Sublime

John Calvin broke with the view that the state was autonomous, arguing for the sole rule of Christ over both church and state (as well as the noninterference between the official bodies). He reopened the way to a Christian view of the state, taking it to be subject, not to the church, but only to the laws of God.

The margins of power may not be attractive or comfortable, but we take heart in the fact that God used Christians mightily in the early church in that context, and he is still doing that today in the global East and South. We can be the city on the hill without being on Capitol Hill.

Rev. Hermann Morse, a Presbyterian minister who was elected as one of the first NCC vice presidents and who would shortly thereafter serve as moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), spoke about the mission “to make this a Christian nation.”23 He argued the NCC could play a critical role in this development: “We dare to believe that a

Is the alternative the solution? Was Jefferson right in declaring that the best government is the least government? Given the growing and oppressive powers of the state, it is tempting to think so. Without all the oppressive regulating and taxing agencies, how much easier our lives would be! Or would they? I once lived for some years in an area of

the state had only a derivative authority as a minister of justice under Christ and His word. The political source of law, then, traced back, not to Caesar, but ultimately to Christ and God’s law.1