abstract: The people are invested, by their Creator, with the right and duty of carrying out the social principles of their nature for their own government: this investiture includes the designation of the persons into whose hands the ruling powers shall be distributed; but these individuals become divinely appointed magistrates--ministers of God.

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by George Junkin

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Vol. 1, No. 5, November 1, 1867 issue of The Christian Statesman.

If the bosom of God is the fountain of law, God must be the Governor over the nations. For to govern is to apply law for the regulation of conduct. Man's dominion over nature, is simply his application of its laws to its various departments, animate and inanimate; and the more perfectly he understands these laws, the more complete and successful will be his government. By her own laws only can nature be reduced into obedience to man--made to subserve his interests and to promote his happiness. So, it is by application of those laws which He has enacted for that end, that God governs mankind. These, we have seen, result from His own sovereign will; and are learned from Him by diligent attention to the movements of His providence and the utterances of His mouth: in other words, by natural religion, and by supernatural revelation. The extent to which the former are efficient is written out in the world's history, where the latter has been unknown. Into a discussion of this question we cannot enter; but only remark, that, as true liberty consists in obedience to moral law, we may, by a glance at history, form a tolerable estimate of the ability of human reason to acquire adequate knowledge of God and ourselves, of our relations to Him and to each other. If wherever revelation has not gone, "man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn"--if tyranny, in this case, has always characterized governments, we must look to the clearer teachings of the divine word for those rules of action which can combine the happiness of man with the glory of his Maker. Let us then turn to the divine record.

Six hundred years before the brighter lights of the New Testament shone upon the darkness of the human mind, we have the following language, viz, "This matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand of the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" (Dan. 4:17). Still earlier it was written: "By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth" (Prov. 8:15-16). So in Romans 13, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power (exousia) but of God."

The Greek here properly signifies moral power, rightful authority. All righteous rule is from God. So Paul, having affirmed that the existing powers--authorities for applying the divine laws to the regulation of human conduct--are ordained of God, he proceeds to the consequences: "Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers [archons--magistrates], are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou, then, not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same, for he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger [avenger], to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." Nothing could be more conclusive. The power, the authority to apply the divine law for the government of men, belongs to the Divine Being. The supreme magistrate (who at this juncture was bloody Nero, for he was now the archon of the Roman world), had no authority to burn Christians or murder his own friends. Physical force he had (dunamis), and that from God; but only in the sense that any assassin, or Satan himself has--no rightful authority (Political Fallacies, pp. 40-41).

No minister of God has a right to do wrong. The Creator has never authorized cruelty, tyranny, injustice; if any commissioned officer of the Great King has practiced any of these, he has gone beyond his commission.

But the King on high having in view the social principles which He implanted in our nature employs human agency for their application. This brings up the interesting question, where is the power of ruling placed? In the king?--in the nobility?-- in the people at large? By the first, it has often been sadly abused. By the second, scarcely less so. Indeed, an aristocracy must have a head, and is often merged in a one-man power. We therefore believe that, as the ruling power is to be exerted for the good of the people, and as the social laws which it is bound to apply are common to the entire mass, in them is deposited the right to govern.

But that every man is created a civil magistrate is absurd. How, then, is the power of ruling which is deposited with the masses, to be passed into the hands of the few, by whom only it can be exercised? By election, appointment, assent. So, on a memorable occasion in the Church, they were so directed, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve.... And the people said unto Joshua, the Lord our God will we serve, and his voice we will obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day...." (Josh. 24:15, 24, 25). Here was an election of Jehovah as their King. So Blackstone says the power of the British crown results from the general consent of the people. It matters little in what form the assent is expressed, so it be really and truly expressed. The people are invested, by their Creator, with the right and duty of carrying out the social principles of their nature for their own government: this investiture includes the designation of the persons into whose hands the ruling powers shall be distributed; but these individuals become divinely appointed magistrates--ministers of God. Thus Isaiah expresses it: "For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; he will save us" (Isa. 33:22). The agency is human, but the power is divine. All three parts of a perfect analysis of Government is here presented.

In this sense, therefore, civil government is strictly jure divino. Every officer, from King, Governor, President, down to the man of the baton at the street corner, is commissioned by the King of kings, and to Him must he render an official account. And every man who enjoys the franchise at the polls, is an elector of divine appointment, endowed with the high and responsible function of designating who shall bear a portion and what portion of ruling authority in a Government supervised by the great King. What a responsibility lies upon the head of every free man!

Yet there is another circumstance which greatly enhances even this. The King by whom this dread responsibility is imposed, and who is the Giver, the Judge and Executor of laws is Himself none other but Jehovah, the Son of God. He by whom kings reign is the Wisdom of Proverbs. I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. Why, then do the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things and set their mouths against the heavens? Do they not yet understand that all power in heaven and in earth is given unto the Son, and that unto Him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess? "The Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son." And after describing His agonies on the cross the psalmist (Psalm 22), giving a reason why "all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him," says, "For the kingdom is the Lord's; and he is the governor among the nations."

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