Welcoming Robert

I'd like to refer you to the comments under the post, "Commentary On Big Government". It is labeled "Political" but those who have commented there have lead us back to the label, "Debate/Jesus". If you are following the blog just for the debate and are not interested in following my opinions or stories, just click on the label you are interested in. But I hope all will go back to the archives and catch up on who I am and what we are doing here at B.C. and After

Thank you Robert for your contribution. I will allow Gordon the opportunity to defend his own comment. At any point as the discussion unfolds, I may throw in with one side or the other. In an effort to gain clarity, I may assume the role of referee or I might attempt to push the conversation in a direction where I believe the proposition is being accurately defended or rebutted. At all times, whether noted or assumed, I would like the comments to be biblically supported. However, asking a question to get clarification from a commenter is a perfectly accepted tool or method to challenge and obviously has no need for any supporting text.

If I read your comment correctly, Robert, I believe you are stating that this whole undertaking is simply irrelevant and that Jesus directs no responsibility of humanity to any other authority than His own. I do not want to rebut something I have misstated. So I’ll try to defend you first. The provision of our salvation, that is, “eternal life”, is Christ’s alone. Nowhere in the Bible can I find an assignment of our responsibility to that end, lent or given “joint custody” to a civil government. So you are correct on that point. But Christ was not silent about government. He was, however, unequivocal in delineating two separate spheres of authority and activity, the sacred and the secular. In Mark 12:17, Jesus tells His followers, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”.

That is part of what has brought us to this discussion on this blog. Since it is Christ who introduced government into the discussion, not myself, the question becomes, “What part, if any, of His command to love our neighbor, or the Christian charitable mission, should be given over as the responsibility of an entity such as the federal government, and if any, how much?”