Introduction
Well this certainly feels a bit awkward. Usually, it’s the Moscow crew that’s being accused of defending slavery, but now the shoe seems to be on the other NAPARC foot. Here I am arguing against slavery just like we always have here in Moscow.
On Friday, I tweeted “A “Reformed” ministry that is not regularly preaching against the bloated idolatry of the state, the self-deification of government programs, welfare, and redistribution of wealth — the pagan shrine of our day — that ministry is not Reformed in any meaningful sense of the word.”
Among many distraught replies, was a thread from Joel McDurmon, quoting approvingly one “Ann” who lamented my tweet thusly: “This absolutely frustrates me because SOOOO MANY in his “camp” receive “welfare” that is obtained through wealth redistribution. I have posted before about being shocked to learn so many in the MAGA crowd, the CREC crowd, so so so many families with stay at home moms and 4+ children are getting government funded healthcare for their children, WIC, food stamps etc…”
McDurmon polished his PhD for a dozen tweets or so in order to clear his throat and point out that in his vast reading of Reformed pastors, very few of their sermons have been taken up with government welfare policies. To which I would simply say that is utterly and entirely beside the point. I doubt one can find many references to iPhones either. The center of “Reformed” theology is the Lordship of Jesus Christ mediated through the supremacy of His Word. Many glorious truths were recovered during the Protestant Reformation, but the central, driving engine for the whole project was the unleashing of the Word of God into every area of life setting men free. In those days, the Great Slaver of Babylon was the Roman Catholic Church, buying and selling the souls of men at her pagan shrine of the Mass.
Jesus & the Idols
The central proclamation of the gospel is Jesus is Lord, which is a slightly shortened version of Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings. And of course someone out there in my replies (maybe with a PhD) will point out that the Bible does not say anything about Supreme Court justices, Presidents, Prime Ministers, or Attorney Generals. To which, I will smile serenely and carry on like a happy mallard on a placid pond. To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that “all authority in heaven and on earth” has been given to Him. Someone else in my replies will no doubt pop up to say that they’re going to need a citation for that tenuous claim and someone else will arrive breathlessly to say that the Bible says that “nowhere.” Many such puffs of brilliance have appeared in my replies over the last few days. But my primary concern is with those within the Reformed Tradition who want to preach a “gospel” that does not collide with any idols, at least not any idols that exist in our day, not any idols that the idols themselves haven’t given us permission to object to, and certainly not any idols that have any physical manifestation in our world. Perhaps the bravest of my detractors will occasionally stand for a tentative objection to some shadowy idol in somebody’s heart (somewhere), but always phrased with qualifiers like “maybe” or “perhaps” or “consider.”
But Jesus Christ died and rose again in order to set the captives free. The center of that freedom is the forgiveness of sins, the gift of a new heart of flesh (regeneration), and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And for the three Reformed OPC Bros who are about to accuse me of the “Federal Vision” boogey-man: these gifts are irrevocable, are entirely grace (having nothing to do with our works whatsoever) and are not tied to the moment of baptism. But the point is that when this new life comes into existence it immediately collides with the works of the flesh, the machinations of the world, and all the tyranny of the devil. And what are the works of the flesh, the machinations of the world, and the tyranny of the devil? I’m glad you asked. It looks like sin – every want of conformity to the law of God: lack of conformity in sexual ethics, economic ethics, political ethics, theological ethics, and everything in between. “Jesus Christ is Lord” means war with every humanistic impulse: from the toddler’s pitched fit in the Walmart toy aisle to the gyrating drag queen in Dodger Stadium to the concupiscent politician crushing the faces of the poor through confiscatory taxation and so-called welfare programs to the angry ruling elder gnashing his teeth on the social media formerly known as Twitter.
Jesus said that He came in order to bind the Strong Man and plunder his house. It is not “off the point” when the gospel collides with idols. It is not “off point” when the resurrection of Jesus Christ collides with false gospels. The central most blasphemous idol in our land is the idol of the state, the false gospel that the government will save you, the government will provide for you. If “Reformed” means anything, it means the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the necessity of submission to His Word in every area of life. Unfortunately, many in the Reformed Tradition treat the doctrines of grace and the Lordship of Christ as museum pieces to be polished and kept behind glass. But if Reformed Theology is just the faithful systematic summary of the truth of God’s Word, then Reformed Theology is a sword, a weapon, a cannon for firing at all unbelief, every form of humanistic tyranny. The Reformed museum curators have been polishing the Canons of Dort for the last century or two, but it is high time we started firing those babies. But of course we have now come into a different captivity: the church and God’s people are held captive by a new Babylon, our Leviathan Welfare State, our modern anti-Christ.
It’s certainly true that the 16th century Reformers teamed up with their magistrates to throw off the shackles of the Papist Ecclesiocracy. Where the Pope had become anti-Christ assuming totalitarian authority and power over the lives of Christians, the Reformers defied both the theological as well as the social and political claims of that beast. And they often did so by urging civil magistrates to assert their God-given authority. At various points, the earliest Reformers over-corrected, which is completely understandable when you’re in a pitched battle. Yes, I’m fully aware that you can supply me with quotations from Luther and probably Calvin that invite the magistrates to do things the Bible does not actually invite them to do. This is partly because the Protestant churches and families and magistrates needed to team up against the Papal beast (all three were being crushed), and this is partly because Reformation is messy and it often takes time to untangle jurisdictions. I certainly wish they had built some stronger firewalls at various points. But our Puritan forefathers developed the separation of powers and jurisdictions even further in Great Britain, and by the time of the founding of America, the jurisdictions of family, church, and state were far more clarified.
A Few Representative Objections
Objection #1: The Bible has no conception of the modern welfare state. Ha. It also has no conception of race-based chattel slavery. So what are we going to do? I would insist that if we can find the biblical grounds for abolishing the latter (which we can), we most certainly have the biblical grounds for abolishing the former.
Objection #2: This is hatred of the poor. No, it is not hatred to preach freedom to the slaves. It is not hatred to see the manifest malfeasance and incompetence of the DMV caring for our elderly, orphans, and widows. If the C0v1d clownery taught us anything it’s that government bureaucracy can only be trusted to lock our grandparents in their rooms until they’re dead. Closely related, I certainly do want to lay a large portion of responsibility for this state of affairs at the feet of families and churches. The church has not preached the whole counsel of God on these topics, and families have abdicated their responsibility to provide for themselves. To Ann’s point above, anybody advocating for large families and expecting them to be supported by the welfare state is just a socialist shill.
Objection #3: There is nothing about welfare in the Bible. Again, I say ha. The Bible teaches that a man who does not provide for his own family is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5). And that is in the context of the church considering the possibility of caring for widows. The first line of defense is the family, and the church is the backup (see also Acts 6). Likewise, Jesus cites the Old Testament death penalty when confronting the Jews for how they had arranged their building fund campaigns to displace the ordinary care of children for their aging parents (Mk. 7). The particular culprit is the “traditions of men” that subvert the Word of God. By that same principle, our modern traditions of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, and food stamps have done the same thing. And Jesus calls this a murderous path of disobedience. Again, see Covid nursing homes for Exhibit A.
Objection #4: But if you abolish welfare slavery, the slaves will be homeless and starve. First off, I’m not sure you want to defend slavery like that, but second, I’m not advocating a revolutionary abolition of welfare slavery overnight. I’m advocating that government slaves work for their freedom by taking responsibility for their own families, by working hard, and gradually gaining as much freedom as they can. Many Christians are banding together to help pay one another’s medical bills through healthcare sharing programs and some doctors and surgery centers are beginning to opt out of the insurance pyramid scams in order to provide direct primary care at an enormous cost savings, all part of the great welfare prison break. And in some situations, the Egyptian insurance plan will be your only recourse, but that doesn’t mean you should want to stay in Egypt (or go back). Families caring for their own parents and relatives, with occasional church assistance as needed, is obedience to God and the foundation of true Christian love and liberty.
Conclusion: The Regulative Principle of Power
One of the great restorations of the 16th century Protestant Reformation was the Regulative Principle of Worship, the crucial biblical principle that we are only to worship God in those ways prescribed by His Word. While there are certain narrow readings of that principle that I differ with, the principle is entirely correct. Worship should be according to God’s Word.
And we are in dire need of a new magisterial reformation in which the same principle is embraced with regard to all earthly power and authority. If Jesus Christ is Lord of all lords, if all authority and power belongs to Him, then all earthly authority is limited by the Lord Jesus Christ. No earthly power has unlimited authority. That impulse to unlimited earthly authority certainly is anti-Christ, denying that Christ has come and therefore that Christ is Lord. Only Jesus Christ has all authority. This means that all earthly authority is delegated by Jesus Christ – all power is from God. Therefore, every human authority must understand exactly what authority has been delegated to him. To say that you have authority to do “whatever you think is best” as a pastor, a husband or father, or magistrate is to already be on the slippery slope of imperial monstrosity, the certain path of blasphemous self-deification and slavery, even if you do it in the name of conservative or Christian values.
In one of my replies, I pointed out that in the Bible, political power is often pictured as a monster full of fangs and horns. Pharaoh is pictured as a sea dragon that God holds by the tail and wields like a rod (pictured by Moses’ staff). And the kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome are likewise sketched as beasts that rise out of the sea of the nations full of horns and teeth (see the book of Daniel). And of course John sees the same imagery in Revelation. While there are some glorious images of righteous civil rule (see Psalm 72), the humane rule of civil government quickly turns to beastly madness with the flick of humanistic hubris and pride (see Nebuchadnezzar). The righteous duty of civil magistrates is to wield the sword of justice, punishing evil doers, and thereby protecting and delivering the weak and the poor from their “benevolent” slavers.
When civil power is limited by God’s Word, it wields that sword of justice in righteousness, but when that power begins to be abused, usually in the name of “compassion” and “prudence” and the “general welfare,” the beast is beginning to emerge. All human power must be chained to the Word of God. This is the regulative principle of power. The Bible teaches that our submission to legitimate authority is only “in Christ,” and that means in obedience to Christ. But where authorities defy the Word of God, Christians must obey God rather than man because Jesus is risen from the dead (Acts 5:29). Every inch we get away from God’s Word, the more enslaved and less free we become; but the opposite is also true: every inch we can further embrace and apply God’s Word, the more free and less enslaved we become.
Photo by Håkon Helberg on Unsplash
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