Ruler of the Nations

The question of freedom is first of all a question of sovereignty and of responsibility. Who is sovereign, and to whom is man responsible? This source of sovereignty is also the source of freedom. If sovereignty resides in God and is only held ministerially by men, then the basic responsibility of ruler and ruled is to God, who is also the source of freedom. But if sovereignty resides in the state, whether a monarchy or democracy, man has no appeal beyond the law of the state, and no source of ethics apart from it. He is totally responsible to that order and has only those rights which the state chooses to confer upon him. The word comprehend means both "to contain" and "to understand." That which contains man is also the source of our understanding of man. If man is a creature of the state, then he is to be understood in terms of the state. Aristotle's man, a social animal, can never transcend his political order. Christian man, however, created in the image of God, cannot be contained in anything short of God's eternal decree and order, nor understood except in terms of God Himself. Man therefore is not understandable in terms of man but in terms of God. Absolute monarchy and democracy, statism in other words, came into existence as revivals of paganism and as anti-Christian movements, whatever their ostensible claims otherwise.

Author: Gary DeMar, PDF , 298p