Chapter XXIII. Of the Civil Magistrate
Chapter XXIII. Of the Civil Magistrate
Chapter XXIII. Of the Civil Magistrate | Revisions of the WCF - Westminster Standards
III. Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and Sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Yet he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed. For the better effecting whereof, he hath power to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God.
Revision:
III. Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and Sacraments,
or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
or, in the least, interfere in matters of faith.
Yet, as nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the church of our common Lord,
without giving the preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest,
in such a manner that all ecclesiastical persons whatever shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned
liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions, without violence or danger.
And, as Jesus Christ hath appointed a regular government and discipline in his church,
no law of any commonwealth should interfere with, let, or hinder the due exercise thereof
among the voluntary members of any denomination of Christians, according to their own profession and belief.
It is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the person and good name of all their people,
in such an effectual manner as that no person be suffered, either upon pretense of religion or infidelity,
to offer any indignity, violence, abuse, or injury to any other person whatsoever;
and to take order that all religious and ecclesiastical assemblies be held without molestation or disturbance.
Some justify the thorough revision of this paragraph
as a way of preventing the abuse of authority and the intrusion of the State into the affairs of the Church.
But once again the answer is related to the previous cases:
the new view of Church-State relations, and the departure from the theonomic view.
Classic Calvinism held to a moderate theonomy, not a theocracy.
That is, divine law was to be the norm for society and to inspire the laws of the nation.
But even so there was a separation between Church and State.
The departure from this position is so extreme in the Protestant world today
that some even see it as a breach of a sacrosanct, radical separation
between Church and State to oppose abortion or euthanasia, to give one example.
And there are also those who struggle to think through civil law in the Old Testament theocracy.