Our modern idea of limited government takes the Christian notion of space that is off- limits to state control and extends it to the whole private sphere. This is the crucial distinction we see in the West between the spheres of state and society. “Society” encompasses the whole range of people’s activities, while “state” refers to the specific and delineated sphere of government authority. The state may trespass on territory that has been previously reserved for the private realm, but it cannot take over the private realm altogether. Even an elected government cannot arbitrarily force you to move out of your house or turn over your property to the government. Even a government with 99 percent of the popular support does not have the right to tell the remaining 1 percent of the people that they must all become Republicans, vegetarians, or even Christians. If it does, then legitimate government has become tyrannical government, and the people have the right to oppose and replace it.
If the domain of government is to be limited in this manner, so is the domain of the church. As Christ put it, “My kingdom is not of this world.” God has chosen to exercise a limited domain over earthly rule, not because He is limited, but because He has turned over part of His kingdom to humans for earthly supervision. This Christian notion would have been utterly unintelligible not only to an ancient Athenian or Roman but also to an ancient Israelite. In the new framework of Christian universalism, the same God rules over the whole universe, but each country retains its own laws and its own culture.
God’s domain is the domain of the church. Here God’s laws are supreme, although there must necessarily be earthly interpreters to understand and apply them. Even so, there is also a secular realm that operates outside church control. Here we see how the idea of the “sec- ular” is itself a creation of Christianity.
