Quote:
Originally Posted by lagtight
Please respond to my refutation. Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lagtight
Well, I (perhaps incorrectly) inferred from your post that you thought that a person of faith wanting or needing government was inconsistent with that persons presumed belief that their faith in God is enough. While it's true from a Christian perspective that faith is "enough" for salvation, it is not "enough" for sanctification. Part of the sanctification process is being obedient to God. According to the Bible, God has ordained the institution of civil government.
So, what didn't "make sense" to me was the idea that somehow "faith" precludes civil institutions.
You were attempting to refute this - "
I question the faith of people who want or need God in government because such a want or need contradicts the experience that faith alone is enough."
And I don't think you did.
If we take "sanctification" as meaning "the state of proper functioning.", and we agree that god is both omnipotent and omniscient, and that he is incapable of making mistakes and that it's not possible for anything to occur that isn't his will, then what we have now must be 'proper functioning', it is, as is so often claimed by theists in other contexts, god's will and what he intended.
The USA was founded on the principle of religious freedom, and the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment, prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”. Since that's what we have, it must be god's will. Therefore there is no need for god in government, even if there is a biblical requirement for civil institutions. (Are you a biblical literalist?)
In any case, the idea that a universe creating, all-powerful, all-knowing deity would even need churches, let alone the protection of the worship of him by civil institutions, is ridiculous. Unless of course he is vain and insecure, authoritarian and demanding, which would resolve the question of why he needs constant worship in the first place.