Posted in Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty. 2 Cor. 3:17

          I remember learning about our form of government when young.  It seemed confusing, all with its separation of powers, checks and balances, and mixed government (or dual form of government).  Then, of course, there is the legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch of government.  In fact, it often still seems very confusing.  Well, it did until I learned the source of our form of government and then it became very familiar.

If you’re not already privy to this, you may be interested to know that our form of government is a Biblical form of government founded in the Scriptures.  Don’t get confused with the many pagan ideas that have crept into our system of government over the years.  The battle today is centered on many Christians calling for a return to the government of our founding fathers.  Unfortunately, many people don’t understand what that is.  But God has called out many people and organizations to educate us on these principles.  It is unlikely that you will find this information in any modern school textbook.  I have enjoyed learning these principles based on the primary sources of original writings of the founders of this country.  I hope you will find it as interesting as I did. 

The Christian Form of Our Government

·        “As men we have God for our King, and are under the Law of Reason:  as Christians, we have Jesus the Messiah for our King, and are under the Law reveal’d by him in the Gospel…”

“The Reasonableness of Christianity” John Locke, 1695

            Do you recall in the Bible when the people of Israel were demanding a king?  What was God’s response?

1 Samuel 8:5-9—“…appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.  But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the LORD.  The LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. "Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day--in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods--so they are doing to you also.  "Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them."

            A Christian Form of Government does not include a monarchy (where a man rules as king) for Jesus Christ is our king and we are to look to none other. 

            During the making of America, the Word of God was used as the political textbook providing an explanation of God’s design for man’s government.  The monarchal reign of England had been the example for the colonies of both Jamestown and the Pilgrims.  Though Jamestown was more of a transplanted England in many respects, the Pilgrims were the ones who deviated.  They compared all things to God’s Word.  They used the Word of God as their political textbook.  They recognized that Jesus Christ was their king.

            George Washington recognized this principle as well.  After the Revolutionary War, he was so popular that the people wanted to set him up as king.  In fact, he was later elected president by a unanimous vote!  But a momentous time in our history was when George Washington, after winning the American Revolutionary War, entered the statehouse in Maryland, withdrew his sword, knelt down before the then President of these United States, laid it in the palms of his hands surrendering his sword; and addressing the assembly, George Washington announced that he was now returning to civilian life.  The spectators then wept because they now really realized what America was all about…a republic of the people.  As Dr. Grant described it, America fights for liberty and then America goes home.  America does not conquer and seize. 

Jesus Christ is King in a “Christian form of government”; He being sovereign over all.  But what is our part?  

 

Two aspects of a Christian form of government—

            Two aspects of a Christian form of government includes; first the internal—how we govern ourselves through the absolute standard of God’s Word {self-government} and the external—how man governs man {civil government}.   

The first time civil government was set up Biblically was after the flood.  Before the flood, each man was responsible for himself to God.  Due to the absolute degradation of mankind and after the judgment of the flood, the Lord told Moses that for the life of man, the life of man shall be taken.  In other words, the life of the murderer shall be taken by man.  Here, God started holding man responsible for holding other men accountable to the rule of law.

            I tell my children that understanding these two aspects of our government (internal & external) may not be of great interest to them now, however, when they are of age, if they understand these principles, they will be heads and shoulders above your peers.

  

• Internal (Spirit of the Law)—Nature and Essence {Man governing himself thru God’s leading or self-government}
  • The Christian Principle of Self-Government
  • Conscience is the Most Sacred of All Property
  • The Christian Principle of Political Union
• External (Letter of the Law)—Structure and Framework {Man governing man or civil government}
  • The Separation of Powers
  • The Principle of Representation
  • The Dual Form of Our Government 

Internal (Spirit of the Law)—Nature and Essence {Man governing himself thru God’s leading or self-government}:

Christian Principle of Self-Government 

·        “He knows not how to rule a Kingdom, that cannot manage a Province; nor can he wield a Province, that cannot order a City; nor he order a City, that knows not how to regulate a Village; nor he a Village, that cannot guide a Family; nor can that man govern well a Family that knows not how to govern himself; neither can any govern himself unless his reason be Lord, will and appetite her vassals: nor can reason rule unless herself be ruled by God, and (wholly) be obedient to Him.”

Hugo Gratius (1654)

            How is the Biblical principle of self-government defined in Scripture?

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”  Proverbs 16:32

            For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?”  1 Timothy 3:5 

            We can see that learning to govern oneself through the leading of the Holy Spirit is paramount to our being able to adequately run any aspect of our lives.    I love Hugo Gratius’ recognition that we cannot govern anything, including ourselves, without being wholly obedient to the Lord.  Isn’t it true that He is the one that provides “reason” to our “reasoning”?  What are we without Christ providing us with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding?

“All societies of men must be governed in some way or other.  The less they may have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government.  The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint.  Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled,  either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.” {Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Bible Society, Boston, May, 1849; The Christian History of the American Revolution, Consider and Ponder, pg. 20.}

What is this telling us?  One of the necessary aspects of liberty is that we can govern ourselves in rightness before God.  Of course, the only way we can truly do this is through the leading of the Holy Spirit.  A society without God and faith cannot truly be free.  The Bible tells us, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”  (2 Corinthians 3:17) 

So the most fundamental and central aspect of a Christian form of government is self-government; and once we have learned self-government, then home government, church government, and lastly civil government.  Without internal control (self-government), another form of government must enforce the law and, therefore, a loss of our liberties results.   

As a practical example, say a father and mother (God-ordained home government) establishes a principle within Biblical guidelines of a certain standard of television that the family will only view.  If all the family members are self-governed and make their choices for television viewing within God’s principles and home government, then there is no need that any should be monitored.  However, if members of the family are not self-governed, then a “rule of law” will likely come down that they can only watch television in the presence of the parents.  What has happened?  They have lost the freedom of private viewing and now need to be monitored and are subject to a strict rule when before they were only governed by godly principles and had complete freedom of private viewing within those godly principles.  

  

Conscience is the Most Sacred of All Property

·        “For men being the Workmanship of One Omnipotent, and infinitely wise Maker:  All the Servants of one Sovereign Master, sent into the World by his Order, and about his Business, they are his Property, whose Workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another’s Pleasure…”  {“Of Civil Government”…John Locke, 1689}

What does the Bible say about property in general?

Genesis 1:1—In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  {He is the Creator of the heavens and earth…all things are His} 

Isaiah 43:7—Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made,  {He made us…we are His}

Revelation 4:11—You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. 

Ephesians 2:10—For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

            These verses reveal that by His will, we were created and fashioned for His glory.  We are His workmanship.  Through His graciousness, He has given us dominion over all things on earth.  Through this dominion, we have received exclusive rights of possessing, enjoying, and disposing of this external property. 

“The most explicit summary of the founding fathers’ conception of property is found in the writings of James Madison educated as a theologian, but used of God to direct the writing of the Constitution.  Madison indicates the external and internal meaning of property.  He lists as external ‘property, land, merchandise, or money.’  As that more important property, the internal, he lists man’s property ‘in his opinions and the free communication of them.  He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them…He has an equal property in the free use of his faculties, and the free choice of the objects on which to employ them…Conscience is the most sacred of all property.”

“Thus we can see the Christian inheritance of property—from the first century when “liberty of conscience” became more important to men than their very lives.  We remember the Pilgrims fleeing from England, rather than submit to infringement of their rights of conscience.  And here we find the founding fathers reminding us that ‘we have a property’ in our rights—and that the right to conscience is the most important.  As we were reminded in the writings of Neander, liberty of conscience did not exist until Christianity appeared in the world.  With its appearing the individual became important—and his most sacred possession was his conscience.”  [Emphasis Added] (Teaching and Learning America’s Christian Heritage, by Rosalie J. Slater, pg. 228)

But the greatest of all property is internal—the liberty of conscience is the most sacred of all property.  One must be truly Christ-governed to be conscientious where the internal demands of God’s laws are written on our hearts.  This is different than what was occurring in England at the time of the Pilgrims when the Church of England was telling men what to think of God and there was no allowance for liberty of conscience from one’s own study of the Word of God.

1 Corinthians 4:2—Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

Acts 24:16—So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

            In addition to (1) self-government through the leading of the Holy Spirit; a Christian form of government that provides “true liberty” also requires (2) liberty of conscience with a responsibility to prove faithful before God and man—again, righteousness {rightness before God}.

  

The Christian Principle of American Political Union

·        “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…”

Ephesians 4:13

            The principle of Christian unity is defined in the Bible as follows:

            “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment”.  1 Corinthians 1:10 

            “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.”  Psalm 133:1

The Pilgrims learned Christian Unity from the New Testament Churches.  For 150 years, the colonists practiced Christian self-government.  About 10 years before the Revolutionary War, England began to exert her pressure on the colonists to conform to monarchy rule.  They knew this to be wrong.  “They knew their rights and liberties were of God and not of man and therefore they were united in this conviction.”  [Teaching & Learning America’s Christian History, by Rosalie J. Slater, pg. 267]  As a result, there was American Political Union amongst the colonists for the first time.

American Political Union is a kin to the unity of the church.

As God created every snowflake to be completely unique, so is every person.  Their thoughts are unique; their process of thinking is unique.  This is acceptable, blessed, and designed by God as long as every thought is in conformity with Christ. 

Although we are unique and individual, Christ has called us to be united in spirit and truth.  Since the same Spirit dwells within us, we should all have the same spirit, united under the same head (Christ), and possessing the same godly character.  “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” (1 Corinthians 12:27)

Unity differs from the collectivism of socialist countries because unity embraces moral diversity and individuality; whereas, collectivism suppresses all diversity and individuality. 

Like Christian unity of the Church, so should political unity be under a Christian government.  E Pluribus Unum, printed on our money, means “the one from the many”.  Just as the one “Church” is from the many individual “believers”; so is the one “Nation” from the many individual “states”; and the one “state” from the many individual citizen residents.  Our great nation came to be because we were “free from the benumbing influences of centralization on the one hand, and from the fatal dangers of disintegration on the other.”  (Frothingham)  We are individual, yet we are united.

To sum up—“internal government” necessary for a Christian form of government—true liberty requires our (1) self-government through the leading of the Holy Spirit; (2) liberty of conscience with a responsibility to prove faithful before God and man—again, righteousness {rightness before God}; and (3) recognition of our God-given individuality, yet maintaining political unity in Christ.

Our Christian Form of Government (cont'd.)

___________________________________________

Karen Brummett

karen.brummett@earthlink.net

www.homeschoolblogger.com/coffeebreak

 

"...[E]ternal vigilance is the price of liberty."       {John Fiske, "The Beginnings of New England", 1889}