“The CN position then is that magistrate enforces laws prohibiting envy. And you thought Communists were bad.”
Hart has to attempt these absurd arguments because his position has him defending the idea that the Magistrate is to NOT criminalize blasphemy, not criminalize violation of Lord’s Day, not criminalize adultery, not criminalize idolatry. In point of fact the only 2 of the 10 commandments that it is possible that Hart would criminalize is Murder and theft.
R2K, of which Hart is a practitioner of, has explicitly said that the Magistrate has no responsibility to the first table of God’s law. The reason that R2K makes this move is that if the Magistrate had any responsibility to the first table of God’s law that would be the end of R2K’s cherished principled pluralism, and necessary political polytheism. R2K, in order to get off the ground, MUST teach that the Magistrate has no responsibility to the 1st table of God’s law.
Consider also, the implications of this for R2K as Hart’s position. What Hart has to argue here is that God’s Natural Law teaches that offense against the 1st table of God’s revealed law, is not to be criminalize and enforced by the Magistrate. Hence, for R2K, God’s Natural Law contradicts and limits God’s revealed Law.
However, as we have seen, once the camel’s nose is under the tent the camel begins to own the tent because now most R2K chaps insist that the Magistrate has no responsibility to criminalize and adjudicate the second table violation of adultery.”
Of course the whole “Communists” thing as written by Hart is a classical example of the logical fallacy called “red herring.” Hart knows this but when you have a weak hand you play all the cards you can. As there are exactly ZERO case laws where God tells His people what the punishment is for envy, it is clear that the Magistrate is not responsible to adjudicate or criminalize envy, though envy certainly remains a dreadful sin.
Recommended must read here — Martin Foulner’s “Theonomy & The Westminster Confession.”
I always get a kick out of Boomers, and the Dutch notably among them, getting all misty eyed as they long for the days when we had “blue laws” regarding the Sabbath. These folks are always the first to rail against theonomy. The blindness couldn’t be more total. The hypocrisy couldn’t be more total. The betrayal couldn’t be more total. The cowardice couldn’t be more total. The perfidy couldn’t be more total. The apostasy couldn’t be more total. They love ease and comfort more than God. Forget them and their traitorous generation. We just have to wait for them to die off. Their children and their grandchildren are already cursing their memory.