Our republic/democracy is visibly failing. Whether it ceases to exist in five months, five years, or five decades, the good ole U. S. and A. is heading for the trash heap of history. It is depressing to see our nation disappear the way it is disappearing, but huge nations are inherently dangerous to themselves and others. Leopold Kohr has shown us why in The Breakdown of Nations. World history has shown us how in many specific instances, and is showing us how right now as the Powers That Be cheer on the barbarians among us. Which is not shocking, since the Powers That Be are barbarians themselves. The Powers That Be may not be the ones physically swinging the sledgehammers, but they are the ones encouraging the swinging.
But what comes after the U.S.A.? History will not have a full stop, at least in the very near future, despite the mad ravings of dispensationalists. After the U.S. ceases to exist, what?
Hopefully, of course, the break-up of the U.S. can be peaceful, with no starvation, and with little violence. We’ve already had some violence, but perhaps that can be limited in amount. I certainly hope so. I hope we can all start over, still well fed, still most of us not beaten to a pulp, still retaining our savings. I pray for a peaceful end to the United States.
But if the republic/democracy comes to an end because we can no longer get along together, what is next?
Well, the barbarians have to go their own way. Who are we to try to tell them what to do? If they want various forms of peoples’ republics–communist paradises–well, that is their business. We who don’t like that way of living proved unable and unwilling to build and defend a civilized civil government, so who are we to try to tell others how to live? We will have enough on our platter, and more, in trying to determine how our seceded portions of the ex-U.S. should govern ourselves.
My reading of the Bible tells me that there is no one form of government which automatically is the best and automatically works. Here’s the hard truth (which can also be an encouraging truth): nothing works except obeying God from the heart. God needs to be the lawgiver, and His people need to love Him and want to obey His laws. Nothing works, if our hearts aren’t right. A legion of angels could deliver to us a perfect constitution from the hand of God Himself, with detailed instruction as to how we should organize civil government, and if our hearts are wrong within twenty years we will turn the country into a mess.
Christians have spent centuries pretending that there can be a separation of religion and state. Our intellectual dishonesty in that regard has not changed reality for one split second. Theocracy always exists.
A god always makes the laws. The god can be Allah, can be humanist barbarian man, can be the God of the Bible, or can be any of a thousand other gods. We Christians need to admit this fact, admit that we need to love God better, admit that His laws give us a wise way to live, then work toward building small Christian nations which honor God in every way, including in their laws. If we don’t want to do that, fine. We can go on destroying ourselves and can go on refusing to give our neighbors an example of trying to work toward God.
In this brief essay, I simply want to suggest that after our failed republic/democracy throws some of us out in the cold in terms of civil government, a possible option for one or more small Christian nations, is monarchy. That’s not the only option! Having judges could work. A republic or democracy could work, if the central authority of God is acknowledged. There are many ways to construct a semi-sane civil government. My only point is that monarchy could work, if we all understand what we are getting into.
1 Samuel 8 warned how inherently dangerous was a monarchy! The king, Samuel warned, would build himself up, would construct a powerful army, and would take a tenth of the wealth for himself. Nevertheless, the people still wanted a king to go out before them and ‘”fight our battles”‘ (1 Samuel 8:20). Like believers in our day, they wanted to escape responsibility; let the king be the one responsible.
These are not encouraging words for monarchy as a potential form of civil government!
However, that is not God’s only word on monarchy. In Deuteronomy 17 God gave the people permission to set a king over themselves once they entered the promised land. But God made very clear that the king was to see himself as limited in what he could do. He was not to be the out-of-control king eventually warned about in 1 Samuel 8. No, the king’s powers were to be limited. All of Deuteronomy 17:14-20 is crucial for us, but I will quote only part of the passage. God would help them choose a king, who was not to be a foreigner.
‘”Moreover, he [the king] shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
‘”Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 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, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.”‘ (Deuteronomy 17:16-20)
The king was limited by the law of God! He was to be humble. He was actually to write down for himself a copy of the law, which he was to read constantly. (Contrast that with most Christians, who often read the Bible little or not at all.) If a nation had a king who acted in the way God instructs here, it would have a chance to have a semi-sane civil government which honored God and was honored in turn by Him.
Nothing in terms of having a good civil government is going to be automatic or easy or perfect. This should not surprise us. Is your Christian life automatically done in the right way, and always done perfectly? (If it is, maybe you will be a good candidate for king!) Most or all of us would admit that doing things right is hard, all the time. No civil government on earth will ever be perfect, whether it is a monarchy, a republic, or a whatever. But a monarchy could work. Getting the right man as king would be hard to do, but if we had such a man, it would give us time and space and hope. We would have to watch him like a hawk at all times, and squawk like a chicken when we saw him going wrong! But there is no inherent reason why monarchy could not work when the monarch was a Christian and the people were Christian. That is, if we were all serious about our Christianity rather than just wanting to piddle around and pretend.
The trilogy The Chronicles of Jupiter, respectfully translated by me, deals in part with monarchy as a possibly successful form of civil government. The three volumes are War On Jupiter, Brains Ought Not to Be Overworked, and Final War on Jupiter. There is free shipping on all books purchased from me, and most of my books sell for a pittance as ebooks.
The U.S. is dying. It deserves to die. Maybe–maybe–you and I can be in on the construction of small nations which honor God and protect our neighbors. Maybe.