I’ve just completed a review of the book of Judges and the time of the kings (set out in Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles). I found several interesting takeaways that are germane to our time. Of course, this is always true, but we must keep in mind that these are not instructive, but historical books and they were specific to the Jews. Regardless, the principles as they relate to human nature are immutable.

While God designed the system of judges (which commentaries suggest are better compared not with our court system, but more like governors or possibly premiers), these were extremely brutal times. Arguably, the most graphic depictions of violent acts can be found in the book of Judges as many atrocities were carried out during this period. We are directly told what led the people to implore God for a king in place of the system of judges.

When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” – 1 Samuel 8:1-5

We see that the people were seeking relief from Samuel’s sons who were abusing their authority by acting in ungodly ways. Regardless of the feelings of Samuel as well as his own plan, God responds thusly:

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have don’t, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” – 1 Samuel 8:7-9

• Despite Samuel’s sterling character, his children did not follow his example. There is no guarantee that a godly man can ensure that their progeny will walk upright. This will depend upon their devotion to and right understanding of what God requires of them. It is also contingent on the voices that are permitted to have an influence. A perfect example comes from 1 Kings 12:1-15 where Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, is asked by the people to lift off the heavy yoke that his father had put upon the Israelites. He first consults the old men from Solomon’s court and they advise assenting to the request of the people. Rehoboam then speaks to the young people in his social circle and they recommend redoubling the burden. He dismisses the sage counsel of the seasoned advisors and becomes tyrannical. The accounts of the kings are laden with incidents where we are told that the rulers did what was evil in the eyes of God. In some cases, these were the offspring of godly regents while, more often than not, evil leaders tended to beget children with similarly malevolent natures.
• No system can offer guarantees against abuses. No matter how noble or, conversely, how seemingly insignificant the role, (teacher, counsellor, foster parent, doctor, lawyer, salesman, restauranteur, barista, mechanic, etc.), the integrity rests in the individual, not their position. A judge or king acting in deference to their duty as representatives of the Lord can wield their power with humility, honour, and a respect for the people. If they are guided by wickedness, malice, greed, lust, or any other sinful characteristic, the dangers stem from their base desires. They might even sound very noble, but be highly self-serving and take advantage through deception that they exploit to hide their true intentions and clandestine manipulations.
• God identifies that the problem is that the people are setting up a false god. He ties the actions of his people to their exodus out of Egypt where the Israelites created a golden calf to worship while God was setting out the commandments that established his requirements for them. God’s faithfulness (like Samuel’s) was being ignored as the people sought relief in someone they wanted to entrust as a saviour from their circumstances. Instead of trusting God to be in control of the realities they were facing and what they were called to be and do regardless of their earthly ruler; they wanted a quick fix that ignored the human condition (of the one(s) in authority as well as their own). God is the only certainty and the only one trustworthy regardless of what is happening.
• Knowing the above, God created the judge system to constrain the potential reach of these servants with the clear recognition that there is only one truly righteous king who is worthy of this authority. We read that the primary complaint of the citizens was that the sons of Samuel were taking bribes and perverting justice. How greater the scope of abuses becomes possible when the godless command even more significant power? The people saw evil conduct in 2 judges and somehow concluded that the way out of their plight was to grant vastly more power under a single man. Granted, people with limited authority can supersede these limits, but they can only do so if the public allows them to. The pilgrims escaped the rule of the English king and sought to create a government based on the presumption of God-given rights and where those in power are the servants of the people with highly restricted authority and heavy accountability. Over the years, the power thirsty have vastly exceeded this noble foundation, mostly by making promises that tickled the ears of the listeners and promised that needs and desires would be taken care of with no responsibility placed on the individual. Tyrants are gonna tyrannize and the indolent and rootless will not only facilitate, but ensure that all are made to submit or face the scourge of those who usurp the authority that belongs to God alone.

     God spelled out to Samuel what the people were inviting through their disobedience.

(God) said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.” – 1 Samuel 8:11-18

I’d say he undersold what the people could expect. Imagine our liberation were we ruled by a government that took only 10% of all we have. Some of the warnings are less relevant for us, but in many ways, we have seen basic rights and liberties taken that far exceed what those demanding a king could expect. Keep in mind that a government is not the same as a monarchy and therefore they are already constrained far more in terms of what they even have the authorisation to mandate from the citizens.

The divine right of kings is a doctrine advancing a view of monarchical absolutism whereby kings must be exempted from governmental oversight since they are put into power by God. As such, the line of accountability rests solely with God and he alone can judge their actions. This justification also extended to granting regal oversight not only of civic life, but also the church.

While our Canadian constitution (and certainly the American system of a republic of states) is not directly ruled by a monarch, one could argue that governmental rulers have been making the same claims to exert their authority across these spheres for a long time. Their premise has been embraced by large swaths of sola Romans 13 churches over the last few years where this claim to authority has gone into hyperdrive. They have long been entrenching a secular humanist ideology that has been mandated throughout our institutions, but it took until 2020 for the state to deign they had the further supremacy to set the terms a church must abide by in order to worship – that is if they are permitted to open their doors at all.

I have not heard legislators formally invoking a “divine right of kings” decree to justify their supreme authority to act as they have, but it is worse since they have assumed it to be in place. It is only through the church ceding this premise that fines and even locking up of pastors was possible based on the handful of churches daring to stand in opposition. Even more disturbing, those churches who were not silent were generally condemned by the blissfully compliant as unloving and flouting their obligation to submit to the state.

Since it does not seem to be clear to many within the church why the divine right of kings is a heresy, I will break down the specifics.

1. We are all accountable to God, but this does not serve as grounds to remove the need for accountability. In fact, the more power one has, the more they need to have a discerning body that they must answer to for purposes of keeping them in check. Within the church, we create a system of elders, deacons, or similar leadership organisations because we recognise the need to keep even the godly from losing the plot. The examples of leaders who have fallen are legion. Recently, the head of Canada’s largest evangelical church, Bruxy Cavey, has been exposed for engaging in sexual sin. Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist I long admired and looked upon as a role model, was discovered after his death to have engaged in highly disturbing sexual exploitation and kept his actions hidden. I heard it explained that when accusations were leveled at this celebrated apologist and scholar that he dismissed these as specious attacks from his ideological enemies. The explanation had the ring of truth since atheists love to use lies to besmirch effective Christian leaders. It was later stated by those in the leadership of RZIM (Ravi Zacharias International Ministries) that he was questioned about the charges, but became very defensive and agitated – which was highly uncharacteristic of his public and overall persona. It took the hiring of an impartial investigator to look into the matter to verify beyond a doubt that Zacharias was guilty. This corruption was able to occur in a man who deeply investigated the scriptures and was rightly grounded in his teachings; yet he allowed himself to become compromised in this area despite knowing he would be facing the judgment of God. How much more likely are we to see profound corruption from those with vast powers and control over the lives of citizens to expose, pressure, track, blackmail, bribe, manipulate, entice, and threaten others to participate in and cover up your actions – especially when you control the gathering and dissemination of information. The notion of accountability becomes a farce and nothing more than a political talking point – just like tolerance, compassion, diversity, inclusion, safety, or any other buzzword that carries no culpability to ground their premise or provide evidence of success. Once useful idiots are prepared to do your bidding, whatever the motives, they are no longer checks and balances, but co-conspirators.
2. Those who don’t believe in God don’t feel answerable to him; so, their core argument is self-serving and rings hollow. We know that all will give an account before the throne of God, but this is one of many reasons why believers have reason to expect persecution. The contempt for God from the powerful and for Christ followers is often palpable and, increasingly, has become illegal. As I addressed in my previous blog, unbelievers are using flawed arguments from Christian ethics to enforce blatantly anti-biblical duties while punishing dissenters for their “unchristian” failure to endorse sinful acts that have been projected as hatred for those living in sin. Such miscalculations are either deliberate means of nudging a culture from God, or arise from well-intentioned people falling for the satanic whisper of “did God really say”? Whichever of these – whether alone, in tandem, or rooted in the same heresy – should alert any earnest ruler to back down and question their deeds. The fact that they feel entitled to wield such authority while ignoring the vox populi suggests they are frauds.
3. Those sincerely claiming to be God’s representatives would know that they have no right to impose on the public any obligation that encroach on what belongs to God alone and this would constrain their claims to authority. I’ve addressed this in detail previously, but the state is tasked with punishing good and guarding against evil. It is not to ensure public safety or embrace any other noble sounding role that usurps God’s authority. Further, without accountability, claiming to protect others (physically, emotionally, psychologically, etc.) is a pretext for which there is no established context. As such, there is no way to authenticate or refute their premise.
4. Abusive control can increase exponentially when governments enlist other powered interests in their service. Especially over the past few years, we have seen pressure being imposed on the public through a big business-government partnership. We have been led to believe that fascism is when conservatives and Christians express views that run counter to the approved narrative. The traditional definition of fascism is when the interests of governments and businesses combine to establish a ruling class that imposes their will over the public. The result of amassing wealth, resources and power over the public leads to oppression and the loss of human rights and freedoms – as well as corrupted and weaponized law enforcement.

     God made clear in his interaction with Samuel that his opposition to a monarchy is that he recognised this as the people rejecting his central position as their sole eternal king. To name someone as regent on earth is to confuse the meaning of what it means to be ruled by a king. The mortal manifestation can only be a pretender. An earthly king can demand our tithes and allegiance even in contravention of our duty to God (refer to Daniel, Mordecai, the Apostles, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, etc.).  For that matter, Satan assumed the same authority when he was tempting Christ in the desert. Let us also not forget that the crowds called for Jesus’s death, shouting, “We have no king but Caesar”.

All of the above seemed to be common knowledge in former times, but we have somehow forgotten how the chain of authority works. When layers of government coordinate their efforts to create public schools where children are taught heresies as truth and they force us to pay for the privilege, something has gone awry. Teachers transitioned (see what I did there) from being educators and employees partnering for the knowledge acquisition of our children into indoctrinators who claimed to be “co-parents.” They now have the temerity to position themselves as having ultimate guardianship over them in their moral, social, and ideological development. Herein we find a perfect analogy of what has happened to government’s power over our lives. The kicker is that the corruption of our schools was the result of the abuse of state authority.

If we hope to resist what is happening – and we need to do so if only to ensure that God is rightly established on his throne – then there are several fallacies I believe we need to recognise and rebel against.

• We need to disabuse ourselves of the lie that Christians should not be involved in politics. Every domain of society from career, family, social or civic life that Christians absent themselves leaves a void for deceptive and destructive ideologies to take hold. Anyone failing to understand that darkness takes hold where the light is removed comprehends neither physics nor the reality of good and evil.
• It is impossible for a disciple of Christ to keep his faith and work life separate. Anyone claiming to be a child of Christ would be indicting himself and his witness by making such a claim. To insist you can compartmentalize your faith from any sphere of one’s life is to deny God his rightful authority as king. To make the case that this is how to respect those you serve means you hate God’s perfect standards and imagine man are better arbiters of what is right than our creator. As Abraham Kuyper famously remarked, “There is not a square inch in all of creation where God does not cry, ‘Mine!’”
• We must recognise that the rationale admonishing Christians to not get mired in politics is merely a ploy to mute their cultural influence. Every political issue is being couched in the framework of ethics. While we know that the role of government is to uphold what is righteous and punish evil; secular pursuits make a mockery of moral duties by inverting ethics and perverting justice by favouring some over others. If God’s standards are not directing a society, then the populace will devolve into moral decay and government will be serving the will of Satan rather than God.
• We can’t act as bystanders when it comes to elections and treat the outcome as though the results were precisely what God wanted. I have no doubt that the vast majority of those whose biblical scholarship is confined to Romans 13:1-2 have little or no idea about the platforms or character of candidates and do not vote. This level of apathy leads to the political version of C.S. Lewis’s admonition that “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful”. That is the optimistic take. It might just be that they are indifferent to the societal collapse into our Romans 1 reality. Not only does ignoring this issue ensure that we fail to put principled men and women into office, but it disincentivize Christians from even putting themselves forward since they will lack the public support to put them into office. This is aside from the attacks that inevitably come when one stands up for biblical principles.
• The argument that Christians shouldn’t run for office is beyond absurd – it is dangerous. This has been addressed above, but needs to be reinforced.

This issue is so important because it determines who has pre-eminence in our lives and, even more important, in the lives of family, friends, neighbours, and our children. Deceased Conservative firebrand, Andrew Breitbart is best remembered for his comment that “politics is downstream from culture”. While there is much truth in this, I believe it captures a portion of reality and reflects his personal limitations in that he was not a Christian.

I bring this up because cultural influences can direct who we become as a people, but the we need to go back another step and ask what is influencing the culture. We have had godless actors intent on shaping and leading us in a certain direction. The list is long and deserves probably several articles to break down the individuals, their philosophies, their motives, and the results. What is most significant is that the shapers have not been Christians and have held Judeo-Christian values in contempt.

If sewage is being dumped into our system, then everyone downstream will be imbibing these toxins and, over time, they will become acclimatized to it. Neither politicians nor any other aggregate should be the apex of our culture, but when they have amassed the power and authority to the extent they have, we cannot ignore or cooperate with their abuses. We need to move God back to the centre.

In “The Lord of the Rings”, we see a brilliant allegory of the very principles at work here. Several rings of power are created for selected individuals as leaders who represent segments of Tolkien’s fantasy world of Middle Earth. The recipients include dwarfs, elves, and men). Without their knowledge, a demonic entity has created a ring that rules all the others – thus permitting him alone to enslave all of society. When the “one ring to rule them all” is lost, it corrupts the soul of the one who finds it. There is a tension between those trying to destroy the ring and men who foolishly believe they can control the power without abusing the power for evil. The only one who is who can be trusted with such omnipotence is the one who knows they are unfit to wear it.

There is no political system that will rescue humanity, but a debased one can lead many to destruction – especially when a weak church is not prepared to take up the weapons set out in Ephesians 6:10-18. It’s true that we don’t need a godly government to advance God’s kingdom on earth, however, when Caesar is forcefully imposing a demonic system, we’d better be preparing ourselves to face suffering and persecution for His sake.

Referring to people as sheep has become an insult intended to criticize those who are seen as gullible. This misses the point. Scripture reminds us that we are to be sheep. The folly comes when we follow the wrong shepherd. A shepherd can lead us through grave dangers while also protecting his flock. Courage is found when one is aware of the dangers, yet he trusts his master enough to carry us through despite our fears.

Our allegiance belongs solely to one king who has the divine right to rule us, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like any of the pretenders we will find on this side of heaven.