God and the Government

[siliconwafer]

Does the Bible say what the civil magistrate should allow or prohibit? This is something that I've always wondered about. If our government allowed things or prohibited things according to what God wants the government to allow or prohibit, would our government be a theocracy?

[seanD]

One of the greatest con jobs known to man was Satan getting Christians to believe they could design a government within this age (or at least strive towards that direction) under the auspices of God's rule.

[theblueprint_Ni]

Does the Bible say what the civil magistrate should allow or prohibit? This is something that I've always wondered about. If our government allowed things or prohibited things according to what God wants the government to allow or prohibit, would our government be a theocracy?

That's a great question. It's one we've been asking for 2000 years and failing to come up with a good answer. The best example we have in Scripture is Israel, who even had the benefit of being directed by prophets and special revelation, and that still didn't turn out well. After the canon, the Empire. Fail. Even in the best possible scenario(according to some) we had the first Puritan colony with no obstruction to a perfect God honoring government. Fail by the second generation.

I'd say theocracy is the only legitimate form of government. Unfortunately, God isn't here to run it, so we have to make it up as we go along. All we can really do is extrapolate to the best of our ability because God chose not to give us a prescription for running a government of a pluralist society.

That said, and to reply to your question, it can only be a theocracy if legislation were strictly enacted by adherence to divine revelation (or so-called). Even if it were law to go to church and to preserve the Sabbath, if they became law by the power of elected officials then it would rightfully be called a democracy, even if it were functionally theocratic. Some might say it might as well be the same thing, but I say not. Laws and the reasons for laws have to come from somewhere and be guided by something, and if the majority of the people desire and so legislate religious law and regulation, then that is by definition a democracy. If atheists overwhelmed the population and decided on "anti"-religious law, what then would we call it, an anti-theocracy? That's nonsense. It's still a democracy, and it will remain a democracy, regardless of the laws, until the power of legislation is stripped away from the people and given over to another body or individual.

But that's just an explanation and it doesn't solve the mystery of God's will concerning the civil magistrate. The only thing I can say I've learned for sure is that every government has failed, so come Lord Jesus!

[KingsGambit]

Especially in the NT, we don't really see much of anything about how we would run a government as Christians, because at that time, it probably seemed unthinkable that Christians might ever be anything more than a marginalized sect. This doesn't mean that there aren't biblical principles (from both testaments) that come into play. Micah 6:8 comes to mind.