11/14/11
THE ESTABLISHMENT PRINCIPLE
The establishment principle taught in scripture and outlined in the reformed creeds entails at least two duties of the civil magistrate:
1. To be a nursing father and mother to the church
2. To uphold and enforce God’s moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments
It is the duty of the civil magistrate to be a nursing father and mother to the church:
“Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in [their] arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon [their] shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with [their] face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I [am] the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. “ (Isaiah 49:22-23)
Since the reformed Christian church is the divinely mandated church, it should receive this benefit, and the benefit should be withheld by the civil magistrate from all others. It should be the magistrate’s goal that the reformed Christian church would increase, and those that are not reformed would decrease.
We get an idea of ways the civil magistrate can help the church from such passages as I Kings chapters 6-9 and Nehemiah 13:10-12.
In I Kings chapters 6-9 King Solomon is lauded for building the Temple. This implies it is a good thing for civil magistrates to raise up Houses of Worship (i.e., church buildings) for God.
And how did King Solomon pay for this construction? “And this [is] the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.” (I Kings 9:15) Commenting upon this text, Matthew Henry writes:
“He raised a great levy both of men and money, because he projected a great deal of building, which would both employ many hands and put him to a vast expense, v. 15. And he was a wise builder, who sat down first, and counted the cost, and would not begin to build till he found himself able to finish. Perhaps there was some complaint of the heaviness of the taxes, which the historian excuses from the greatness of his undertakings. He raised it, not for war (as other princes), which would spend the blood of his subjects, but for building, which would require only their labour and purses. Perhaps David observed Solomon’s genius to lie towards building, and foresaw he would have his head and hands full of it, when he penned that song of degrees for Solomon, which begins, Except the Lord build the house, those labour in vain that build it (Ps. 127:1), directing him to acknowledge God in all his ways, and, by prayer and faith in his providence, to take him along with him in all his designs of this kind. And Solomon verily began his work at the right end, for he built God’s house first, and finished that before he began his own; and then God blessed him, and he prospered in all his other buildings. If we begin with God, he will go on with us. Let the first-fruits be his, and the after-fruits will the more comfortably be ours, Mt. 6:33. Solomon built a church first and then he was enabled to build houses, and cities, and walls. Those consult not their own interest that defer to the last what they design for pious uses.”
Nehemiah 13:10-12 reads:
“And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given [them]: for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled every one to his field. Then contended I with the rulers, and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together, and set them in their place. Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries.”
Why did Nehemiah go to the civil rulers about this matter? Evidently it was because the civil rulers had a duty - using their power of the sword - to make sure money was collected for supporting the ministry. As Matthew Henry comments:
“Nehemiah laid the fault upon the rulers, who should have taken care that the Levites minded their business and had all due encouragement therein. This is required from Christian magistrates, that they use their power to oblige ministers to do their duty, and people to do theirs. Nehemiah began with the rulers, and called them to an account: "Why is the house of God forsaken? v. 11. Why are the Levites starved out of it? Why did not you take notice of this and prevent it?’’ The people forsook the Levites, which was expressly forbidden (Deu
. 12:19 ; 14:27); and then the Levites forsook their post in the house of God. Both ministers and people who forsake religion and the services of it, and magistrates too who do not what they can to keep them to it, will have a great deal to answer for.”