Ep. 2: What Does Romans 13 Say About Civil Government?

The Reformed Libertarians Podcast

A discussion of the main points of Gregory Baus' article on the historical, confessionally Reformed view of Romans 13 and a Reformed view of stateless civil governance. Also there's elaboration on lex talionis and the non-aggression principle, the Old Testament (Mosaic Covenant) theocracy, and establishmentarianism.

https://reformedlibertarians.com/002

Main Points of Discussion

00:00 start

00:33 episode description

01:02 article https://tinyurl.com/r13civgov
audio version https://tinyurl.com/r13stateless

01:22 summary of preliminaries

02:22 lex talionis and the non-aggression principle

05:43 distinction between civil governance (viz, administration of civil justice) and the 'state' (viz, territorial monopoly on coercion and final say)

06:53 summary overview of article Reformed Political Resistance annotated bibliography https://tinyurl.com/RefoPoliResistBib

07:41 an issue of exegesis, not political theory

09:00 major point: the default providential view is inconsistent with the passage and other Scripture passages, was rejected by the Reformed churches in their confessions, and contrary to sanctified common sense

09:45 discussed elsewhere:
Presbycast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC95p88UzKg
Gospel On Tap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UcwN0x5tvY
Daniel 3 Biblical Anarchy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm_wh1ndsxw

10:00 documentation from Reformed confessions; no obligation to submit to unjust rulers or unjust laws

12:58 Why isn't old (Mosaic) covenant a violation of the non-aggression principle and a model for civil governance in new covenant era? And why do we affirm disestablishmentarianism?
Against Civil Establishment Of Religion : https://reformedlibertarians.com/against-civil-establishment-of-religion/
Hodge's full article : https://www.trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=92

18:51 summary of history of establishmentarianism

Additional Resources

• Answers to Objections to Reformed view of Romans 13: https://reformedlibertarians.com/episode/why-isnt-the-state-biblically-justified-resolving-romans-13-objections/
• Meredith G. Kline's article on theocracy: https://meredithkline.com/klines-works/articles-and-essays/the-relevance-of-the-theocracy/
• Lee Irons' article on theonomy: https://www.the-highway.com/theonomy-hermeneutic_Irons.html
• Lane Tipton's article on theonomy: https://www.kerux.com/doc/1501A1.asp
• T. David Gordon's article on theonomy: https://web.archive.org/web/20200718055717/http://tdgordon.net/theology/theonomy.pdf

The Reformed Libertarians Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute: https://libertarianchristians.com and a member of the Christians for Liberty Network: https://christiansforliberty.net

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