of the state, removed from the varied fads of political science, provides an enduring perspective by which to measure all states. This study begins with a survey of biblical teaching on pressing matters of state today. Following the contours of the Old and New Testaments, Savior or Servant? calls all levels of government to a servant posture, rather than allowing officials to dominate. A historical tracing of the best and most pertinent that theology has to offer on the subject is contained in these pages.

"David Hall is a rare breed—a pastor, scholar, activist, and popular communicator. With Savior or Servant? he turns his eye upon the realm of the state. This book may well be the single best volume of Christian thinking on the issue of the increasingly intrusive state. Examining virtually every passage of scripture as well as every historical and theological movement dealing with the proper place and role of civil government, it is encyclopedic in scope." —Dr. George Grant, Franklin, TN

About the Author
David W. Hall, Ph.D. is Pastor of the Midway Presbyterian Church in Powder Springs, GA, and Senior Fellow at the Kuyper Institute. He has served as the Executive Editor of PREMISE, and among his other works are The Millennium of Jesus Christ, God and Caesar; Windows on Westminster; Welfare Reformed: A Compassionate Approach, Evangelical Apologetics, and A Manual for Officer Training.

Paperback; 410 pages