Any Christian theory of government must recognize that, time and time again across the ages, the government has itself been an instrument of evil rather than good. The challenge in a fallen world is to identify a role for good government to restrain evil alongside other God-given institutions while at the same time establishing robust means to check the evil of government.
There’s a debate raging among Christians about the proper role of government in enforcing biblical morality. You’ve likely encountered this debate in one of its various forms. Sometimes it’s framed in terms of “Christian nationalism.” Other times you might hear a reference to “common good” conservatism. David French defends the “liberal democratic order,” while others are “post-liberal.” There’s Roman Catholic “Integralism” and its cousin, “magisterial Protestantism.” All these terms and phrases are circling the same question: To what extent should the government use its coercive power to enforce Christian ethics?
The argument for a more aggressive governmental role in regulating morality is seemingly straightforward. In its most simplistic form, the syllogism goes something like this: Scripture tells us certain conduct is evil; the government’s role is to restrain evil (Romans 13); thus the government should prohibit some evil conduct. In recent months, I’ve encountered highly educated and undoubtedly sincere Christians arguing for the criminalization of blasphemy, profanity, and speech promoting an unbiblical sexual ethic.
As a Christian, I understand the alarm that my fellow believers feel as we find ourselves increasingly out-of-step with a culture that seems ever more hostile toward us. We are pilgrims, not pioneers. I also understand the critique of the claim that the government can be truly neutral on matters of morality. As my good friend Jonathan Leeman has said, “Behind every [law] . . . is someone’s basic worldview of how things ought to be. And behind that worldview is a god.”
At the same time, I think this faith in a more muscular government, particularly when it comes to punishing and restraining speech, is misguided for at least three related reasons.
Firstly, the more expansive vision of government being advocated by some Christians today fails sufficiently to account for universal fallenness. Because, as a Christian, I believe that all men and women are corrupted by sin, any theory of government must include a mechanism to restrain and punish government actors when they act unjustly. Irenaeus of Lyons made this point in Against Heresies where he argued that justice requires that, when government magistrates act “to the subversion of justice,” then “they shall also perish.”
This universal fallenness makes me exceedingly concerned when, for example, Christians call for restraints on speech they find repugnant. Short of violent revolt, speech is the citizen’s last line of defense against corrupt public officials. A theory of government that grants to government the power to punish speech is a theory of government that unjustifiably assumes the nobility of those who hold government office and a-historically assumes that fallen men and women, given the power to punish speech, will not wield that power to suppress criticism of them. In a fallen world, it is critical that the principle of free speech be maintained, and not because of an optimism that fallen citizens will always use that freedom in an honorable way. Rather, free speech is critical to protect against the reality that fallen government actors will use the power to punish speech to quell critique of their dishonor.
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Written by Rev. Benjamin Glaser |
Monday, April 4, 2022
What would Moncrieff’s solution be to our troubles today? More Jesus Christ. Not His glory mixed with the wisdom of men, but His power and His gifts alone being the source of our trust and hope.

In my study right next to a deer skull/antler mount is a picture of Seceder and original Marrow Man Alexander Moncrieff. He’s long been my favorite of the Gairney Six due to his doggishness and godly spirit, both as a minister and as a fighter for the truth of the Scriptures. Moncrieff was called “the Lion of the Secession” and was later appointed as the Secession Church’s Professor of Divinity and served faithfully at the Associate congregation in Abernethy near Perth. He was most well-known later in life for aligning himself with those who were against the imposition of the Burgher Oath, which sadly caused a break amongst his brethren. Yet in all these things Ebenezer Erskine was able to say of Moncrieff that he was the backbone that allowed others to stand tall in the day of trial in the difficult days of 1733.
Here recently I had the blessing to re-read a pamphlet of his entitled, The Glory of Immanuel and the Desolation of Immanuel’s Land For the Sins of Them That Dwell Therein. For these sermons he takes as his primary texts Isaiah 8:7-8 and John 1:14. In the former portion of Holy Scripture Moncrieff notes that there is a prediction made concerning the coming invasion of the Holy Land by the Assyrians. The reason given for the troubles that were afoot came because the people sought safety in Rezin and Remaliah rather than in Shiloh. The whole focus of this treatise by Moncrieff is that what had happened in Scotland is that the people rather than resting and trusting in Christ, they had instead given themselves over to idolatry and the doctrines of demons, particularly the pomp and circumstance of popery, and the false philosophy of deism.
So what is Moncrieff’s solution to the declension of the Scottish Church?
More Jesus Christ and less man.
Through the opening chapter he spends a considerable amount of space eloquently stating a deep doctrine of Christ which marks out how and why the believer brings himself to poverty each time he chooses fleshly idols rather than  the sweet honey from the Rock.
Here are couple examples:
His Glory is a divine glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, He is the Son of God by an ineffable generation. And it is an encouragement to the sons of men to look to Him and be saved, that He is full of grace and truth. He is Immanuel, and His Church is called the Land of Immanuel, because in it the pure worship of God and His ordinances are observed; and because of His interest in it, He is the Lord and King of Immanuel’s Land, which is His free and independent kingdom, God having set Him as King over Zion, the Hill of His Holiness.
The word ‘Flesh’ in Scripture is often used to signify the entire human nature, consisting both of body and soul: the Word was made Flesh, that is, He took the human nature into an intimate and real union with His divine person. To what height and honor has He raised our nature by making it the Temple of the Deity, the Habitation of eternal Wisdom? By this the glorious Majesty of Heaven is become related in a surprising manner to the despicable race of man; for now both He  that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
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Jesus our Lord is the great lover of our soul who gave his own life so that we might be forever in His kingdom. What a deep breath that reality is for our lives. I don’t have to have it all, or live my best life now. My best life is yet to come.I am one loved by the Lord. That is enough.

Earlier this week I opened my email to find a message from Wells Fargo thanking me for my online application for a new checking and savings account. Another message soon followed saying my application had been accepted. Flattered as I was, the problem is I, nor my wife, had applied for an account with Wells Fargo, nor do we bank there (nothing personal). I called their online service department and after several automated prompts, I was finally able to speak to a real person and explain the situation. I was more annoyed than surprised or upset by the whole ordeal, but something about the way the person on the other line said the words, “Sir, you are a victim of identity theft” that took me aback (P.S. I think they should have some type of dramatic music rift to follow anytime they tell people that).
Issues surrounding identity are a hot commodity in the world of 2021. Whether its financial or online fraud (Ive since learned that roughly 9 million people in the United States alone have their identity stolen each year), legal designations of gender and sexuality, or even the long term pandemic of self-esteem and anxiety in people of all ages, our identity determines a great deal in our lives.
As believers, the Bible tells us our identity is in Christ. We are as the Apostle Paul mentions, “a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Corinth. 5:17 However, thanks to the ongoing presence and pressures of sin, we often have spiritual amnesia. We forget who we really are, and neglect all the benefits of being united to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I’d like to share 3 benefits (of course there are endless more!) of our identity in Christ that Ive been meditating on.

Our identity in Christ gives us new focus: Regardless of what is happening around us or even to us, as Christians we know that this present world is not our final home. This truth is a new pair of spiritual lenses for the eyes of our faith.  Paul writes in Colossians 3:2-3, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Knowing my life is in Christ gives me a fresh perspective that anchors my heart and attitude in every day life. I often have to ask myself when I am discouraged or worried, “will this still matter next week, month, or year?”

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