Lux Lucet

But it wasn’t from mainstream Protestants that I learned any of this.  John Robbins was the first author who made clear to me the connection between the preaching of the gospel of justification by belief alone and political liberty.  In his essay “Rebuilding American Freedom in the Twenty-First Century,” Robbins quoted German historian Leopold von Ranke as calling John Calvin the “virtual founder of America.”  And Ranke was right in his assessment.        

Of course, we don’t often hear such talk today.  Certainly not from mainstream or even from alternate media conservatives, classical liberals, or libertarians.  But what is more disappointing in my opinion is that we hear nothing of this from the Protestant church, even from putatively Bible-believing Protestant churches.  The whole matter of the close connection between the spiritual liberty brought about by the Reformation and the political and economic liberty that followed is, at least from my own experience, nearly entirely lacking among believing Christians, at least in any explicit way.  Perhaps it’s a bit of an overstatement to say that Christians have no sense of a connection between what the Bible teaches and its political implications.  My sense of it is that you won’t find many, if any, socialists in a theologically sound Protestant church.  But I suspect that even many honest Christians would have a hard time articulating the connection between their belief in Jesus Christ and their support for limited government, the rule of law, sound money, and civil liberties. 

For this reason, there is a great need for Protestants, and especially Protestant ministers, to themselves become educated on what the Bible has to say about politics and economics and teach these things to their congregations.  In the United States, perhaps one reason for the lack of sound church teaching on economics and politics is the so-called Johnson Amendment.  The Johnson Amendment, put in place in 1954, is an amendment to the federal tax code 501(c)(3) that, “has provided that in exchange for tax-exempt status, a charitable nonprofit, foundation, or religious organization may ‘not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”  This amendment has acted like a muzzle on Christian churches, tending to silence pulpits altogether on matters of politics and economics.  As a result, Bible-believing Christians can be forgiven if they have a hard time seeing any connection between what’s taught in their churches and the issues of the day. 

But the Bible has a wealth of information on economics and politics, and what it says should be greatly encouraging to any Christian who loves liberty and hates tyranny.  The Scriptures everywhere defend private property and limited government.  One could summarize what the Bible teaches about politics and economics using the term constitutional capitalism, a term borrowed from John Robbins’ masterful work Ecclesiastical Megalomania.

If I were to summarize the Bible’s stance on civil government it is this: the authority granted to civil government comes from God, that is to say, the authority of civil government is legitimate, and it is limited in scope.  Having a proper, Biblical understanding of civil government allows Christians to steer clear of both the Scylla of authoritarianism and the Charybdis of anarchism. 

For example, it’s not uncommon to hear libertarians making statements such as “all taxation is theft.”  Now as someone who hates big government and the obvious theft required by our current semi-socialist political and economic systems, I can have some sympathy with this view.  But that said, it is not correct to say that “all taxation is theft.”  The Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans 13 that the authority of the civil magistrate comes from God, that he has legitimate authority to punish those who practice evil and reward the good, that that it is right for Christians to pay taxes to support this God-ordained work.  Scripture is not anarchistic. 

On the other hand, while the authority of the civil magistrate is legitimate, this authority is also limited in scope.  Going back to Paul, he cites two functions of the civil magistrate, punish those who practice evil and reward the good.  Paul does not say it is the job of the civil magistrate to provide social security, healthcare, education, welfare, student loans, foreign aid, parks, and a whole host of other things that the socialists call for. All such spending represents theft.

Another aspect of the Reformation that is often overlooked is the establishment of the modern nation-state.  It was the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 that established a system of international relations in which each nation-state was treated as a legal person with the ability to conduct its own internal affairs as the people of that nation saw fit.  Many Christians hearing this today may be tempted to say that it’s just common sense.  But it took the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Year’s War to establish this in practice. 

But ask yourself, when was the last time you hear anything at your church about the Peace of Westphalia?  If you’re like me, the answer is never.  And yet there may be no more important political conflict today than that of the nationalist, Protestant Westphalian World Order versus the globalist, Roman Catholic New World Order.  The Westphalian World Order offers peace, prosperity, and cultural beauty.  The New World Order offers you authoritarian ugliness and tells you to shut up, take the jab, and eat the bugs.   

Which sounds more attractive to you?           

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