Today, I will look at a couple of stories in the Bible that might help us evaluate the possibility that many Christians have unwittingly de-legitimized the authority of public offices and those who hold them.
This can happen when the eyes of faith don’t see Christ continuing to exercise his office as King and Lord over the kings and lords of this earth. I will explain what we can learn from those stories and apply that to what I’ve seen in 30 years of direct political engagement.
Why We Justify Visible Understandings of Authority
I begin with the story of Moses’s disappearance when he went up to the mountain to receive the law of God:
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves unto Aaron and said unto him, up, make us gods which shall go before us for as for this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. (Exodus 32:1, KJV)
So, the priest of God, Aaron, created an image of authority the people could see because they couldn't see the leader God had established, as if God had not been the real leader, mediating His authority through the mediator Moses.
God was not pleased with this “faith” by sight:
And the Lord said in verse nine unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. (32:9, KJV)
The Problem Repeated; Lesson not Learned
The same problem resurfaces in1 Samuel 8. God’s prophet, Samuel was waxing old. His sons appeared incapable of carrying forward Samuel's great work. The people couldn't see how it was going to work. It was, in principle, much like those who could not, by faith, see God at work and trust Him when they couldn’t see Moses anymore.
They needed something else to represent authority to them. So, the elders of Israel said to Samuel ”make us a king to judge over us like all the nations.”
It displeased Samuel, but the Lord said to him:
Hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them. 1 Samuel 8:7, KJV)
God told Samuel to let them know what would happen: Your king will become tyrannical.
Questions We Should Ask Ourselves
If, in the things we see, God is revealing unseen eternal realities that we don't see (2 Corinthians 4:18), perhaps it is telling that that so many Christians think our public governments are tyrannical. The response seems to have been elect the “right” people and enact more statutes.
Could this response tell us that our faith cannot “see” God, in Christ, presently ruling well over all forms of authority in various public offices?
As a practical matter, are those Christians doing what the people in Samuel’s day were doing? Are they’re rejecting faith in God’s providence being daily expressed by Christ’s rule in his office as king and taking matters into their own hands? Do we need a political ruling power we can see to give us assurance?
After 30 years in politics, it seems to me many Christians have accepted the ideologies of authority of the world and its political and legal methodologies. If that is true, should we be surprised to find ourselves under oppressive tyrannical government?
A Practical Example of Looking for a Visible Basis for Authority
This brings me to a monograph written by a Christian that I’ve mentioned before, An Apologetic for Liberty. It was distributed widely in Tennessee two years ago. In light of this series, re-consider with me this statement I’ve often quoted:
As a matter of the created order, we're not subservient to the claims and demands of co-equal image bearers unless we voluntarily submit.
I don’t think this author understands that in the first Adam—part of the “created order”—offices were established by God because he “was the figure (type) of him was to come,” Jesus Christ. Romans 5: 14. Adam was God’s prophet communicating God’s word to Eve, priest in relation to maintenance of the Garden, and a ruler as head of the human organism with its dominion mandate.
We have never been without offices established by God. Perhaps like Moses’s disappearance on the Mountain, Christ rule in Heaven has become invisible to us.
I submit that may explain why we think public offices and their authority are created by us by voluntary mutual consent. By this ideology we are taken captive. It spoils the riches of the assurance we should have that Christ is continuing to mediate His Kingly authority over all lesser magistrates in righteousness and holiness to His appointed ends.
What Do We Do Now?
I believe many Christians have unwittingly rejected the reality of Jesus’s ongoing mediation as King, because what we see doesn’t look like it (assuming his offices and their import have ever been explained).
It’s easy then to make up the idea that there is no legitimate authority unless we consent. But this smacks more of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the French Revolution than it does of the Bible.
I believe many Christians have been “enticed by “beguiling words” because they have not apprehended and applied well the “mystery of God, of the Father and of Christ.” (Colossians 3:4) Consequently, we find ourselves in our present tyranical situation.
Therefore, I would suggest, submit and urge that it is time for the body of Christ to repent from having other theories, postulates, or ideas rule over us instead of the living God through Christ Jesus.
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