Symbolics 3 The 1689 Baptist Confession [Chapters 21-32]

Symbolics 3The 1689 Baptist Confession[Chapters 21-32] Chapter 24 Of the Civil Magistrate

Introduction: Analysis of the Chapter • I. The Divine Ordination of the Office (par 1) • A. His Ordained Position • B. His Ordained Purpose • C. His Ordained Power • 1. God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under him, over the people, for his own glory and the public good; and to this end hath armed them with the power of the sword, for defence and encouragement of them that do good, and for the punishment of evil doers.

Introduction: Analysis of the Chapter • II. The Christian's Involvement in the Office (par 2) • A. Its Ethical Propriety • B. Its Special Concern • C. Its Peculiar Prerogative • 2 It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a magistrate when called there unto; in the management whereof, as they ought especially to maintain justice and peace, according to the whole- some laws of each kingdom and commonwealth so for that end they may lawfully now under the NT wage war upon just and necessary occasions

Introduction: Analysis of the Chapter • III. The Believer's Subjection to the Office (par 3) • A. The Duty of Obedience • B. The Duty of Prayer • 3 Civil magistrates being set up by God for the ends aforesaid; subjection, in all lawful things commanded by them, ought to be yielded by us in the Lord, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake; and we ought to make supplications and prayers for kings and all that are in authority that under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty.

Introduction: Treatment of the Chapter • This chapter in itself needs little explanation. • Anabaptists said that civil government is an evil in which the Christian should have no part. • This chapter in contrast teaches that it is a divine institution and a legitimate calling. • I will focus on the classic passage on the subject and the key distinctive of the Baptist tradition. • I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • Introduction: • Romans 13:1-7 = classicus locus on the state. • For this reason and because it addresses the important problem of violent revolution, • it is crucial that our study of this chapter include an examination of this passage.

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • A. The Historical Background of Rom 13:1-7 • Paul takes up subordination to Rome because of the violent, campaign of the Jewish freedom fighters. • These violent revolutionaries lurk behind many of the scenes of the NT. • Only 10 years after the writing of Romans their rebellion would devastate Jerusalem and Judaism.

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • A. The Historical Background of Rom 13:1-7 • The Jewish community at Rome was large, being perhaps a tenth of the population and numbering 50,000. • Not a few of these Jews were Christian (Rom 14). • All this brought revolutionary, Jewish attitudes into very near proximity to the church.

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • B. The Basic Assertion of Rom. 13:1-7 • The basic assertion of the passage is that the Roman, civil authorities were established by God, • because there are no civil authorities except those ordained by God. • Rom 13:1 For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • B. The Basic Assertion of Rom 13:1-7 • Such an assertion is the astounding to our ears because … • The origin of Roman authority was via conquest, • The form of Roman authority was dictatorial, and • The character of Roman authority was corrupt and shortly would be persecuting. • The last 3 emperors, counting the one reigning at the time, were Caligula, Claudius, and Nero!

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • C. The Fundamental Command of Rom 13:1-7 • The fundamental command found in this passage is often misunderstood. • Paul’s concern is not merely telling Roman Christians to obey their leaders. • He would not want them always to obey them. • There are three perfectly good words for obedience used in the NT, • but Paul does not use any of them here.

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • C. The Fundamental Command of Rom 13:1-7 • He says that they should "be subordinate," put themselves under their authority. • What he means is clearly defined by the words describing its opposite in v 2. • Rom 13:2 … whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation ... • Both resist and opposedescribe active and even armed resistance in the Bible.

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • C. The Fundamental Command of Rom 13:1-7 • The point? • Never use force against the civil authorities. • They are not to be swept into the Jewish terrorist movement or join the Jewish rebellion. • They are to submit, not take up the sword against them nor end up “suffering as a murderer” (1 Pet. 4:15).

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • D. The Related Encouragements of Rom 13:1-7 • Rom 13:3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • D. The Related Encouragements of Rom 13:1-7 • Such is to be our attitude toward all existing authorities because of the statements of vv 3-4. • The civil authorities "are" a cause of fear for evil behavior, and not merely "ought to be." • This is what civil authorities are in terms of their appointment and tendency, and so they are to be respected.

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • D. The Related Encouragements of Rom 13:1-7 • Reducing Paul's are(s)to ought to be(s) destroys Paul's argument. • Vv 3-4 are encouragements to the duty of vv 1-2. • Saying to your children, If you obey me, I ought to buy you an ice cream cone! will not encourage them at all. • Submit because rulers ought to be a terror to evildoers and a praise to good conduct is no encouragement!

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • D. The Related Encouragements of Rom 13:1-7 • If this is to be our relation to civil authority, there must be no • "tax revolt" • "attitude revolt" • “violent revolt” • “religious terrorism”

I. Romans 13 and the Problem of Revolution • Conclusions: • There is no example of authorized revolution against established civil authority in the Bible. • The clear duty of Christians to civil authority by implication is completely opposed to it. • The classic passage is a systematic rejection of revolutionary attitudes and practices. • The civil disobedience (which is warranted by the Bible) has limits beyond which it may not go.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • Intro: The Case of the Missing Paragraph • 1. The Fact of the Missing Paragraph • The WCF contains 4 par, the 1689 only 3. • Par 3 of the WCF is missing in the 1689. • WCF 1689 • 1 = 1 • 2 = 2 • 3 = ? • 4 = 3

Intro: The Case of the Missing Paragraph • 2. The Explanation of the Missing Paragraph • The missing paragraph itself makes clear why the Baptists' deleted it. • The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the Word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven:

Intro: The Case of the Missing Paragraph • 2. The Explanation of the Missing Paragraph • … yet he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed.

Intro: The Case of the Missing Paragraph • 2. The Explanation of the Missing Paragraph • For the better effecting whereof, he hath power to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God.

Intro: The Case of the Missing Paragraph • 2. The Explanation of the Missing Paragraph • Why did the Baptists leave this paragraph out? • The issue is religious freedom or "soul liberty." • Baptists were the earliest Reformed Christians consistently to uphold religious liberty. • Almost all other Reformed denominations now uphold religious liberty, but most had to change their confessions in order to do so.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • A. The Arguments for Religious Liberty • 1. Dictating religious belief and worship is not the task or function of the state. • It is outside the sphere of the civil authority. • Biblical evidence shows that the task of the state is limited to preserving civil justice and peace—protecting the bodies and property of men. • Only in the theocracy was this not true!

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • A. The Arguments for Religious Liberty • 1. Dictating religious belief and worship is not the task or function of the state. • This limited task is described by the Confession • Paragraph 1: "for his own glory and the public good" "for defence and encouragement of them that do good, and for the punishment of evil doers" • Paragraph 2: "to maintain justice and peace"

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • A. The Arguments for Religious Liberty • 1. Dictating religious belief and worship is not the task or function of the state. • Cf. Gen 6:11f; 9:5f, Psa 58:2; 72:14; 82:1f; Prov 21:15; 24:11f; 29:14, 26; 31:5; Ezek 7:23; 45:9; Dan 4:27; Matt 22:21; Rom 13:3f; 1 Tim 2:2; 1 Pet 2:14. • These passages teach that the task of civil government is to maintain social and civil justice and peace by suppressing violence and social injustice and promoting the civil good.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • A. The Arguments for Religious Liberty • 1. Dictating religious belief and worship is not the task or function of the state. • Men do differ widely as to religion without disturbing the peace or doing violence to their neighbors. • The weapon given to the civil authority with which it is to accomplish its unique task is, as we noticed previously, the sword. • Swords are not good weapons (in fact, very bad weapons) for molding or ruling mens' consciences.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • A. The Arguments for Religious Liberty • 1. Dictating religious belief and worship is not the task or function of the state. • Nehemiah 9:37 Its abundant produce is for the kings Whom You have set over us because of our sins; They also rule over our bodies And over our cattle as they please, So we are in great distress. • Civil authority is not for ruling souls or consciences.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • A. The Arguments for Religious Liberty • 2. If a state is to dictate religious belief or worship, this inevitably requires that the state either rule the church or the church rule the state. Both of these alternatives violate Scripture. • Although inconsistently, the Reformed tradition beginning with Calvin always rejected these systems and taught that the church and state possess separate spheres of authority delegated directly to them from God.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • A. The Arguments for Religious Liberty • 2. If a state is to dictate religious belief or worship, this requires that the state either rule the church or the church rule the state. • God ordained different governments and different tasks for church and state. • Matt 22:21 Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's. • For the state to dictate religious belief and worship this biblical separation must be violated.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • A. The Arguments for Religious Liberty • 2. If a state is to dictate religious belief or worship, this inevitably requires that the state either rule the church or the church rule the state. • The best illustration of how religious freedom must be violated by such a system is found in the original reading of the WCF cited above. • How can the state obey it without making the church its slave & violating its independence?

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • B. The Objections to Religious Liberty • 1. The Objection based on the Unlimited Sovereignty of the Word of God • A serious objection to separation of church & state is that civil authority must follow God’s Word. • If so, how can it permit religious freedom? • If the Word forbids idols, should not civil authority? • While the civil authority is subject to God’s Word, this does not mean that it should enforce every part of it by its own authority.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • B. The Objections to Religious Liberty • 1. The Objection based on the Unlimited Sovereignty of the Word of God • Eph. 6:4: And fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. • The civil magistrate ought not to bring up children. • Though the Word is his authority, he is not a father. • The exhortations to pastors in 1 Pet 5:2 are not to be implemented by the civil magistrate.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • John Murray: Since the civil magistrate is invested with this authority by God and is obliged by divine ordinance to discharge these functions, he is responsible to God, the one living and true God who alone has ordained him. The magistrate is, therefore, under obligation to discharge the office devolving upon him in accordance with the revealed will of God.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • John Murray: The Bible is the supreme and infallible revelation of God's will and it is, therefore, the supreme and infallible rule in all departments of life. The civil magistrate is under obligation to recognize it as the infallible rule for the exercise of civil magistracy.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • Murray: It must be recognized, however, that it is only within his own restricted sphere of authority that the civil magistrate, in his capacity as civil magistrate, is to apply the revelation of God's will as provided in Scripture. It is only to the extent to which the revelation of Scripture bears upon the functions discharged by the state and upon the performance of the office of the civil magistrate, that he, in the discharge of these functions, is bound to fulfil the demands of Scripture.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • John Murray: If the civil magistrate should attempt, in his capacity as magistrate, to carry into effect the demands of Scripture which bear upon him in other capacities, or the demands of Scripture upon other institutions, he would immediately be guilty of violating his prerogatives and of contravening the requirements of Scripture.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • John Murray: The sphere of the church is distinct from that of the civil magistrate…What needs to be appreciated now is that its sphere is co-ordinate with that of the state. The church is not subordinate to the state, nor is the state subordinate to the church. They are both subordinate to God, and to Christ in his mediatorial dominion as head over all things to his body the church.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • John Murray: Both church and state are under obligation to recognize this subordination, and the corresponding co-ordination of their respective spheres of operation in the divine institution. Each must maintain and assert its autonomy in reference to the other and preserve its freedom from intrusion on the part of the other.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • B. The Objections to Religious Liberty • 1. The Objection based on the Unlimited Sovereignty of the Word of God • Why is the civil magistrate not to enforce the "first Table of the Law"? • Because he is somehow not subject to the Word of God? • No! Because it is not his job!

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • B. The Objections to Religious Liberty • 2. The Objection based on Rom. 13:3, 4: • Civil rulers are required to punish evil and, since evil is to be defined by God's law, violations of the "first table" of the law must be punished. • (1) Some limit on “evil” must be assumed, since the civil ruler is obviously not to punish private or heart evil. • (2) When Paul goes on to speak of the law in Rom 13, he speaks only of the “second table" of the law.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • B. The Objections to Religious Liberty • 2. The Objection based on Rom. 13:3, 4: • Civil rulers are required to punish evil and, since evil is to be defined by God's law, violations of the "first table" of the law must be punished. • (3) The historical context of Rom 13 makes incredible the idea that civil rulers are to punish religious evil. Without doubt, the Roman emperors were not a cause of fear for religious evil behavior (Rom. 13: 1, 3, 4).

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • C. The Limits of Religious Freedom • There are limits to religious freedom. • When anyone's religion disrupts civil justice or peace and threatens violence to others, then it must and may be restrained by the state. • It is the state's ordained function and task to restrain such violations of the life and property of its citizens.

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty • C. The Limits of Religious Freedom • Moloch Worship, • Jehovah's Witnesses' refusing blood transfusions and medical attention for their children, • and the supposed to right to abortion • are several examples of “religious rights" which should not be permitted.

Symbolics 3 The 1689 Baptist Confession [Chapters 21-32]