Christians as Magistrates, Baptists v Anabaptists

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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September 29, 2021

00:00: Well, let's read the confession tonight.
00:03: We have article 50 and 51 I'm just going to read both of them to introduce the topic and then we will pray article 50 it is lawful for a Christian to be a magistrate or civil officer and Also, it is lawful to take an oath so it be in truth and in judgment and in righteousness for Confirmation of truth and ending of all strife and that by wrath and vain oaths the Lord is provoked and this land Mourns, that's 50 now.
00:39: We move to 51 We are to give unto all men Whatsoever is their due as their place age and a state requires and that we defraud no man of anything but to do unto all men as We would they should do unto us Let's pray father I thank you for this opportunity to study the confession tonight and Lord as we draw to a close we feel like a Pilgrim at the end of a journey looking forward to being at the end and starting something new But we are so thankful for this opportunity to have looked through these truths that we confess I pray now that you would give us wisdom and insight as we go and look at these truths and the underlying truth That is found in your word Pray it in Jesus name and for his sake Amen to understand the final articles of this confession I Think it is necessary that we remember the opening of the confession Because the opening of the confession tells us what the purpose of the confession is I want to read it to you again It says a confession of faith of seven congregations or churches of Christ in London which are commonly but unjustly called Anabaptist published for the vindication of the truth and information of the ignorant like that and this is what it says this this document this confession of faith is For those who have called the Baptists Anabaptists and they say who have unjustly called them Anabaptists meaning that that designation was not true the Baptists of the 17th century Felt it important and necessary to distinguish themselves from the Anabaptists and This is important because they had a much different theology in many areas certainly they agreed on the doctrine of baptism in regard to the baptism of believers But they had radically different views on other areas Particularly their view of the relationship between the church and state Now in my preparation for this lesson, I actually found an article Now I want to confess.
03:34: I read the article and I thought it was very good, but I have no idea of the Spiritual condition of the author of this article.
03:43: It was a lady by the name of Sandra Uriman and She is writing for Richmond University So this was a college paper and it was I thought it was very well done But but again, I only mentioned that because I can't speak to anything regarding her spirituality I can only speak that her the accuracy of what she wrote seems to be intact She was writing a history paper and I found it to be very helpful.
04:11: So I wanted to quote Two portions of this paper.
04:14: I'm going to do the first one now This is the title of her paper was Anabaptist and the state an uneasy coexistence This is what she wrote In any compilation of Christian views of the state the Anabaptist position stands out as unique or if one wanted to be less complementary extreme The Anabaptist view of the state is less focused on articulating the division between church and state Responsibilities than the Reformed or Lutheran traditions indeed Anabaptists have no assigned role for government beyond the creation of order Emphasizing scriptural interpretations that give primacy to the church in the life of the Christian as a result political theology distances Anabaptist from both the Catholic Church and the mainstream of the Reformation That is the first quote and that is the end of the quote And the reason why I bring this up is because I truly believe that article 50 and 51 were the framers of our confession.
05:17: I know that was weird to say I said confession the framers of our confession it was their attempt to Truly divide themselves from what they considered to be the eccentricities and the radical extremism of the Anabaptist they wanted to make sure that people understood where they had their divide and And last week we saw part of this in articles 48 and 49 last week we looked at the relationship between the church and the state and the requirement of obedience to the state and when it was Godly to resist article 48 and 49 deal with those and that's what we talked about last week And again, I think again I can't prove it But I think that the framers of our confession were looking to the Anabaptists and they were saying This is this is what we don't want to do.
06:08: This is who we are and making a stark distinction between the two When we looked at the responsibility of obedience to the state we did say that there were times when authority should and must be resisted and And And yet that authority still stands and is not necessarily wrong and we have to consider Where it is, right and where it is wrong and This is what we see when we come to article 50 because just notice the first line of article 50 What does it say it is lawful for a Christian to be a magistrate or civil officer now, we're going to see in a few minutes I'm going to read you some more of miss your man's paper, and I'm also going to cite some other historical Citations that typically with an Anabaptist theology.
06:58: It was ungodly to serve in government it was ungodly to Not only to serve in military because there are a lot of people who take conscientious objections To violence and so would not serve in military and that that's not limited certainly to Anabaptist There are many Christians who just have a particular a Conviction in regard to things like passivity and so a lot of those Christians would say I'll serve But I won't hold a weapon so I'll serve either as a military corpsman or something like there was a movie a few years ago, I didn't see it, but it was Andrew Garfield played it was supposed to be a true-to-life epic about the young man who was a seventh-day Adventist and Hacksaw Ridge where he wouldn't he wouldn't fight, but he would protect and he didn't carry a weapon But he saved all these men's lives, and and there's a wonderful truth in that and so so certainly Men like that.
07:51: There's nothing wrong with with having that conscientious objection.
07:53: It's not it's not something I particularly hold to I think that a godly man can use a weapon and and do so to the glory of God I call it benevolent violence, and I am in my head working on a book of that title because I do think there is such a thing but That's a story for another time The the key to this is though within Mennonite or not Mennonite Anabaptist the Mennonites are modern-day Anabaptists along with Amish and the Hutterites and the Quakers and others are different different streams that came out of The Anabaptist theology among them there tends to be an unwillingness to serve in any form of governmental capacity and So the framers of our confession are saying no it is lawful for a Christian to be a magistrate It's lawful for the Christian for a Christian to be in government.
08:46: Now you may think it's impossible For a Christian to be in government I don't think that's true, but some people do think that once you get in government It's inherently corrupting and therefore no true Christian could ever serve in government, but I don't think that that's true I think that it's possible that a godly man can remain a godly man and And do so to the glory of God in government, I think we have a few though they be few I you know, I'm thankful for certain men that we have serving right now even in the midst of an ungodly Society and ungodly government.
09:22: I do think there are some men who bow the knee to Christ and I'm thankful for that But so the confession is saying it is lawful for a Christian to be a magistrate or a civil officer now Let me go back to the Anabaptists and again, I'm comparing and contrasting their position in 1527 in the Swiss German border town of Sleitheim a small group of Anabaptists met and their meeting Resulted in a document sometimes referred to as the birth of the Anabaptist movement.
09:52: The document was called the Sleitheim confession How many of you ever read the Sleitheim confession? It's there it's only I think seven articles so it's very short written in a barn it was penned Primarily by Michael Sattler who I have great respect for Michael Sattler.
10:09: He died.
10:10: We watched videos about him I don't remember that but we've over the years I've shown videos about his life have great respect for him and his willingness to take the stands I don't agree with all the stands he took but I certainly believe he was on the side of the angels and Many things that he did and but a lot of what they wrote in the Sleitheim confession was Their their their peculiarities wasn't wasn't a lot of theology.
10:32: It was more practical, you know, we don't take oaths We're gonna talk about that in a minute.
10:36: We don't serve in the government, you know, we don't fight We don't believe the Christians should pick up the sword These were if you read I encourage you go home and hit and try to spell Sleitheim And Google it But it's you know, just put it in best you can and Google will know what you mean But here's here is article 6 and I want to read article 6 of the slight Sleitheim confession One can see in the following points that it does not befit a Christian to be a magistrate I'll just stop right there.
11:11: That's the exact opposite of what our confession says So you can see that our confession is Has to be in a sense in a response to this statement It's a hundred years prior because this is in 1527 our confession is written in 1646 44 to 46 so you figure it's about a hundred and twenty hundred and twenty so some odd years later, but they said It does not befit a Christian to be a magistrate the rule.
11:37: I'm gonna read it because this is interesting brother Andy I'm reading the from the Sleitheim confession the Anabaptist confession to show how ours this is distinguished Says it does not befit a Christian to be a magistrate the rule of the government is according to the flesh Listen how they describe the rule of the government is according to the flesh that of the Christians according to spirit Their houses and dwelling remain in this world and the Christian is in heaven Their citizenship is in the world The Christians is in heaven the weapons of their battle and warfare are carnal and only against the flesh But the weapons of Christians are spiritual against the fornication of the devil the worldly are armed with steel and iron but the Christian is armed with the armor of God truth righteousness peace faith salvation in the Word of God in some as Christ our Head is minded So also must be so so also must be minded the members of the body of Christ through him so that there be no division in the body through which it would be destroyed since then Christ is as Is written of him so must his members also be the same? So that his body may remain whole and unified for its own advancement and upbuilding for any kingdom which is divided within Itself will be destroyed so their confession very clearly says Can't be in the magistrate can't serve in the government because that government is worldly no matter how no matter how godly it may Present itself.
12:58: It's a worldly Institution and there's no place for Christian involvement And again, I quote miss Yorman, this is what she says She says during the Reformation early Anabaptist rejected the idea that they should play any role in all government Many Mennonites follow this logic in the contemporary era refuse any sort of government service Not just military and other Anabaptist communities such as the Hutterites and the older order Mennonites refuse even to vote won't even participate in the process of voting.
13:30: So so this is a hard Separation from the world's authority from the world's power and the authors of our confession disagree now yes Well, I I I don't know what their answer would be So I can't respond from them.
14:05: I would say that they may say something to the effect that Me not serving in the government doesn't mean I'm not engaging with the world I'm just not going to be a part of the world system So it doesn't mean that I wouldn't engage with people on a personal level and evangelize So, I mean that'd be the only thing I could think of But it does here.
14:24: Here's the here's my thought and it kind of goes along with that Mike If if we never have Christians in government, then we are by default an ungodly government there's no way to have any there's no way to have any influence if we're not going to have anyone serving if we have no Christians in the military then we by default have a Godless military if we have no Christians in the police then we by default have ungodly police and so and so I think that that's an issue in and of itself as we've turned everything of authority over to the evil one and And I don't think that that's necessarily the way that we should go.
14:58: Yes I really don't know.
15:11: I I know that a lot of Freedom is given to like Amish communities and I guess it's Dutch country, Pennsylvania area things like that where there's where there's a lot of freedom given to them, but I I don't know how they handle things like taxation and things I have no idea I've never looked into that But I'm sure that they are afforded certain privileges based on their religious freedom in America we have religious freedom praise the Lord and they have the freedom to To behave in whatever way they see fit and I assume they probably govern their community sort of like we would govern the church There's no legal authority in the church, but we have an ecclesiastical authority that people would recognize and I imagine in their communities there's a certain form of Mutually recognized ecclesiastical slash Authority, you know some some form of community authority That that is as hell.
16:05: But again having never really been a part of it.
16:08: I don't know how that would look.
16:10: I Have said this many times.
16:12: I'll get right there with Go ahead Okay, one thing I have always said though is it's interesting that you tend to find like the Amish and stuff here in America here in America rather than in places like Iraq because The reason why they're here is because they can be here safely pacifists only exists because people who aren't pacifists are willing to take up arms on their behalf and That's why I'm not a pacifist.
16:37: I don't believe that a pacifist is necessarily what we're called to be now That doesn't mean that we're supposed to be warmongers either But but you know We don't see we typically don't see them in places like Iraq and places like that because there's no one to protect them here They've got a nation and a military that will protect them.
16:55: Even though they won't participate.
16:56: They live under the they wasn't I've said this for a passive men live under the blanket of Non-passive men who will take up arms in there They're not gonna run at least at least not in the not in the military for sure, but yes Yeah be no chance But yeah, that's right, you know, we are thankful for you know, I can think yeah I would tell you a quick story and I know my time's limited, but I do love this story I don't know the spiritual condition of Ronald Reagan.
17:46: I'll never be able to know for certain But when his father-in-law died, he penned a letter and that letter is available for anybody to read if you've ever read it It is a very Well written gospel presentation to his father-in-law who was dying and he was calling him to faith in Christ Your time is limited There's only one way of salvation and it's through Jesus Christ and to know that the president who was the president when I was a child Had at least that type of thinking even if he wasn't fully a believer if he maybe he wasn't regenerate But at least his mind was thinking that Christ is the way it compare that to today what we have not even anywhere near close and so You know to think of having a godly governor godly president godly mayor Godly police officers the guy who's pulling you over loves the Lord and that'd be that's it.
18:42: That's what you want, right? At least that's what I want.
18:45: So That's that's you know, the first part of article 50 now I want to very quickly touch on the second part because I do have a I have I have I have my own thoughts and My thoughts are like yours not always not always the most Accurate I can think things that are incorrect.
19:07: But but I do have No problem with Christians serving in magisterial positions Authorities police or anything like that, but on the taking of oaths I have to step back and I say now wait a minute Jesus did say That we shouldn't swear that we shouldn't take an oath and that's the second part of this But again, what are they addressing they're addressing the Mennonites unwillingness to serve Because to serve you have to take an oath to serve and that was part of the argument We can't serve because we can't take the oath And so it becomes to it comes to me and I've had to answer this question before Well, what did Jesus mean when he said swear not, you know, and and when he said, you know, let your yes be Yes, you know be no.
19:52: What did he mean? In my answer and again, as I said, I'm willing to say I have probably a barrier to grow on this, but I do not think that Jesus is prohibiting all and Any form of oath-taking because there are times in the Bible where God himself Takes oaths and he makes oaths based on his name Christ himself There's a I can't think of the passage right now But there are times where he said things based on you know, I call heaven as witness You know these things there are times when we see these things and even the Apostle Paul We see this in his as well so What are we to make of this? I think that Christ is calling us to a life of absolute truthfulness That we are to live a life that we should never have to take an oath I should never have to tell you that I promise you something because my word should be promised enough My yes should be yes, and my no should be no and if I tell you I'm going to be there at a certain time On a certain day, you know, the only thing that would keep me from it is is is you know some intervention of God? But I'm gonna be there if I say I'm gonna be there and I think that's the heart of Christ's command is that oaths Not necessarily that they're wrong, but that they're unnecessary That they would be unnecessary Now our brothers who wrote this confession did cite some scripture and I just want to point to the first two The first one is Acts 8 and Acts 10 why do they reference Acts 8 and Acts 10? Well, because in Acts 8 we see the Ethiopian eunuch get saved And you know what happens after he gets saved he remains a Part of the government he didn't he didn't know he didn't say okay now I'm saved I got of abandoned this post.
21:46: No Philip vanishes and and God carries him away somewhere else But the eunuch gets back in the carriage and goes on his business.
21:54: He's he's now a Christian eunuch, but he's still a eunuch he's still functioning as an emissary of his Government same thing with Cornelius.
22:03: That's the Acts 10 Who is Cornelius Cornelius is a centurion a centurion that word centi meaning a hundred It means he was that he had a hundred men under his authority and the centurion was a leader of men He was a soldier and a leader of men and what did he do? He got saved.
22:20: He was a God-fearing man.
22:22: God sent Peter to him Peter preached the gospel to him He got saved and did he throw down as his centurion hat? I don't know if they were had I guess they did I don't know.
22:31: They had something did he throw it down? no, he he continued being a soldier and If we think back to John the Baptist John the Baptist preached to All kinds of people preach the Pharisees he preached to the Jewish people It says, you know that came out to him and he preached the soldiers and when the soldiers asked John What should we do? He said don't extort money Don't I forget exactly a word or basically don't mistreat people.
23:02: Don't just extort money be content with your wages Right was what he was telling him, but he didn't say stop soldiering and I've always held that to be an important Distinction because if John would have said you got to stop being a soldier Or you can't be a Christian then that would have told us something, but he didn't say that now in history there was a time when a Group of soldiers got saved through the evangelism of a Christian and Yet they knew they were going to continue fighting So what they did was they took their swords and they had him baptized all but their arm They had him put them under the water, but they left their sword arm out and that's not right either But that would this is a historical moment We're like all these guys will get baptized but our swords staying out of the water and the idea was you know This is going to remain unsanctified as I swipe through the the throats of my enemies That's not the attitude.
24:06: We're going to be Christian soldiers.
24:08: We're going to be believing policemen whatever And again, so I think that I think it's I think the historic context of the Mennonite or excuse me the Anabaptist a Position on this helps us understand why they wrote what they wrote Specifically how they wrote it because they said it is lawful to take an oath so it be in truth and in judgment and in righteousness for confirmation in truth and ending all strife and that be Wrath and that by wrath and vain oaths the Lord is provoked and this land mourns What's what they saying there are wrong oaths some people take oaths that they have no intention of fulfilling some people take oaths They know they're lying and by that God is profaned So if we're going to take an oath that it had it had better be truth Founded on the truth.
25:00: All right, and then we move to article 51 we find It seems like it goes away from the subject, but I don't think it does He says it says this it says we are to give unto all men Whatsoever is there do? Now, what is this referring to? I think it's referring to Again, the the authorities because you go back to 48 is about authority 49 is about resistance 50 is about Christian serving in positions of authority and now it's about giving whatever is due and it says as their place age a state requires Well, we are to give all men.
25:42: Whatever is there do I? Think it has in view the authority That men have and they do have authority we're to give honor It's site specifically Romans 13 5 6 & 7 which refers to giving honor where honors do but it also moves into a More universal approach because it says that we defraud no man of anything.
26:04: We don't we don't hold back anyone any honor but to do unto all men as We would have them do unto us.
26:13: And so the honor that is shown to authorities must also be shown to all people that we have a certain responsibility to be those who show honor and Give dignity to all men and It finishes with the with what we call the golden rule What is the golden rule do unto others as you would have them doing to you? Now, I don't know if you guys realize this but that particular rule is found in almost every Religion in the world with one key exception the way that it is worded in almost every other religion except Christianity is Don't do to others What you do not want them to do to you But the Christian the call of Christ is the positive do unto others So rather than calling men to refrain from evil if you don't want evil done to you sort of the whole karmic view of the Indian Religions that say and and by that I mean in India Yeah, yeah the the Continent no nation.
27:28: What is it country? Yes.
27:30: Thank you.
27:31: It's Asia's the continent Asia, but India The Indian people believe in karma.
27:37: They believe whatever you do if you do good, it's going to come back to you If you do bad, it's going to come back to you and there's a certain biblical Truth that sort of Could be falling in line with that the idea of you reap what you sow All right, but it's not the same because it's not some spiritual force like in Jedi where there's this magical Light and dark force that's out there doing these things.
28:00: It's God a personal God who tells us to do good and not do evil But the difference as I said if you go around all the religions of the world They say don't do others what you don't want done to you that very negative for the Christian It's do good to all men.
28:14: Yes That's right because he didn't do anything I I don't want to do even me I won't do evil to him, but you're right the Christian would stop because he's commanded to do unto others as Has been done or that he would want done to him.
28:32: All right.
28:32: Well that finishes up my portion of Articles 50 and 51.