THEOCRACY
– GOD’S ORDAINED FORM OF GOVERNMENT*
[* Taken from
chapter five of W.
E. Best’s
book, Christ’s Kingdom is Future, pp. 63-82.]
In the genealogy
of the King, Matthew goes from Jesus Christ, “son
of David,” to “David the king”
(Matt. 1: 1, 6). The royalty of
David’s family was established according to God’s eternal purpose
of electing grace. Therefore, the perpetuity of this royalty is dependent on
the faithfulness of God. Although God stressed the responsibility of
man in the conditional aspect of the covenants of time, the accomplishment
of the covenants is according to God’s grace and power. Failure is written over man in every age
of human history. As in the days of the Judges when every man did that which
was right in his own eyes (Judges 21: 25),
in the days of the apostles all sought after their own interests and not those
of Jesus Christ (Phil. 2: 21). In view of man’s failure, it is
wonderful that we can look to the faithfulness of God. Thus, we look from the changing world to
the unchanging covenant of God.
Informed Christians are able by God’s grace to leap from the
tempest-tossed vessel of this world and stand on the terra firma of the
unconditional aspect of God’s covenants in time, because we have our
foundation in the eternal covenant of God’s purpose.
Theocracy must
be defined and explained in order to have a correct concept of the future
The theocracy
during the time of Moses was not a government by priests as opposed to kings,
but it was a government by God Himself as opposed to government by priests and
kings. Theocracy exalted
The following
ten things should be considered with reference to
1. God as
Jehovah, the covenant God - not God as Elohim, the Creator - chose the Jewish
people with a view to the kingdom.
2. Their
election embraced a nationality - the natural descendants of Abraham in their
associated capacity.
3. This election
was unconditional, according to God’s eternal purpose. Matthew addressed his Gospel primarily
to the Jews. He spoke to them of a
future kingdom:
“When the son
of man shall come in his glory, and
all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory...”
Matthew 25: 31.
Then shall the King say unto
them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed [eulogemenoi,
perfect passive participle of eulogeo,
which means having been blessed] of my Father, inherit* [kleronomesate, aorist active imperative of kleronomeo, which means inherit at once] the
kingdom prepared [hetoimasmenen, perfect
passive participle of hetoimadzo, which
means having been prepared] for you from [apo,
ablative of time] the foundation of the world. - Matthew
25: 34.
[* See also, Gal. 5: 21; Eph. 5: 5 with context.]
These two verses
must be considered together. When
Jesus Christ comes in His glory to establish the kingdom, He will tell those
who have been permanently blessed to enter at once into the kingdom that has
been permanently prepared for them from the foundation of the universe. This applies to national
[* See Gal. 3: 29; 5: 24.]
Two perfect
passive Greek participles are found in Matthew 25:
34. The perfect tense looks
at not only the beginning but also the conclusion of the action. It represents a present condition or
state as a result of a past completed action. The sheep had been eternally blessed,
and the kingdom had been eternally prepared concurrently. The kingdom is permanently prepared because
the sheep are permanently blessed.
The sheep could not be permanently blessed apart from “the Lamb slain [esphagmenou,
perfect passive participle of sphadzo,
which means having been slain] from [apo, ablative of time] the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13: 8).
Without the Lamb having been permanently slain, the names of the sheep
would never have been “written [gegraptai,
perfect passive indicative of grapho,
which means having been written] in the book of life
from [apo, ablative of time] the foundation of the world...” (Rev. 17: 8).
4. The unbelief
and sinfulness of the nation of
5. The same
elect nation, chastened and scourged, scattered and dispersed, shall be
recalled and exalted.
6. While the
nation comprising the national descendants of Abraham are thus chosen, it does
not follow that every individual in it is personally elected to [future]* salvation (
[* See verse 27.]
7. God has made
provision for the elect Gentiles by
grafting them with preceding believers (Rom. 11).
8.
9. The root
stump that remains is a holy seed.
10. The kingdom
is given to the natural descendants of Abraham in their corporate capacity.
The book of
Judges covers the period between
The change from
theocracy to what
And ye
shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you;
and the LORD will not hear you in
that day. Nevertheless the people
refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; 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 rehearsed them in
the ears of the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their
voice, and make them a king. ... – I Samuel
8:18‑22.
Therefore, God gave
The first thing
man does when God sets up something of His own on the earth is to either
counterfeit it or substitute something for it. Thus, man has another Jesus, a different
spirit, and a different gospel (2 Cor. 11: 4). However, as God has Jesus Christ who is
the Son of the living God, the Holy Spirit, and the gospel which was settled in
heaven before the foundation of the world, He also has a remnant in the corrupted nation of
Three things
should be observed concerning
And
the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that
they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me,
that I should not reign over them. -1 Samuel
8: 7.
Israel
had rejected the Lord’s invisible reign, and the Israelites were making
Samuel’s age and his sons an excuse for their rebellion. The people had forgotten their covenant
relation with God, and they wanted to have a “say”
in their government.
Although God allowed
Since the time of
Theocracy is not the same as
sovereignty. It may be premised
that Jesus Christ, in His oneness with the Father, is exercising His dominion
over all things at the present time.
Nevertheless, when Jehovah withdrew His kings in the Old Testament, He
did not cease to be
The theocratic form of government is
never represented as a type. When
Christ rules now through the “powers that be” (
Obedience to human authority has its
limits. Parental authority and
civil authority are responsible to God, whether the ones occupying those
positions are Christians or nonchristians.
As an alien in this country is not free from subordination to our laws,
one’s spiritual inability as an unregenerate person does not nullify his
responsibility to God. Man is
responsible for his own depravity by his solidarity with Adam in the fall, and
he lacks spiritual ability to do the will of God. Nevertheless, he is accountable to God.
God has two governments during the age
of the assembly, the time between the first and second advents of Jesus
Christ. There is a spiritual
government for Christ’s assembly which He is building; and there is a
civil government for the protection of society, which is made up of both elect
and nonelect. Paul wrote Romans 13: 1-7 to Christians in
I am the LORD thy God. ... Thou shalt
have no other gods before me. Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image. ... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them.
... - Exodus 20: 2-5.
The lesson in Paul’s instruction
to the Roman Christians teaches Christians of all time that believers are to be
subordinate to governing authorities because there is no authority except from
God. However, Christians must not
be subordinate to false gods established by governing authorities. To embrace a false god established by a
governing authority would be to deny the true God who gave the ruler his
authority. Hence, our answer to
such authority must be the same as that given by the faithful Jews:
... our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning
fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, 0 king. But if not, be it known unto thee, 0
king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou
hast set up. - Daniel 3:17,18.
Christians must be willing, like the
“certain Jews,” to suffer the
consequences of refusing to obey the demands of civil authorities when they set
themselves above the supreme authority of God. Three principles are established with
respect to the “certain Jews” that
Christians must consider: (1) They did not defile themselves by partaking of
that which
The miracle recorded in Daniel 3 is a type of the remnant of Jews
preserved by God during the great tribulation of Revelation. Some who profess to be theologians are
as confused about the great tribulation as the pastor who preached the funeral
of one of his assembly members and referred to him as one who came out of great
tribulation. Since the Greek does
not have an indefinite article comparable to the English, the absence of the
article from the Greek is the equivalent of the indefinite article “a” in the English. The presence of the article in the Greek
identifies; the absence of the article qualifies (makes less strong or
positive). Therefore, the presence
of the Greek article in Revelation 7:14.
“…These are the ones who come [coming] out
of the great tribulation...”
(NASB), distinguishes it from the ordinary tribulations experienced in
life.
A correct
estimate of human government cannot be formed apart from the Biblical teaching
of the future [millennial]
The different
forms of human government in society must be distinguished from the one
established form of Divine government for Christ’s assemblies. Nothing is stated in Romans 13 or 1 Peter 2
concerning forms of government. The
emphasis is on some established order for the protection of society, which
includes both Christians and non-christians. On the other hand, believers have a
Divinely established order of government for Christ’s assemblies which
cannot be altered regardless of the different forms of human government under
which the assemblies exist. During
the absence of Christ’s theocratic kingdom, the Divinely established
government of Christ’s assemblies cannot make the state which is composed
of regenerate and unregenerate people subordinate to their principles. However, the assemblies with their one
established form of Divine government should be subordinate to different and
changing human authorities, except when they oppose God’s established
will, because Christianity is not controlled by human authority that is opposed
to God’s revealed will.
The voice of Christianity must not remain silent before civil and
political corruption. As the voices
of the prophets were heard in the Old Testament, the voices of the elders must
be heard proclaiming the same principles and giving the same warnings in New
Testament times. Consider the
calling and work of such prophets of the Old Testament as Samuel (1 Sam. 3: 1-21; 7: 3-15; 8: 6-18),
Shemaiah (2
Chron. 12: 1-12), Micaiah (2 Chron. 18), Elijah
(1 Kings 16-22), the major and minor prophets, and concluding with John the Baptist. John,
like Elijah before him, knew he was
asking for trouble when he rebuked the one who sat on the throne:
“... It is not lawful for thee to have her
[his brother Philip’s wife]” (Matt. 14:
4). John the Baptist was not
the last messenger to die for the cause of Christ. (See Matt.
24: 9; John 16: 2; 21:19; Acts 7: 59-60; 12: 1‑2; Rev. 2: 13) The
messengers of God must never compromise the principles of eternal truth
regardless of the consequences.
The assembly of Christ should never be
affiliated with any political party.
However, this in no way excludes
Christians from their responsibility to civil authority and their payment of
taxes to the human authority under which they live. Since political and social structures of
human authorities frown upon the perfected theocratic government under the Son
of Man, the Son of David, Christians
cannot endorse one form of humanism over another. Hence, a Christian is not justified in
saying, “I have chosen the lesser of two or more
evil parties.” All
human authorities accuse Christians of being too occupied with the other world,
but all informed believers know that no one can properly understand his duty to
the present without regarding it in the light of eternity. Therefore, chaos and confusion in society and Christendom are the fruit of
rhetoric among politicians and religionists concernmig a better society apart
from the Biblical concept of the theocratic kingdom. Hence, the result prior to
Christ’s second advent will always be circumstances described by Jesus
Christ:
And
Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying,
I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not
troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places. All
these are the beginning of sorrows. - Matthew 24: 4‑8.
Paul did not manifest any resentment toward the
government under which the providence of God placed him. Therefore, he had no
conflict between his rendering to Caesar the things that belonged to him and
surrendering to God the things that belonged to Him. Because Christians revere the authority
of God, they make better citizens of Caesar’s domain than those who are
strangers to God’s grace.
Since all nature is submissive to God’s laws, Christians should submit to God’s providence by submitting our
hearts that are prone to carnality to God’s holiness, arrogancy to His
mercy, and rebellion to His sovereignty in providence. Some of the Roman believers to whom Paul
wrote needed Paul’s counsel concerning submission:-
Whosoever therefore resisteth [antitassomenos, present middle
participle of antitasso, which means
oppose or resist] the power [exousia,
which means authority, ruling power, or government], resisteth [anthesteken, perfect active indicative of anthistemi, which means resist, oppose, set against, or withstand -
has opposed and is in a state of opposition] the ordinance [diatage, which means decree or ordinance] of God: and they that resist [anthestekotes, perfect active participle
of anthistemi, which means having
opposed and are in a state of opposition] shall receive to themselves damnation [krima, which means judgment or punishment]. - Romans 13:
2.
Although wicked Nero was on the throne
at the time Paul wrote this letter, the believers in Rome were to be
subordinate to God and to the ruling authority as Solomon in his wisdom
instructed: “My son, fear thou the
LORD and the king: and meddle [interfere] not with them that are given to change” (Prov. 24: 21). Note the order of “the LORD and the
king.”
Contrary to Jesus Christ and the
apostles, who never sought to overthrow human government, many religionists are
trying to cause the downfall of some form of human government. Christians
are living on a higher plane than any earthly ruler; furthermore, this is
not the time for Christians to reign. We look forward to the time when we
shall judge the world (1 Cor. 6: 2). Our judging the world will occur when we
shall [if ‘considered worthy’ (Luke 20: 35. cf. 22:
28, N.I.V.)] rule and reign with Jesus
Christ. Therefore, the role of
Christians during the absence of Christ’s theocratic rule in His [millennial] kingdom is submission to the rule of the sovereign
God and to continually changing human government as long as it does not
demand opposition to God’s revealed will.
There are principles that bear on the
right or wrong of revolution. Christians must not identify themselves
with political associations to oppose or subvert the government of their
country. Every age has its
political and social tastes, but reverence for God is not one of the most
popular virtues of any age, especially the one in which we live. Man without reverence sees no greatness in God’s universe which
transcends himself. Knowing God through Jesus Christ is necessary for one to
act reverently. The attitude of
deep respect is compatible with love.
Our age of existentialism has produced a generation in which there is
very little reverence or respect for anyone or anything. Existentialism is a high-sounding title
for humanism which makes human experience the norm for judging reality. Since man is doing that which is right
in his own eyes, he judges everything by his own standard.
There are three important things to
understand about human government: (1) It is necessary in order to prevent
anarchy. Any kind of government is
better than no government.
Lawlessness would abound in a nation without some form of human
authority. (2) Human government, as
far as its character is concerned, is not asserted to be acceptable to
God. It may be described as a
“beast” (Dan.
7; Rev. 13; 17). The four
beasts of Daniel 7 are the world empires of
history. Their moral character is
described, and the fourth kingdom is so terrible that there is no beast to
describe it. The order is reversed
in Revelation 13 because Daniel was looking
forward, but John was looking backward.
The “MOTHER OF HARLOTS”
riding the beast of Revelation 17 speaks of
her dependence on and confidence in him to whom she is united. Since no nation is ever called a harlot,
she represents the false assembly which claims relationship with God while
being allied elsewhere. The false
assembly will be used by the beast’s authority until she has served his
purpose, and then she will be destroyed.
(3) Human government, like everything ministered by men, is always
imperfect. The authorities which
exist are not viewed in Scripture as having intelligence of a spiritual order.
Christians have no form of government,
civil or ecclesiastical, to impose on a nation. They are to pray for those in
authority in order that they might lead a peaceful and quiet life in godliness
and respectability (1 Tim. 2:1, 2). The Christian, like the Israelites
wandering in the wilderness, desires to pass his life of pilgrimage on earth in peace (Num.
21: 22), serving God in the path
of the just that shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day
(Prov. 4:18 [See
also, 2 Pet. 3: 8]). That which shines brighter and brighter
does not refer to a better path of life brought into being through political
and ecclesiastical influences on human authorities. One must not discount the fact that
political and religious propaganda will bring the deceived to say, “Peace and safety,” but then sudden destruction
shall come upon them (1 Thess. 5: 1-3).
There is no
authority except from God. The
God-given authority of civil government is affirmed in Romans
13: 1-7. But unlimited power
over people under a particular form of human government is not awarded to
men. The authority of human
government and the obedience of the governed are limited. Since God is sovereign, no human
government has the authority to violate God’s commandments and principles. When
human authority approves and practices that which God condemns, Christians must
obey God rather than men and be willing to suffer the consequences of having
obeyed God (Acts 5: 29). Biblical examples of obedience to God
while disobeying civil government are given: (1) The King of
Civil government is a human institution that formulates law without direct reference to
Scripture for temporal welfare and prosperity, and it applies to all its
subjects. Assembly authority is based
on Scripture for the [millennial, and] eternal good of [regenerate] believers whose subordination to God takes priority
over civil government, and they must never compromise Divine authority. Civil government has definite
limitation. It cannot [should not] intrude
into assembly government and command Christians to disobey God. Assembly government cannot [should not] intrude
into civil government and command unbelievers to live a Christian life which
they are unable to do. Biblical
principles cannot be imposed on unregenerate people. That does not indicate that unregenerate
people are not responsible to God. God is the supreme authority. The
assembly intensifies her influence by keeping separate from the state. The role of the assembly in the world is
not to dabble in politics but to keep separated from politics and be in a
position by a life of separation to condemn everything that is contrary to the
purpose and command of Almighty God.
Christians must obey authority that does not disobey God, the supreme
authority. We must be honest in
dealing with our fellow men, owe no
man anything, and live clean lives without compromise.
God rules in the
governments of men by giving authority to whom He will (Prov. 21: 1; Dan. 4: 17).
Some rulers may consider themselves absolute and unaccountable to any,
but they are overruled by God who is higher than the highest. The king’s heart being in the hand
of the Lord does not mean that the Lord is in his heart. Whether regenerate or unregenerate, the
king’s heart is in the hand of the sovereign God (1 Sam. 2: 6-10; Acts 17: 28). The quality of the ruler’s heart
is not changed if he is unregeneratd; but the path of its actions runs under
God’s guidance and subservient to His pleasure for the fulfillment of His
purpose. The Christian goes beyond
the reasoning of the natural man to see God sending Joseph to preserve many people alive (Gen.
50: 18-20), sending Shimei to
curse David (2 Sam. 16: 10, and delivering Jesus
Christ to wicked men for crucifixion (Acts 2:
23). Job expressed his belief in (1) the truth of God’s agency
– “he taketh away,” (2) the sovereignty of His dominion
– “who can hinder him,” and (3) the justice of His conduct
– “who will say unto him, What doest thou?”
(Job 9: 12).
The following
are three important questions for consideration: (1) Does the New Testament set
boundaries between civil and assembly jurisdictions? (2) Does the New Testament suggest the
union of assembly and state, in other words, a theocracy of sort? (3) Does Christ expect the assembly to
fulfill the commission by legislation?
(Study Luke 12: 13-15)
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