Answers to Objections #4

Post date: Dec 07, 2016 6:39:44 PM

Jun 24, 2011 by Buddy Hanson

Answers to Common Objections are a regular column featured each Monday on Explicitly Christian Politics. These answers were written by Buddy Hanson and published in the appendix of his book, The Christian Civil Ruler’s Handbook. Buddy has written a number of books on applying God’s Word to culture, civil-government and politics and we are grateful for the answers he gives to common objections we hear all the time. Check out his website here.

Objection #4: “Haven’t there been times when a country was living pretty much under biblical principles

and the State (or King) took complete control of the Church?”

All sorts of things have happened throughout history, but this is not the way the Church and State are commended by God to act. Both have clearly-defined spheres of self-government, and both must confess, “The Lord is our Lawgiver!”

Each of God’s four self-governing spheres has its own primary areas of responsibility:

THE INDIVIDUAL: Vocation, economics, culture (in which the individual is to be “salt” and “light”)

THE CHURCH: Preaching and teaching, baptism, communion, worship, education, developing civil rulers, accountability, discipline, excommunication

THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT: Protecting from invasion, promoting goodness, enforcing God’s law and establishing peaceful order (by means which include restitution and execution)

THE FAMILY: Education; the welfare of widows, orphans, and others