D G Hart

natural law demands you obey the voice of God the Bible is the voice of God natural law demands you obey the Bible

Where does it not? Every cell. Every atom. Every quark. Every leaf and bough and branch. Every creature great and small. Every rock and mountain. All of it preaches.

Sounds neat. But a total disaster of false inference and conflation. First of all, it isn't valid. But, to be fair, an argument doesn't have to contain all the premises. Second, DeYoung's argument would seem to grant both church and state the same formal, intrinsic, and earthly end. But since the state's absolute end is public virtue, the church (in this understanding) must be subordinate to the state, for the church is rendered necessary to the state's absolute end. Indeed, it must be a formal part of the commonwealth by its nature, and thereby under the state. Or DeYoung would have to switch it around, make the state subordinate to the church, since the church is claiming the state's end (viz. virtue). The correct way to put it is: the church's supernatural end is piety and eternal life, but the secondary effect of its ministry supports the state's pursuit of public virtue. The church is necessary for public virtue, not having public virtue as its intrinsic formal end, but in its supplying the foundation and means of sustaining virtue via piety and moral instruction. Thus, the intrinsic ends of church and state are distinct yet mutually supporting (by divine design), and there is no formal subordination between them. DeYoung is stating things even Erastians would avoid.

The American founding was a Protestant founding. This is historically indisputable.

Unc Darryl, the law of God is written on the hearts and minds of men (Romans 2.15) “But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you” Jeremiah 7.23

TV Shows are on HBO. The Wire was on HBO. All TV Shows are The Wire.