Politics & Civil Government in Scripture, Free Reformation MP3s, Videos & Books

FREE AND DISCOUNTED REFORMATION MP3s, VIDEOS & BOOKS ON POLITICS AND BIBLICAL CIVIL GOVERNMENT  

RELATED FREE MP3s AND BLOGS ON BIBLICAL CIVIL GOVERNMENT

 

John Knox

CALVIN, KNOX, GEORGE GILLESPIE (WESTMINSTER DIVINE), & GREG PRICE (COVENANTER) ON CIVIL GOVERNMENT

 

THE BIBLE TEACHES THE CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY (I.E. ESTABLISMENTARIANISM) - DR. REG BARROW, SWRB

 

THE RIGHT OF CIVIL RESISTANCE (AGAINST TYRANTS), COVENANTING AND ICONOCLASM IN REFORMATION THOUGHT 

 

The Scottish Theory of Ecclesiastical Establishments (1875) by George Smeaton (Civil Government)

COVENANTER MARTYRS' TESTIMONY, A THIRD REFORMATION NECESSARY BY KERR & THE PURITAN HARD DRIVE (SWRB)

 

IDENTIFYING ANTICHRIST IN REVELATION AND THE ENEMIES CHRIST'S TWO WITNESSES (COVENANTERS) BATTLE by David Steele

 

Eschatology of Christ's Victory

 

666: Classic Teaching of the Protestant Reformation (35 Free MP3s)

The Growth and Fall of Antichrist by Thomas Manton and Other Reformers (Free Reformation MP3s, Books and Videos)

THE CHURCH SHALL HAVE MORE POWER THAN BEFORE, PREACHED COVENANTING FIELD-PREACHER RICHARD CAMERON

Eschatology of Christ's Victory - Reformation And Puritan Postmillennialism Defended From Scripture - Jonathan Edwards

Postmillennialism (Free Reformation MP3s and Puritan Books) Jonathan Edwards, John & Iain Murray

 

REFORMED BOOKS AND SERMONS ON BIBLICAL CIVIL GOVERNMENT 

All the books listed below are on the Puritan Hard Drive.

A Sermon on Civil Government (1821) by James R. Willson

 

Civil Government: An Exposition of Romans 13:1-7 (1853) by James M. Willson

Messiah the Prince or, the Mediatorial Dominion of Jesus Christ (1884) by William Symington

Christ's Kingship Over the Nations Maintained and Defended in the Establishment Principle, or, The Principle of the National Recognition of Religion by C. J. Brown

Messiah, Governor of the Nations of the Earth (1803) by Alexander M'Leod

The Duty of Nations, in their National Capacity, to Acknowledge and Support the True Religion (1853) by William L Roberts

What Repentance of National Sins Doth God Require, As Ever We Expect National Mercies? (1690, reprinted 1844) by Daniel Williams

Headship of Christ Over the Nations (1841) by Andrew Symington

The Subjection of Kings and Nations to Messiah (1820) by James R. Willson

John Knox, Oliver Cromwell, God's Law and the Reformation of Civil Government by Reg Barrow

The Mystery of Magistracy Unveiled: or, God's Ordinance of Magistracy Asserted, Cleared, and Vindicated from Heathenish Dominion, Tyrannous and Antichristian Usurpation, Despisers of Dignities, and Contemners of Authorities by George Gillespie

Against Romish Rites and Political and Ecclesiastical Tyranny, A Faithful Admonition to the Professors of God's Truth in England (1554) by John Knox

Church and State: The Biblical View, A Compilation Of Articles From Some Of The Best Christian Minds In History, Including Cunningham, Smeaton, M'Crie, Symington, Gillespie, The Westminster Divines, Bannerman, Owen, And Shaw

The Right of Dissent from an Immoral Civil Government by Covenanter Magazine

Defending the Reformed Presbyterian Position on the Civil Magistrate (1781) by John M'Millan Jr.

Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince by Samuel Rutherford

Pornography, the Anabaptists, and Doug Wilson's Civil Antinomianism by Dr. Reg Barrow

The Scottish Theory of Ecclesiastical Establishments (1875) by George Smeaton

 

National Repentance and Reformation (A Brief Exhortation to England for the Speedy Embracing of the Gospel, 1559) by John Knox

Prince Messiah's Claims to Dominion Over All Governments: and the Disregard of His Authority by the United States in the Federal Constitution (1832) by James R. Willson

Prince Messiah's Claims to Dominion Over All Governments: and the Disregard of His Authority by the United States in the Federal Constitution (1832) by James R. Willson

Submission to "the Powers That Be," Scripturally Illustrated (1828) by William L. Roberts

The Absurdity and Perfidy of All Authoritative Toleration of Gross Heresy, Blasphemy, Idolatry, Popery, in Britain by John Brown of Haddington

The Sabbath: A Discourse on the Duty of Civil Government in Relation to the Sanctification of the Lord's Day (1829) by James R. Willson

The Amendment of the Federal Constitution (1865) by James Wallace

The Dominion of Our Savior Jesus Christ as Mediator. Shown to Extend to All Things External to His Church (1878) by William Oburn

The Millennium: Peace, Prosperity and National Covenanting (1879) by Matthew Murray

The Establishment Principle Defended (1873) by William Balfour

 Quotes On The Reformation View Of Biblical Civil Government 

"No manifest idolater, nor notorious transgressor of God's holy precepts, ought to be promoted to any public regiment [i.e. government-GLP], honour, or dignity, in any realm, province, or city that has subjected itself to his blessed evangel"(John Knox from "Summary of the Proposed Second Blast of the Trumpet" [1558], as cited in Greg Price, Biblical Civil Government Versus The Beast; and The Basis for Civil Resistance [1996], p. 5, on the Puritan Hard Drive, emphases added)

 

"I lay down this maxim of divinity; tyranny being a work of Satan, is not from God, because sin either habitual or actual, is not from God; the power that is, must be from God; the magistrate as magistrate, is good, in nature of office, and the intrinsic end of his office, Rom. 13:4. for he is the Minister of God for thy good; and therefore a power ethical, political, or moral, to oppress, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power, and is no more from God, but from sinful nature, and the old serpent, than a license to sin." (Samuel Rutherford [Scottish Covenanter and Westminster Divine], Lex, Rex, 1644, on the Puritan Hard Drive, emphases added).

 

"The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the Word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven: yet he has authority, and it is his duty, to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administrated, and observed" (The Westminster Confession of Faith [1647, original edition], 23:3, on the Puritan Hard Drive, emphases added).

 

"The orthodox churches believe also, and do willingly acknowledge, that every lawful magistrate, being by God himself constituted the keeper and defender of both tables of the law, may and ought first and chiefly to take care of God's glory, and (according to his place, or in his manner and way) to preserve religion when pure, and to restore it when decayed and corrupted: and also to provide a learned and godly ministry, schools also and synods, as likewise to restrain and punish as well atheists, blasphemers, heretics and schismatics, as the violators of justice and civil peace" (George Gillespie [Scottish Covenanter and Westminster Divine], Works, 1:12, on the Puritan Hard Drive, emphases added).  

 

 

"Yet civil government has as its appointed end, so long as we live among men, to cherish and protect the outward worship of God, to defend sound doctrine of piety and the position of the church, to adjust our life to the society of men, to form our social behavior to civil righteousness, to reconcile us with one another, and to promote general peace and tranquility (John Calvin, Institutes, IV, XX, Volume 2, p. 1487, Westminster Press [1960], emphases added). 

 

"'Of the Civil Magistrate' Moreover, to kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates, we affirm thatchiefly and most principally the conservation and purgation of the religion appertains; so that not only they are appointed for civil policy, but also for maintenance of the true religion, and for suppressing of idolatry and superstition whatsoever: as in David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, and others, highly commended for their zeal in that case, may be espied. (Scottish Confession of Faith [1560, co-authored by Scottish reformer, John Knox], ch. 24, "Of the Civil Magistrate", on the Puritan Hard Drive, emphases added)

 

The establishmentarianism of the Reformation was not limited to just individual divines, "Dr. M'Crie in his STATEMENT OF THE DIFFERENCE, shows that all the Confessions of the Protestant and Presbyterian Churches of the Reformation, both in Britain and on the Continent of Europe, held and maintained the Establishment Principle." M'Crie goes on give extracts from THE CONFESSION OF HELVETIA; THE CONFESSION OF BOHEMIA, called the CONFESSION OF THE WALDENSES; THE CONFESSION OF SAXONY; THE FRENCH CONFESSION; THE BELGIC OR DUTCH CONFESSION; THE CONFESSION OF THE ENGLISH CONGREGATION IN GENEVA;THE SCOTS CONFESSION and THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION, all proving that "these confessions harmoniously agree in declaring as with one mouth that civil authority is not limited to the secular affairs of men, and the public care and advancement of religion is a principle part of the official duty of magistrates." See our publication of Theodore Beza's (Calvin's successor in Geneva) HARMONY OF THE PROTESTANT CONFESSIONS (section 19, "Of the Civil Magistrate") and the Westminster Confession of Faith (chapter 23) to confirm M'Crie's findings. M'Crie, in opposition to Tangelder, then rightly concludes, "Such is the harmony of doctrine in the Protestant churches on this head, expressed in their confessions and public formularies drawn from the word of God; a harmony which deserves great attention, and from which none should rashly depart." The only so-called Protestant group that generally opposed establishments was the anti-covenantal, anabaptists. (Dr. Reg Barrow, Reg Barrow's Reply toChristian Renewal Regarding Their Review of Mike Wagner's Presbyterian Political Manifesto,on the Puritan Hard Drive, emphases added) 

 

And the government's task is not limited to caring for and watching over the public domain but extends also to upholding the sacred ministry, with a view to removing and destroying all idolatry and false worship of the Antichrist; to promoting the kingdom of Jesus Christ; and to furthering the preaching of the gospel everywhere; to the end that God may be honored and served by everyone, as he requires in his Word. (The Belgic Confession: Article 36: "The Civil Government," on the Puritan Hard Drive, emphases added) 

 

II. Classic vs. modern reformed teachings concerning magistracy and religion.

 

We turn now to several quotations from reformed creeds and eminent reformed writers, concerning the Christian magistrates' power and authority about (not in, as this is the domain of Christ and His delegated church officers alone) matters of religion. After these, appropriate sections from the original Westminster Confessionare compared with the creedal standards of three prominent reformed denominations in our day, the Presbyterian Church in America, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America. Commentary by B.B. Warfield as to what these revisions entailed (he himself apparently favorable to them) concludes this outline. Apart from a consideration of which position is correct, it is immediately evident that these modern reformed denominations (and Warfield) take a position of the magistracy bearing much more resemblance to the pluralism of the United States Constitution, than to the citations from our reformed heritage. If, indeed, our forefathers in the faith were wrong, wherein lay their error, and why was their position held not by one or two isolated churches but by virtually all the reformed churches, spanning several countries, during times of great reformation? 

 

It is this author's contention that the modern churches have let go of this important piece of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Thereby they have delivered the church, not to kings as nursing fathers, but to the cruel civil domination of the enemies of the true religion, their sheep being taught that they must submit passively to every pretended civil authority as the ordinance of God. By this defection, these leaders of the flock have also undermined the magistracy, allowing and even encouraging wicked men to remove this blessed ordinance from its foundation in God its creator, and from its subjection to Christ His King, thereby directly opposing God's benevolent ends in instituting civil government. ... 

 

In conclusion, it is affirmed that God requires of the Christian subjection for conscience sake to the office of civil magistracy and to those who hold the office so long as they fulfill the moral duties of a civil magistrate. This and this alone is "the ordinance of God." However, it is denied that the Christian owes conscientious subjection or honor to a tyrant who forsakes the moral duties of his office. The Christian should be thankful for the measure of freedom he may yet enjoy under a tyrant, but he cannot say that the emperor is clothed in lawful authority just because everyone says he is. The Christian must fear the Lord his God, and stand with the cloud of faithful witnesses and courageously declare, "The king has no clothes" (i.e. no lawful authority). The Christian who testifies to this truth may be falsely accused of treason, sedition, and revolutionary anarchy, but so were Christ, Paul, and Christians throughout history. If it can justly be termed "treason" to actively resist tyranny, then far better to be charged with treason against a tyrant than to be charged with treason against the Son of God for not actively resisting Christ's enemies when it is the Christian's duty to do so. The eminent Scottish divine, Samuel Rutherford, well stated the duty of the Christian who stands for the truth in the face of false allegations of treason:  

 

Christ, the prophets, and apostles of our Lord, went to heaven with the note of traitors, seditious men, and such as turned the world upside down: calumnies [i.e. slanders--GLP] of treason to Caesar were an ingredient in Christ's cup, and therefore the author [i.e. Mr. Rutherford--GLP] is the more willing to drink of that cup that touched his lip, who is our glorious Forerunner: what, if conscience toward God, and credit with men, cannot both go to heaven with the saints, the author is satisfied with the former companion, and is willing to dismiss the other. Truth to Christ cannot be treason to Caesar. . . . 83  

 

There is coming a day when magistracy and ministry will both fulfill their ordained duties to the glory of Christ, then the church of Jesus Christ will see the full realization of God's promise: "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers" (Isa. 49:22,23). 

 

- Greg Price, Biblical Civil Government Versus the Beast; and, The Basis For Civil Resistance, on the Puritan Hard Drive, emphases added. 

 

 

From the Scriptural doctrine of Christ's universal Lordship we can understand the nature and the extent of the service which nations are required to render to Him. He is their King, possessed of absolute authority over them, the rightful Lord of every person, every where, at all times, in every relation, and so the rightful Lord of all the persons in a nation when they are joined together in the capacity of rulers and ruled. ...

 

In the days of the reforming kings of Judah, their zeal first attacked the idols that had been set up to receive the people's worship. The image of Baal was not allowed any longer to usurp the place of Jehovah. Images, altars, groves, and all other monuments of degrading idolatry were swept away and the temple cleansed, that the worship of the true God might be restored. So it must be with our own land if it would return to God's covenant and service. 

 

The Baal of mere political expediency must be ground to powder; the will of the people must bend or break in the presence of the will of the Lord of hosts; iniquitous legislation must be repealed; unscriptural concessions to false systems must be recalled; endowments given to error, to idolatry, to Antichrist, must be withdrawn, and, for the maintenance of truth and true religion, they must be laid at the feet of Christ. God's message, through Samuel, to a sinning nation of old, was "If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only." The true practical service of Christ cannot co-exist with habitual idolatry on the part either of an individual or of a nation.C hrist claims not a part but the whole of our homage in every relation, not limited but absolute authority over men and nations. Therefore the idols must be utterly abolished in an idolatrous nation, as an essential preliminary to the practical service of Christ; and as a proof that the nation is sincere in its submission to the Universal Lord.

 

The open and practical subjection of a nation to Christ, where that subjection is sincere, extends, however beyond purely civil matters, which are the immediate ends of a national constitution. The nation, as we have seen, is required to place all its civil affairs beneath His authority, and to endeavour to have them first and last regulated by His holy law, for His glory as the King of nations. But a truly holy and obedient nation will do much more than this. It will intelligently recognise the great end of Christ's authority over nations, and voluntarily seek to promote the accomplishment of that end as its own great and ultimate end. ...

 

We must very carefully guard against the settlement of such a question as that of Christ's authority over the nations, over their legislation, over their resources, by the consideration of past or present abuses. We know there have been wrong and injurious methods employed by churches and nations in dealing with this question in the past. And what has been unquestionably wrong in the past, and is unquestionably wrong still, in the methods of national endowment, weighs so heavily on some minds as to make them forget that there are right methods, and that Christ is Lord of the nations' money "to the Church." 

 

But we must settle the question in another and very different way. What saith the Scripture? There is no Scripture principle or doctrine that we should not be justified in letting go and denouncing, if abuse were a good reason for letting go the Scripture doctrine of regular national offerings to Christ for His Church. Every doctrine and principle has been abused. Not by abuses, therefore, but by the plain teaching of Scripture -- preceptive, historic, and prophetic -- must we settle the question of national service to God's Christ. 

 

Let us remember Christ's official character as the Mediator, the grounds of His Mediatorial reign, His relation to the Church and His special and peculiar interest in her welfare and progress, the grant of all things, including all nations, for His inheritance, to be subservient to His purposes in the Church; let us remember the command we are now considering, in its connection with Christ set upon the Holy Hill of Zion; let us remember the manifold predictions such as, "All kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him" -- "before Him" as the Mediatorial King of the Church, to whom, in that capacity, they offer their willing services for His central and most glorious kingdom -- "serve Him" in that capacity for the furtherance of that great purpose of His in the Church which infinitely transcends all worldly purposes in importance to the moral universe; let us remember all this, and we can have no difficulty in accepting the Reformation doctrine of national subjection to Jesus Christ as the enthroned Mediator.

 

When the nations bring their offerings of intelligent homage to Him they will find Him in the very midst of His Church, and they will never find Him anywhere else. He "sits between the cherubims," "Great and High in Zion," or the Church, "above all people." In that position of central honour he must be acknowledged and worshipped at length by all the nations of the world. There is no principle more clearly and more solemnly laid down in the Word of God, and more clearly established by history, than this; and there was no principle more joyfully and intelligently accepted by our fathers of the Second Reformationthan this; -- that true national duty and the most elevated national policy consist in bearing faithful allegiance to Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, as "King of kings and Lord of lords," in the spirit and tone and contents of the national constitution, in the whole national legislation and administration, and in the specific acknowledgement of His right to the nation's constant and regular tribute to Him as its Lord.

 

When the nations come to know this, and to act in the spirit of this subjection; when they acknowledge Him as the Lord of Hosts and obey His commands along the whole line of national action; then, and not till then, shall the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. 

 

- Rev. James Dick, M.A., Civil Rulers Serving the Lord or The Scriptural Doctrine of National Religion (A Sermon, preached at the opening of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Scotland, May 15th, 1882), emphases added.

 

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isa. 2:2-4)

Reformed Presbytery, RPNA Protesters, etc.

Solemn League and Covenant

Westminster Confession, Assembly and Divines

Covenanters and Covenanted Reformation

John Knox

Samuel Rutherford

Scottish Covenanters

Reformation History