"The Lenses of Reformation Concerning the Civil Realm and Overstepping Authority"
by Dr. Patti Amsden
by Dr. Patti Amsden
All four God-ordained governments, which are self, family, church, and civil, are granted authority by God to perform tasks in their prescribed jurisdictions. To exceed the limitations of the boundaries of an assignment and to confiscate either the responsibilities or rights of another sphere is tyranny. Tyranny is the arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power, the despotic abuse of authority, or the overreach of one jurisdiction into the boundaries of another jurisdiction. One must look to scripture to discover the legitimate responsibilities, rights and limitations of civil government.
Reformation lens #1 – Historically, the civil realm is the most likely government to be guilty of tyranny.
Of the four governmental jurisdictions, the civil is the guiltiest of overreach into the boundaries of the others spheres. Civil governments are frequently tyrannical and rob the very citizens, which they were God-appointed to protect, of liberty and personal responsibility. The civil does not bear complete culpability. If people give up self-government, they invite others to dominate them. If people will not be ruled by God, they will be ruled by men who imitate God.
Reformation lens #2 – The power-hungry elite stand in the wings to amass abdicated authority.
The proper use of the civil government’s God-defined authority is primarily to provide equal justice and equal protection for all. When the state exceeds it biblical limitations and encroaches on the other spheres of government, individual liberties disappear and the practical exercise of self-government shrinks. Individual freedom is discovered within the context of self-government and in the management of personal assets free from the trespasses of one’s neighbor. Civil government may not pass laws that empower the chief administrative officer or the collective body of its citizens to do that which is illegal and immoral for an individual to do. Theocracy is the rule of God’s law over all the people and all the jurisdictions, including civil government.
Reformation lens #3 – Top down bureaucratic regimes promise security, provision, and blessings, but they fail because they do not comply with God’s theocratic blueprint.
The state and God cannot both be sovereign. One is higher than the other. The state and God cannot be blended forming some form of syncretism or amalgamation of homocracy and theocracy. The state must submit or suffer the consequences of its rebellion. Any attempt by a nation to oppose the rule of God is an act of futility. God laughs. He scorns their attempts to overthrow His Lordship. Scripture declares, “The Lord reigns.” That reign knows no geographical limitation. “Say among the nations, The Lord reigns” (Ps. 96;10).
Reformation lens #4 – Every civil government and every civil ruler is responsible to acknowledge God’s reign or suffer His judgment.
As reformers, we must understand that all civil governments are accountable to God’s Word as the standard by which men’s lives and men’s institutions are to be built. All civil leaders must acknowledge that, according to Commandment One, the transcendent God of the Bible is absolutely sovereign. Psalm 2: 1-3 declares, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. … Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
Reformation lens #1 – Historically, the civil realm is the most likely government to be guilty of tyranny.
Of the four governmental jurisdictions, the civil is the guiltiest of overreach into the boundaries of the others spheres. Civil governments are frequently tyrannical and rob the very citizens, which they were God-appointed to protect, of liberty and personal responsibility. The civil does not bear complete culpability. If people give up self-government, they invite others to dominate them. If people will not be ruled by God, they will be ruled by men who imitate God.
Reformation lens #2 – The power-hungry elite stand in the wings to amass abdicated authority.
The proper use of the civil government’s God-defined authority is primarily to provide equal justice and equal protection for all. When the state exceeds it biblical limitations and encroaches on the other spheres of government, individual liberties disappear and the practical exercise of self-government shrinks. Individual freedom is discovered within the context of self-government and in the management of personal assets free from the trespasses of one’s neighbor. Civil government may not pass laws that empower the chief administrative officer or the collective body of its citizens to do that which is illegal and immoral for an individual to do. Theocracy is the rule of God’s law over all the people and all the jurisdictions, including civil government.
Reformation lens #3 – Top down bureaucratic regimes promise security, provision, and blessings, but they fail because they do not comply with God’s theocratic blueprint.
The state and God cannot both be sovereign. One is higher than the other. The state and God cannot be blended forming some form of syncretism or amalgamation of homocracy and theocracy. The state must submit or suffer the consequences of its rebellion. Any attempt by a nation to oppose the rule of God is an act of futility. God laughs. He scorns their attempts to overthrow His Lordship. Scripture declares, “The Lord reigns.” That reign knows no geographical limitation. “Say among the nations, The Lord reigns” (Ps. 96;10).
Reformation lens #4 – Every civil government and every civil ruler is responsible to acknowledge God’s reign or suffer His judgment.
As reformers, we must understand that all civil governments are accountable to God’s Word as the standard by which men’s lives and men’s institutions are to be built. All civil leaders must acknowledge that, according to Commandment One, the transcendent God of the Bible is absolutely sovereign. Psalm 2: 1-3 declares, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. … Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
