A Theocracy—True and False

Notes

1. "A theocracy is (1) a government among men recognizing the immediate sovereignty of God and receiving His revelations as its civil law. (2) Hence a state of government administered by a sacerdotal class or by ecclesiastics; a hierarchy having political power; specifically, the Hebrew state from Moses to the monarchy; by emphasis, a direct government of God."—Standard Dictionary. The second definition covers false theocracies.

2. It is an eternal and divine principle that "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." It is only thus that God reigns over His people. He will not compel unwilling service. It is the willing and obedient over whom He reigns. There must therefore be in a true theocracy willingness on the part of God to become king, and willingness on the part of the people that the Lord should rule. Willing service is always heart service. In its fullest and truest sense such a theocracy never existed upon the earth save only the little while that Adam and Eve were faithful.

3. The people of Israel promised to obey God's voice and heed His command. Three days after this the Lord uttered His voice from heaven in the ten words which comprehended in themselves all righteousness. Then the Lord gave other laws for the government of the nation through Moses. These are found in Ex. 20:22 to 23:33.

"That the obligations of the Decalogue might be more fully understood and enforced, additional precepts were given, illustrating and applying the principles of the ten commandments. These laws are called judgments, both because they were framed in infinite wisdom and equity, and because the magistrates were to give judgment according to them."—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 310. "After the people had heard these judgments from the lips of Moses, which were the conditions of the covenant, they again said, 'All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.' The covenant was then ratified by the sprinkling of blood. Arrangements were now to be made for the full establishment of the chosen nation under Jehovah, their king."—Id., p. 312. This was done in the erection of the sanctuary, the central place of worship, the appointment of the priesthood, the endowment of the seventy elders, etc. Israel thus became the kingdom of God.

4. God was the governor of His people. His will or laws were revealed to them in three different ways: (1) His great constitution, or primal law of government of the universe by His own voice (see Ex. 20:1-17; Deut. 5:22); (2) through Moses, who talked with God face to face, and through other prophets (see Deut. 5:30, 31; Num. 12:6; 2 Chron. 36:15); (3) by Urim and Thummim, through the high priest (Num. 27:21), and sometimes other ways. But all these appointments and agencies were of God. Moses, the elders, the priests, the prophets, were all appointed of God, or under His direction, and fitted for their work by His Spirit. Jehovah was king; the people of Israel, if the government was to be a success, must be willing subjects.

5. As the leaders, prophets, and priests were but the ministers of God, when the people neglected them or their counsels, they neglected not the men, but God, who sent them. See 1 Sam. 8:7; Ex. 16:8; Luke 10:16. This was a long step on the part of Israel toward the utter ruin of the kingdom. Henceforth the pure theocracy was no more. That the nation might be preserved intact, that the promise concerning Christ according to the flesh might be fulfilled through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, the Lord preserved the nation even though rebellious till the coming and manifestation of Christ in the flesh. See Deut. 7:6-8; 9:5; Gen. 49:10; Jer. 11:4, 5; Acts 2:29, 30.

6. And yet the Lord did not cast off His people. He gave them their choice, and told them the manner of the kingdom. The king was to be chosen by the Lord and anointed by His prophet. When the Lord's choice was confirmed, it went well with the nation. When the king was of their own choice, and one who departed from God, the nation always suffered. Special instruction concerning the king is found in Deut. 17:14-20. He was to be of God's choice; he was to be of the stock of Israel; he must not multiply horses (an animal especially dedicated to sun worship); he must not follow the lustful example of other rulers in multiplying to himself wives and concubines. It was his duty to write out a copy of the law given by Moses, and to study it, that he might instruct his people in word and example, and thus preserve the kingdom to the Lord.

7. The final result of choosing their own way, to that nation which began its career so gloriously, was backsliding, extravagance, oppression on the part of their kings, intermarriages with idolatrous nations, alliances with other nations, till, finally, that which was once the kingdom of the Lord became utterly perverted, and the king, who should have been a type of Christ, was a mere vassal of Babylon. So of him, and of that kingdom which in a sense was still the Lord's, the prophet said: "And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. Perverted, perverted, perverted, will I make it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." Eze. 21:25-27, margin. The crown of Judah was first seized by Babylon, in the very days of the prophet. Three times again it was "overturned," or "perverted," by Medo-Persia, Grecia, Rome. It is in the hands of Rome and earthly governments to-day, and God will no more rule over an earthly kingdom; there will be no more a true theocracy or government of God on earth till Jesus Christ comes to reign as King of kings.

8. As God has declared by His prophet that He will reign no more on earth over an earthly kingdom till Christ shall come the second time, it follows that that kingdom or government which claims to be ruling in the place of God is blasphemously assuming authority which does not belong to it. It is a false theocracy, the government of antichrist. And this has been the character in modified forms of every idolatrous or Church and State government which has ever existed apart from the theocracy of Israel. Behind them all is Satan. Their power is force. It is not, Do because you love and trust, but, Do because you shall and must.

9. This false theocracy began to be developed under the teachings of Augustine and others who had departed from the faith. Says Neander ("History of the Christian Religion and Church," vol. 2, p. 132): "There had in fact arisen in the church, as we observed in the previous period, a false theocratical theory. . . . This theocratical theory was the prevailing one in the time of Constantine, and the bishops voluntarily made themselves dependent on him by their disputes and by their determination to make use of the form of the State for the furtherance of their aims." It was out of this grew that "whole system of spiritual despotism, of intolerance and persecution, which ended in the tribunals of the Inquisition." See Id., vol. 2, p. 217. The demand for a theocracy to-day by the National Reformers, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and others, is of precisely the same character, whether those who make it know it or not.

10. It may be said that the only true theocracy on earth now is Jesus Christ ruling supreme in the heart which has admitted Him and retains Him by faith. Eph. 3:17; Gal. 2:20. The aggregation of such hearts form the temple or church of God, in which Jesus Christ rules by His word and Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16), and in which no other power has authority. When Christ shall come it will be such hearts—hearts tested in all trials—over which He will reign forever. Love will rule, love will do glad service forever; then let love rule now.