What does God have to say about government?
Question 4 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
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God does speak about governance in scripture, and there has been much debate about the implications of what he says. Often, the question raised is whether a particular political philosophy is prescribed by God. In other words, would Jesus have been a socialist? A Republican? Alternatively, there is a popular view that Christians must submit to the government regardless of the lawlessness of its edicts. We disagree.
Scripture speaks to the fact of civil governance and its necessity (Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 2:13-14; Titus 3:1), but it does not explicate a precise way of administering civil governance. In other words, God doesn’t give us an operations manual for providing the service of civil justice. What God provides are norms of civil justice that are evident in creation and are therefore comprehensible by all human beings. However, the systems by which humanity has administered (or attempted to administer) civil justice are human inventions known as political philosophies.
Political philosophies are attempts to articulate the best way of achieving a just system of governance. Libertarianism is one such philosophy, and we believe it’s the best expression of Christian political thought because it most aligns with God-given norms expressed in scripture and evidenced in nature.
One important distinction we make is between “the state” and “civil governance,” and in our view the state is inherently bad and tends to corrupt good civil governance. As Christians, we can take our cue from historic Christian orthodoxy and the historic confessions of faith. These only oblige Christian submission to civil authorities on matters that are lawful ordinances of God. But they don’t obligate abject submission to all edicts and don’t oppose resistance to unlawful or unrestrained sword power. Because of this, we hold the distinction between “the state” and “civil governance” to be legitimate and necessary.