Jordan Eskovitz on Nostr: I suppose you could say they are trapped haha, but I think a healthier framing is ...

I suppose you could say they are trapped haha, but I think a healthier framing is that they are given by God and entrusted to my care as a parent. And my argument is that coercion is a natural part of taking dominion. Maybe a helpful way of distinguishing what I mean is that righteous coercion is a tool of just dominion while unrighteous coercion is a weapon for unjust domination.

Government (the magistrate) is more than a shared illusion though, because people have to order themselves in a civil society somehow and Scripture is pretty clear that the magistrate is a part of God's intended order.

And forgive me if I have not been clear, I am not trying to invoke God to justify the actions of unjust rulers. Quite the opposite. What I am saying is that God intentionally created a world in which there are various ranks of authority and rule and that the magistrate isn't in itself bad, illusory, or even a "necessary evil" that we simply have to put up with, but rather when godly men rule in the fear of the Lord the magistrate is doing what it ought to do—punish the wrongdoer, elevate the righteous, protect property rights.
When the magistrate becomes the thing it is supposed to protect against (extortionists, thieves, murderers, etc) then it is right and just for the people to resist such tyranny.