A Biblical Case for Limited Government

 

Does the Bible favor a certain concept of human government?

(A Biblical Case for Limited Government)

(Pastor Terry Reese, Valley GBC of Armagh, PA; 1/29/22)

 

Intro. Our recent topic for Sunday School discussion: God & Politics—the Christian’s appropriate response to the state, and his proper civic responsibilities.

 

A controversial topic: God & Politics! But one in which God has much to say, both directly & indirectly!

 

 I. We have been looking at general principles in terms of their compatibility with the Judeo-Christian Worldview, and at various concerns that should be of interest to American Christian voters as they exercise the Constitutional Rights that this country affords in a responsible manner.

 

Various important concerns:

1) Sanctity of Life, 2) Sanctity of the Home, 3) Economic Freedom, 4) Protection of People (National Security, the Rule of Law, Crime & Punishment), 5) Defense of Israel, 6) Nationalism vs. Globalism, 7) Civil Liberties & Freedom of Conscience...

 

There has been a collapsing consensus amongst evangelicals in recent decades…

1) a pietistic suspicion of the general concept of involvement;

2) evangelicals focusing upon other issues (e.g., climate-change, social justice)…

 

II. Today’s questions focus on the seventh concern listed above:

The Preservation of FREEDOM OF CONCIENCE & RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, and  Limited government/constitutionalism vs. Statism.

 

Related questions:

“Does the Bible favor a certain concept of human government?”

“Is there a Biblical Case for limited, constitutional government?”

 

III. A Biblical case for limited government. 

 

A. The reign of tyrants—a great cause and source of human misery!

Eccl. 4:1-2: Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.  And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.

Prov. 29:2: When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

 

As we seek to observe the spirit of the Royal Law and Gal. 6:10 (“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people”), this is a major concern. Open Doors World Watch List: 360 mill. Christians (1 out of 7) live under supreme duress. This has spiritual implications: consider N. Korea (hardly any evangelism) vs. S. Korea (much evangelism).

 

Also, let us be mindful that Caesar is not entitled to molest & violate our consciences before God! (Dan. 3 & 6).

Luke 20:25: And He said to them, Therefore render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's.

Acts 5:29: But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.”

 

Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, AD 1521—a declaration of the right to be faithful to the Word of God, in accordance with the dictates of one’s conscience:

 

“Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the Council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

 

B. A basic theological case for Limited Government: we live in a FALLEN world!

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”—James Madison

 

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”—Lord Acton

 

i. Preliminary comments.

1) In the deepest sense, Christianity is trans-cultural, trans-national, and trans- political; Christians can, have, and must thrive and carry out the Great Commission within a variety of circumstances and environments—including under a variety of political circumstances.

 

2) NO BLUEPRINT for any specific form of Government is laid-out in the Scriptures. The church’s emphasis is primarily SPIRITUAL, and Church & State occupy differing realms under the rule of God.

 

3) No form of government will bring us UTOPIA; we await the KINGDOM!

 

4) However, this does not mean that certain political ideas and systems are as consistent with Biblical reality and truth as are others! The issue is one of degrees of compatibility with the Scriptures.,

 

ii. Human fallenness requires the Divinely mandated institution of human government; otherwise, the world would descend into a lawless chaos.

 

>Extreme forms of anarchism & libertarianism are inconsistent with Biblical Anthropology; men are not angels!

 

iii. The Scriptural emphasis behind the purpose of human government centers around the civil protection of human life from evildoers, and the administration of justice unto that end (Gen. 9:5-6, Rom. 13:1-4, 1 Pet. 2:13-14). Again, the concern deals with the preservation of society from an antediluvian-style chaos.

 

 

Unlike modern welfare state theory, the main Scriptural focus is NOT upon providing the public with goods and services (i.e., “Where’s my free stuff?”).

 

 

iv. In a fallen world, tyrannical rulers also present a threat to public safety.

Thus, the necessity for a limited government with a meaningful system of checks-and-balances that dilutes the concentration of absolute power in the hand of sinful ruling authorities (e.g., individual potentates, elite classes, large governmental bureaucracies, etc.). 

 

>A basic principle that favors limitations upon the Government, and mitigates against the idea of an all-powerful state can exercise a godlike authority: man is created in the Imago Dei (Gen. 1:26-27, 9:6).

 

The more all-embracing and extensive a governing authority, the greater its potentiality for evil (Gen. 11:6).

 

>In both the commonwealth of Israel and the Church, we see the people often having a voice and being involved in the choice of leadership.

 

>Totalitarian systems that rely upon heavy-handed, all-embracing, expansive authority are ill-suited to a fallen humanity; we are not ruled by angels!

 

>However, as John Adams observed, there is a connection between popular morality and popular sovereignty; the greater the depths of societal depravity, the greater the requirement for social control and rule by coercion.

 

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

 

>Democracy is not a panacea that brings utopia: one of the leading persecuting states against modern Christians is India, the world’s largest democracy! Popular mob rule can indeed be unjust—the tyranny of a depraved majority—and thus, we have a Constitution and Bill of Rights, making the US a Republic, as opposed to an unfiltered democracy.

 

Churchill & Aquinas.

Having said that, we note several relevant thoughts from Winston Churchill and the great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas.

 

Churchill: “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time…”

 

Aquinas argued in a work entitled On Kingship that a monarchy—if the hypothetical sovereign were just & righteous—is probably the most suitable form of human government. On the other hand, he further conceded that a monarchy could also be the worst form of government it the king were a base tyrant!

 

Ultimately, we await the perfect monarchy and the perfect government of Jesus Christ during the Millennium. At last, a just and righteous absolute Sovereign!

Isa. 11:1-5: Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist.

 

v. Scriptural examples, cases, & warnings with regard to the tyranny and corruption associated with expansive and overreaching government.

 

1. The expanding power of the Pharaonic Regime of Egypt.

Pharaoh assumes full possession of the land and its people in the Days of Joseph (Gen. 47), and ultimately his political heirs enslave the Hebrews of Goshen, instituting various genocidal policies (Ex. 1). Egyptian tyranny is resisted under the prophetic leadership of Moses and ultimately broken by the power of God. This deliverance is celebrated in Passover.

 

2. Gideon declines the monarchy, when offered by the people.

Judges 8:23: But Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the LORD shall rule over you."

 

Sadly, his power-hungry son, Abimelech, was cut of a different cloth (Judges 9).

 

3. Samuel is dismayed by the nation’s demand for a king.

In I Sam. 8:10-22 the Prophet Samuel, the last of the Judges, warns the people of the perils of kingship and expansive government—oppression, servitude, and the confiscation of private property. Kings are takers!

 

4. The folly of Solomon and his son Rehoboam (1 Kings 11-12).

Solomon’s worldly lapses in his later reign result in a tyrannical heavy-handed oppression (1 Kings 12:4)—a policy that was embraced by his son Rehoboam, resulting in Jeroboam’s revolution and the tragic division of the Israelite Kingdom into two realms.

 

5. The Judgment announced by Amos 1-2 upon various nations is based upon

their negative acts of oppression—not upon some expectation that they failed to positively provide their populations with goods or services.

 

6. The unlimited universal power of the Antichrist Beast (Rev. 13).

The nightmare of unlimited global authority that the world was rescued from at Babel (Gen. 11) now becomes a reality during the Great Tribulation, in which the deified ruler of a world-state demands complete allegiance over all things—political, economic, and spiritual.

 

Conclusion: Lord Acton’s maxim is validated by the Biblical data. Our American Founding Fathers were indeed wise in diluting Federal power by giving us a constitutional republic based upon the principles of popular sovereignty, states rights (10^th Amendment), and the separation of powers characterized by a system of checks-and-balances—punctuated by a firm, open, and definite Bill of Rights.