Two Views of God, Two Views of Gov’t (The Bible’s Answer for Justice, Part 10)
By Ben Quine
**This article is part of a series helping us navigate this issue of justice in our world from a Biblical perspective. To read all of Ben’s articles on this subject - click on his name above by the date published and it will sort all of this articles in one place.
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An individual’s political stance is the outgrowth of one’s deepest philosophical beliefs. This is a big part of why there is such political polarization in our country today, and why it is often so difficult to find common ground between different political ideologies. Much of the tension can be traced back to two distinctly different philosophies: the Secular view of government’s role is distinctly different from the Bible’s view of government’s role.
To understand this, think for a minute about the problem of evil and suffering. There is a popular argument that goes something like this…
“You say God is all-powerful, good, and loving; but consider the pain caused by evil and suffering in the world. Since God chooses not to stop the evil, He is neither good nor loving. On the other hand, if God wanted to stop the evil but can’t, He must not be very powerful.”
The basic presupposition expressed in the preceding logical argument is that if God were loving and all-powerful, then He must exercise His power to stop human suffering. In other words, according to this position, the loving thing for God to do would be to control all human behavior, eliminating all sin, suffering, and opposition to His authority. This philosophy presupposes that God is a dictator or, at least, that if He is loving, He should be a dictator.
Let’s look again at one of our first introductions to the character of God in the Bible:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
God gave Adam clear instructions and explained the consequences for disobedience. But He also gave Adam the freedom to choose whether or not to obey.
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” (Matthew 13:24-30)
Jesus taught that the enemy is the one who planted the weeds. God, in His mercy, allows the weeds and the wheat to grow together so that all of the wheat will be preserved. We have evil and suffering in this world until such time as the wheat is fully grown and ready for harvest, and then the enemy’s weeds will be burned.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (John 3:19)
The biblical position on morality is that God is the King, the absolute ruler of the universe; but He has also given people the freedom to choose for themselves good or evil, virtue or wickedness.
He has given mankind the choice whether to love and obey Him, establishing right at creation that worship is not to be coerced.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (I John 3:16)
God’s great love for the world caused Him to forge a way for their salvation, but God does not force anyone, even His children, into perpetual obedience here on earth.
So now we can see the two different views of God: one worldview assumes people are not free moral agents, and that a loving God should be a dictator. This naturally also leads to the belief that government should dictate the solution to everyone’s problems. This is a worldview that extols top-down, authoritarian rule: God, government, schools, media, etc. should make people do what is right, because they cannot be trusted to make the right decisions for themselves.
If the core of a person’s belief system affirms that authority should impose its will on its subordinates to control their behavior, that will radically impact all the rest of their beliefs.
They will often also believe:
The government should use its power to intervene to “fix” personal problems.
More power should be given to fewer people in order to establish uniform control “for the common good.”
Top-down, authoritarian rules will ensure good behavior.
If a person does something wrong, it is not really their own responsibility — they are a victim of their environment: their parents, schools, or government have failed to make them moral. Therefore, they do not need punishment, they need “reeducation.”
This group of people are commonly called Statists, Monarchists, Authoritarians, or Progressives. This ideology is consistent with the philosophy of Secular Humanism, and is very much in the same stream with Communism, Fascism, dictatorial rule, or other totalitarian government systems.
The Biblical stance, however, is that sin leads neighbor to hurt neighbor, that heart change leads to righteousness, and that there should be personal punishment for one’s evil choices. In other words, the Bible teaches freedom with moral consequences. Accordingly, the biblical model of government is similar:
Because sin is embedded in every human heart, it creates a desire to take from others, even if that means oppressing them (James 4:1-2). Throughout human history sin is the driving force behind the oppression of the weak.
The antidote to sin is spiritual rebirth and inner heart change that leads to moral choices and behaviors (Romans 12:2).When an individual makes bad choices, there must be personal consequences (personal responsibility, see Galatians 6:5, I Timothy 5:8).
Government is established by God to administer the punishment for evil choices (Romans 13:1-4), but ultimately it is not up to the government to coerce virtuous behavior (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Because of the pervasive nature of sin (Romans 3:23, Jeremiah 17:9), there should be limits on the power and scope of government, and an emphasis in education on virtue, freedom, and consequences.
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. A.W. Tozer
Reverend Tozer was correct that our philosophical beliefs about God’s character (our worldview) will shape all of our other viewpoints and decisions.
…But if the government isn’t going to force people do what is right, how are we going to create virtue in society? Where is the goodness supposed to come from? We’ll talk about that in our next article.
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ABOUT BEN
Connect with him at Cornerstone Curriculum
Ben Quine, the second son of David and Shirley Quine, was blessed to grow up with a Charlotte Mason/Dr. Schaeffer/Biblical Worldview education -- a tremendous gift! Through the years, Ben has served as a Cornerstone consultant, assistant, and co-author. He has written several Bible studies for the Answers for Difficult Days series, which equips churches to address the issues our culture is wrestling with today, from the foundation of Scripture. Ben is also the editor of The Worldview Library, editions of classical literature with student helps that afford the reader a deeper understanding of the concepts presented in each work.
Trained as a classical pianist and instructor, Ben is committed to inspiring his students with the love of great music and equipping them with the tools to perform at the highest level. This training has resulted in his students' successful performances from local festivals and competitions to Carnegie Hall.
Ben loves Shakespeare, Dickens, photography, listening to recordings of "the great pianists", running, biking, and spending time with his wife Julie and their three sons.