Conditional Submission? (2)

In answer to a request from a reader in Northern Ireland, we are analyzing the views of the Scottish Presbyterian theologian of the 17th century, Samuel Rutherford, on the duty of the Reformed Christian towards the civil state. (Cf. the April 1, 1989 issue ofThe SB for a summary of Rutherford's doctrine and for the first installment of the critique of this doctrine.) Particularly, the question is whether the Christian's calling to submit to the state is conditional, so that whenever the state...