(1) God has instituted human government to govern the affairs of men in accordance with His principles.
(2) The primary task of human government is to protect innocent human life.
(3) Government is responsible for promoting and honoring what is good, and discouraging and punishing what is evil.
Now, it must be said that obviously not everyone subscribes to a Biblical view of government. So two things I want to say about that. First, these principles are not meant simply for a theocracy. That is, in Genesis 9:6 there was no established, organized religion; people were simply to govern themselves according to a basic premise - that protecting innocent human life was of paramount importance. And in Romans 13, Paul was not talking about a "Christian" government. In fact, he was living under the reign of Nero, one of the most despicable pagan rulers ever to walk the face of the earth. So even a totally pagan (or atheistic) government was designed to protect innocent human life, promote what is good, and restrict evil. If you stop and think about it, that's exactly what government should be doing, regardless of the kind of government, regardless of the time in human history, or even the culture.
Why do we need government in the first place? Imagine a world where there is no sin. Everyone does what is good and right. In such a world, is there any need to govern our affairs? No, not really. Because in such a world, we would have people looking out for one another, being generous and gracious, taking care of people who need help, etc. We'd see no selfishness. We'd see no greed. We'd see no envy or jealousy or crime. In such a world, we wouldn't need to have government.
Government exists, precisely because we live in a fallen world. We live in a world filled with greed and sin and wickedness and evil and crime and selfishness. Because these things permeate the human heart, we need to set up rules - complete with mechanisms for enforcing those rules - to manage the interactions of people. Without laws, and enforcement of those laws (which is what government IS), people's sin would run rampant, and we would have total anarchy and chaos.
Government exists because sin exists. Government exists because left to our own devices, people will harm others in the pursuit of self-interest. Government, therefore, exists to promote what is good, and to prevent (or reduce) what is evil.
This isn't just the Biblical perspective; it's the view of our founding fathers. Consider the words of Thomas Paine, who was not a Christian. In his pamphlet "Common Sense", he writes,
"SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.
In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto; the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might labour out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him to quit his work, and every different want would call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune, would be death; for, though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die.
Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which would supersede, and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as nothing but Heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably happen that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other: and this remissness will point out the necessity of establishing some form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue."
He further states,
"Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and reason will say, 'tis right."
Paine offers the same conclusion that the Bible does - that human government, which is not the same thing as human society (and please let us never confuse the two), exists because of the moral defect found in the human heart. Government is not needed if this defect does not exist. But because it DOES exist, government is necessary.
Paine further describes the problems with a bad government, one that does not do what it is supposed to do. When a fellow citizen does you harm, you have a redress - the government. In the United States, we have law enforcement and courts to deal with such harm. But what happens when the GOVERNMENT harms you? What redress is there for that? Paine argues that there is none. The only thing we can do is to be rid of such government. Peaceably if possible; by revolution if necessary.
Thomas Jefferson echoed Paine's thinking in the Declaration of Independence. Again, Jefferson was no Christian. In fact, in many ways he thought Christianity to be so repugnant that in his own version of the Bible he cut out sections that he found distasteful.
But here's what he wrote,
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
We see once again the clear train of thought - Government is instituted by God to secure the fundamental rights of man, given by God Himself. And if government fails in this basic task, the people have the right - and even the obligation - to be rid of it, and to institute new government. Not for trifling matters, as Jefferson understood that all government really is is a collection of flawed individuals tasked with securing these rights, and they are just as likely as anyone to fail. But when major sufferings of the people are brought about at the hand of the government, then the people need to take action.
In the United States, we can change government with our vote. We can elect out politicians who are not acting in accordance with these basic principles, and we can elect in politicians who will. In Jefferson's day, they were dealing with a monarchy, and no vote can oust a king or queen. So revolution, after many attempts at peaceful redress had failed, was the last remaining option.
People who do not accept a Biblical worldview, or the parallel reasoning of the founding fathers, may think government is designed to do something different. That government is supposed to provide for our needs. To give us money when times are tight, to provide for free education, to help me from being too offended, to make sure that everyone is treated the exact same. Neither the Bible nor the founding fathers believed that was the purpose of government. Its task is not easy, but it is simple. And you will notice that in the United States' Constitution, they designed our federal government to be very limited in scope and responsibility, with lots of checks and balances because, again, they understood the sinfulness of man. They wanted checks, balances, and an emphasis on state and local government, because those governments were closer to where the action is, and could be more easily held accountable by the people themselves.
As Christians, as we consider this election, we need to ask ourselves the right questions. When I cast my vote, am I casting my vote for the person most likely to protect innocent human life? Am I casting my vote for a person who will seek to reform government so that it is doing its most fundamental tasks well, and not trying to do things it's not designed to do? Am I casting my vote for a person who will honor and promote what is good, and who will try to limit and discourage what is evil?
This is not a theocracy. This is government doing its job as it was designed to do. Christians would do well to keep these things in mind as we head to the ballot box this November, and not be swayed by the demands on government made by our contemporary society, which more and more sees the government as their provider.
