Episode 18: Politics And The Church's Mission - What Should The Church Teach About Civil Government?

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*

Episode 2: What Does Romans 13 Say About Civil Government?
https://reformedlibertarians.com/002

Episode 6: 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

Episode 15: 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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