Episode 23.3: The Magistrate’s Religious Duty

What’s the American context for the edits to this paragraph? Historically, how has the civil magistrate assumed the responsibility of the keys of the kingdom? Does the civil magistrate have a right to determine things around worship? How might the magistrate need to take order? What does that mean? What’s with all the punctuation? Is Kyle’s reading or Shawn’s reading the accurate one? Is this a very pressing or necessary paragraph? Tune in as Nathan, Shawn, Joel, and Kyle discuss WCF 23.3:

The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the Word and sacraments; or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven: yet he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire; that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed; all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed; and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed. For the better effecting whereof, he hath power to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God.

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