Theologians who argued for limits of state power

Wikimedia Commons/US Capitol
Reverend Samuel Rutherford not only articulates specific jurisdiction of authority in 1644 in his treatise on just government, Lex, Rex, but he also uses direct Biblical references for his arguments on government and its responsibilities and limitations. Taking from the New Testament book of Romans, Rutherford writes, “No prince [government] hath a masterly or lordly dominion over his subjects, but only a free, ingenuous, paternal and tutorly oversight for the good of the people. (Rom. Xiii. 4.).” The clergy of the 1600s and 1700s of colonial New England believed and preached that the only just government was founded on compact, or covenant, and based on Scripture where reason and nature emanated revelation as the voice of God.

Francisco Suarez, one of the Salamancan theologians who had a profound influence on modern free-market schools of economics such as that of Adam Smith and of the Austrian School, in the early 1600s proclaimed that a ruler’s power in no sense is divine prudence. His reasoning was political power was a result of the people and their will under natural and divine law. In his research Murray Rothbard reports, “Suarez believed that natural law requires some form of state, the sovereign power of any particular state ‘must necessarily be bestowed upon him by the consent of the community.’” Suarez also believed in people’s right to rebel against tyrants, and even, under certain very extreme conditions of tyranny, assassinate the king. And, no, I am not arguing for such actions in our situation. We should use ballots not bullets.

Essentially, as Locke also later articulated, political sovereignty resides in the individual since each is a Child of God….






https://www.christianpost.com/news/theologians-who-argued-for-limits-of-state-power.html









The idea that kings/government has no divine right to govern as he/it sees fit predates the founding of our great American nation. So too does the idea that our inalienable human rights originate from God, our creator to us as individuals. These are the ideas and ideals that our great founding fathers relied upon in our fight to win independence as a nation from the tyranny we were under.

 

The enlightenment was the religious and political environment in which great ideas were formed and of which our exceptional nation was the leading edge of turning those theories into our reality

 

Well, those guys had a pretty bad track record for superstitious behavior.
So the Greeks had 4 methods of governing including democracy starting around 500 BCE.
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/ancient-greek-government-4-main-types-explained

We get our rights as a society, it’s not a gift from Thor.

 

You think that a given society determines the individual rights, freedoms, and liberty that it’s people get? Thomas Jefferson disagrees with you.


When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

 

I do not disagree about the human rights part, but the Bible does not teach everyone is a child of God. Some people are children of devil.

 

Locke wrote no portion of the bible. The claim in the OP is not dependent on any of the biblical verses you reference.

 

All were created by God, God wants to save all. Many simply choose to be children of the other power. God gave His creation free will. Our God given rights come from that.

 

Sure. Satan was created by God too, but he is never referred to as child of God. Being created by God does not mean everyone is a child of God because everyone is born into sin. The Bible never refers to "the lost" as children's of God.

 

yeah, so what? If you want to live like it’s that age knock yourself out. But you’re gonna have to go without modern medicine and the internet and air conditioning just to be as like him as possible.
Oh, and if there was a god I’m pretty sure he’d have put “no slaves ya morons” not only in the Big 10” but in the constitution. Damn that’s funny.

 

Plus, he would need to be investigated by Child Protective Services for his anger management issues.

Why the heck did Andrea Yates and Susan Smith go to prison for drowning their kids (Yates had 5, Smith had 2) but he can drown ALL his except some of his favorites and two of every animal?

And, it's clearly *NEGLECT* how we have "free will" when people are getting brutally murdered, enslaved, exploited, raped, beaten, harassed and otherwise mistreated (and he KNEW because he is said to be omnisentient and omnipresent) but "everything is in the Father's hands with *thoughts and prayers*" (and no damn actions).

 

Our society does not grant rights, rights come from God. Government's only legitimate role is the protection of those rights.

 

Modern medicine, the internet, and sir conditioning did not come from government.

 

The came from humans. Not aliens, not Snoopy, not Ra. You’ve missed the entire point.

 

No they don't.

 

The internet did.

 

No, I can have both God and all the advances of modern science and technology since God is the author of science and nature and the source of knowledge.

 

Until you can prove explicitly which of the several thousand different gods man has made you’re just making things up.
No god needed. Of course the last one I’d want making rules is one who left “don’t enslave people” out of his favorite list of rules, several of which are entirely egomaniacal. Like acknowledging other gods and worrying about how you say his name.
Just show us exactly how you know. No fiction, no loophole ridden copies of stories, just show exactly which god.

 

I’m pretty sure that was Tim Berners Lee.

 

On judgement day you will be free to confront God in person with all of your grievances against Him.

 

No, you’re just faffing about now. Until you can show how ANY god did any of that you’re simply lying. What’s so sad is you don’t mind lying if it makes you feel better about your invisible friend. That’s not exactly abiding by the Big 10 at all.

 

No, the Internet came from CERN, government just took credit for it.

 

I didn't miss any point. Our rights were given to us by God.

 

Partly. Do you seriously believe we would not have the internet if it weren't for government?

 

I don't have to prove anything. In the not too distant future you'll be dead and God will be alive.

 

The predecessor to the internet was the ARPANET

ARPANET - Wikipedia

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foundation of the Internet. The ARPANET was established by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Department of Defense.[1]