No Democracy in the Bible!

 

I found the above video in which John MacArthur argues that there is no “democracy” in the Bible! Here is a quote:

“And we have never had a king in America. We in fact pride ourselves on the American revolution, in which we threw off the rule of a king, a British king by the name of George the Third. We celebrate the fact that we have freed ourselves from kings. That has become much the way of the world. There are few monarchies who have actual kings. There are some symbolic kings, powerless symbolic kings and queens. There are some autocratic military monarchical dictators, where one man rules with power, even over life and death. But an absolute monarchy is very rare; there are only a few. We celebrate the end of monarchies, the end of dictatorships, the end of kings. We hail democracy in our country. We have spent countless dollars, countless lives, countless years trying to turn other countries into democracies like us.

Now I may shock you, the Bible doesn’t advocate democracy; the Bible doesn’t mention democracy; the Bible doesn’t comment on democracy; the Bible doesn’t define democracy. There is no place in all of the Bible where you even find democracy. There is no country revealed in scripture where it existed. It is never affirmed by God. Was Israel a democracy? Never! What was it? It was a theocratic monarchy, and God was king. Yahweh was their king. The covenant God was their king. The Lord Yahweh was Israel’s king forever. There is only one God in the universe, and he in his mercy and grace gave himself to a people, the Jews, to be their king. What an astonishing privilege, right?”

He is wrong about a lot of that, like he is about many other aspects of his Biblical hermeneutics and exegesis. There is indeed democracy in the Bible, and it defines exactly what it is. The Bible identifies a long period of “Judges” in the history of ancient Israel during which there was “no king” in the land, and freedom and democracy prevailed:

Judges 17:

6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Judges 18:

1 In those days there was no king in Israel: …

Judges 19:

1 And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel …

Judges 21:

25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Notice, firstly, that four times, in four different chapters, it asserts that there was no king in Israel in those days. Saying it once or twice wasn’t enough, it has to repeat it four times! It doesn’t say, “But wait a minute, they had a king, and his name was God!” “No king” means what it says, “no king,” and that is the definition of democracy. That is what “democracy” is. Secondly, notice that on two of those four occasions, it is qualified further by adding that “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” In other words, there was no ruler, no despot over them telling them what to do, or how to live their lives. They were free to do as they pleased, or to live their lives as they wanted. They did not have a dictator ruling over them, telling them what to do or how to live. That is the definition of “democracy.” Democracy doesn’t mean that you have to have a “presidential election” every five years. It means that there is “no king,” no dictator, no tyrant telling you what to do, or how to live your life. You are free to “do that which is right in your own eyes”. That is the definition of democracy.

The “Judges” were not despots, they were not tyrants, they were not autocratic rulers. And the succession was not “hereditary,” as in a monarchy. They ruled by the “consent of the governed”. They relied on the willing cooperation of the people to get what they wanted. If the people didn’t want to follow, obey, or cooperate with them, they couldn’t do it. If they needed to fight a war for example, they relied on the willing cooperation of the people to raise an army to go and fight. They had no forced military conscription to raise an army to fight. They ruled by the genuine consent of the people. If the people didn’t want to follow or obey them, they had no power to force them to. That is the meaning of democracy. When they asked Samuel to appoint a “king” over them for example, he had no choice but to give them what they wanted—even though he didn’t think that it was a good idea, and told them so.

These are all characteristics of a genuine democracy, or a free democratic society. It was a democracy in the full sense of the term. The fact that the people themselves chose to throw it away afterwards, and were able to do so, is itself evidence of that. You can’t throw off dictatorship except through violence, insurrection, and revolution. But democracy, once gained, can easily be lost, or thrown away at will, by making the wrong choices and decisions. The Americans had to fight a war in order to gain their democracy and freedom. It is called the War of Independence. But they don’t need to fight any wars in order to lose it. All they need to do is to follow the advice of people like John MacArthur, and it is done.

It is a long sermon, and the rest of it contains many more theological, exegetical, and hermeneutical errors which would be too tedious to attempt to unravel and unpack. I will just briefly quote a few additional scriptures that clarify the theology on the subject. The first is a quote from Deuteronomy (written by Moses from God, before the period of the “Judges” began), indicating that God is not altogether against their having a “king,” provided that he is a righteous king who obeys God, and rules over the people in righteousness:

Deuteronomy 17:

14 When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;

15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.

16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:

19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:

20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

So God was not opposed to their having a king, provided that he was chosen by God, and he was a righteous king, and kept the Commandments of God. The next set of scriptures indicate that God is indeed the “king” of the whole earth, not just of Israel. He is the king and ruler of all nations of the world, whether they realize it or not, or know about it or not. The only difference was that the Israelites had good reasons to know about it, whereas other nations didn’t:

Ezra 1:

2 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Psalm 47:

7 For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.

Isaiah 37:

16 O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.

Jeremiah 10:

10 But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

So the Israelites were not an “exception” in having God as their king. All nations have God as their king. What set the Israelites apart was that they were exceptionally aware of this phenomenon, or had good reasons to be, whereas other nations weren’t.

One last point remains to be mentioned in relation to his sermon. At the very beginning, in the initial trailer to his sermon, he has some mean and nasty things to say about Muslims and Islam:

“Don’t tell me you want to invite more Muslims in, who represent a religion from hell, and then put your hand on the throne of God.”

LOL! After getting his Bible upside-down, and his theology all twisted and wrong way round, getting his Islam and Muslims all twisted and wrong was not unexpected. Any religion that promotes the worship of the one true God, and adherence to the biblical standards of morality, goodness, virtue, and righteous living; justice, judgment, and truth etc. as Islam does, is going to be a force for good in the world, as Islam has been. This video gives a tiny glimpse of that:

I found that video by just Googling for “achievements of Islam”. There are lots more such information to be found. A religion that feels the need to constantly berate, disparage, and denigrate other faith traditions in order to promote itself, or ensure its own survival, has lost credibility, and is not worth wasting time with. I am glad I am in a Church that doesn’t feel the need to constantly berate, disparage, and denigrate other faith traditions, including Islam. See here and here for more info.