From the Pastor's Study
From the Pastor’s Study
Theocratic Monarchy
Feb 09, 2022
In last night’s catechism class, we talked for a bit about the Kingdom of God. We defined the Kingdom of God as being evident and present wherever the reign of God is recognized and practiced. Thus, any time someone lives in obedience to God’s commands, trusting that he will take care of them, we see evidence of the Kingdom of God. As I reflected on the concept of the Kingdom of God, I became intrigued by the language we use to describe various kinds of governments here in this world. Most of us are familiar with two kinds of government: monarchy and democracy. These English words are derived from Greek compound words.
Monarchy literally means “one ruler,” “mon” meaning “one” and “archy” meaning ruler. A monarch is usually called a king or queen, for traditionally they had the final authority in every matter regarding their nation. We see other kinds of government using the Greek word which gives us “archy.” Oligarchy means “rule by a few people,” and anarchy refers to “no ruler.” When Trump was in power, several cities declared themselves to be places of refuge for people who disagreed with him, and he labelled them as anarchist cities, places which did not recognize his rule.
Democracy literally means “people power” with “demo” meaning “people” and “cracy” coming from the Greek which means “power.” We live in a democracy where we elect people like us to become our government, and because they are elected representatives, in effect we rule ourselves through them, or at least that is the theory. An aristocracy is found where a few elite have all the power. Sometimes we hear the word, theocracy, which means, literally, “God power,” indicating that God has power over all. In Old Testament Israel, before they had kings, the form of government was considered a theocracy, although, in reality, the people didn’t always recognize God’s authority. The desire on the part of the Israelites to have a human king was a challenge to the theocratic rule of God. Deuteronomy 17:14ff. does stipulate that the king of Israel must immerse himself in God’s Word and follow its directions, thus recognizing that God has ultimate authority. Israel was to remain a theocracy with God as the final authority even when it became a monarchy, having a human king.
The reason we were talking about the Kingdom of God in our catechism class was because we were reflecting on the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Scripture (see Philippians 2, for example) teaches us that when Jesus ascended into heaven, he sat down at the right hand of God and from there he rules the entire universe. We would say, then, that what we experience today is a Christocracy, literally “Christ power,” where Jesus Christ has the ultimate power over everything. We also acknowledge that we live in a monarchy where we recognize that Jesus is the one and singular ruler. The implication of this is that Jesus, who is the King over all things and has ultimate authority and power over all, also directs the events of this world for his purposes and for his Father’s glory. While the current popular belief is that we, as human beings, can change the course of history, in reality, we cannot. Even when humanity rebels against Jesus, Jesus will have his way, and we cannot change that. Even those who do not believe in him cannot escape the reality of his reign over everything that is.
While Jesus has ultimate power (Christocracy) and is the ultimate ruler (monarchy), we also have human governments. We live in a democracy, but other followers of Jesus Christ have lived with different kinds of governments that all have different ways of directing the affairs of their nation. The Bible does not set one kind of government up over another, although here in the West we tend to believe that a democracy is closest to what God wants. (We may be wrong.) During New Testament times Christians lived in an empire which was an extreme form of monarchy where the power was given to a few of the elite (aristocracy). Further, the Roman emperors tended to dislike Christians because they taught that Jesus is King, and, as a result, they instituted times of horrific persecution. Nero was among the worst, although he was not the only emperor who made the lives of the followers of Jesus Christ miserable.
Yet, in spite of that, both Paul (Romans 13) and Peter (1 Peter 2) call Christians to submit to the civil authorities. It is noteworthy that both Paul and Peter, according to tradition, were unjustly killed by those same authorities, as was Jesus Christ himself. Submission to civil authorities seems to be an increasingly difficult thing for many Christians today, and it is easy to understand why. Our government, although it is presented as a democracy, does not seem to heed either the will of the people, or, more importantly, the will of God. It is difficult to understand how both Peter and Paul, who lived under a far more oppressive government than we do, could call us to submit to those authorities.
But let’s keep in mind their perspective. They understood that Jesus has the final authority, and he reigns over all as King of kings. Thus, as powerful and wrong as their government was, they understood that, ultimately, it would be “forced” to bend to the will of Jesus Christ. For them, thus, the government was a tool in the hand of Jesus to accomplish his will. We don’t always see that happening, but we have to trust that it does, if we do indeed believe that Jesus is King.
So, where does that leave us with regard to the protests of the past few weeks? Can we, as followers of Jesus Christ, join convoys or drive our trucks to Ottawa? We do live in a democracy where the power is in the hands of the people, so to speak. As the people, we have been given the right to protest, and, some might argue, we even have the obligation to raise our voices so that the government hears us. That is the very nature of democracy.
Yet, as followers of Jesus Christ, we recognize that ultimately the power is not in our hands but in the hands of Jesus. Our protests, our raised voices, might bring about change, but let’s not forget that it is ultimately Jesus Christ who will direct our governments to do his will. Therefore, regardless of who is in power or what they believe, we are confident that they will submit themselves to the will of Jesus Christ, even when those in power do not recognize his authority. Jesus has ascended into heaven, after all, he is the sole King, the monarch, and his rule takes the form of a Christocracy where he has all the power. Let us live in confidence, then, that he will accomplish his purposes regardless of what our government is like or what they might do next.
Pastor Gary
