Creation through Babel
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In this article we shall begin to summarize the unfolding of the basic principles of Christian self-government through the Bible. The principles are not new but this may be an instructive perspective from which to analyze them. We will view the Bible stories and narrative from the perspective of God's government, and to see the particulars in the light of God's sovereignty. We will trace the hand of God in the lives of individuals and nations through the Bible. This is a "Big Picture" view of the Scriptures. Later, we will apply our findings to ourselves individually, to our society, and to the world. As we understand what God is doing, we can better understand what we should do.
God is a God of purpose. God has a plan for history and is bringing His plan about. God is doing far more in the world today than the devil is doing! This is truly good news! Let us begin with the main premise of our study.
PRINCIPLE: God's purpose in history is liberty to the individual, internal and external.
God's purpose in the life of the individual Christian is that he be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). God's purpose in the Church is to prepare a pure and spotless bride for His Son Jesus, to reign with Him for eternity (Rev. 21:2). But God's purpose in human history is "liberty to the individual" (II Cor. 3:17). As we have seen, God's liberty has two components: internal liberty and external liberty. The first and primary component - internal liberty - comes about as the individual returns to a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He is thus freed from the bondage of sin and guilt. This comes by the grace of God through repentance towards God, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This relationship is maintained by a continuing walk of faith and personal righteousness.
Following this internal liberty is external liberty, freedom in the structures of society: family, ecclesiastical, civil, and economic. This liberty comes about as the Bible and Christian character are applied to every area of life.
Throughout the Bible, God proclaims and describes Himself as the Lord, the King, the Sovereign One, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, all authority, the Name above all Names, and other titles referring to His sovereignty. All these terms speak of government. As Christians, we know that God is sovereign, and that men ought to yield to His sovereignty, certainly for their own good and for the good of others, but especially for the pleasure of Him who created us. He then suffered, died and rose again for us, so that we could come back into relationship with Him!
The study of the Bible is the study of God's purpose and God's government, of man's response or lack of response to His rule, and the ensuing consequences both to God and to man. To study the Bible, then, is to study government and how God's government applies to men both personally in their own lives and affairs, and corporately at every level.
THEME I: CREATION
In the Bible, chapters 1 through 3 of Genesis are primarily about government: God's authority, the authority He gave men, and men's responsibility to obey God's authority.
PRINCIPLE: God is sovereign.
The word "sovereign" means "supreme in authority, possessing supreme dominion" (Webster). God is supreme in authority; He is king over all. In addition, He is supreme in power, love, knowledge and wisdom. In His sovereignty, God created man to be governed by His benevolent rule, and to "have dominion over" or to govern his environment. All this was intended for the great blessing of all (Gen. 1:26).
THE IMAGE OF GOD
God created man distinct from the rest of creation in that man was created in the "image and likeness" of God. Among other things, this refers to man being a personal being as God is. 'Personal' refers to God's attributes of mind, will, and emotions. These are attributes which God gave man: a mind with which to think, a will with which to choose, and emotions with which to feel. This separates man from the animal kingdom.
Man was created to govern and was given the wonderful ability of free will to make self-originating choices. He was to govern himself under God, choosing according to God's laws and ways. Man's job was to govern his environment. Along with this ability to choose comes the awesome responsibility to choose the right and reject the wrong. Internal government is voluntarily submitting to the Lordship of Christ, voluntarily doing right. Absolutes do exist.
PRINCIPLE: Man is responsible
We have been given by God the ability to make real choices. We have real input into the world and are to bring only good into it. Though influenced by many things, our choices are not caused by anything external or internal, so we ourselves are to blame for our own wrong choices.
In the secular view, men have evolved to their present form by shear chance interaction of molecules. Society itself is just the aggregate of multiple individuals. There is no choice involved in molecules bouncing around, of course, so men's actions are actually caused, it is said, by heredity, environment, and training. The Humanist Manifesto I (1933) states, "Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected." The Humanist Manifesto II (1973) continues this view, stating, "As far as we know, the total personality is a function of the biological organism transacting in a social and cultural context." If the individual is only a complex chemical reaction, with no spiritual component, then we can look at a simple reaction to understand the secular concept of responsibility. Suppose I am in a college chemistry lab heating a beaker of water with my Bunsen burner. This is a simple cause-and-effect reaction. Suppose I then address the water with command, "Get cold!" No matter how forcefully I demand, the water will continue to heat up. The water is being caused to do what it is doing; it does not have freedom and cannot do otherwise. My command is a stupid command.
Suppose I then appeal to the water saying, "It is wrong for you to disobey me and not to get cold!" This is absurd, of course. In a cause-and-effect system there is no such concept or notion as right and wrong. Real responsibility does not exist. Suppose I threaten punishment, "If you don't get cold, I'll throw you in jail!" or "If you don't get cold I'll send you to hell for eternity!" This is absurd also. In a cause-and-effect system there is no such thing as accountability. This is why if homosexual behavior (or any other behavior) can be causally linked to a gene then it cannot be wrong.
PRINCIPLE: That which is caused cannot be free; that which is free cannot be caused.
COROLLARY: That which is caused is not responsible. COROLLARY: That which is caused is not accountable.
So if a person is only a "biological organism transacting in a social and cultural context," then there is no such thing as actual right and wrong, responsibility, or accountability. This is the conclusion reached in both Humanist Manifesto documents. Thus we are educating our society away from personal responsibility on every side. Life doesn't work that way, however. If a drunk driver hits a pedestrian with his car, it is not the bumper of the car that is put in jail, even though it was the bumper that killed the pedestrian. It is not the frame of the car which drove the bumper that is arrested, nor is it the engine which powered the frame that drove the bumper that struck the pedestrian. The individual behind the wheel is held responsible, because his actions are not caused but are free and chosen, therefore responsible and accountable.
There are certain aspects of our existence that are cause-and-effect. If I have a headache, I can produce the desired effect of relief by applying an adequate cause such as aspirin. But that is not all that man is. There is a spiritual aspect to man as well as a material one. That is why we can't talk a person out of cancer, nor can we produce a pill that changes rebellion to love, or that saves a person's marriage.
The Bible tells us that we have the ability to choose and are actually responsible, and accountable to eternity for our choices. Our choices are significant. We must choose according to what God sees is the highest good, whether or not we understand, agree, or feel like it, because He created all and knows all. Therefore:
PRINCIPLE: To obey God is intelligence.
THE REBELLION
These chapters of Genesis also include the unfortunate event of Eve's and Adam's yielding to temptation, their refusal to obey God, and the grave consequences of that disobedience. Not to obey God is stupidity.
The garden command, "From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat," was the command for self-government under God (Gen. 2:16-17). God said to Adam in effect, "You govern yourself according to My laws and My ways." They were to love God in their hearts and in their actions. God blessed them with every other tree to eat. He told them that the consequence for obedience was life and the consequence for disobedience was death, and they understood! (Gen. 3:2-3)
Yet, though they knew the right thing to do, they did it not. This is the definition of sin given in James 4:17. Yielding to temptation, they refused to be governed by God. They chose their own way and rebelled, and began to reap the consequences.
PRINCIPLE: The purpose of Law is protection.
Death means "separation", and the death of which God warned them was immediately evident. They died spiritually at once. The harmony and relationship between man and God was broken as their guilt and resulting fear drove them to hide from God. God's attitude towards them had not changed; He loved them! But their guilt distorted their picture of Him, so they ran. "Your iniquities have caused a separation between you and your God" (Is. 59:2). Man has been running from God ever since. Social death in their relationship with each other came next as their guilt drove them to hide from each other with clothes, blame each other for their own sin, and reject each other.
After this came physical death. Though they were created to live forever, now the distortion that sin brought affected even their physical existence, shortening their life span. Eternal death, separation from God and others for eternity, is the ultimate consequence of sin.
PRINCIPLE: There are consequences to every moral choice we make, good consequences (peace and blessing) for right choices and bad consequences (guilt and pain) for wrong choices (Gal. 6:7-8).
We can see in Genesis 3:12 that man began to say that God is responsible for the sin in the world, and in verse 13 that Satan is responsible for the sin in the world. And millennia later, men are still saying that! But man alone is responsible for the sin in the world. The wonderful message of the Bible is that if anyone will repent and turn back to God through Jesus Christ, God will forgive him and transform him and restore that relationship once again. Jesus came that we could have life abundant and life eternal (Jn. 10:10, 17:3).
The second source of government is external. Here the individual is governed by external things such as circumstances. After Adam and Eve sinned, God added externally governing forces in the form of circumstances in Gen. 3:14-17. These consisted of pain in bringing forth children, and toil in obtaining food. The Hebrew word for "pain" in verse 16 and for "toil" in verse 17 is the same word: "itstsabon". The connotation is a painful toil in both areas.
This external limitation on both pleasure and free time was intended to slow the progression of evil now that man had brought sin into the world. Who can imagine what we have lost because of sin? This is commonly called "the curse". Strictly speaking, only the serpent and the ground were cursed, not the man or the woman. But circumstances were changed. God's purpose for this change of circumstance was for their good, considering what had taken place.
The next externally governing force imposed by God was His removal of Adam and Eve from the garden, specifically to keep him from eating from the tree of life and living forever in his fallen state, and to make possible the provision for salvation (Gen 3:22). Man was to cultivate the ground that was now cursed (Gen. 3:23-24).
PRINCIPLE: When I refuse to govern myself in an area of my life, authority over my life shifts upward.
Here we see the importance of governing ourselves, and how it effects our freedom. If I do not control myself to do what is right voluntarily, someone else will control me. In this case, authority shifted upwards to God Himself. God implemented circumstances beyond Adam's control to govern him for the highest good now that he had refused to govern himself.
Even with these new external circumstances, the command was still for self-government under God; men were still to govern themselves according to God's ways. In Genesis 4 Cain became jealous and was angry with Abel. But God said, "Sin is crouching at the door... but you must master it." In other words, "You must govern yourself and do what is right." Cain rebelled, however, doing what he felt like rather than what God said, and killed his brother. Once again, God changed the external circumstances: it would now take Cain all he had to survive. At the same time, Cain feared vengeance, so God "set a mark" of protection on him, saying that no one should take vengeance on him. Again, authority shifted upwards because of sin, and God administered the consequences. Man did not have authority over man at this time.
THE FLOOD
By Genesis 6, we read that internal government had almost completely died out, that mankind had become wicked and violent universally. In fact, "every intent of the thoughts of [men's] hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart" (Gen. 6:5-6).
This is the great love of God for men. Who can conceive such grief on the level of God's great heart, as He finally decided to bring judgment? Yet Noah loved and obeyed and walked with Him and found favor in His eyes (Gen. 6:8-9). As men had refused to govern themselves under Him, God now brought a drastic externally governing circumstance --- the Flood. This was only after 120 years of warning and pleading by Noah, and striving by the Holy Spirit (Gen.6:3). Evidently no one repented and Noah and his family were brought through the flood on the Ark. God literally started over.
After the Flood, there were many changes. It seems the ground was no longer cursed (Gen. 8:21); the weather was different (8:22); they had a new diet (9:3); the atmosphere was different (9:13); the land masses had changed to be essentially as they are now.
God also for the first time gave men a small amount of authority over men for certain specific purposes. This man-over-man authority is what civil government is and operates in addition to internal government.
"And surely I will require your lifeblood, from every beast I will require it. And from man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man. "Whoever sheds man's blood
By man his blood shall be shed,
For in the image of God
He made man."
Gen. 9:5-6
God's command here is that the life of willful murderers will be taken. The reason stated for this is that the individual is made in the image of God. This has to do with the value of the individual.
PRINCIPLE: The individual is of infinite intrinsic value. All individuals are of equal intrinsic value.
God Himself is of ultimate value. Because man was created in the image of God, he is of infinite value individually. This value is intrinsic, not dependent on gender, race, age, position, wealth, influence, proximity with respect to the womb, health, deformity or any other external thing. This value is infinite. No amount of cows or horses or dollars is equal to the value of an individual human life having been made in the image of God. So if someone takes another's life willfully, he forfeits his own. The purpose of this requirement has to do with justice.
Who should do this? "Every man's brother" indicates that this is required of the body politic. In order for the body to execute justice, there would have to be some kind of cooperative system set up to ascertain a certainty of guilt and to satisfy everyone publicly that justice is being done. This covenant was instituted to end the system of vengeance that reigned before the Flood. The purpose of this requirement was to protect the sanctity of human life made in the image of God. God says here that the life of the individual is sacred and not to be arbitrarily violated.
PRINCIPLE: The purpose of civil government is protection.
Here God gives man a measure of authority over men for the specific purpose of protecting the individual, not controlling him. People are to govern themselves under God; the state is to provide society with protection from those who refuse to do so, controlling the evil.
God says, "I will require...". Doing less constitutes rebellion. The case has been made against capital punishment that it does not deter crime/criminals and therefore should not be applied. The purpose of this requirement, however, is not deterrence but public justice. I lived in Holland in 1975. At that time the penalty for murder was two years in prison! The concept of the sanctity or value of human life that this produces is very low indeed. This is rebellion against God. Fifteen years later, 25% of all deaths in the Netherlands were from euthanasia, voluntary and involuntary!
Doing more than the commandment requires constitutes rebellion also, however. In another nation individuals are tortured to death in public for even small crimes. The purpose of this barbarity is deterrence, not justice. In this case also the sanctity of human life is eroded. This, too, is rebellion against God.
As stated earlier, there is a relationship between the internal and the external government in a society:
PRINCIPLE: The amount of liberty in a society is defined by and dependent upon the character of the people within that society.
God saw that this balancing combination of internal character and external civil government would be enough to control evil until His purposes were accomplished. He set the rainbow in the sky as the sign of His covenant never to destroy the world again with a flood (Gen. 9:11).
THE TOWER OF BABEL
After the Flood, God once again told the people to multiply and fill the earth (Gen. 9:1). Instead, they gathered together to build a city and a tower to the stars in order to "make a name for themselves" (Gen. 11:4). This became the first kingdom in the Bible and was set up under Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Gen. 10:10), who ruled the people as they submitted in dependence upon him. This is the first time the word 'kingdom' is used in the Bible. A kingdom arises from a people dependent on man instead of God, and a strong ruler willing to receive their adulation, and control them. It is interesting to note that the word rendered 'before' also connotes 'against' indicating that this kingdom arose out of rebellion against God.
This refusal to obey God resulted in another externally governing circumstance: God confused their language. The people had one language at this time, the language given by God in the beginning. As they had turned to rebellion, their language afforded them virtually limitless power to work together devising evil (Gen. 11:6). God saw that confusing their language would diffuse this rebellion.
Rebellion can only unify around a project, so when the project was abruptly halted by their inability to understand one another, their rebellion turned them against each other. Rebellion does not make the foundation of a tolerable society, so they finally decided to pick up and leave. In this way "the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth" (Gen. 11:9).
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This article was excerpted from Chapter 4 of The Third Alternative: Christian Self-Government - Freedom without Anarchy, Order without Tyranny, Peace and Prosperity by Bill Burtness.