I write in response to Bill Chellis’ article in the November issue entitled “The Garden Kingdom.” In that article, Mr. Chellis argues that human government was always part of creation, even before man fell into sin. Describing the teaching that the state had its origin in the Fall, he says that “[t]his view reflects the historic teaching of the Anabaptist movement.”

While that may be true, this position has much deeper roots, going back at least as far as Augustine’s City of God. According to Augustine, God “did not intend that His rational creature, made in His own image, should have lordship over any but irrational creatures: not man over man, but man over beasts. Hence, the first men were established as shepherds of flocks, rather than as kings of men” (Book XIX, chapter 15).

Only after the Fall, according to Augustine, would human government be necessary. That is not to say that Augustine was right and the Reformers wrong; only that this subject is more complex than the article implies and that there is room for disagreement on this issue within the historical teaching of the church.

—Clay Finley Sparta, Ill.

Editor’s note: To see Bill Chellis’ response or join the discussion, visit deregnochristi.blogspot.com.