We in the West believe in limited government. We believe in a political system that recognizes the citizen's right to say to the State, "thus far--and no further". In order for that assertion or claim which sets boundaries upon the State's authority to have any warrant whatsoever a higher authority than the State must be acknowledged.
The limit's to State authority have weakened considerably in the past hundred years. The State has progressively claimed more authority and greater competence than was previously the case. Democracy risks becoming once again a "tyranny of the 51 percent". We firmly believe that this is inevitable. When a people set to banish God from their affairs, when there is no fear of God in their hearts, all we are left with is tyranny of one sort or other.
In a Christian system of government, politicians and governors are held to account by the citizens. This was made abundantly clear by the Reformers of the 16th and 17th centuries. Here is a summary of John Calvin's teaching on the subject:
John Calvin was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. Since Christ himself stated that to love and honour God is the first and greatest commandment, he concluded that "all authorities who betray their office to the detriment or defamation of God forfeit their office and are reduced to private persons." They are no longer authorities but mere "brigands" and "criminals". Also, according to Calvin: "Dictatorship and unjust authorities are not governments ordained by God . . . ; those who practice blasphemous tyranny are no longer God's ministers." Against such an "overbearing tyranny", Calvin concluded, Christians must "venture boldly to groan for freedom". [Augusto Zimmermann, Christian Foundations of the Common Law (Brisbane: Connor Court Publishing, 2018). Volume 2: The United States, p. 47.]This inevitably led to monarchs, emperors and parliaments being regarded as subject to law, along with the minor magistrates and the population at large.
Calvin believed that political legitimacy rests on laws and agreements, preferably written, which are necessary for protecting the 'freedom of the people', a term he frequently invoked. Written law, he argued, "is nothing but an attestation of the [natural law], whereby God bring back to memory what has already been imprinted in our hearts". Thus he endorsed civil resistance against tyrannical rulers who attempt to violate the fundamental rights that . . . . comprise an imprescriptible limit on governmental power. [Ibid., p.48.]The bottom line is this: remove God from a society and human tyranny inevitably begins to gain strength. A nation that does not acknowledge and fear God will end up being enslaved to tyrants.
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