Limits to Power (1)

Ted Amery said,

We must avoid the temptation to use the power of government to perfect our society and its citizens.

Christians must never use the power of government to make people better. We do not need to. We have a copy of our makers manual. We have a wonderful gospel. We have the Holy Spirit, who can change peoples from the inside out.

A religion that does not have these things is going to struggle to change peoples lives. It will be tempted to use state power to achieve its goals. We have no such reason for using state power to establish the Kingdom of God.

Anyway, it would be a waste of time, because state power is very limited in what it can achieve. It cannot make people good. It cannot eliminate poverty. The most that civil power can do is restrain the worst evil.

Attempts to use civil power for anything more than this limited goal leads to disaster. Millions of people were killed during the twentieth century in efforts to create heaven on earth using civic power. Its time to give it a rest.