Democracy is great, but God’s people are called to practice something better. We are of the Kingdom. Jesus and the Bible were strikingly clear about this. There are no minced words. Anything less than what Scripture tells us is pale by comparison. Why settle for coming in second when we were promised the victors crown? Why settle for an outhouse when we can live in a mansion? Why settle for fear and anxiety when we were promised certainty and assurance.
John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Philippians 3:18-20 For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ
Our home. Our God. Our Ruler. Our hope is in the Divine outlined in Scripture. Not flawed temporal earthly vehicles, agents or tools. In America on the 4th of July some have a patriotic service in their churches. Sometimes the United States national anthem is played and pledge of allegiance is spoken. I don’t have issue with this as long as God’s banner and Scripture are held in esteem above the flag and Constitution. Render to Caesar that which is his but render to God everything. Well, because its His anyway. Consider it a dual citizenship, After death we’re still God’s subject, constituents in the Kingdom. After death the United States holds no sway. The United State’s sovereignty and our dual citizenship stops at death’s door. Ironically, God’s sovereignty stops nowhere as He is omnipotent and omnipresent so in reality we’re merely expatriated here in this mortal coil. The United States is renting property in God’s universe. If we understand our roll as believers, we are called to lift the state of our expatriated country to the lofty standards of the Kingdom. So…in a way we are failing the Kingdom when we do not improve the conditions of the United States (and by default, the world).
In truth many churches and believers do this, or something similar, because they believe democracy is the form of government God specially favors. Democracy is a kind of kingdom of God on earth, and the United States has been chosen by God for spreading democracy everywhere. I personally do not identify any national government with the kingdom of God. I do not prefer that my beliefs and politics should necessarily mix unless that they align with Scripture. Am I treasonous? No. Am I disloyal? No. Am I expatiated with dual citizenship? Yes. But when the country I am currently expatriated in forces its rule on me and it goes against the homeland I am obliged to disobey.
When we try to merge the two kingdoms harmoniously, I fear this goes too close to the edge. By merging the Scripture to politics, we come or become dangerously close to religious syncretism. Anything merged with God’s requirements….waters them down. Even democracy. Many of us have lost sight of this. Some worship the Constitution more than the Bible. As Christians we need to understand the Constitution is reliant on the Bible not the other way around. We can allow temporal allegiances to earthly national rule but it needs to have careful theological parameters. What form of government does God want people to live under? The answer to that question is embedded in Israel’s history.
God used Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery to Mount Sinai where God gave them the Law. These laws formed the basis for a new earthly government. That government was a theocracy. In other words, God ran the government in a de facto manner. The laws were based on obedience / loyalty to the God of Israel but one aspect of Israel’s theocracy made it unique: It did not have an earthly king at the time the Law was given. In the large picture, in the larger scope of history there was more going on. The meta-narrative pointed to something much larger. It pointed/points to a King who, in first appearances ruled in absentia but in reality, He rules everywhere and at all times.
Israelites did not give their allegiance to a king but to God alone. There was no central government, only a loose confederation of tribes. Leadership was in the hands of local leaders (elders, priests, prophets and in the case of war and/or disobedience, the judges.) How did this form of government work out? Well, read the book of Judges. It ended very poorly. There was no centralized authority. There was no standing army. Israel was constantly vulnerable to attack and domination by other nations. Furthermore, sins like envy and violence among the tribes and between towns were frequent. Women and the vulnerable suffered horribly. Leadership was often corrupt or deeply flawed. The Book of Judges paints a picture of existence that was nasty, brutish and short. Even for the Judges themselves. This would manifest in the time of the Kings. Invariably we see the result of fallen capricious men in a role meant only for God. Until Christ truly sits on the throne and rules absolutely there will be broken leadership in the world.
Because it was apparent even to fallen men that after a couple of hundred years of decentralized, local leadership, the tribes of Israel said, “Enough” and demanded a king. The prophet Samuel tried to warn them of the consequences:
1 Samuel 8:11-18 “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
In other words, having a king with centralized power will result in a military-industrial complex, a draft, loss of freedoms, heavy taxation and confiscation. Exactly as we see today in westernized democracies. Nevertheless, this seemed a lot better than the chaos of the time of the judges. Its the same chaos as today where everyone does what is right in their own eyes. It is ironic that judgment therefore judges were/are sent because of the disobedience of man. The byproduct of disobedience is chaos. Chaos itself is the judgement. The parallels to today in 2020 is frightening. So the Israelites proceeded to create a monarchy. How well did this form of government work out? According to history, not very well. Which in and of itself is why history is important to preserve. We see the errors of the past, adapt and improve. If we have no benchmark we start from zero. We start from the ground up.
Saul, the first king, turned out to be mental case. David, the next king, was highly effective, but he abused his power to commit adultery and murder, and his eldest son led a civil war against him. Solomon, the next king, attained the throne by murdering the competition. He brought wealth into Israel but at the cost of the importation of foreign gods and the implementation of oppressive labor. His reign was so controversial that, after his son Solomon’s death, the nation split into two—the north and the south—each with its own monarchy (insurrection, secession). Wow, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden or Donald Trump ring any bells for anyone? Splitting a nation in two. What we learned was that the two lines of kings were generally worse than the ones who came before them. Eventually both kingdoms were destroyed by invading empires across open borders, their kings assassinated or imprisoned and their sons murdered. This portends a really awful end for the United States if we continue on same said path.
So…around the time Israel collapsed and became a dream, far away in Greece, in the city of Athens, people were creating a new form of government called democracy. Citizens voted for their leaders, and leaders served limited terms. The system was not ideal: women, slaves and lower classes could not vote. Nevertheless, democracy was a revolutionary idea. The theory would eventually be assimilated by the Roman Empire.
Which form of national government would you prefer to live under today: a decentralized theocracy without Jesus sitting on the throne, a monarchy without Jesus on the throne or a democracy? Despite its never making an appearance in the Bible, I would choose democracy. In truth, God has knowingly allowed humanity to move in this direction also until Christ’s return.
Communism, socialism and all other forms of governing or economics have failed. Why? Because they all relied on one form or another of the ruler being or behaving, benevolent, honest, virtuous, fair, good. etc. All descriptors of a perfect man that sinful man is incapable of achieving without God. But there was one that did and until he returns to rule fully and forever…we’re stuck with inferior substitutes. The alternatives to the substitute of democracy is much worse. Ask history...Hitler, Stalin, Attila, Genghis Khan, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Caligula, Nero, Herod, etc.
But some will say nowhere in the Bible do people vote or leaders serve for designated terms. Even Jesus never promoted democracy. Jesus never asked his disciples, “Raise your hands if you think we should go to Golgotha” or, “Who is in favor of Judas being our treasurer?” Can you imagine if He did? This does not mean democracy is ideal. In fact, it has some seriously screwed-up drawbacks which we can clearly see today in 2020. Big money has tremendous influence over elections and legislation. So does false information and propaganda. The Internet has exacerbated these issues. Something the founding fathers could’ve never foreseen. Those with control of the internet media and the most money can hire the most lobbyists, afford the most lawyers, file the most lawsuits, pull the most strings, fund the most candidates and block or support the most legislation. They can censor, silence, slander and defame. The super-rich can fund their own campaigns or set up their children in politics, creating a political or economic aristocracy (Kennedy, Bush, Biden). American democracy is dominated by a wealthy elite. The New World Order isn’t coming. Its here. We still have political recourse. We can still do grassroots internet sites to spread the truth of Scripture. I am doing so now here on this blog. But it is drops of water against the tide.
The founding fathers of the United States foresaw some of these potential flaws and tried to put checks and balances in place to try and avoid them. But a recalcitrant child determined to set a house on fire that he lives in will eventually succeed if he keeps trying and that’s what we are seeing (socialism, communism, fascism). Rebellious children continually disobeying. Continually twisting what they’ve been forbidden from doing by asking the question, “Is that what Dad really said we’re not allowed to do?” Not unlike the Israelites in the Old Testament. Not unlike Adam and Eve in Genesis. There really is nothing new under the sun. Nothing. Hence our need for Someone greater.
Another problem with democracy is that the majority rules. This certainly sounds like a fair principle, but it means the minority gets shut out. In American democracy we have a winner-takes-all approach. If a candidate wins an election by the slimmest percentile, he or she wins everything, and the other candidate-who received almost the same number of votes-gets nothing. So the majority has the power to impose its will on an equally sizable minority.
[Continued in Part II]
I will bring this all together in the next post. I promise.
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