Dr. Stephen Wolfe is far and away my favorite writer (and podcaster, which is saying a lot considering I hate theology podcasts) on political theology today. I absolutely and completely agree with him (as he is just following the Reformers, after all!). He recently wrote an article for the London Lyceum which is just so absolutely perfect that I decided to make it the first article that I create an entire post for just to link to. This, my friends, is exactly how you recover the political theology of the Reformers. Could not have done better myself.
Here it is:
My one disagreement with Wolfe (not expressed in this article, but is expressed elsewhere) is that I do believe that heretics, blasphemers, and idolators, must necessarily be put to death. Wolfe believes that this is unnecessary, but can be done from culture to culture. I do not see that view in the Reformers. They are quite clear that such crimes, being against the moral/natural law, necessarily deserve death by the very nature of the crime. I would compare such crimes to murder in relation to the unchangeable necessity of the death penalty (see Junius). The question is not one of prudence, then, because the necessity of the demand of the moral/natural law stands.
