30 November 2022
Sometimes you have to state the obvious so that people think about it the implications.
Libertarian theory for social and economic policy is based on the blasphemous lie that humans are not fallen. I realize that there are professing Christians who claim to be libertarian, but the logic of their philosophy denies plain teachings of Scripture.
The fundamental issue for libertarians is: What is the very best course of action in this world? What is it that brings humans the happiest existence? They strive to get the answer to that through Aristotelian logic. That's two strikes against them. It's asking the wrong question and using the wrong means to get the answer.
The best you can possibly do for humans is to bind them under the Covenant. Those who refuse to operate by their heart/convictions should still be held accountable to the Code of Noah. The business of being led by your convictions is God's standard, whether people embrace it or not. Logic cannot get you peace with God. Further, the question is not what is best for humans, but what is best for God's glory. Scripture asserts that what brings God glory is also what is in our best interest.
The very best we can hope for in this life is to observe the boundaries of the Covenant. We could not possibly be happier than living in a feudal tribal community rooted in the otherworldly outlook of the gospel message.
That said, I agree that libertarian theory is generally not too bad for us when living in a context where the Covenant is universally rejected. Worse, that rejection is typically very hateful and bitter. At the least, libertarian government policy will allow us more room to ignore popular stupidity. Thus, we could wish more government policy was influenced by libertarian theory, as long as government is going to reject God's Law.
God gave us minds with reasoning abilities; the purpose is solely to give us a chance to implement what He demands. Logic is not the structure, but the tool for the work at the lowest level of consideration. Do you understand the logical implications of predestination and election? It's not a question of whether we can make sense of it. The question is: What do we do with it? God recognizes two kinds of people: The Elect and everyone else. The Elect are His family, and everyone else is an enemy -- eternally. Since it is impossible for us to know who is and isn't elected, we have only the standard of the Covenant to work with. Thus, we distinguish between those who appear to embrace the Covenant and those who do not.
That is a major element in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. God demands you differentiate between who is and isn't your covenant brother/sister. Who is your "neighbor"? It's anyone who appears to embrace the Covenant, whose conduct matches the obvious earmarks of Covenant Law. All other human measures of identity mean nothing compared to this issue. We cannot treat random people the same as covenant family. Do not throw pearls to swine, nor sacred symbols to dogs. They have no idea, absolutely no means of assessing the value of your pearls and sacred symbols. You cannot bless them that way.
You must reach out to the world around you by that standard of separation. Covenant family gets the insider treatment, and everyone else gets a wholly different package. You cannot involve yourself at the same level with both crowds. Covenant family are inside the camp of God with you. Everyone else is out in the moral wilderness. "Be not unequally yoked..." is important. God commands us to bless the people around us; we must be a conduit of Life to others. This command is conditioned by the status of the recipient.
But there's more. Some of the implications of their status are ephemeral, and some are more permanent. Yes, this is complicated, and it requires that you engage the Holy Spirit through time in contemplation and prayer. You must bounce things off your convictions, simulating the experiences you have of your own, plus anything you see someone else experiencing, suss out your best response. You run it through in your prayerful heart to establish what is morally required, and then roll out the implications in your reasoning. Nobody can do this for you.
You must hold your covenant brothers and sisters accountable to a different standard than what you hold for the rest of the world. Your family is a treasure that must be recovered when it's lost -- think of the parables of Lost Sheep and Lost Coin. The rest of the human race is demon fodder. In the final analysis, the non-elect are going off to the Lake of Fire (whatever that terms represents). There's nothing you can do for them by your own hand. Yes, you could use the tools of manipulation, but it would not change their election status. The only thing you can do is what God has commanded already: Live the Covenant in front of their view. If that is not enough to move them, then God isn't working in their souls. It's out of our hands.
Libertarians would make this regimen of redemption technically illegal. They would demand that you treat everyone the same. That's a part of their fundamental assumptions, and it's directly contrary to what Scripture demands of us. Libertarians might not make it a law, but it would come to us in moral lecturing and social pressure. Yes, it's couched in terms of what governing authorities must do, but do you understand that your true government on earth is your covenant household? There is a direct conflict here, because libertarian theory rejects tribal enclosure. They would organize to "free" the members of your covenant community from God's required feudal structure within the household of faith.
Libertarians don't object to the sanctity of the single-family household, but generally reject the extended family tribe. They object to the implied tribal feudalism, in which everyone owns shared property communally. That's the real issue: material goods. It's a very materialistic philosophy. Dirty secret: libertarians supported destroying the Native American tribes and their tribal land holdings. They supported the policy of forcing natives to become materialistic via schooling. The whole point was to open up tribal lands to stealing.
Libertarians are laissez faire until it gets in the way of their money grubbing. That business of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is sheer propaganda. The whole idea is to reduce you to the level of materialism so they can craft laws that make it easy to take all you've got. The whole point of libertarian theory is to unleash greed.
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