This bonus episode was orginally an LCI Green Room livestream with Greg Baus from the Reformed Libertarian podcast to talk about how all authority comes from God, but divine, church, and civil authority aren’t the same thing—and how Christian nationalism tends to blur those lines. We reacted to a Right Response Ministry video (Joel Webbon and others) that said critics misunderstand Christian nationalism and argued the state isn’t religiously neutral. They used the Ten Commandments, Psalm 2 (“kiss the Son”), and Romans 13 to claim rulers should enforce not just laws about harm between neighbors, but also laws against idolatry and false worship. Greg and I pushed back hard, saying they were collapsing divine judgment into civil punishment and never gave a real principle for separating sin from crime, which leads to an unbounded “Christian nanny state.” We also critiqued their handling of Two Kingdoms theology, “general equity,” and what Romans 13 means by “evil.” After that, we listened to a chapel talk by Pastor Matt Cotta, who warned that when Christianity gets used for a political project it turns into a counterfeit faith, and that nationalism becomes an idolatrous rival. He drew a line between nations as people-groups and modern nation-states, argued nation-states enforce unity through coercion, and said the church is Christ’s kingdom—pilgrims and exiles—so worship itself witnesses against giving ultimate loyalty to any earthly nation.
What is The Biblical Anarchy Podcast?
The Biblical Anarchy Podcast was created by Jacob Winograd as a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute, with the purpose of making the case for a free society and decentralized governance based on Biblical principles of limited authority and imitating Christ’s example of the leader/servant. If we render unto God what is God’s, we cannot bow down to Caesar or render anything unto him except that which he deserves. The podcast consists of exploring different Bible passages, anarchist theory, Austrian Economics, and finding the connection and harmony between them.
The Biblical Anarchy Podcast is part of the Christians for Liberty Network, a coalition of shows that promote human flourishing by spreading the message of liberty. Find other shows at christiansforliberty.net