What kind of government do we want anyway?

Posted at Reformation Scotland:

Published June 20, 2024

As the country prepares to go to the polls, it is worth reflecting on what exactly we are entitled to expect from the government. What is the basis of secular government and what is it supposed to achieve in the nation? Does it matter if people holding office in our country are Christians or not? During the Second Reformation, much thought was given to the nature of civil authority, mainly in terms of how it was related to and contradistinguished from churchly authority. George Gillespie set out a series of propositions which differentiated civil from ecclesiastical power. The following abridged piece extracts his descriptions of civil power.

The civil power and the ecclesiastical ought not by any means to be confounded or mixed together.

Both powers are indeed from God and ordained for His glory, and both are to be guided by His Word, and both are included under the precept, “Honour thy father and thy mother.” So that we ought to obey both civil magistrates and church office-bearers in the Lord.

But notwithstanding the many things in which they agree, yet they are distinguished from each other by marvellously vast differences. Here are eight ways of distinguishing them.

Continue here.