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Government does have a proper role, but it also needs to have limits. We’ve already established that the government can use force to make people do things, which can make the government dangerous when not limited by proper roles. Requiring force can even be a test of proper government roles.
Mike Winther dives into the civil government, its proper roles, and proper limits.
This lecture was given July 19th, 2011 as part of an IPS Government and Economics Conference hosted in Modesto, California. This conference was intended for Christian educators.
You’ll Learn:
- [01:23] Is this the proper role of the government? Do you have to force people to do this thing?
- [02:37] Government limits private parties from gambling and yet they promote a lottery.
- [04:17] Because there is force as part of the government that makes it dangerous. This is why we need to contain it.
- [05:50] Teaching government is like teaching nuclear engineers to contain a reaction.
- [07:23] Our founding fathers had a mindset about what the proper role of government was before they created the Constitution.
- [09:05] Identifying the proper roles of government. We have two kinds of action: individual and collective.
- [12:09] The Ten Commandments. Do they apply to us collectively? The collective application of God’s commands. What we are prohibited from doing as individuals we are also prohibited from doing as a group.
- [20:44] Governments are collectives. The Constitution has enumerated powers for government.
- [21:25] The Bible should be our source of authority for civil government, family government, and church government.
- [26:10] There’s general revelation and special revelation directly communicated to patriarchs. These shouldn’t contradict each other.
- [28:12] There hasn’t been a lot of scholarship on biblical principles in government in the last 200 years.
- [29:32] Biblical exceptions in the government need to be specified. We need to know what the Bible says about the proper role of government.
- [33:52] Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. The two greatest commandments.
- [37:58] Application of the case law is not the law itself.
- [39:33] How we practically limit government. Should every wrong action be illegal?
- [43:52] 1. We need a proper understanding of authority and source. 2. Have a proper understanding of rights. 3. Limited government by the use of law.
- [48:39] 4. Institutional separation of powers. Powers are separated by the three ordained institutions.
- [50:57] 5. We limit government by the vertical separation of powers. That would be the separation of federal, local, and state government.
- [51:44] 6. The horizontal separation of powers. The separation of executive, legislative, and judicial powers of government.
- [52:04] 7. Limit the fuel of the government. If you limit the fuel, you limit the size of the fire. Income tax gives the government far too much revenue.
- [55:06] Dependence is another fuel for the government.