freeborn | ἐλεύθερος on Nostr: #Reformed #Christian #grownostr Most people, following Strauss, believe our current ...

#Reformed #Christian #grownostr

Most people, following Strauss, believe our current political system and civil liberties were derived only from Enlightenment principles. Christians who rightly reject some Enlightenment presuppositions then wrongly go on to reject their conclusions.

The most important political principles of our (de jure) federal government, and the civil liberties that government is prohibited from infringing upon, were established long before the Enlightenment in the long history of Western Civilization from Greece and Rome, through England, and especially by the Calvinists of the 16th and 17th centuries.

One of the most important reasons why governments must be limited is the Calvinist teaching regarding total depravity. Lord Acton put it famously like this: "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." It is precisely because all men are fallen, that all men must be prevented from establishing a tyranny.

What the Enlightenment did was reject the doctrine of total depravity, but they wanted to keep the logical consequences of it in the political sphere that we gained from the Calvinists. In the words of Johnny Cash: "they say the want the kingdom, but the they don't want God in it." But given the presuppositions of Enlightenment philosophy, where is the danger? Why must "Power" be limited, distributed, enumerated?

The proper ground of our political philosophy and our civil liberties is the moral law of God as known and knowable via natural revelation / natural law and conscience. We all know what the 'other guy' is supposed to do, even if we let ourselves off the hook when we do the same things. But knowing how people 'ought' to behave, and having fair means of correcting deviations, is enough to run a just--if not peaceful--society.

My 2 sats.

#liberty