The Salt of the Earth?

New at Polemos
Some Good Quotes
Law, Civil

"The church is called to function as a preservative in society ("the salt of the earth") (Matthew 5:13), and thus the early church and Reformers main­lined, among other things, that the civil "magistrate" is also a "minister" if God (Romans 13:4,6) and as such responsible to His authority and law. Previously the autonomous polis and natural reason, taken to be the source and authority for political law, were challenged by the church, but today the church has largely succumbed to the idea that God's law is extraneous, not only to personal morality, but to matters of statesmanship and civil government. The theologians of this century have offered no serious alternative to the world, giving the impression that "the salt has lost its saltiness." For instance, in a book on the very topic of The Christian in Politics we read these words by Walter James:

The Christian is called upon to act beside other men and no assurance is given him that he will sense God's purpose better than they. He can no more aim to be a Christian statesman than a Christian engineer. . . . He stands on a par with the non-Christian. . . . His religion will give him no special guid­ance in his public task. . .

In addition to not having anything to speak before kings (Psalm119:46) because of its endorsement of neutralism in civil affairs, the modern church has shown itself to be as antinomian in its theory of ethics as the autono­mous secular man. As a result the church fails to challenge "the powers that be" with the "power (authority)" of Christ (Romans 13:1 with 28:18) or to offer restor­ative guidance to its society...."

Greg Bahnsen in Theonomy in Christian Ethics