{"id":12988,"date":"2020-07-23T01:53:39","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T01:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/?p=12988"},"modified":"2020-07-26T01:09:49","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T01:09:49","slug":"democracy-is-close-to-godliness-isnt-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/23\/democracy-is-close-to-godliness-isnt-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy is close to godliness, isn&#8217;t it?"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Ox Bow Incident 1943\" width=\"840\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xudvfq3Mqbs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption><em>The Ox-Bow Incident, 1943<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>In \u201c<em>The Ox-Bow Incident<\/em>,\u201d made in 1943, we get a very clear portrayal of democracy in action.<\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">democracy = \"comes from two Greek words that mean people (<em>demos<\/em>) and rule (<em>kratos<\/em>).\" (<em>National Geographic<\/em>)<\/pre><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">democracy = \"government by the people, <em>especially<\/em> <strong>: <\/strong>rule of the majority.\" (<em>Mirriam-Webster<\/em>)<\/pre><p>Genesis 12 begins the story of how God, in much the same way that He had previously chosen the individual man\u2013Noah\u2013to save the human race, selected a particular family of people\u2013a tribe, if you will, to become his chosen people, to be His representatives to the rest of humanity.<\/p><p>We learn later, in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, that God\u2019s chosen form of government is actually <em><strong>theocracy<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">theocracy = \"The Jews were under the direct government of God himself. The nation was in all things subject to the will of their invisible King.\" (<em>Easton's Bible Dictionary<\/em>)<\/pre><p>Is the implication, then, that God wants the whole human race to enter into that type of system of government?<\/p><p>Well, yes, as a matter of fact, except that Jesus (the \u201cSon of God\u201d) will temporarily reign until He turns rule of all things to His Father.<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cAnd Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying:\u00a0\u2018All power\u00a0is given to Me in heaven and in earth.'\u201d<\/p><cite>Matthew 28:18<\/cite><\/blockquote><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cFor He must reign, until he hath put all his enemies under his feet.\u201d<\/p><cite>1 Corinthians 15:25<\/cite><\/blockquote><p style=\"font-size:23px\" class=\"has-background has-bright-red-background-color\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>However, until Christ returns to do that, God has left it to men to rule themselves<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p><p>Interestingly, when the American colonists set up their brand-new experiments in self-rule, they <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">did not<\/span><\/strong> choose a <em>democracy.<\/em> The question to carefully consider is <em><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">why not<\/span><\/strong><\/em>?<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cThe founders feared that passions could arouse the public, and national policy could become hostage to these passions. Therefore, they wanted men mediating between public opinion and national policy. They also expected these men to be of substance and property, with much to lose from error and also more difficult to corrupt.\u201d<\/p><cite><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/the-founding-fathers-never-meant-to-create_b_13051196\">Huffington Post, 11\/17\/2016<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cDemocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths<\/p><cite>James Madison, Federalist Papers No. 10<\/cite><\/blockquote><p>No discussion of governmental systems would be complete, I think, without a glance at King Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream, interpreted by Daniel in Daniel 2.<\/p><div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.comwp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Daniel-Statue-768x1024.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12989\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Daniel-Statue.jpg?resize=768%2C1025&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Daniel-Statue.jpg?resize=400%2C534&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Daniel-Statue.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Daniel-Statue.jpg?resize=1151%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1151w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Daniel-Statue.jpg?resize=1200%2C1601&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Daniel-Statue.jpg?w=1500&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.turbosquid.com\/3d-models\/daniel-2-statue-king-3d-model-1428072\">Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s Dream, Daniel 2<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><p>The statue above indicates a series of \u201cworld\u201d governments, beginning with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Neo-Babylonian-Empire\">Neo-Babylonian Empire<\/a> (represented here by the gold head) and including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibletools.org\/index.cfm\/fuseaction\/Topical.show\/RTD\/cgg\/ID\/7941Chest-Arms-Silver.htm\">Persian Empire (silver chest &amp; arms)<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.studylight.org\/bible\/nkj\/daniel\/2-32.html\">Macedonian Empire (brass abdomen)<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianbook.com\/ancient-affects-today-uncle-2nd-edition\/richard-maybury\/9780942617566\/pd\/617566\">Roman Empire\u2013and all its reiterations<\/a> (iron legs). The interesting thing about the statue, though, are its feet\u2013a combination of the iron left over from the Roman Empire (think of it\u2019s tyrannical strength) and clay.<\/p><p><em>What does that make you think of<\/em>?<\/p><p>The Western Roman Empire fell in about the fifth century. Yet its legacy carried on, most immediately through Emperor Constantine and his cooperation with the Catholic Church, which became the most powerful organization in Europe. Out of that came association eventually came Charlemagne and the \u201cHoly Roman Empire,\u201d which lasted for about 1000 years. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B019HHWOGO\/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1\">This empire was known as \u201cthe First Reich<\/a>.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axishistory.com\/various\/125-germany-unsorted\/germany-unsorted\/4865-the-first-a-second-reich\">The \u201cSecond Reich\u201d was the German empire that was ruled by Otto von Bismark, William I and II, that led to the First World War<\/a>. You may remember that William II was known as \u201c<em><strong>the Kaiser<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d<\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">kaiser = \"Kaiser is the German title meaning \"<strong>Emperor<\/strong>\". Like the Russian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/search?q=Tsar&amp;filters=sid%3ac972817e-8303-24a8-ea1e-22c5840aac1f&amp;form=ENTLNK\">Tsar<\/a> it is directly derived from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/search?q=Roman+Empire&amp;filters=sid%3a5c3f99de-0e1c-080c-f7f9-72ac3b4fccd5&amp;form=ENTLNK\">Roman Emperors<\/a>' title of Caesar...\" (<em>Definitions.net<\/em>)<\/pre><p>The \u201cThird Reich\u201d as you probably know, was \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Third-Reich\">the official official\u00a0Nazi\u00a0designation\u00a0for the regime in\u00a0Germany\u00a0from January 1933 to May 1945\u2026<\/a>\u201c<\/p><p>There are still ways that the legacy of the Roman Empire lives on in Europe, England and even in the United States of America.<\/p><div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.comwp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Dome.jpg?resize=620%2C413&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12991\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption>The U.S. Capitol<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><p><em>But what about the  \u201ciron mixed with clay<\/em>?\u201d<\/p><p>The main difference today between the governmental systems of most of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream is that all of the empires mentioned above were ruled by a <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Julius-Caesar-Roman-ruler\">dictator<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, while most of the modern countries are considered <strong><em>democracies<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">democracy = 'control of an organization or group by the majority of its members;the practice or principles of social equality.\" (<em>Bing<\/em>)<\/pre><p>That seems to make sense to me, that people would want to rule themselves by democracy, rather than submit to a <em><strong>dictator<\/strong><\/em><strong><em>ship<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">dictatorship = \"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/search?q=define+autocracy&amp;FORM=DCTRQY\">autocracy<\/a> (a system of government by one person with absolute power), absolute authority in any sphere.\" (<em>Bing<\/em>)<\/pre><p class=\"has-background has-medium-font-size has-bright-red-background-color\"><strong>Then, let me ask you a question: <em>Why doesn\u2019t the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucl.ac.uk\/slade\/know\/330\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">malleable<\/span> <\/a>clay REPLACE the iron in Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p><pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">malleable = \"easily influenced; pliable\" (<em>Bing<\/em>)<\/pre><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cAnd whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay\u2026 but they shall not stick fast one to another, as iron cannot be mixed with clay.\u201d<\/p><cite>Daniel 2:43<\/cite><\/blockquote><p>Rather than replace the iron, the clay attempts to mix with it, but  it is not possible. Eventually, under enough pressure the weaker, brittle clay will fall off. And only iron will remain.<\/p><p>In the book, <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">How Should We Then Live<\/span><\/em>?, Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer wrote (in 1976):<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cOverwhelming pressures are being brought to bear on <a href=\"https:\/\/socraticsociety.wordpress.com\/2009\/03\/24\/there-are-no-absolute-truths\/\">people who have no absolutes<\/a>\u2026 The pressures are progressively preparing modern people to accept a manipulative, authoritarian government.. If these pressures do continue to mount, which seems probable, do you think people, young or old, will at great cost to themselves, at the cost of their present personal peace and affluence, stand up for liberty or for the individual? \u2026When these <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">outward forms<\/span> are imposed on (their) wordview (which) would never have produced freedom without chaos in the first place, people will not stand when the pressures increase\u2026 As the memory of the Christian base grows ever dimmer, freedom will disintegrate\u2026\u201d<\/p><cite><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Should-Then-Live-LAbri-Anniversary\/dp\/1581345364\">Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer, \u201cHow Should We Then Live,\u201d 1976<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote><p>Is that the future you want?<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chris Tomlin - Is He Worthy? (Live)\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FkRiYsTN7KY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In \u201cThe Ox-Bow Incident,\u201d made in 1943, we get a very clear portrayal of democracy in action. democracy = &#8220;comes from two Greek words that mean people (demos) and rule (kratos).&#8221; (National Geographic) democracy = &#8220;government by the people, especially : rule of the majority.&#8221; (Mirriam-Webster) Genesis 12 begins the story of how God, in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/23\/democracy-is-close-to-godliness-isnt-it\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Democracy is close to godliness, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,41,66,42,71,57,70,77,24,74,18,75,40,31],"tags":[78,33,76,32],"class_list":["post-12988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-dream","category-bible","category-black-lives-matter","category-christianity","category-constitution","category-current-events","category-declaration-of-independence","category-democracy","category-education","category-government","category-lifestyle","category-rome","category-truth","category-worldview","tag-democracy","tag-education","tag-government","tag-worldview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12988"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13001,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12988\/revisions\/13001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinkingaccuratelyeducation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}