The Bible and the Constitution | Michael Farris

[ClaytonB]

Well, my weekend agenda is lined out...

[Nolan]

If you could give a bullet points summary afterward, that'd be great.

[ClaytonB]

If you could give a bullet points summary afterward, that'd be great.

The summary of part 1:

1 The Constitution grants power and limits power of government - not private people
2 Our rights come from our status as people created in the image of God
3 Limitations on the power of government come from the view that all men are sinful and can't be trusted with too much power
4 Only legislatures can legitimately make law
5 When judges, presidents, or bureaucrats make law, it is an act of tyranny
6 The Supreme Court had no authority to legalize abortion
7 Unborn children should be treated as persons

The 2nd and 3rd lectures delve in more deeply on topics of the first amendment and its connection to other aspects of the Constitution, such as the 14th amendment.

[Cleaner44]

Is there any particular denomination that is most inline with libertarian philosophy?

[ClaytonB]

Is there any particular denomination that is most inline with libertarian philosophy?

The key is whether they teach the Gospel or not. "If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed." (John 8:36) What many secular libertarians (and sadly, many evangelicals) miss is that the Gospel teaches a freedom that is even more radical than the most extreme form of libertarianism, because libertarianism only sets you free up to the limits of mundane life, and bodily death. Beyond that, it cannot set you free. The Gospel isn't just about freedom, it's about complete freedom, forever.

In my view, the most libertarian churches and church orders are among the most conservative. Not all conservative churches are libertarian, in fact, most of them are not. But churches where the liberty of the Gospel is taught with full-throated authority are always conservative, and most of them are very conservative.

Doug Wilson's views of the proper role of the State in this present evil world are within a stone's throw of my own:



I definitely diverge on some points of emphasis, but I think the basic concept of "theocratic liberty" is sound. What is "theocratic liberty"? The goal of the Gospel is to prepare us (believers) for the arrival of God's Kingdom on earth. Note that we don't really "usher in" the Kingdom, even though we can speak of it that way, poetically. Rather, repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. In modern terms, "The Kingdom of God is arriving soon whether you're ready for it or not, so get ready or be destroyed." Yes, that's harsh, but facts are facts, whether we like them or not.

Within the frame of God's Kingdom, we are set completely free, because the Gospel restores us to right fellowship with God, that is, it (eventually) puts us back into Eden. Rather than thinking of Eden as a fairy-tale place floating in the clouds, a better way to think of Eden is "that place which you have glimpsed here and there throughout your life whenever you felt truly alive" -- true peace, true freedom, true prosperity, true fellowship, true goodness, true joy, true love, true life, and so on. God gives us those glimpses so that we will understand the difference between true life, and this present evil world's counterfeit "life". And the New Eden promised in Revelation and elsewhere in Scripture is the restoration (re-creation, even) of that world, which was lost when our parents were driven out of Eden. Returning to Eden is what the Gospel is all about, not merely so that we can be "happy", but so that we can be fully alive. And to be fully alive, we must be completely free, even more free than the freest man who ever lived in the history of this present evil world. After all, all men die.

Death is really just slavery in disguise, and we all passively accept the inevitability of our death because we cannot imagine how we would escape it. The Gospel is pointed directly at that slavery, Jesus has shattered the devil's most unbreakable chains: death, and the fear of death (Heb. 2:14,15) So, the Gospel is the Exodus-redux, it is the escape from slavery, not just escape from one slavery to another slavery, but escape from all slavery into God's eternal Kingdom of life and true freedom. This is why the Gospel, rightly understood, is an even more radical liberation than the most extreme form of libertarianism...

[Cleaner44]

The key is whether they teach the Gospel or not. "If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed." (John 8:36) What many secular libertarians (and sadly, many evangelicals) miss is that the Gospel teaches a freedom that is even more radical that the most extreme form of libertarianism, because libertarianism only sets you free up to the limits of mundane life, and bodily death. Beyond that, it cannot set you free. The Gospel isn't just about freedom, it's about complete freedom, forever.

In my view, the most libertarian churches and church orders are among the most conservative. Not all conservative churches are libertarian, in fact, most of them are not. But churches where the liberty of the Gospel is taught with full-throated authority are always conservative, and most of them are very conservative.

Doug Wilson's views of the proper role of the State in this present evil world are within a stone's throw of my own:



I definitely diverge on some points of emphasis, but I think the basic concept of "theocratic liberty" is sound. What is "theocratic liberty"? The goal of the Gospel is to prepare us (believers) for the arrival of God's Kingdom on earth. Note that we don't really "usher in" the Kingdom, even though we can speak of it that way, poetically. Rather, repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. In modern terms, "The Kingdom of God is arriving soon whether you're ready for it or not, so get ready or be destroyed." Yes, that's harsh, but facts are facts, whether we like them or not.

Within the frame of God's Kingdom, we are set completely free, because the Gospel restores us to right fellowship with God, that is, it (eventually) puts us back into Eden. Rather than thinking of Eden as a fairy-tale place floating in the clouds, a better way to think of Eden is "that place which you have glimpsed here and there throughout your life whenever you felt truly alive" -- true peace, true freedom, true prosperity, true fellowship, true goodness, true joy, true love, true life, and so on. God gives us those glimpses so that we will understand the difference between true life, and this present evil world's counterfeit "life". And the New Eden promised in Revelation and elsewhere in Scripture is the restoration (re-creation, even) of that world, which was lost when our parents were driven out of Eden. Returning to Eden is what the Gospel is all about, not merely so that we can be "happy", but so that we can be fully alive. And to be fully alive, we must be completely free, even more free than the freest man who ever lived in the history of this present evil world. After all, all men die.

Death is really just slavery in disguise, and we all passively accept the inevitability of our death because we cannot imagine how we would escape it. The Gospel is pointed directly at that slavery, Jesus has shattered the devil's most unbreakable chains: death, and the fear of death (Heb. 2:14,15) So, the Gospel is the Exodus-redux, it is the escape from slavery, not just escape from one slavery to another slavery, but escape from all slavery into God's eternal Kingdom of life and true freedom. This is why the Gospel, rightly understood, is an even more radical liberation than the most extreme form of libertarianism...

Thank you.

[Theocrat]

Is there any particular denomination that is most inline with libertarian philosophy?

Check this thread: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...gainst-Tyranny