More thoughts on John Locke's limits of government

We can look at a few practical examples of how this principle (discussed in the last post) is (or should be) applied.

As Christians - and as humans, period - God has given us NO power to force people to "do good." We may take (within limits) actions to keep people from doing evil, or to at least respond to their evil actions. But we cannot force someone to worship God, to sing praises to Him, to pray to Him, to give in benevolence, or even to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and be buried with Him in baptism. There is no scriptural authority to do this. There is no reason to believe that such authority exists for ANY moral action.

Yet, government claims to be able to force people to do good to others, by collecting money from people and then giving some of that money to the needy as charity (or welfare). Beyond the complete lack of ANY constitutional authority to do, government has no authority granted by God to do so. Indeed, were an individual person to try and take money from someone else, even with the intent of using it to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, or house the homeless, that individual would be recognized immediately for what he is: a thief.

We as Christians are told (by God) to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, care for the sick, and many other things. But NOWHERE in the Bible are we told that we can steal or take money from others to do these good deeds with, OR that our obligation to God is met by having someone else (like government) do this.

And therein lies the reason that Christians cannot support the ideas (or "ideals") of "social justice" and why people are correct when they say that churches who advocate social justice are NOT advocating true and undefiled religion, no matter how much they try to quote the Epistle of James to support their claims. Government programs of "social justice" require that government, and government agents, do things that God DOES prohibit and condemn as being sin.

Government can have nothing to give to others unless it first takes it from someone else. It does this, almost exclusively, by forcing people to "give" money to government, which it then gives (minus a handling fee, of course) to the objects of welfare. How can any church reconcile this (and supporting government's power to do this) with clear scriptural commands not to steal, and to give freely as we have been prospered?

It cannot. And neither can government. If government is not subject to limits imposed by God on the humans that make up that government, it has no limits. More, it is in rebellion to God.