I am extremely grateful to Pastor Larry Ball for his reminder of the importance of scripture as the only basis for all of our faith, life, and practice.

Larry Ball’s Response: http://bit.ly/gRKxbs
Andy Webb’s original article: http://bit.ly/gobiG5

While I am not a theonomist myself, I would also agree that the Moral Law of God has what used to be called the usus politicus as the basis for the laws of any well-ordered civil government. Additionally, since the power of the civil magistrate and indeed all human authorities is delegated by God (Romans 13:1) scripture is and always should be the only basis for determining what those authorities can and cannot do.

We need this reminder, as well as the reminder that when a civil authority commands people to do what God has forbidden, or forbids what God has commanded, he is no longer acting as a just ruler, but has become a tyrant and should be resisted just as the Apostles refused to obey the tyrannical command of the Sanhedrin to stop preaching the gospel in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 5:28-29).

I apologize also for not including much theological argumentation in the article, the omission was not intentional. Rather the reason I did not include it was threefold.

First, the article I wrote was merely a personal reminiscence and reflection on the current state of affairs in Europe intended to anecdotally show just how ingrained the belief that students are entitled to have their university education paid for in full has become and why that will inevitably lead to rioting. If I had been writing a sermon or an essay rather than a reminiscence and reflection I would surely have started by building a scriptural foundation instead of telling my own story.

Second, as Pastor Ball is no doubt aware, exhaustively proving a universal negative in theology takes quite a bit of time and argumentation. While it would have taken me only a little while to prove some positive statement such as “God commands us to honor our parents”, it takes quite a bit more time to build an iron clad argument for a negative statement such as “God did not give us the right to a university education nor tell the civil magistrate to pay for our education with the taxes he collects.” That would have required me to establish what rights are, how they are determined, and which rights are to be administered by the civil magistrate as well as how there may be a complex relationship between my rights and the mandated functions of the civil magistrate.

For instance, I do not have a personal right to revenge, therefore I may not seek out and put to death someone who has murdered a member of my family. But my lack of this right, and the requirement that I forgive my enemies, does not preclude the government’s responsibility to exact justice on the evildoer by putting him to death per Romans 13:4.

Third, I believed that most of the Aquila Report’s readers would be familiar enough with the bible to know that there is no entitlement to a university education either directly or indirectly granted within its pages. Because I believed that, I feared it would be exceedingly tiresome to teach people something they already knew and believed – especially at the tedious rate at which I teach things!

I hope this will suffice to explain why I tried to keep it light and write a brief article that skipped a few stones across the pond rather than attempting to build a causeway across it by filling it up with theological boulders.

Your Servant in Christ,

Andy