The Perfect Law of Liberty* March 7, 2008

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 7, 2008

Scholar George H. Smith, a professed atheist, has written an essay for the Acton Institute celebrating Christianity?s central role in defining and defending individual liberty.

Smith notes that ?Christian obedience [to the government] was always conditional.?

Origen, an early Christian apologist, wrote that believers will ?never consent to obey the laws of sin.? In words that resonate with our Declaration of Independence, Origen taught that the Christian?s first allegiance is to ?the law of nature, that is, the law of God.? This is why, according to Origen, Christians cannot always support the wars waged by their rulers.

Tertullian, another father of the Church, pointed out that everything done by government bears the taint of coercion and violence. He stressed that this is contrary to the Christian way of life, which is based on peaceful voluntary cooperation.

The epistle of James calls the teachings of Christ ?the perfect law of liberty.? Let us work to establish that law, thereby taking back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

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