https://reformedlibertarians.com/024
Gregory:
This is episode TWENTY-FOUR.
We’re talking about why non-Christian libertarians should, and how they can, become Christians.
I’m Gregory Baus, here with Kerry Baldwin.
The goal of this episode is two-fold. First, we want to explain in basic terms to non-Christian fellow libertarians what becoming and being a Christian (particularly a Reformed Christian) is and means, as well as, (basically) what being a Reformed Christian libertarian is and means. Second, what we explain here may be of help to Reformed libertarians in speaking to their non-Christian libertarian friends about these things.
Kerry:
That’s right. We touch on several points.
First, we say what it means, most basically, to become a Christian, and so why one should.
Then, we specify what we mean by libertarianism.
And we briefly explain why every libertarian (perhaps surprisingly) is already a religious libertarian.
We, then, touch on the ultimate purpose in becoming a Christian.
And we partly summarize how Reformed Christianity grounds our view of libertarianism.
Gregory:
Then, we briefly explain the Reformed view of Romans 13 (one of the most famous biblical passages that some might erroneously think is at odds with libertarianism).
And we conclude with three general things a non-Christian can do to facilitate their discovering that Christianity is true.
Beginning with what it means to become a Christian… Kerry, in our first episode we spoke briefly about “the gospel,” that is, the message of salvation, right?
1. WHAT IT MEANS TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN
Kerry:
Yes, we summarized the good news that Jesus fully and freely saves sinners. There is salvation from sin and its justly-due penalty of God’s everlasting condemnation. Jesus, tho Himself God, took on a real human nature. And he accomplished salvation by his life of perfect obedience to God’s law, suffering and death under God’s condemnation of sin, and resurrection in glory, all on a sinner’s behalf.
God applies this salvation to a sinner through faith alone; exclusively through a sinner’s trusting in Christ and His work alone to save them. Faith in Christ, and Christian belief generally, is not blind or irrational wishful thinking. Rather Christian faith is a knowledge of the biblical message as true and relying on what God says as real.
Gregory:
Also, God freely gives such faith or trust to a sinner. God enables sinners to know and trust Him, gives them a new Christ-trusting mind and will, causing a sinner to be spiritually reborn, as it were. God causes a sinner to believe this good news about Christ’s accomplishment of salvation, in making a sinner spiritually alive, giving them everlasting life by what Jesus Christ has done on their behalf. Among other blessings, through trust in Christ and His work alone, a sinner receives complete forgiveness from God, a removal of all their objective guilt, total removal of the everlasting penalty for all their sins, and receives Christ’s own fully righteous record permanently credited to them by God.
That’s the gospel. That’s the good news of full and free salvation by Jesus, the son of God and only Savior. To recognize this message is true, to believe it, is to be a Christian.
Kerry:
We went on to mention that a day of Final Judgment is coming. Jesus is now on God’s throne in glory, and He will return, quite literally, to judge everyone who has ever lived. Everyone is a sinner, and no one will be acquitted on the basis of their own merits. So, the Lord will bring the absolutely just penalty of everlasting condemnation to some. And, yet, He will remain in everlasting (and ever-increasing) blessing with those He mercifully saves. And so if you hear this message and you know you are a guilty sinner in need of salvation, trust Christ for it, and you can be assured He in fact saves you. Turn from your sin, and believe that Jesus’ work alone guarantees your salvation.
Gregory:
Yes. That much we said in episode one. You should become a Christian, by trusting in Christ alone for salvation from God’s judgment, because it’s true; it’s real. And we’ll say more about how you can discover for yourself its truth and reality.
Among other things, it should be clear we don’t mean that you should become a Christian instead of a libertarian. As Christian libertarians ourselves, obviously, we think one can be, coherently, both a Christian and a libertarian.
And to be clear about what we mean by libertarianism, Kerry, how can we summarize it?
2. WHAT WE MEAN BY LIBERTARIANISM
Kerry:
We take libertarianism, in summary, to be the belief in self-ownership, property rights, and the corresponding obligation to never initiate coercion (to not aggress) against the person and property of others, and the fuller political philosophy that follows from these. Briefly defined, self-ownership means that every human being, with respect to other humans, inherently has an initial highest claim on themselves, the right (that is, the “normatively, coercively-enforceable claim”) to their own person and life. Likewise, a right to one’s property means a normatively, coercively-enforceable claim on whatever rivalrous resources one has legitimately obtained (whether by original appropriation, gift, voluntary exchange, or in restitution).
Gregory, how do we understand the obligation to not aggress against others?
Gregory:
The universal obligation of non-aggression towards the person and property of others is entailed by each human being’s self-ownership and property right. If each person has a right to themselves and their property, then no one can rightly deny another their right by initiating physical force. The first-use or initiation of physical force, that is, initiating coercion (including the credible threat of it), termed “aggression,” against another human’s person or property is never legitimate. Examples of such aggression are murder, assault, rape, kidnapping, theft, and fraud. The only legitimate use of coercion (that is, physical force) against another’s person or property is in proportional response to a prior act of aggression.
Kerry, how about the “fuller political philosophy” that follows from self-ownership, property right, and the universal obligation of non-aggression?
Kerry:
While a fuller political philosophy in accordance with the essence of libertarianism just summarized is not as easy to summarize, one element we hold to is the belief that self-ownership, property rights, and the universal obligation of non-aggression entails that the state is illegitimate. As a monopoly claim in some territory upon the use of coercion and final-say, every state in principle (by definition) and practice aggresses against the persons and property of others in that area over which they claim such an exclusive prerogative. And so the state is, always and everywhere, inherently unjust and criminal.
Gregory:
That’s exactly right. The monopoly state, however, is properly distinguished from legitimate civil governance. Legitimate civil governance is the administration of civil justice, whether involving the adjudication of coercively-enforceable disputes, or the rules and enforcement that accompanies it. Legitimate civil governance can never exist in a monopolistic form, involuntarily over any person or property of others.
By the way, in episode 12 we discuss some possible difficulties in seeing the realistic plausibility of stateless or non-monopolistic civil governance. Some of the ideas we discuss there about why it may be difficult for some to recognize libertarian-anarchism’s plausibility may also apply to obstacles in recognizing the truth of the gospel and the Christian Faith more broadly.
3. EVERY LIBERTARIAN IS ALREADY A RELIGIOUS LIBERTARIAN
Kerry:
So, we’ve summarized what being a Christian means. Most basically, it means to know that Christ accomplishes salvation for sinners, and to trust him-alone to save you. And we’ve summarized what being a libertarian is. Most basically, it means believing in self-ownership, property rights, and the universal obligation of non-aggression. We think everyone should become a Christian, and that everyone should become a libertarian, because we think both Christianity and libertarianism are true.
But, Gregory, there’s an even deeper connection between one’s political beliefs and religious belief in general. How can that be explained?
Gregory:
This might come as a surprise to many, but the fact is, libertarianism can be understood and affirmed upon various different grounds, even if unconsciously. And such grounds are, ultimately and inevitably religious grounds. This is to say that every view of libertarianism, as every view of politics, as well as any conception of anything in life, is ultimately a religious view; that is, it’s dependent on some religious belief. This means that every libertarian is already necessarily a religious libertarian. You might consider yourself a non-religious person, and a non-religious libertarian. But such a view of yourself and of libertarianism would misunderstand the sort of inevitable religious belief that we’re referring to.
Kerry:
In episode 19 On The Myth Of Religious Neutrality, we explain this understanding of necessary religious belief more fully. In brief, any conception of anything (whether a theoretical concept or not) depends upon a view of kinds of properties involved in that concept and how they are thought to be related in reality. And that is to say, such a view depends upon a view of the basic nature of reality in general, which in turn depends upon taking something, consciously or not, as self-existent. And a view of something as self-existent, necessarily implied by a concept of anything in reality, is a religious belief.
Gregory:
Perhaps also surprising to many, such a belief (in something as self-existent) is not arrived at inferentially, nor can it be epistemologically justified in the way theoretical views are. Belief in something as self-existent is ultimately a matter of self-evidential experience. While, importantly, not an infallible intuition, experience of something as self-evident produces a belief that is known apart from inferring it from other beliefs. The justification for many beliefs by self-evidence is much more common than one might suppose. For example, one’s normal, properly-functioning sense perception will produce the belief that “it’s raining,” if one happens to be standing out in the rain. Perceptual beliefs are just one example of beliefs that are justifiable on the basis of self-evidence. In the shownotes we link to further discussion of self-evidence.
In any case, you may not be aware that you have any view of the basic nature of reality in general, or of anything as self-existent. But any basis for one’s belief in libertarianism inescapably implies such grounds.
Kerry:
Now, you may be wondering whether, and if so why, anything really has to be self-existent. Self-existence means being in a way that doesn’t depend on anything else. Anything that exists either depends on something else for its existence, or it doesn’t, in which case it is self-existent. Considering all that exists, either some part of it exists in ultimate dependence upon some other part that is self-existent, or no part depends on any other part, in which case the whole, necessarily, would be self-existent since there’s nothing else for it to depend on. So, either some part of all that exists is self-existent, or the whole is self-existent. Any view of reality necessarily entails one option or the other.
You may not have thought about that before, but if you reflect on it, you’ll see it has to be true. If anything exists, then something has to be self-existent.
Gregory:
Whether one’s view of reality implies a belief in the whole or some part of it as self-existent, how one might further characterize what one takes to be self-existent can vary widely. Among the several different options for what specifically is taken to be self-existent are, not only the Christian, Creator-God of the Bible ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ, but also such things as number (for example, a Pythagorean view), the physical (as in so-called philosophical “materialism”), the historical (for example, so-called “historicism”), the logical (as in some kinds of so-called “rationalism”), or some combination of kinds (often a dualism, such as in “form and matter” or the “sensible-empirical and logical-rational”).
Kerry:
And, there are many differing ethical views, broadly speaking, or views of goodness and justice, morality and coercion, that imply some particular ontology or variously depend on some particular basic view of reality in general. And each of these views ultimately and inevitably depends on some religious belief; a belief in something as self-existent.
In explaining why non-Christian libertarians should, and how they can, become Christians, part of what we are saying is that as an already (even if unconsciously) religious libertarian, you should not only come to trust in Christ alone for salvation. We’re also saying that as a result of becoming a Christian, you should further, consciously and consistently, come to ground your libertarianism in a Christian view of reality, rather than grounding your view of libertarianism in whatever non-Christian religious belief is, presently, inevitably implied by your view.
4. THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE IN BECOMING A CHRISTIAN
Gregory:
At this point, it’s important to mention that the ultimate “reason,” in the sense of a “purpose,” that a non-Christian libertarian should become a Christian is the same ultimate reason or purpose for which anyone who is a non-Christian should become a Christian. Becoming a Christian, trusting in Christ alone for one’s full and free salvation, has implications for one’s whole life and every part of it. But one doesn’t rightly become a Christian for the ultimate sake of any of those implications. Becoming a Christian is not ultimately a means to any other higher end than the very glory of God alone. That’s to say one doesn’t come to know Christ as the Son of God and only Savior for the ultimate sake of anything less than the very highest possible purpose of the exaltation of God above all, in coming to have everlasting fullness of life in communion with Him by His mercy in Jesus Christ.
Kerry:
This fact, of course, is not something one appreciates for oneself apart from actually becoming a Christian. But, it’s important to explain in any case. Often enough, one may hear appeals to trust in Christ alone for salvation made on the basis of some secondary resulting benefit. The fact that in becoming a Christian you come to know the true meaning of your existence, is one resulting benefit, for example. The fact that in being a Christian one can come to understand the real basis for the truth of libertarianism is another. But if you receive God’s salvation, it will not be because of all the many, many other unspeakably wonderful gifts that are given with it, but because the Giver has enabled you to properly see Who He is. And you will see that God is the one who, amazingly, saves unworthy sinners.
Gregory:
And, it is exactly in trusting-for-salvation, and so knowing, Jesus Christ that one knows God and the One by and for whom all else that exists was created, and in whom all things hold together and are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Such communion with your Creator, brought to its consummate form for redeemed sinners when Christ returns, is the fulfillment of all that being human is normatively designed by Him to be.
5. HOW REFORMED CHRISTIANITY GROUNDS THE TRUTH OF LIBERTARIANISM
Having explained, however briefly, the deeper connection between one’s political beliefs and an inevitable religious belief, the question naturally arises how exactly libertarianism may be understood upon so-called “Reformed” religious grounds. Kerry, first, what do we mean by Reformed Christianity in particular?
Kerry:
As one’s view of libertarianism can be grounded in various different religious views, similarly, a view of trusting in Christ alone for salvation and the fuller Christian beliefs and practices that follow from it, can be understood in various differing ways. The form of Christianity we affirm is historically known as Reformed Protestantism, sometimes nicknamed “Calvinism.” The Reformed Faith is defined by the official statements of Reformed churches that are summaries of what they believe the Bible teaches. Those statements are often called creeds or Confessions of Faith and catechisms.
Gregory:
You may have heard some Christians claim that they don’t affirm any particular form of Christianity, but are merely “biblical” Christians or simple followers of Jesus Christ. But that only tells you that they are probably unaware of historical Christian beliefs about the Bible’s teaching in relation to whatever their own views are. While they don’t consciously affirm any historical statement of Christian belief, they tend to affirm the particular form of Christianity that rose to dominance in the English-speaking world around the mid-1800s, now often referred to as “Evangelicalism,” that erroneously views itself as some sort of “no brand” generic Christianity.
In any case, our episodes seek to elaborate on numerous elements of the following brief explanation of how a Reformed Protestant view of Christianity (and a Reformed view of reality more broadly) grounds our libertarianism, distinct from any given non-Christian view.
Kerry:
Because God is the Creator of reality, all else that exists, everything and everyone depends upon Him for its existence. He is the ultimate ‘owner,’ so to speak, and legitimate authority of the entirety of reality, and everything and everyone in it. Every human is directly accountable to God for their life and everything they do and have. Every human has a fundamental responsibility towards, or we might say a stewardship from, God for themselves and their lives. That stewardship each person has with respect to God is an ownership of themselves and their property with respect to other creatures. Self-stewardship as self-ownership is part of what it means for God to have created humans in His own image. And this is all one way that self-ownership and property right are grounded in a basic Reformed view.
Gregory:
Exactly. And on such a basis, we further understand the God-given obligation of non-aggression. As God Himself, the Creator, is the ultimate owner and legitimate authority of reality, and has given each human a stewardship of themselves and property that is an ownership with respect to other persons, no one may legitimately claim ownership (which aggression does, illegitimately) over another human or another’s property. Any authority that humans may legitimately exercise with respect to each other cannot be ultimate, total, or absolute. Every legitimate kind of human authority is necessarily normatively relativized and strictly limited. Human authority can never extend to rightly legitimizing acts of initiatory coercion or aggression against the person and property of others. Any and every act of aggression is both a violation of God’s ultimate authority, and a desecration of His image in one’s fellow human.
Kerry:
These facts are revealed by God not only generally in the discernible way He designed reality itself (in what some call “natural law”), but also specially in Holy Scripture, including in its foundational chapters. There is not only a God-given universal prohibition of murder and theft. But God has also revealed the so-called “creational” or “cultural” mandate to humans. And this was not only given before the fall into sin, recorded in Genesis 1:26-31 and 2:15. But it’s also reiterated in a modified form, after God’s judgment of the great flood, in the context of human sinfulness, recorded in Genesis 8:21- 9:13. This mandate tells us about some basic responsibilities God designed humans to fulfill.
Gregory:
Some of the necessary implications of this God-given mandate are, not only self-ownership and property right, in order for humans to fulfill their responsibilities, but also the civil-justitial principle or norm, restricting legitimate use of coercion to exclusively proportional use in response to prior aggression. This is grounded in what is often called the God-given lex talionis, or law of proportional retribution (made explicit in Genesis 9), epitomized in the fact that anyone who murders another properly forfeits their own life. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image.”
Kerry:
This God-revealed normative-rule not only strictly limits the legitimate use of coercion in its degree to a proportional response to prior initiation of coercion, but in that way it strictly limits whether coercion may legitimately be used at all, since coercion is inherently disproportionate to whatever is non-coercive. It forbids aggression and mandates coercion only for aggression; permitting only responsive-coercion in proportion to initiatory-coercion against the person and property of others. This involves an enforcement of as-full-as-possible restitution by any aggressor to their victims. This is the legitimate administration of justice. And it entails an inherent right (a so-called “negative” right against aggression) of each human to their own person, property, and liberty in non-aggressive action.
Gregory:
Yes. That, in brief summary, is how we understand libertarianism to be grounded, among other ways, in the truths of Reformed-Christian religion. You may have other questions about how Reformed Christianity properly grounds and comports with libertarianism. If you’re interested, we suspect any of your Reformed-Christian libertarian friends will be glad to discuss the issues involved, and we hope you’ll listen to our other episodes and contact us with whatever questions you have.
6. WHAT ABOUT ROMANS 13?
Kerry, one relatively prominent question about the relation of Christian beliefs to libertarianism concerns a passage in the New Testament, in the letter to the Christians in Rome from chapter 13.
Kerry:
That’s right. The English Standard Version translates the first two verses of Romans 13 this way: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been “instituted” [or in the King James Version “ordained”] by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists “what God has appointed” [or again, in the King James translation “the ordinance of God”], and those who resist will incur judgment.”
Gregory:
The related words translated “instituted” and “appointed” or “ordained” and “ordinance” are used in the New Testament with various meanings. And that may be why, at least partly, so many have fundamentally misunderstood this passage. But, happily, as is usually the case, the context of the passage makes entirely clear how those words are being used here, despite a common, but superficial, misinterpretation to the contrary. Some Christians misinterpret this passage to mean something like “because God is in sovereign control of reality and so of all history, whoever claims to have power or civil authority must be ‘submitted to’ or obeyed.” It’s true, of course, that God is in sovereign control of reality and all history. Whatever actually happens is what we call God’s providence. And among the many things that actually occur in God’s providence are sinful human actions, and this raises the question of the so-called “problem of evil.” We’ll link to a helpful resource on that in the shownotes. However, as far as this passage from Romans 13 is concerned, it’s important to recognize that it simply isn’t referring to God’s providence.
Kerry:
Elsewhere in the New Testament, and in this passage from Romans 13, the words translated “instituted” and “appointed” or “ordained” and “ordinance” are being used to refer to something God morally authorizes or requires, a normative standard, an imperative or prescription. We can see that this is how the words are being used from the following verses that speak of the kind of authority God ordains, or prescribes. Those verses say God only authorizes or ordains civil authority to administer civil justice; to be “not a terror to good conduct, but to bad… approving of the good… God’s servant for your good, a sword-bearing avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” This passage in Romans 13 is saying that only those who meet that standard of only using coercion for actual justice are actual legitimate authorities that God has ordained. No one is obligated to submit to abuse or injustice, or required to obey anyone who is demanding something they don’t have a legitimate authority to demand. Rather, we are obligated to be “subject to” actual justice, and actual justice is the God-ordained limit or restriction on all coercive power.
Gregory:
This prescriptive view of Romans 13 (sometimes also called a “political resistance” view) was taught in some of the earliest interpretations by various Church Fathers, and is historically the predominant view among Reformed Protestant thinkers, and is the official teaching of Reformed Christian churches contained in their doctrinal-standards documents, such as the Westminster and the Belgic confessions of Faith. We discuss this issue more in episode 2.
Kerry, before we conclude, perhaps it will be helpful to briefly re-cap what we’ve said so far.
6.5 RECAP
Kerry:
So far, we’ve said that becoming a Christian is a matter of coming to know the gospel (the good news of salvation by Jesus Christ) is true, and so trusting in Christ and His work alone for one’s full and free salvation from the just penalty you deserve of God’s everlasting condemnation.
We’ve summarized what we mean by libertarianism, and briefly explained how it is variously, though inevitably, grounded in some religious belief or other.
And we’ve briefly explained how Reformed Christian religious belief grounds, or is understood as the basis for, our libertarianism. And we’ve briefly explained the Reformed view of a Christian teaching that comports with libertarianism, contrary to a common misunderstanding.
7. THREE THINGS TO DISCOVER REFORMED CHRISTIANITY IS TRUE
Gregory:
Alright. We’re saying non-Christian libertarians should become Reformed Christians because Reformed Christianity is true, but how exactly can one come to know it’s true? There are at least three general things non-Christians can do to facilitate finding out the truth of salvation in Christ alone, and the Reformed religion more broadly.
Kerry:
First, know what you should look for, namely an experience of the gospel’s self-evidence. You are, as everyone is, already “religious.” You already, at least implicitly, take something to be self-existent upon its apparent self-evidence. You already have a religious belief in something other than Jesus Christ. However, God can use what He says in Scripture to give you spiritual life and cause you to recognize, instead, the truth of what He says about Christ and salvation in Him alone. Reading for yourself the New Testament Gospel of John or any of the other New Testament Gospel accounts, by Matthew, Mark, or Luke, may be especially helpful.
Gregory:
Second, get to know some Reformed Christians, or get to know them and their religious beliefs better, and observe how what they believe about Christ and the Christian religion takes effect in their lives and in their church community. Seeing the practical import of a truth can help us recognize its reality as true.
Kerry:
Third, become more familiar with the broader Reformed worldview or “conceptual framework” in which the Reformed Christian view of salvation by Christ alone makes sense. Seeing the connection between various truths can also help us recognize their reality as true. The episodes of this podcast, and this very episode, in its explaining something about the inevitability of some religious belief, and how the Reformed Christian religious belief, and basic view of reality in general, grounds a view of the truth of libertarianism, may be helpful. It should also be helpful to learn something about the Reformed “official statements” of belief (our so-called “confessions of faith” and catechisms), and about Reformed theology. As always, we’ll include resource links in the shownotes.
Gregory:
Of course, human beings are individuals, each with their own minds and experiences. And we recognize that just as different people may become libertarians by different means, that’s also the case in becoming a Christian. For now, we’ll end with reiterating our open invitation to contact us with any questions.
