Kings, Democracy, Republic, & Constitution

Christian History “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6

In early history for centuries the only form of government was essentially kings, whether they were called – Pharaoh, Caesar, Kaiser, Darius, Alexander the Great, or Genghis Khan.

The world’s first non-kingship government was when Israel entered the Promised Land after 40 years in the wilderness and 400 years of slavery in Egypt. There was no human king they followed but only their eternal King, Jehovah God. They followed this model for the first 400 years in the Promised Land. Everyone was equal under God and His Law. This was truly revolutionary in the world. No one was above God’s Law, the most prominent, wealthiest to the poorest, and especially protective of the weakest, orphans, and widows. Women were honored unlike any other race or nation in the world. God’s Law commanded parents to teach all their children to read, boys and girls. There was no other Law or God in the world like Jehovah God, Creator of all and everything.

When the priest stopped teaching the Law of God, “every man began to do what was right in his own eyes.” Crime exploded. They turned away from God rejecting Him and His Law. Then they “wanted to be like the other nations and have a king.” Though God warned them their families would become more oppressed, they would have oppressive taxes and become enslaved to government bureaucracy. But God gave them what they wanted. Nonetheless, when their Kings followed God’s Law they were blessed. But when they turned from God’s Law and sinned, God let them reap what they would sow, the curses of sin.

In 600 B.C. when Athens had a king named Draco, he wrote laws that were very harsh – the death penalty for every other thing. This is where we get the phrase a “draconian law.” In time Athens got rid of Draco and then they got Salon, who invented democracy. In democracy, everyone, every day had to go to the market and talk politics. If you didn’t keep up with it every day you were called an “idiotus”, which is where we get the word “idiot”. This was where the word “church” was first used, gathering in the marketplace to talk politics.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato warned that democracy could only last if people were virtuous. When they give up virtue they would engage in immoral conduct, including financial treachery in raiding the treasury. They would vote to take more money from the rich and borrow money until they could no longer pay it back. Then the inevitable would happen, financial fall turns into a crisis, crime explodes, and people scream for help. Someone comes promising to save the day and people quickly give up freedoms for security and safety. The new political savior comes in, consolidates his power, gets rid of political opponents, and then everyone discovers – you have a tyrant.

With the Athenian democracy, a simple majority can vote to kill a minority. ‘Demos’ means people; ‘cracy’ means rule. The United States was NOT founded as a democracy but rather quite different – a Constitutional Republic. Only in recent times has our leaders started promoting in using the term democracy more than referring to our nation as a Constitutional Republic. The U.S. is NOT a democracy, though for years the Left has been working hard to move the United States away from its Constitutional Republic. When Israel rejected God in rejecting His Law, it became godless. As the United States has rejected God and His moral Law it too has become more godless in every way.

Some say the United States got the idea of a “republic” from Rome, where the word “rep”, a short form of “res publica” or “in the place of”, was first started. Rome did have representatives to represent them in their assembly of government. But “republic” or “representative” government did not originate from Rome. Representative government was first instituted from God’s Mosaic Law (Deut. 1:13-18). However, representative government just in itself, if not based on all God’s moral Law, will never be good.

Under God’s Law, the people’s representatives were not free to do as they please, they were to rule according to God’s Constitution – God’s Law. Some credit the first Constitution, limiting the power of a king, to the Magna Carta. Though it too was not the first constitution. God’s Law – God’s Constitution – was the world’s first Constitution, 16^th century B.C. Initially it did far more than limit the Kings power – it eliminated having any human king at all! God was to be their only King.

However, God knowing that Israel would eventually reject Him and want a human king (1Samuel 8), God included in His Law instruction for a king. And it was far more limiting than the Magna Carta. But God’s Law was fair, liberating, and facilitates the greatest prosperity for any people. Psalm identifies God’s Law as the “Perfect Law”. James calls it the “Law of freedom” and the “Royal Law” of God.

Our founding Father’s were well aware of the governments of Greece, Rome, and the Magna Carta, but they made far more Bible references, especially from Deuteronomy, than all other forms of government put together. America’s laws were based on biblical laws. But many of our Founders, as Patric Henry, Sammual Adams, and others, were initially opposed to the U.S. Constitution. Because it did not specify the Lord God as Supreme, identify each law with a Scriptural reference, and did not include any litmus test for civil leaders to be Protestant Christians or even Christians.

However, most of the Founding Fathers eventually whet along with adopting the Constitution because they later included the “Bill of Rights” and the 10^th Amendment in protecting the Stats rights. However, today it is easy to see why Patric Henry, Sammual Adams, and others, were concerned about adopting any Constitution that did not have Biblical stipulations.

The bible says: “For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King” (Isa.33:22). With the American colonies, prior to the U.S. Constitution, they took this verse literally, they saw being under only Jesus as their “King of kings”, no legislators making up their own laws but only using God’s written Law as the law of the land, and judges to not judicate but only judge based on direct interpretation of God’s moral Law.

This may be new information for some of you. But we have documented much of this with other Christian History. However, do we need any previous history to authorize if Christians should obey the what the Bible declares? Should any man’s authority determine the law contrary to God’s Law? If so, God calls that “idolatry.”