p. 9 | Forging New Fetters by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Nov 2, 1911

Forging New Fetters

By C. M. S.

True and False Theocracies, and What Is Involved in the Adoption of the Theocratic System in America

In view of the fact that there is now a strong movement in this country whose aim is to bring in again the theocratic principle in government, in reality if not in name, it is well that we understand the nature of a theocracy, and be able to distinguish between the true and the false.

A theocracy is a government among men recognizing the immediate sovereignty of God, drawing its governing principles directly from divine revelation. It is a government in which the personal representatives of Jehovah outline the government policy, speaking with all the authority of heaven, and commanding all in the name of heaven.

A true theocracy is the only perfect government. The Author of our being is infinitely better equipped for regulating our most minute affairs than is the wisest body of men this earth has ever known, composed as they are with the infirmities, imperfections, and physical limitations of the human.

The government of heaven is a pure and true theocracy, not that God is there

governing as he has done upon earth, through deputized instruments, but governing direct; and yet the principle is the same. The government of Portugal was until recently a monarchy; so was the government of every Portuguese colony ruled over by a Portuguese governor deputized by the Portuguese crown.

“Forever, O Lord, thy law is settled in heaven.” “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne.” That is the center of theocracy wherever it exists throughout the universe of God. There is the mainspring, the actuating impulse, the fountainhead, of that kind of government.

In the true theocracy God himself comes into direct communion with his people. His law is their law, and their only law. It is love regnant and love obedient. Every command of God in that state is a seed that bears fruit in the loving obedience of his people. Is there a need on their part? God fills it. Is there a wish on his part? They fulfil it. That is theocracy. That is what God meant to establish in the earth. It is what he did establish here when the head of the human race was made the true prince of this earth.

But the counterfeiter was there, thrusting himself in between man and his Maker, breaking the established connection, and setting up a rule of his own. That brought about the condition to which this text applies: “In overflowing wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but” he adds, “with everlasting loving-kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith Jehovah thy Redeemer.” Isa. 54:8.

God could not permit the plans of the interloper to triumph over his own, and so, in his own good time he calls out a people who are to be his people, who are to acknowledge his rule, who are to listen to his voice and “be obedient.” He reveals to them his purpose concerning them, and writes his law that they may know what his requirements are. They covenant to keep his commandments and walk in his ways. He covenants to bless them with all spiritual and temporal blessings. The theocracy is set up again, and God is ruling his people through deputized agents. His presence is among them in the glowing Shekinah between the cherubim over the mercy-seat, where righteousness, love, and justice dwell.

But Israel failed, she departed from God, she abused the privileges given her of heaven, until at last the command came forth from the capital of the universe: “And thou, O deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Remove the miter, and take off the crown; this shall be no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” Eze. 21:25-27.

The miter and the crown, joined in government, clearly indicate a theocracy, a union of church and state in that governmental representative. The miter stood for the spiritual side of the rule, and the crown for the temporal side. The removal of both these symbols of rule indicated the breaking up of that system which God instituted at Sinai; and undoubtedly there is also in the exaltation of the low and the abasement of the high, a divine prophecy of the rule of the people by the people and for the people. For in the government of the people, by the people, it matters not how lowly the birth, the one so born may aspire to the highest office in the nation; and it matters not how long the royal line may be nor how glorious the reign of predecessors, these are not proof against the headsman's ax, or prison walls, or abdication under force, for the reigning monarch.

So there came a time when the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom, and the last form of theocracy on earth recognized by Jehovah came to an end. Then, says the prophet: “This also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” The text does not indicate that God will designate some person or some government to give to Jesus Christ the dominion of the world. But “I will give it him.” Daniel tells us of that event in these words: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and he came even to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Dan. 7:13, 14. That is the occasion upon which the Father bestows upon the Son the rulership of the world. He has won the right to rule, and the time has come for the glorious consummation of the great campaign against sin. Then he is given the right to break the rebellious nations with a rod of iron, and to gather unto himself his elect who have made a covenant with him by sacrifice.

But there is another program being carried out in the earth at the same time. Eden's intruder has never learned how to be peacefully indolent. Deception is his vocation; counterfeiting is his trade. He has sought to reestablish in sin what Jehovah overthrew because of sin. He has set up an imitation theocracy, and through the machinations of that system he has elevated the “man of sin” to sit in the seat of the “Sun of Righteousness.” He has set men to hear the confessions of other men who have sinned against God, and has clothed them with authority to forgive those sins committed against God, which God alone can forgive. By that process the one who is not concerned in the matter forgives the sin, and the one who is really wronged is left entirely out of the question.

And yet that system professes to be God's system of government upon the earth. While God is proclaiming the theocracy overthrown the fabricator of that false theocracy is setting that system forth as all that God has for the world to-day; and even professed Protestantism is rising up in confederated power, and demanding, in fact if not in name, the establishment of a theocratic system of government in this country, a system of government in which the church shall dictate the policy of the government and the laws it shall enact. What the result of this movement will be will be set forth in another article.

C. M. S.