Editorials
the test of power
America’s Founding Fathers had something of a heavenly model in mind when
they envisioned a new form of government vested in “we the people.” In their
Declaration of Independence they made clear:
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 . . .
The pursuit of such ideal government remains elusive throughout the
world, and citizens are often frustrated, disappointed – even rebellious.
Government represents power in our lives – ideally the power to serve the
people justly and effectively, but too often a corrupted power that is self-
serving and ill serves its people. We should begin first by looking to the Lord,
the source of all power. “Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain
who build it.”
Indeed, the roots of good government are in the Word. Jesus warned about
“the princes of the Gentiles” exercising dominion over the people and said:
But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be
your minister; and whoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as
the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a
ransom for many. (Matthew 20:25-28; Mark 10:42-45)
After the Promised Land was divided for the Children of Israel and they
were left to their own governance, Joshua exhorted them shortly before his
death to be “very courageous to keep all that is written in the book of the
law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom, to the right hand or the left.”
(Joshua 23:6)
Of course it was not long before the governors began serving themselves
first – turning to the right and the left – and we have been witnessing the
waywardness of governments ever since.
Heaven and Hell gives us the ideal of government in heaven: “In the
heavens there is no government except the government of mutual love.” (213)
Further along, in No. 218, we read: “We may conclude from this what
the officials are like – namely, that they are the people who more than others
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