Things are so topsy-turvy right now it seemed like a good time to do another call-in episode, and, as always we have some great calls. I will announce the most interesting caller and the winner of the book. The Heidelcast are a smart bunch of listeners and they ask good question and this batch of questions is no different, so it was not easy to pick one. We had calls on the authority and role of the confessions relative to the Scriptures, on what Scripture means by “high places” (what we we should learn from it), on the challenges inherent in streaming services and how we can supplement our temporarily on-line relationship with the rest of our brothers and sisters, on God’s relations to evil, and on how to sort our loyalties when the civil magistrate is telling us one thing and our elders are telling us something else. Our winner will receive in the mail a copy of Caspar Olevian, Firm Foundation, which is essentially of his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism. If you called but did not win you can find an electronic copy via Logos.
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Resources
- On Cancelling Services Tomorrow And On Holding Devotions At Home On The Christian Sabbath
- Your Only Comfort In Life And In Death
- A Guide For Your Devotions On The Christian Sabbath
- Heidelcast 143: How Churches Are Responding To The Present Crisis
- Calvin On The Twofold Kingdom
- Resources On The Twofold Kingdom
- Resources For Those Discovering The Reformed Confession
- Resources On The Rule Of Worship
- Recovering the Reformed Confession
- A Court, A Clay, And A Cross
- Should I Be Re-Baptized?
Re the “high places” question, what first popped to my mind was the incident in 1 Samuel where Saul and his servant are coming back from looking for his father’s donkeys, and stop to inquire of the man of God at whatever city it was. The man of God here is Samuel, traveling his circuit, and he is presiding at a feast at the local high place. So, maybe not always or strictly a syncretistic practice?
Not always. Hence the adverb “typically.”
I recommend an understanding of Romans 13 in keeping with the best Reformed interpretations, as follows:
While Hodge wasn’t entirely consist with this perspective, he says: “Paul, in this passage, is speaking of the legitimate design of government, not the abuse of power by wicked men.” In other words, Paul is not telling us that we need to submit to tyrants or to any unjust laws.
Hodge also comments: “No command to do anything morally wrong can be binding, nor can any which transcends the rightful authority of the power whence it emanates.” In other words, it’s not only the command to sin that we don’t have to obey, but further, we don’t have to obey those who claim civil power beyond the requirements to act justly and submit to justice, because that’s the limit on their God-ordained authority.
In the Westminster Confession chapter 20 on ‘Christian Liberty’ section 4 it says: “because the powers which God has ordained, and the liberty which Christ has purchased, are not intended by God to destroy, but mutually to uphold and preserve one another, they who oppose any lawful power or the lawful exercise of it, resist the ordinance of God.”
In other words, it’s not *whatever* civil powers might decree short of sin to which we must submit. Rather, civil powers (as all powers) are properly limited by God to what is lawful. Opposition to unlawful exercise of power, as well as to the exercise of unlawful power, is not to resist the ordinance of God.
Hodge further comments: “The right of deciding on all these points, and determining where the obligation to obedience ceases, and the duty of resistance begins, must, from the nature of the case, rest with the subject, and not with the ruler.”