Views 480

Favoured 44

The

The super mining tax furore is an important political argument in Australia. It is showing the true colours of our governors. It is also showing that many Christians are ignorant of the governmental structure that the Scriptures paint. There is a flow or blue print for government in the pages of the Bible. It is imperative for us to understand these principles. If we do not tyranny will reign unchecked. The church is to be the conscience of the state; King Saul needed to take heed of the Prophet Samuel. David took counsel from Nathan and the priesthood. There is no hint in that the New Testament has changed this arrangement.

But first a quote from The Australian Daily Reckoning;

the one factor in all this that Dr. Henry and the government seem to be leaving out [of the tax reforms] is free will. Project decisions in the mining industry are not compulsory. The miners can't walk away from projects that are already producing. This accounts for some of the fury over a tax that is retrospective. But it's as if the government believes many many mining projects will go ahead regardless of the policy…just because. As if the companies will stop making investment decisions based on the rate of return and the cost of the capital. They'll just keep digging and drilling because that's what they do, and if they don't the government won't have any profits to tax. Beavers must dam. Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. But miners don't gotta mine in Australia. In the real world of the private sector, decisions about what to produce are not determined by abstract public policy goals, which are themselves based on personal prejudices about the "appropriate" level of profit. In the real word, final investment decisions are determined by what consumers want and whether a firm can deliver what the market wants at a profit. There is no requirement that Australia export iron ore or coal because it has them. If the miners can't do it at a profit that satisfies shareholders, they won't do it at all, at least not here.

It is important to establish that the Scriptures present a particular framework for governmental structure, authority and responsibility. This escapes many modern evangelicals. In fact it more than escapes the modern church; attempting to apply the Scriptures to the area of government magically produces beady-eyed red-faced freedom fighters! It truly is bazaar that any political talk, aside from social democracy, seems to cause a stir. I think this is due to a lack of understanding the fundamental nature of politics and law. “The source of law in any society is its God. In fact, the working god of a culture can be identified by ascertaining where law comes from.”^[1] This is an important concept for us to contemplate. No law stands independent of an underlying religious assumption. There is no neutrality in life. This applies as equally to politics and law as it does to theology. Every law or policy stands upon a religiously informed (first) premise. All legislation is founded upon a religious world and life philosophy. Lawmakers cannot formulate policy in an ethical/moral vacuum. This is across the spectrum of legislation. There is just as much ethical consideration needed when legislating against theft, murder or pornography as there is when considering taxation, military and everything else. The humanist has won the battle thus far. Why? Well, they understand that the nature of the battle is over sovereignty, man vs God. They won’t win forever; the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church ( Matthew 16:18) and she shall disciple the nations in obeying the Law of God ( Matthew 28).

In ancient Greece and Rome the city or state was taken as the ultimate authority and yardstick in ethics. Caesar was lord over all when moral questions were raised. Over against the totalitarian, divinized state the early church proclaimed the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The ‘ruling authorities’ ( Rom. 13:1) were told that “all authority in heaven and earth” resided in the resurrected Messiah ( Matt. 28:18). Accordingly the apostle John portrayed the political “Beast” of Revelation 13as requiring that his own name be written on men’s foreheads and hands ( Rev. 13:16-17), thereby symbolizing that the state’s law had replaced the law of God, which was to be written on the forehead and hand (cf. Rev. 6:8). That is why those who stand in opposition to the beast are described as “those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” ( Rev. 14:1, 12). God’s people insist that the state does not have ultimate ethical authority, for God’s law is the supreme standard of right and wrong.^[2]

Published in : Worldviews, Ethics

Keywords : Worldviews, Ethics, Godly government, Ethics, God and government, Christian Law, God and politics

Users' Comments (0)

Add your comment