Politics (for Calvinists)

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Anoetos

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I do not believe that the Bible advocates any particular form of government, but that it does have a lot to say about the relation of the Body of Christ to the government, whatever form it may take (that relationship being a balance between standing for godliness and a docile submission to those who bear the sword by God's authority).

I think it's useful to remember that the state Paul was writing about in Romans 13 was the heathen Roman government, especially as Christians were likely to encounter it in its local forms.

I believe that monarchy is not a model for earthly government anymore than a gathering of tribal chiefs or "judges" who operate autonomously is. God gave Israel a king over His own objections and after explaining that having a king wasn't such a great thing.

I believe that government will be redeemed at the parousia and that when we speak of Christ as a King, it is something of a form borne out of the experience of the Jewish people. Christ will be more than a mere king, indeed, He IS more than a mere king. He is Absolute Sovereign of the entire Universe and when He returns no one will be able to question, doubt or deny it. Every knee will bend.

Historically, human government, like all human endeavors both bears the marks of a thing created by those bearing the image of God (e.g. the best ones seek justice and equity, prosperity and peace), and the marks of those fallen into sin (e.g. wars waged for unjust reasons, the subjugation of peoples, etc.). I do not think any form of government is any different in kind than any other, though many are different in degree of justness.

I believe, with Churchill that "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried". But I do not believe that it is God-ordained (again, I do not believe that God has ordained any particular form).

I believe that government, like so many things is an area about which the Bible has much to say in the way of laws about justice and godliness and so on, but that men have freedom in this area. I believe also that those who "bear the sword", in whatever form a government takes, bear a heavy burden and face a strict, and certainly prescribed judgment when the Lord returns.

From what I know of Rutherford, I do not agree that there are any biblical grounds for the overthrow of a duly appointed government. However, I also admit that, politics being an area not specifically prescribed in Scripture, peaceful change is certainly licit.

As a final note, I do not believe that the American Revolution was justified. I think it was a put up job by a few wealthy land owners who manipulated the press and propaganda in order to create a myth of British oppression that the facts of history do not bear out. That said, I love my country and wouldn't have it any other way, I am fine with it the way it is (again, I believe republicanism to be a stable and excellent, though not divinely ordained, way of administration political authority, I just do not believe a war to establish it was justified).

Mark Noll makes the interesting point that European churchmen (and this was before the Aufklarung) were nearly universal in their renunciation of the American Revolutionaries as atheistic, deistic terrorists bent on destroying the godly authority of kings. But then, they had seen the depredations of the French revolution in the names of Reason and Liberty, and had long been at war with the decadent intellectualism of the rationalists who laid the egg that France and America hatched.
 
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Anoetos

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Two monarchists belong to the book club I attend and they seem to think Lex Rex proves, biblically, that scripture teaches a monarchy. I have to read it myself, any epub files online?

My understading was that Lex Rex provided a rationale for revolution against ungodly monarchs and the establishment of a (Presbyterian) Republican form of government.
 
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General Mung Beans

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I'm a libertarian. Like Rothbard, I view the government as by its nature, the agressor against the people and their property.

No offense, but the thread title says "for Calvinists" ;). Anyways I've never seen a Muslim libertarian before...
 
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file13

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Two monarchists belong to the book club I attend and they seem to think Lex Rex proves, biblically, that scripture teaches a monarchy. I have to read it myself, any epub files online?

Whoops, misread that! Disregard!
 
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Erinwilcox

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Found a great article today for those of us in the USA.

Obama or Romney? Christians and Convictions at War | Christian News Network

I must concur with Van Til who said, "[There] is no alternative but that of theonomy or autonomy."

If we vote for Romney, it is no different than voting for Obama. Either way you are voting for an unregenerate, inherently evil man.

Yes, but most politicians who make it into the presidential race are depraved, unsaved men. So for whom will you vote? No one? I plan to vote for Romney because I am more closely aligned with him politically (though I am more in line with the likes of Ron Paul) and because I feel that God has given him more common grace when it comes to moral values.

This is not my only issue, but . . . As one who has lost a baby of my own, I find abortion even more abhorrent than before. Anyone who would encourage his own child to get an abortion rather than "ruin her life" by a "mistake" will NEVER get my vote.
 
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JM

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This is not my only issue, but . . . As one who has lost a baby of my own, I find abortion even more abhorrent than before. Anyone who would encourage his own child to get an abortion rather than "ruin her life" by a "mistake" will NEVER get my vote.

Amen to that.

"the fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light." John Calvin, Commentaries on the Last Four Books of Moses
 
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JM

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themoreyouknow.jpg
 
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CalledOutOne

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Yes, but most politicians who make it into the presidential race are depraved, unsaved men. So for whom will you vote? No one? I plan to vote for Romney because I am more closely aligned with him politically (though I am more in line with the likes of Ron Paul) and because I feel that God has given him more common grace when it comes to moral values.
Why not write in Ron Paul?

This is not my only issue, but . . . As one who has lost a baby of my own, I find abortion even more abhorrent than before. Anyone who would encourage his own child to get an abortion rather than "ruin her life" by a "mistake" will NEVER get my vote.
Amen!
 
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