The Two-Goods Argument for Christian Nations
The Second Argument for Christian Nations Among a Series
Read the first argument of this series here.
(1) Every entity created by God is equipped with the means necessary to fulfill each of its God-ordained ends.
God would not demand that any entity act in ways he does not equip it to act. Ought implies can.
(2) The nation is an entity created by God.
This is true whether distinct nations are pre-fall or post-fall.
It follows: (3) the nation is provided with the means necessary to fulfill each of its ends.
This conclusion implies the following: (4) Every end of the nation is something for which God has provided the nation with sufficient means to fulfill.
It is universally acknowledged that, (5) Promoting earthly good is an end of the nation.
Thus it follows syllogistically from (4) and (5), that (6) Promoting Earthly good is something for which God has provided the nation sufficient means to fulfill.
In other words, since an end of the nation is the promotion of Earthly good and God has equipped the nation with the means to fulfill its ends, the nation is provided with the means necessary for it to promote Earthly good.
But (7) the nation can promote Earthly good effectively only if it also promotes heavenly good.
This is the only controversial premise thus far. The moral law of God, consisting of both tables, cannot be separated, for it is a single, coherent, and mutually dependent law. Virtue and piety are different—in content and object—but true virtue is not achievable without true piety (with only very few exceptions). When you abandon the First Table, you eventually lose the Second. For a body politic, full of regular people, piety is ancillary (or a necessary support) to virtue. A virtuous citizenry requires a pious citizenry. Thus, a civil government cannot fulfill its direct end of civil virtue without the presence of piety among the people.
Now, the civil administration cannot administer the things of piety. This is the role of ecclesiastical ministry. But the civil administration, given its end of virtue, has an interest in a flourishing and true religious ministry, even though it cannot claim for itself the administration of sacred things (Word and Sacrament). For this reason, it has powers around sacred things with the end of promoting the external form of true religion in the interest of public virtue. This is the positive side of civil power regarding religion—acting for true religion. But if this positive power is doubtful, the civil power certainly has negative authority regarding religion. That is, it has the power to suppress that which would ordinarily harm virtue, namely, gross impiety, blasphemy, irreligion, and subversive religion. Since these promote civil vice, civil authority has the power of suppression by necessity since it cannot achieve its God-ordained end of civil virtue without having the means to restrain or at least discountenance that which is virtue-killing.
We can conclude that (8) God has provided the nation the power to promote true religion and/or suppress and/or discountenance false religion and irreligion.
Now, since Christianity alone is the true religion, (9) God has provided the nation the power to promote the Christian religion or at least to suppress or discountenance false religion and irreligion.
Lastly, since all entities ought to seek to fulfill their ends, using the necessary powers ordained for these ends, it follows that the nation ought to (at least) suppress or discountenance false religion and irreligion, being deleterious of virtue and (to my mind) also promote the Christian religion. How and to what extent it acts to this end will vary with circumstances in accordance with prudence.
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