God and Government Finale!

What will the final episode of God and Government include? Will we kill off the main character? No, since God is eternal. Will there be a second season? Yes. Will there be drama and suspense? It depends on how you read.
We pick up where we left off. Here is a summary of our discussion. In the pilot episode, I argued from Scripture for capital punishment of all convicted murders (Gen. 9:1-6). In the second episode, we saw how God gave the Ten Commandments to govern the nation of Israel (Ex. 20:1-24). In the third episode, I responded to two objections and explained the New Testament era principles of ideal government (Rom. 13:1-14, I Peter 2:11-17). Now we will discuss the form and structure of this government.

Exactly 1000 years ago, England saw the death of King Sweyn and invited king Ethelred back to the throne, provided he stayed within certain bounds. Many libertarians call this the beginning of political liberty, including Robin Koerner. In 1521, Frederick III, elector of Saxony, protected the church reformer Martin Luther from the tyranny of the organized church, and made his fiefdom a safe haven for Protestantism. Although the leaders listed here (Luther excepted) probably never spent a day in heaven, they exemplify a little bit of what God wants in nations today.

But instead of going back in history, let us go back to God's Word. I have argued from Scripture for what I believe is the best form of government. Does my flesh like this form of government? No. Am I trying to please a bunch of people by arguing for Biblical politics? No. Is this form of government attractive? No. But this is what God teaches throughout His Word.

There are two main points to make on the Biblically ideal form of government. We are not discussing the responsibility of government or the enforcement of capital crimes, those have already been discussed in the previous episodes. Instead, we are arguing for the form of Biblical nations.
First, let us look at several passages concerning the leadership of Biblical government. Moses argues in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 that setting up a king is a worldly endeavor but can be a God-honoring government type.
Deuteronomy 17:14-20 NKJV

“When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one  from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the  one  before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

It is interesting that God never mentions what Israel should do when they set up a republic, democracy, oligarchy, or any other form of government. Instead, God tells Israel what to do when she desires to set up a monarchy like the other nations. This passage should be the goal of all political leaders, no matter what position they have.

The counter argument to this passage would certainly be I Samuel 8
I Samuel 8:10-22 NKJV

So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to  be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will  set  some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to  be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord  will not hear you in that day.” Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord . So the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.” And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Every man go to his city."

My response would be to mention Judges 17:6 and 21:25 which both read "In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes". These verses tell us that life without a God-honoring king will be worse than the nation that has a king that fears, loves, and obeys God. Yes, Samuel's God-given warning was necessary, but so is a good king who can lead his people morally. In the New Testament, Peter also prescribes a divided monarchy when he states that the belivers should respect and obey the kings and governors (I Peter 2:11-17). If democracies or republics are God's desired forms of government, why did God not guide Peter to write about them when he had a perfect chance during the tyrannical reigns of Nero, Caligula, etc.? Even Paul mentions the need to pray for kings in I Timothy 2:1-4. None of the New Testament authors command their audiences to obey the Roman Senate or to pursue positions in that branch of government. God wants nations to have kings and local governors who are limited to ruling by the commands set forth in the Word of God. These kings do receive taxes and tribute but also punish the evil and reward the good (Romans 13:1-7). Any other form of government is not defensible by Scripture and eventually leads to Christians either caving to the culture or being persecuted by the culture or both. God demands nations to have God-honoring kings and governors in place. It is no wonder that Christians are being persecuted and marginalized from the sun to setting of the sun.

The second point that needs to be made on the Biblical form of government is the Scriptural principle of small nations. This takes us back to Genesis 9, where God commands Noah to "be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth" (Gen. 9:1). God expected Noah and his descendants to have many children and to "replenish the earth". A better definition of the Hebrew word for "replenish" would be "fill". The idea would be to fill the earth with the children of Noah. This is the idea of spreading out and possessing every part of the world. This interpretation is strengthened by the narrative in Genesis 11.

Genesis 11:1-9 KJV

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.  And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.  And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.  And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.  And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.  And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.  So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.  Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Here we see that man had disobeyed God by staying together as one people of one language. God wanted man to multiply and spread out, but because they had disobeyed, God had to force man to divide into separate families and eventually, nations. Throughout Genesis 10-11, we see these families and how they built nations and people groups (one in the same). God states that when man is gathered together as one nation and one language then it is much easier for man to disobey collectively and compulsively. However, when man is divided into small people groups, there is room for pockets of peoples who love and obey God as seen in the patriarchal examples of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the sons of Israel. Other examples at that time include Melchizedek, Job, and the Abimelechs.
God continues the theme of small nations that do not intervene in the  affairs of other non-threatening sovereign nations in Deuteronomy 2. The Lord commands the Israelites to "meddle not" with the sons of Esau and Ammon (2:4, 19). Israel is commanded to defeat Sihon and Og because they were threats to the existence of the Hebrews. The same goes for the thirty plus nations that Israel defeated in the land of Canaan. It is interesting to note that Israel basically stays within its promised boundaries for its 800 years of sovereign existence. The same should be said of all nations past, present, and future. Also, Israel was expected to be purely Jewish in marriage and family, suffering punishment from the Lord when they failed to do so (Ezra 9:12-15). Current nations should learn from these lessons by endeavoring to produce and continue their own individual cultures. There is no spiritual defense for multi-culturalism. 

It is high time for the nations with more than ten million people to separate into smaller nations. It is time for Minnesota to stop answering to Washington and for Shanghai to stop sending representatives to Beijing. Let us praise God by voting on Tuesday but also by encouraging our leaders to glorify God by separating into smaller nations led by God-honoring monarchs!

But what should the church be doing about weddings? 

Find out in our sequel called God and Weddings!