Ep. 18: Politics and the Church's Mission: What Should the Church Teach About Civil Government?

The Reformed Libertarians Podcast

We discuss the teaching mission of the institutional church, its relation to the church’s statements of faith, and what the institutional church must and may not teach about politics on several important points. We talk about the Reformed confessional view of submission to civil governance, the recent failure of some churches in the face of unlawful state dictates, the error of theonomic views, and how a biblically Reformed covenantal hermeneutic informs a correct view of general equity.

https://reformedlibertarians.com/018

Main Points of Discussion

00:00 Introduction

00:32 Episode description

01:00 Why are we discussing this?

02:15 What is the church’s teaching mission?

05:07 One way the Reformed confessions are part of the church’s mission

07:34 False teaching about submission to God-ordained civil governance

13:43 Not a matter of political theory

14:53 False teaching of original and so-called “general equity theonomy”

19:28 Proper meaning of general equity

24:30 The Reformed biblical covenantal hermeneutic

30:39 Recap

32:53 Disestablishmentarianism and Biblical criterion of proportional retribution

Additional Resources:

• What Does Romans 13 Say About Civil Government?
  https://reformedlibertarians.com/002

• Why Is The Right Of Resistance Important?
  https://reformedlibertarians.com/006

• Answers to Objections to Reformed Confessional View of Romans 13
  https://reformedlibertarians.com/episode/why-isnt-the-state-biblically-justified-resolving-romans-13-objections/

• Annotated bibliography of Reformed Political Resistance Theology
  https://tinyurl.com/RefoPoliResistBib

• Paper and video presentation of “Theonomy, General Equity, and Libertarianism” by Jonathan McIntosh
  https://reformedlibertarians.com/theonomy-general-equity-and-libertarianism-by-jonathan-mcintosh

• Excerpt from “Men In Combat Over The Civil Law: ‘General Equity’ in WCF 19.4” by Peter Wallace and Craig Troxel
  https://sites.google.com/view/general-equity/

• Lecture series on Reformed Covenant Theology in systematic, biblical, and practical perspectives by Lee Irons
  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwrDNUO5MDu9WPd6FaReLxZkaK7VO8plE

• Video explaining the relations between the Abrahamic, Old Mosaic, and New Covenants, by Lee Irons
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_ScAhK-s2s

• 5 videos explaining the typological works principle in the Old Mosaic Covenant, by Lee Irons
  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwrDNUO5MDu-vEf9AeUSZt8UY53E7OYnF

• The Westminster Confession of Faith (1788)
  https://opc.org/wcf.html

• The Belgic Confession of Faith (1958)
  https://threeforms.org/the-belgic-confession/

• Resources on the false teaching of Theonomy
  - Meredith G. Kline’s article on theocracy
  https://meredithkline.com/klines-works/articles-and-essays/the-relevance-of-the-theocracy/
  - Lee Irons’ article on Theonomy’s Dispensational Hermeneutic
  https://www.the-highway.com/theonomy-hermeneutic_Irons.html
  - Lane Tipton’s article on The Eschatology of Hebrews 2:1-4: A Critical Appraisal of the Theonomic Thesis
  https://kerux.com/doc/1501A1.asp
  - T. David Gordon’s article on Critique of Theonomy: a Taxonomy
  https://web.archive.org/web/20200718055717/http://tdgordon.net/theology/theonomy.pdf

• Can Christian Civil Government Be 'Theocratic'?
  https://reformedlibertarians.com/015

• “Against Civil Establishment Of Religion” by Gregory Baus
  https://reformedlibertarians.com/against-civil-establishment-of-religion/

The Reformed Libertarians Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute: https://libertarianchristians.com and a member of the Christians for Liberty Network: https://christiansforliberty.net

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