Lux Lucet

The Beginning of Civil Government

“So he drove out the man, and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).  With this verse, we see the first appearance of civil government in the form of cherubim and a flaming sword.

What was the purpose of this first civil government?  To keep sinful man from stealing God’s property, specifically, the fruit of the tree of life. 

One important lesson from this occurrence is that civil government is not a natural institution.  In his lecture “Introduction to Political Philosophy,” John Robbins makes the point that one common view of the origin of civil government is that it is a natural institution.  He summarizes Aristotle’s by thus, “Individuals grow into states the same way as acorns grow into oaks.”  In both cases, a natural process is at work.

But if we look at the creation of the world as recorded in Genesis 1 as well as the subsequent fall of man, we come away with a very different conclusion.  In Genesis 1 we read where God grants dominion of man over the earth, but no mention is made of one man having dominion over another.  “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘ Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”  Here, man is given dominion over the earth, the fish, the birds, the sea and over every living thing that moves on the earth.  In the words of the Psalmist, God has made man to have dominion over the works of his hands and put all things under his feet.

But while God gave man dominion over the earth, missing is any mention of man having dominion over other men.  Civil government did not come until sin was in the world.  Civil government is not a natural institution as Aristotle believed.  Civil government is God’s ordained punishment for, and a partial cure of, sin.

Calvin’s Second Use of the Law

In a note titled “The Three Purposes of the Law,” the New Geneva Study Bible states the following,

A second function [of the law], the “civil use,” is to restrain evil.  Though the law cannot change the heart, it can to some extent inhibit lawlessness by its threats of judgment, especially when backed by a civil code that administers punishment for proven offenses (Deut. 13:6-11; 19:16-21; Rom. 13.3,4).  Thus it secures civil order, and serves to protect the righteous from the unjust.  

Those familiar with the work of John Calvin will recognize this as his “Second Use of the Law,” the other two being to serve as a mirror reflecting God’s righteousness and man’s sinfulness and to function as a guide to the regenerate for good works. 

Sometimes we will hear those who don’t like the law of God say things such as “you can’t legislate morality.”  Clearly this is nonsense.  One of the major purposes of the Law of God, both in ancient Israel and today, is this very thing, the legislation of morality.  While the law cannot prevent sinful men from doing evil, it can punish them for it.  Now precisely what acts – note well, I say acts, not thoughts; there are no thought crimes in a Christian republic; we leave that to the Marxist, wokester Social Justice Warriors – are to be punished by civil government – here we need to keep the distinction between sins and crimes; in the Law of Moses, the distinction between the two is that crimes were things to which civil penalties are attached – and what the punishments for those criminal acts are requires that we appeal to other passages of Scripture.   

Why Should One Man Obey Another?

Why should one man obey another?  The simple answer is, God says so.  And he doesn’t leave us to struggle with reaching this conclusion through some arduous process of comparing Scripture with Scripture.  The language of the Bible is explicit on this point. 

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.  For these is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.  Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves (Romans 13:1, 2).

The authorities that exist are there by God’s providence, and we are required to obey them.  Resisting civil authorities ultimately is not resisting men, but God himself, “whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God.”

Further, Paul notes that those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.  In verse 5, Paul refers to this as “wrath,” that is, the punishment from the civil authority.  This is an especially important point to make in our own time, when satanic progressive organizations such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa riot any time a black person is shot by the police.  In the most celebrated cases of alleged police misconduct, the subject of arrest was in some form resisting the authorities, refusing to obey their lawful commands, and brought judgment upon himself.  Yet these wicked organizations call evil good and good evil by framing the police as the evil doers and the perpetrators as the righteous.

Paul continues,

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.  Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?  Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.  For he is God’s minister to you for good.  But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister to execute wrath on him who practices evil.  Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake (Romans 13:3-5).

In passage from Genesis 3 quoted above, we saw that God placed a flaming sword at the entrance to the garden of Eden to keep sinful man away from the tree of life.  Here in Romans 13, we see Paul use the sword as a symbol for the power of the civil authority.  Here also we see the two purposes of civil government: 1) the punishment of evil doers and 2) the praise of the good, by which we understand passing and enforcing laws in accord with the Law of God. 

In the Libertarian view of the state, if indeed a Libertarian acknowledges a rightful place for the state at all, the principle is that all things are permitted unless one’s actions involve the harming another.  But this is not the Christian stance.  In Libertarianism, for example, homosexual acts, including same sex marriage, would be lawful, because two consenting adults agree to these acts.  But the problem with the Libertarian view is that, pretending that God and the Law of God do not exist, has set up a false standard.  The law of God calls homosexuality an abomination, and acts of Sodomy carried the civil penalty of death in ancient Israel.  In Romans 1, Paul lumps the sin of homosexuality in with several other sins and writes, that those who practice such things, knowing the righteous judgment of God, understand that such acts are worthy death.    

Paul continues,

For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor (Romans 6, 7).

It taken as a matter of faith among large numbers of Libertarians that all taxation is theft.  Here’s one statement of this notion by David Gordon writing on the Mises Institute website, “Libertarians think that taxation is theft.  The government takes away part of your income and property by force.  Your payments aren’t voluntary.  If you think they are, try to withhold payment and see what happens.”

The implication here is that taxes, by their very nature, are immoral because they are not voluntary.  This implied anarchism is refuted by Paul’s words, “For because of this you also pay taxes.”   

Now if Gordon had said that some taxation is theft, he would be on solid ground.  For example, taxes of 10 percent or more are theft.  For this see John Robbins’ exposition of 1 Samuel 8:10-18 in “The Bible and the Draft.”  

And it’s not just the amount of the tax that makes it theft, it’s also the use of the taxes.  In Romans 13, Paul tells us that we pay taxes, because the civil authority is devoted to carrying out his God appointed duties of punishing those who practice evil and praising the good.  Peter makes this same point in 1 Peter 2:14. Civil government has only two functions.  And when Caesar demands taxes to support activity that goes beyond the scope of his God-given authority, he is stealing.  This includes taxes for things commonly done by governments todays such as, wars of aggression, retirement programs, welfare (both the personal and the corporate variety), parks, schools and universities, etc.  Indeed, most of the activities of the U.S. federal government are both unbiblical and unconstitutional, making the taxes levied to support them, in fact, theft. 

Is Resistance Futile?

By stating the case as I have above, some may ask if what my stance would be if a government were bent on practicing evil.  There are certainly many examples of wicked governments in both ancient and modern times.  Must we as Christians obey all the commands of the civil magistrate no matter how evil and destructive? 

It may seem this way based on what’s been said so far.  But the short answer to this question is, no, Christians are not required to obey every command of every government official.  In fact, there are cases where “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”  And this isn’t merely speculation on my part.  Rather, it can be shown from the very pages of Scripture. 

It had been my intention to write about this topic today, but time and space are at an end for this week.  For that reason, Lord willing, I shall address this issue in the next installment of this series.       

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