We believe that our gracious God, because of the depravity
of mankind, hath appointed kings, princes and magistrates, willing that the
world should be governed by certain laws and policies (i.e., police or
police-regulations; French: polices);
to the end that the dissoluteness of
men might be restrained, and all things carried on among them with good order
and decency. For this purpose, he hath invested the magistrates with
the sword for the punishment of evil-doers and for the protection of them that
do well. And their office is, not only to have regard unto and watch for the
welfare of the civil state; but also that they protect the sacred ministry; and
thus may remove and prevent all idolatry and false worship; that the kingdom of
antichrist may thus be destroyed and the kingdom of Christ promoted. They must,
therefore, countenance the preaching of the Word of the gospel everywhere, that
God may be honoured and worshipped by everyone, as he commands in His Word.
Moreover it is the bounden duty of every one of what state, quality or
condition soever he may be, to subject himself to the magistrates, to pay
tribute, to show due honor and respect to them, and to obey them in all things
which are not repugnant to the Word of God; to supplicate for them in their prayers
that God may rule and guide them in all their way and that we may lead a quiet
and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Wherefore we detest the
Anabaptists and other seditious people, and, in general, all those who reject
the higher powers and magistrates and would subvert justice, introduce
community of goods, and confound that decency and good order, which God hath
established among men (Belg. Conf., 36).
COMMON
GRACE ARGUMENT:
Exponents
of the theory of common grace have appealed to this article as proof of an
inner, spiritual operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart of every man whereby
he is not regenerated, yet he is kept from total corruption of his nature; and,
by this same inward operation of grace, there is a certain reforming influence
outside of the work of regeneration upon the heart of every man.
(I)
Herman
Hoeksema (1886-1965)
(a)
[Source: The Protestant Reformed Churches in America
[1947], 368-369]
10.
What is described in this article?
The calling of the magistrates according to the Word of God. What we
have in this article is, evidently, the picture of a Christian government,
according to the conception of our fathers. When the government functions and
protects them that do well, it destroys the kingdom of antichrist and promotes
the kingdom of Christ and it furthers the preaching of the Word, so that God
may be worshipped everywhere. And although the phrase “and thus may remove and
prevent all idolatry and false worship” has been amended in a foot-note, rejecting
the dominion of the State over the church, yet the article as a whole was never
repudiated.
11.
But is there in this article any proof for the contention that there is
an operation of the Holy Spirit restraining sin in the heart of the natural man?
Not at all. The difference between this article and the Second Point of
1924 is very lucid. Once more, this article speaks of an external restraint upon and punishment of the wicked, and that not
by God, but by the power of the magistrates and of their sword. So little does
this part of the confession speak of a restraint of sin in the heart by the
Holy Spirit, that, if the latter were true, the magistrates and the police
would not be necessary for this purpose. It is exactly because of the dissoluteness of men, which is not restrained by any
spiritual or moral improvement, that the government must bear the sword.
(b)
This article does not speak of a restraint of the
power and corruption of sin in the heart of the natural man by a general
operation of the Holy Spirit, but of an external
restraint of certain public sins by the power of the law supported by police
power. The plain teaching of this article is that without the power of the
magistrates men are not restrained at all, but are dissolute. If there were such an operation of the Spirit, as
taught in the second point, the police and the sword-power of the magistrates
would be unnecessary. But now it is different. Article 36 does not proceed from
the assumption of such an operation of grace on the heart of natural man, and
therefore it professes the need for laws and police.
---------------------------------------------------
(II)
Prof.
Herman C. Hanko
[Source: Common Grace
Considered (2019 edition), pp. 219-220]
[It] is clear to every Reformed
man that, indeed, God ordains magistrates to keep order in society. But as one
man once put it to me, “The second point [of common grace] confuses the Holy Spirit with the policeman”—or makes the sword of
the magistrate the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to derive from this article
anything even remotely resembling “a work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of
all men, bringing to these men God’s grace, and restraining man’s sin by these
gracious internal influences.”
---------------------------------------------------
(III)
(III)
More to
come! (DV)
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