Providence and Government

I ONCE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO MEET WITH A MEMBER of the United States Senate. During a discussion over lunch at the Senate dining room in the Capitol the conversation focused on the government's involvement in warfare and the conscription of citizens via the draft. The Senator leaned toward pacifism. As we debated the classical just-war theory, the senator made a remark that left me stunned. He said, "I do not believe the government ever has the right to force its citizens to do anything." I responded by saying, "Then it would seem that you are saying the government does not have the right to govern."

My reply was met by a blank stare. Finally the senator asked me what I meant. I explained that government involves a legal form of force; we might even define government itself as "legalized force." When the government enacts laws, those laws are not passed on to the citizens as mere suggestions. They are requirements that are backed up with a form of coercion. Every law that is passed restricts somebody's freedom. With the law always comes law enforcement, and law enforcement carries the weight of coercion. If I refuse to obey the laws, the law enforcement agencies have the authority to force my compliance by a multitude of methods.

The Political Dimension of God's Providence The providence of God also has a political dimension to it, touching the arena of politics in at least two significant ways. In the first place God's providence has reference to His government of the universe. Insofar as God reigns and rules over His creation, He exercises a kind of cosmic political authority. Although Jesus said to Pontius Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world, that did not mean that His kingship was not over this world. In His ascension Christ was enthroned in heaven as King of the kings and Lord of the lords. Christ has the highest "political" office in the cosmos. All earthly magistrates are under His dominion and are answerable to Him for how they exercise their authority.

One of the most central motifs of Scripture is the recurring theme of the kingdom of God. A kingdom is a realm ruled by a monarch. God is the Super

Monarch of the cosmos. He not only governs the realm of nature by His natural laws, He also governs the world of human affairs. He steers the courses of the stars and the flight of the birds as they migrate. He governs the course of human history. He causes kingdoms and empires to rise and makes kingdoms and empires fall. No king is ever elevated to the throne apart from the providence of God.

The Bible makes it clear that government is a human institution that is ordained and instituted by God. As Paul declared: Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there 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. 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, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. (Rom. 13:1-4) In this passage Paul avers that "the authorities that exist" (or the powers that be) are appointed by God; they function as God's ministers. I once was asked to address a breakfast gathering during the inauguration of the governor of Florida.

In that address I stated that the inauguration was in many respects similar to the ordination, or installation, of a pastor. Both the pastor and the governor serve in roles of ministry. One ministers to the church; the other ministers to the state.

The church and the state are two different institutions with two different roles to perform. It is not the task of the church to be the state; nor is it the task of the state to do the work of the church. But both institutions are ordained by God, and both institutions are to be "under" God.

In the eighteenth century the concept of separation of church and state meant one thing; today it is understood in radically different terms. Originally the concept pointed to a clear division of labor between two institutions and guarded the borders between the two. Today a not-so-subtle shift has occurred, and now the idea of separation of church and state has come to mean the separation of state and God. The state wishes to be autonomous, not answerable

or accountable to God. In a word, the government has declared its independence from God.

This is nothing new in history. In the Middle Ages monarchs sanctioned their rule by appealing to the theory of the divine right of kings. Usually coronation was done by the church. In England the monarch was and still is given the title Defensor Fide or "Defender of the Faith." But there were few kings who voluntarily submitted to the authority of God. Even in theocratic Israel it was the kings who, more often than not, were leaders in godlessness.

The common resistance of earthly rulers to the reign of God over them may be seen in the sentiments of Psalm 2: Why do the nations rage, And the people plot 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 bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us."

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.

Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure:

Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion." "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'" Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling. (Ps. 2:1-11) The psalm reflects a conspiracy among the kings of this world. They hold a summit meeting in which they declare their independence from God. They hold a joint council of war and aim the sum of their military might toward heaven.

The response of God is holy laughter. The arsenal of human weapons is viewed as mere popguns by the Almighty.

God's derisive laughter quickly turns to wrath as He warns against the rejection of His rule and that of His anointed. He rebukes the kings for their folly, warning them that He will break them with a rod of iron. They are called to rule, not with the arrogance of pretended autonomy, but with fear and trembling. The fear and trembling are to be motivated by an awareness that their authority is a delegated authority. It is extrinsic, not intrinsic. All authority on heaven and earth has been given by the Father to the Son. Every lesser authority is subject to Him.

In one sense we say that America is not a theocracy. It differs in its legal structure and framework from Old Testament Israel. Our government is secular in nature. But this is only a matter of degree. All human government is theocratic in the sense that God is the ultimate ruler over all. Our political leaders may not be theocrati-cally organized at the human level, but in terms of Providence they are all inescapably theocratic.

The government of God is part of His work of upholding, or sustaining, His creation. The first visible form of earthly government was manifested at the entrance to the Garden of Eden: Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"—therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 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. (Gen. 3:22- 24) The flaming sword of the angelic sentinel posted at the east gate of Eden was the first weapon of law enforcement to appear on the earth.

Theologians have argued over the origin and purpose of earthly government.

Augustine argued that earthly government was not so much a necessary evil as a necessity of evil. That is, it was sin's entrance into the world that made earthly government necessary. Government is invoked to settle disputes between sinners, to ensure just weights and measures in an environment where people are inclined to cheat, and to oversee the keeping of contracts where parties are given

to lie and to break promises. Government is designed to be an instrument of justice that protects the innocent from crimes like theft and murder. The preservation, maintenance, and protection of life is a major responsibility for government. None of these things would require such oversight if human beings were not sinful.

Aquinas opined that, even without sin, government would still be necessary to manage the division of labor that would be in effect even in an unfallen society.

However, both Aquinas and Augustine agreed that the real presence of evil makes human government necessary. The magisterial Reformers of the sixteenth century agreed with this analysis. They recognized that governments can become corrupt in the extreme but that even wicked government is better than no government. Society cannot long endure in the context of anarchy.

The angel with the flaming sword who guarded the gate of Eden indicated the presence of government. Access was restricted, and the flaming sword was the instrument of coercion given to enforce the law. In Romans 13 Paul speaks of the "power of the sword" that is given to civil magistrates. That power is given by God. It is the right to enforce law. Indeed, it is more than a right; it is a duty delegated to the authorities.

It is interesting that government officials are often called "the authorities." This

authorized" to bear the sword.

The power of the sword carries with it more than the authority to rattle it. The state is given the right to use the sword. This principle lies behind the authorization God gives to human government to execute criminals in capital crimes and to wage war in a just cause. The sword is given to curb evildoers and to promote justice. If a peaceful country is invaded by a lawless aggressor, the civil magistrate has the responsibility to defend the country's borders from attack. These matters may become exceedingly complex, as international law and international conflicts reveal.

In his analysis of warfare Thomas Aquinas argued that all wars are evil but not everyone's involvement in war is evil. There can be situations when use of the

sword is justified. Again, this view rests on the premise that it is God who delegates the use of the sword to earthly rulers.

History makes it clear that there are manifold times when earthly governments abuse the power and authority they have been given by God. The sword has been used to shed innocent blood; it has been used for wars of conquest and for tyrannical oppression. When this occurs the earthly government should fear the sword of the Lord. God will judge the nation and its use of the sword. The book of Revelation gives dreadful warnings on this point: Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe." So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.

(Rev. 14:17-20) In the beginning of The Revelation Jesus is depicted as having a sword coming out of His mouth. The prophecy of the book warns of the judgment that is to come via the sword of the Lord. In Revelation 14 the instrument of judgment is a sharp sickle, a kind of sword. The passage quoted above is the biblical text upon which the famous song "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is based. The lyrics "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" were incorporated into the battle song for the Union army in the War Between the States. It was based upon the assumption that God was on the side of the North in the Civil War. That sentiment was not shared by the people of the South. Men like Lee and Jackson were convinced that God favored the South because they believed that the cause of states' rights was the cause of God.

Determining Which Side God Is On

How do we determine if God is on "our side" in a dispute? There are several ways to go about this determination. One thing we can do is look at the outcome of the conflict. Stonewall Jackson used to lead his soldiers in prayer before battle and say to them, "The battle is ours; the outcome is God's." Jackson was surely correct in his assumption that the outcome was God's. He understood that Providence would govern the results. Yet even if one side in a conflict wins the battle or even the war, this, in itself, is no guarantee that God is on the side of the victor. As we will see later, there are times within the providence of God that the purpose of God is that the "right side" loses.

The other way of determining whose side God is on is by the careful application of biblical principles of ethics. God is ultimately always on the side of righteousness. He takes no delight in the ways of wickedness. Though for a season the wicked may prosper and the righteous may suffer, at the final bar of divine justice it is the wicked who will not prosper and the righteous who will receive their reward. Injustice is real. It occurs every day. Indeed, it is the present reality of injustice that will be rectified in the final judgment.

We remember the agnosticism of Immanuel Kant, who argued that the invisible realm of God cannot be known on the basis of reason or empirical investigation.

Yet even Kant argued for the existence of God on the grounds of "practical reason." His argument flowed out of a concern for justice and ethics. He approached the issue transcendentally by asking the question, "What is necessary for ethics to be meaningful?" He argued for his famous categorical imperative, his version of the Golden Rule. He saw this as a practical necessity for society to survive and surely would have agreed with Dostoevsky's maxim that "if there is no God, all things are permissible."

For Kant, ethics would be both meaningless and undesirable if there were no ultimate justice. Why should someone be righteous if in the final analysis crime really does pay? Since justice does not always prevail in this world, Kant argued for the practical necessity of life after death and, more importantly, for judgment after death so that the scales of justice might finally be balanced. It was the obverse of this that Nietzsche argued when in his nihilism he declared that God is dead and there is no meaning to human existence. Ethics becomes a matter of preference for the strong.

Kant's practical argument was really an argument, not from providence, but for providence. It was an appeal for an ultimate Judge who would serve as an ultimate Governor. There are too many cases of injustice in this world to base our ultimate trust in justice on human courts. All too often Lady Justice's blindfold slips, and she peeks. Jesus alluded to this in His parable of the unjust judge: Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.' And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'" Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:1-8) The promise of Christ is that God will exercise justice. He will vindicate and avenge His people wherever they have suffered injustice in this world. In this parable though true justice is delayed it is not denied; it will surely come. It is a call to trust in the providence of God. The parable ends on a note that sounds abrupt. It ends with a question regarding faith and its presence at the time of the return of Christ.

We may wonder why Christ ended the parable the way He did. He seems to anticipate that His people would struggle with the problem of delayed justice, and He called for a faith that would endure periods of human injustice, confident of divine providence.

It may be difficult for us to view the providence of God in political terms because we are accustomed to making a radical distinction between politics and God. But theology is intensely political in the sense that it bridges the gap between earthly government and divine government. Politics is about

government; it is an arena that is intensely important to us because it is where we live out our daily lives. We are interested in politics because what happens in that arena has a direct impact upon us.

We are living in an age in America with unprecedented intrusion of federal and state government in our lives. For example, the last time I looked there were twenty-eight different taxes imposed on the commercial production and sale of a loaf of bread. We can hardly take two paces without bumping into government.

The government intrudes on the highway and on the sidewalk. It seems ubiquitous. Government touches so much of our lives that we have to ask where God is in all this. We know He is not a registered Republican or a registered Democrat. His government transcends all political parties. God is not a registered voter in human affairs. Yet He is the One who casts the deciding ballot in every human election. It is only by and through His providence that anyone ever wins or loses an election.