Astronomy and Politics Through the Lens of Epistemology
How do We Know What We Know?
What is Our Method of Evaluating Truth?

At question here is whether either politically conservative Jews or Christians should seek ANY authoritarian leader for the defense of our respective faiths from governmental interference & the subsequent social chaos.  Therefore, starting with the basics, I will begin with an analysis of the early Jewish Tanakh or Christian Old Testament.  However, before I begin, I need to preface this with a special note to Christians.

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Now there are many secular and Christian critics of the comparison of this portion of Hebrew history and our present system because of the obvious drawbacks of theocratic system in a multi-religious and denominational culture.  Yet Christian and secular critics alike, often forget about Romans 13.  This is where God transfers the authority of government from the Jewish theocracy to a secular, mostly Pagan Roman Empire.  Such a transfer of Divine authority to a secular authority is hardly harmonious with the Hebrew or any theocracy.  That makes the accusation by many secularists that Christians participating in politics are advocating a theocracy, a statement of nonsense! Yet, there are some obscure Evangelical groups who believe, because we Christians and not under the Hebrew law, that the law is therefore, irrelevant to the entire Christian walk.

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Therefore, according to these Christian critics, anyone citing Jewish law or the Old Testament is trying to put us back under Jewish law or a political theocracy.  My quick response to those groups is that they should stop being so selective about the New Testament Scriptures they cite and consider ALL of the NT.  To those also, I would say consider this proof-text.  If you really believe the Mosaic Law is that irrelevant to every aspect of the Christian walk, then you should go get the ACLU to help you chisel off the multiple Engravings of Moses and the Jewish Law (Tablets) in the Supreme Court.  Furthermore, we are supposed to be subject to that modern secular Law and rulers via Romans 13:1-7 (again).  Like the ancient Hebrews, “we are a nation of laws”.  Therefore, we are going to reference the Jewish Law because their heritage as Jews is also our LEGAL heritage as Americans (Jews and Gentiles alike).

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The Bible is full of progressive revelation like that, but at the same time, Romans 13 rests on the basic precepts of right and wrong, wisdom versus folly, and sin versus righteousness, revealed in the Old Testament or Jewish Tanakh.  Even the definition of terms in the New Testament is based on Old Testament language, precepts and pre-suppositions.  In other words, regarding civil government, if one does not first understand the Old Testament (theTanakh), one will be completely, unable to understand a Romans 13 (New Testament) teaching on a “secular” government. Neither would you be able to understand many other New Testament concepts.  In other words, just loosely connecting the subject of religion with politics will not constitute an Old Testament theocracy.

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So, in order to understand what is highly unwise about a king, tyrant, despot or dictator, we first have to read the basics in the Old Testament.  Only when we understand what we have read in the OT, can we do a more advanced study the dangers of a strong man in a Biblical treatment of the New Testament.

 

More importantly, I will be focusing here on Hebrew “civil law” which are administrative rules on how the whole community should interact together for a common identity and for civil behavior.  The purpose of the study on Hebrew law is not to seek justification before God.  We are doing this study to seek wisdom while we are voting or participating in our political process.

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Now with that understanding, ancient Israel had a system of laws and judges, Levites and prophets in a government now referred to as a theocracy (in this case Jewish civil law) such that Israel was governed by a “rule of law” outlined in the Torah (the first 5 books of Moses).  This system prevented any one person from going off on his own and deviating from what God outlined for their system.  Any person attempting that would face a lot of opposition from the judges and others in Hebrew leadership.  Therefore, in that sense the Hebrew theocracy had a system of checks and balances as well. Now normally under this system, the judges, starting with Joshua, raised armies to finish conquering Canaan and to defend against invading armies, like by the Philistines, who lost the land God gave to the Hebrews.  Under this theocratic system, the Hebrews (the people of God) were expected to fight their own battles but not allow some foreign mercenary army or king to fight battles for them. That was the policy God in the books of Joshua and Judges.  Whenever there was a crisis God would raise up a temporary judge (Gideon and Samson for instance), and the PEOPLE OF GOD HAD TO FIGHT THEIR OWN BATTLES, but not to rely on others to fight their battles for them.  The point is that we Christians should not be yearning for a sympathetic autocrat to defend our values and concerns for us.  We should actively engaging in public discourse on our own, as individuals.

 

Of course, God knew the Israelites would eventually be under threat of huge armies requiring a limited degree of central control, so in Deut. 17:14-20 and elsewhere, God prescribed a king with very limited powers that would be subordinate to this system of laws, Levites, judges and statutes (see verses 18-20). 

 

Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.  Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.  And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his  days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.  Deut 17:17-20 nKJV

 

In stark contrast to this type of limited central control, where all the lands and people surrounding the Hebrews, which had kings (strong men) with unlimited powers to control EVERYONE’S life or death, depending totally on his mood or whim.

 

Now, in I Samuel 8, the people of Israel came to Samuel and demanded a king. “They said to him, 'Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.'"  We further know this type of king would not have been consistent with God’s “rule of law”.  That is because in verse 7, God consoles Samuel’s total disgust for the request by assuring Samuel that “they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.”God then refers directly back to His limited powers of a king in Deuteronomy 17.  He warned the men of Israel, who demanded a king “like all the nations,” about all the injustices such an authoritarian king would inflict upon the people of Israel (I Sam 8:10-17). Then he warns Israel that when they cry out and pray to him in repentance, He will not listen to their cries and ignore all their pleas for relief of their own choices. Despite this stern and ominous warning, the men refused and continued to demand a king “like all the nations”.  Therefore, God granted them exactly what they wanted and did exactly what he promised.  When Israel cried out in sincere prayer, God ignored their pleas to depart from the authoritarian king’s rule, even letting foreign armies decimate Israel for three plus millennia (Samuel through foreign kings, the dispersion and finally the restoration of Israel).  In other words, God did not relent on that promise until the nation of Israel was restored in 1948!!

 

Now, some Christians might misconstrue the deriving of values from the Old Testament to suggest that I believe America is Biblical Israel.  On the contrary, I absolutely do not believe in any form of replacement theology.  Only the Jews and Modern Israel are Biblical Israel.  If anyone who thinks this would open their eyes, they would realize that if one totals up both Jews and Christians together, we would still be a decisive minority and whose numbers continue to decline.  Yet, back to my main point.

 

At this juncture in history, if Evangelicals replace a liberal authoritarian Barak Obama with a “conservative” authoritarian Donald Trump, will we simply repeat the experience of ancient Israel, and set a precedence for our government?  OF COURSE, THAT ASSESMENT IS MY WORST FEARS ABOUT TRUMP. For the last seven plus years, our representative form of government has suffered severe damage because of all sorts of executive actions, which are contrary to our foundational legal system.  Starting with those principles I just mentioned above, our legal system was built upon with Biblical principles. Note that the engraving of Moses and his laws before 1935were carved into the front face of the U.S. Supreme Court (now solely our capital building). If we throw away those principles by reverting to authoritarian rule, which many Christians are advocating now as a solution, we will surely loose much of what has been gained over the last three plus millennia of world history.  As a demonstration of the early Biblical development of our system, I recommend the movie, “Monumental” with Kirk Cameron in addition the book, Faith & Freedom: The Christian Roots of American Liberty by Benjamin Hart (endorsed on first page by former Reagan Supreme Court Nominee, Robert Bork).   Although there is a social tradition that has developed since then, that we should never be caught mixing religion and politics that was never the perception of the founders, the Biblical text or the Apostle Paul, even though the ACLU would like to convince us it is. This is repetitious, but critical to the main point of the article.

 

Actually, I have heard many Christians today ask, "what is so wrong with a benevolent dictator.  That might be just the change we need for a time".  The problem in that notion is born out in Biblical history.  Israel and Judah had 7 or more kings that have the respect of scripture despite occasional examples of really bad acts.  1 David, 2 Solomon, 3 Jehoash, 4 Joash, 5 Hezekiah and maybe a couple of others due to the fact that a tiny number are in an "iffy" catagory.  There were 42 kings in all.  That means that although there were roughly 5 good kings, there were 32-35 generations of ungodly and autocratic disasters for Israel and Judah!!  A popular saying goes, "those who ignore history, are doomed to repeat it".  So don't ask for a semi-Godly dictator because that would set a president for a succession of future American despots like Obama!

 

The lesson that history teaches us in this context, is that we politically conservative Christians and Jews must immediately cease this habit of isolating ourselves from influencing our government in between elections and being clueless about what is going on.  We must frequently be salt in our society by regularly connecting the dots between the Tanakh and, for some of us, the New Testament with various issues then currently debated in government. Like the Israelites, we must fight these battles ourselves and not dream of some surrogate hero to fight these battles for us.  We are far less effective as Salt in our world when we depend on others to be a representative for us without our personal input.  It is simply too easy for the anti-religious haters to demonize any such person we pick, whether that be Donald Trump or anyone else.  We individually need to call, write or fax, our senator or representative whether they are state or federal.  In some cases, if we need to show up and counter-demonstrate, then that is what we should do to inform both the media and our government that there are two or more sides to any issue that the liberals try to paint as universal.  This is yet another reason why we Christians should be involved in government yet keep our priorities for that involvement strictly subordinate to Christ’s great commission, the Gospel.

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As we move into this critical time for a vote in November, we need to incorporate such information into our decision making process followed by a lot of prayer.