Too Good to Be True: Finding Hope in a World of Hype by Michael Horton

Author:Michael Horton [Horton, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Books & Bibles, Christian Living, Faith, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, Religion, Christian Life, Spiritual Growth
ISBN: 0310267455
Amazon: B000SEW09M
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2009-08-29T22:00:00+00:00

Elsewhere, Calvin even quotes pagan poets and philosophers on religious topics — a practice sanctioned by the apostle Paul’s example in Acts 17. To be sure, with Scripture as our “spectacles” through which to see reality, even the matters we commonly regard as “secular” take on a new slant. God’s wisdom reorients us to see everything differently. And yet, God’s goodness and wisdom are not absent even from those who willingly refuse to acknowledge his revealed Word.

Even pagan rulers exercise their dominion as a result of God’s providence (Romans 13:1 – 7; 1 Peter 2:14) — and here Paul and Peter have in mind a government hostile to the cause of Christ. Yet even through these powers God secretly governs the nations, just as he does his church. To believe that a government must be framed according to “the political system of Moses” rather than according to “the common laws of nations,” Calvin wrote, “is perilous and seditious” as well as “false and foolish.”9 The Mosaic theocracy was limited to the old covenant and is no longer the blueprint at a time when there is no chosen nation. The law of God written upon the conscience of every person allows for a marvelous diversity in constitutions, forms of government, and laws, all of which are in their own times and places acceptable as long as they preserve the “equity . . . [that] must be the goal and rule and limit of all laws.”10

Understanding this distinction helps us to recognize God’s involvement in everything — the common as well as the holy, providence as well as miracle — so that we do not have to find a “spiritual” interpretation for every event. Further, we can make full use of natural explanations without trying to figure out what God might be doing behind the scenes.

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