From: Steve.Hayes@f22.n7101.z5.fidonet.org
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Choosing Governmental Leaders
Date: 28 Jan 93 09:02:01 GMT

On <24 Jan 1993 16:09> Dr Nancy's Sweetie said to All :

 DNS>In an earlier post, I quoted Romans 13 and asked "What does it 
 DNS>mean for us
 DNS>that the authorities in Roman Empire and Nazi Germany (just to 
 DNS>name two) were
 DNS>established by God?"
 DNS>
 DNS>Jonathan Hayward replied by echoing Romans 13 again, and saying 
 DNS>that God
 DNS>makes things as he wants them without always telling us why.
 DNS>
 DNS>He lists a bunch of examples, including this:
 DNS>
 DNS>> It is his doing when the government propogates false 
 DNS>ideologies so
 DNS>> that believers learn to test critically and be able to reject 
 DNS>falsehood
 DNS>> as well as embrace truth.

Romans 13 speaks of rulers and authorities (archontes and exousiye), and says 
that they were established by God. In St Paul's time the civil rulers of the 
Roman empire were not Christian, just as, for example, the civil rulers of 
Nazi Germany or the USSR in more recent times were not Christian. 

But one must look elswhere to get a broader view, and it seems that Jonathan 
Hayward did not do this. For example, Ephesians 6 says that our struggle is 
not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers and authorities (the same 
archontes and exousiye) which St Paul goes on to identify with a 
"the world powers of this darkness" and a "spiritual army of wickedness in the 
heavenlies".

I John 5:19 also speaks of the world being in the power of "the evil one".

Reveletion chapters 12 & 13 give a picture of an unholy trinity, which is a 
parody of the Holy Trinity - the dragon, the beast from the sea, and the 
beast from the land. John identifies the dragon with "the devil" and "the 
satan" and "the old snake" (Rev 12:9) which are images of the evil one found 
elsewhere in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, from the one who 
tempted Adam and Eve, to the one who tempted Job and Jesus. In the gospels 
the civil authority of the kingdoms of the earth are represented as being in 
the gift of the devil, a statement Jesus does not contradict until he himself 
has his final confrontation the civil authority on earth (cf. Luke 4:6; John 
19:10-11).

The beast from the sea represents political power, and more specifically the 
Roman empire. The beast from the land represents religious power used to 
support the politicval power, and more specifically the religion of emperor 
worship.

If we look at these different understandings together, I think it becomes 
clearer. As G.B. Caird puts it in his commentary on Revelation (Adam & 
Charles Black, London, 1966), speaking of Revelation 13:

"It must not be thought that John is writing off all civil government as an 
invention of the Devil. Whatever Satan may claim, the truth is that `the Most 
High controls the sovereignty of the world and gives it to whom he wills' 
(Dan iv, 17). In the war between God and Satan, between good and evil, the 
state is one of the defences established by God to contain the powers of evil 
within bounds, part of the order which God the Creator has established in the 
midst of chaos (cf. Rom xiii, 1-7). But when men worship the state, according 
to it the absolute loyalty and obedience that are due not to Caesar but to 
God, then the state goes over to the Enemy. What Satan calls from the abyss 
is not government but that abuse of government, the omnicompetent state. It 
is thus misleading to say that the monster _is_ Rome, for it is both more and 
less; more, because Rome is only its latest embodiment; and less, because 
Rome is also, even among all the corruptions of idolatry, `God's agent of 
punishment, for retribution on the offender' (Rom xiii, 4)."

Thus the kingdoms (and by extension republics and other political entities) of 
this world are in the direct power of evil spiritual forces with which 
Christians will find themselves in conflict. But this is not the final word, 
because that authority is a misused and usurped authority, and the rightful 
ruler is God. The world is enemy-occupied territory, and we can use the image 
of the European countries occupied by Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945. 
Christians are transferred from the "authority of darkness" into the kingdom 
of God's beloved Son. In the midst of the enemy-occupied territory God has 
established a liberated zone.

Steve Hayes
Department of Missiology
University of South Africa
P O Box 392
Pretoria
0001 South Africa

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