The idea that Jesus, in his vicarious life, restorative ministry, penal substitutionary death, redemptive resurrection, glorious ascension, & victorious return - or the gospel that proclaims him - doesn’t confront the rulers, principalities, & powers is absolutely ludicrous.
The gospel restores individual sinners to God, absolutely. But this occurs in the larger context of God restoring his creation through the work of his Son by the power of his Spirit.
This restoration includes redeeming individual sinners, but that happens in the wider context of eg God in Christ by his Spirit restoring his people, Israel; bringing the nations into the people of God; restoring the Promised Land; and defeating God’s enemies.
Don’t ever stop calling individuals to repent and believe as you proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God. Individuals bear personal responsibility for themselves before God.
But don’t ever forget that it is the gospel *of the kingdom* of God, a kingdom that is bigger than you or me on our own.
To say that the gospel doesn’t confront the temporal rulers, principalities, and powers, but only confronts God’s and our spiritual enemies, is to Gnosticize the political character of the good news of King Jesus.
Of course we can err in the other direction, claiming that our current political aims and achievements are the Kingdom of God, when in reality they’re just our own faux, finite, fallen kingdoms. This is the error of an overrealized eschatology.
But in conservative evangelicalism, I think the danger is squarely in assuming that the gospel has nothing to say to the current political powers.
Or rather, for many of us, we are willing to say the gospel has implications for particular socio-political issues (eg abortion or sexuality), but when we bring up other topics suddenly the gospel and politics are separate and never the twain shall meet.
Honestly, I’m not even trying to make a point about American politics or anything else. I just really bristle at the idea that Jesus’s ministry and message and the gospel that proclaims him have nothing whatsoever to do with past, current, or future temporal political realities.
