Thoughts on the November Elections – Part 2
And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war…And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “King of kings and Lord of lords.” [Revelation 19:11, 16]
We saw that anarchy can never cut it, when it comes to the functioning of society. So we began considering other alternatives to our present form of government. We considered a republic.
The USA began as a republic. Technically it still is. The electoral college makes the final determination of who wins the presidential elections, not the popular vote. In actual practice, though, the popular vote has correctly picked the actual winners.
The benefit of a republic over a democracy is that demagogues cannot stir up evil in the people and win control. Can anyone say “Hitler”? Another evil would be the legal oppression of minorities because the majority rules.
A still different form of government bears the epithet “monarchy”. This was the dominant form of government for most of history. In some cases the monarch was absolute, in others not so much e.g., a constitutional monarchy). A king is the governmental leader under monarchies. He makes the laws, determines the taxes, and sometimes oppresses everyone but at other times is benevolent to everyone.
So come November, before we wring our hands in despair over the lack of meaningful choices between the various candidates, and before we throw in the towel and boycott the elections, maybe we should decide what form of government we would prefer to see replace our current format. Remember, anarchy is out so government of one form or another is in.
Now that we’ve plodded through that thick and unpleasant bog, permit me to reveal how I got on the subject of government in the first place. In Romans 13:1-2 the Apostle Paul teaches,
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
Notice that all authority—this includes but is not limited to government—but all authority comes from God. Paul’s words are often misconstrued. Folks tend to think he means that every individual governmental person was personally chosen by God for his role.
Not so! Paul didn’t say any specific individual was governing according to the Word of God. He didn’t refer to individuals at all. Notice the phrase “whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God”. God commands authority because God is not a God of disorder and confusion. He is a God of order (cf., 1 Corinthians 14:33).
Oops! Out of time again. We’ll press the Pause Button and hie off to the prayer closet to visit with Jesus now. See you tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
We saw that anarchy can never cut it, when it comes to the functioning of society. So we began considering other alternatives to our present form of government. We considered a republic.
The USA began as a republic. Technically it still is. The electoral college makes the final determination of who wins the presidential elections, not the popular vote. In actual practice, though, the popular vote has correctly picked the actual winners.
The benefit of a republic over a democracy is that demagogues cannot stir up evil in the people and win control. Can anyone say “Hitler”? Another evil would be the legal oppression of minorities because the majority rules.
A still different form of government bears the epithet “monarchy”. This was the dominant form of government for most of history. In some cases the monarch was absolute, in others not so much e.g., a constitutional monarchy). A king is the governmental leader under monarchies. He makes the laws, determines the taxes, and sometimes oppresses everyone but at other times is benevolent to everyone.
So come November, before we wring our hands in despair over the lack of meaningful choices between the various candidates, and before we throw in the towel and boycott the elections, maybe we should decide what form of government we would prefer to see replace our current format. Remember, anarchy is out so government of one form or another is in.
Now that we’ve plodded through that thick and unpleasant bog, permit me to reveal how I got on the subject of government in the first place. In Romans 13:1-2 the Apostle Paul teaches,
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
Notice that all authority—this includes but is not limited to government—but all authority comes from God. Paul’s words are often misconstrued. Folks tend to think he means that every individual governmental person was personally chosen by God for his role.
Not so! Paul didn’t say any specific individual was governing according to the Word of God. He didn’t refer to individuals at all. Notice the phrase “whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God”. God commands authority because God is not a God of disorder and confusion. He is a God of order (cf., 1 Corinthians 14:33).
Oops! Out of time again. We’ll press the Pause Button and hie off to the prayer closet to visit with Jesus now. See you tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
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