God's Soverignty or Authoritarian Governments

A society, governed by the State, is intended to help facilitate a positive human experience, however, it cannot solve the basic problems of humanity – being one of depravity and unregenerate state of righteousness with God. God's created institutions by which mankind operates create harmony only if these institutions are managed in accordance with God. Family, Church and Civil Government are a few such institutes. Abraham Kuyper, (1837 – 1920), founder of the Free University in Amsterdam, theologian and intellectual developed what is known as Sphere Sovereignty as a model for understanding the ordained relationship God intended for his created institutions and the influence secularism can have on these same institutions.[1] As Shaeffer explains, it is out of desperation from the chaos of an uncivil society that its citizens, longing for order, will accept an authoritarian government.

In contrast, the strength of the Christian world view demonstrates that even under insurmountable atrocities, when people have divine knowledge, they can withstand the pressures of syncretism. Without such foundation, the weakest links of a society's institutions will seek the path of least resistance, typically succumbing to a relaxation of its foundational characteristics. Of course, the greatest threat to an authoritarian society, as Shaeffer points out, are those who have an absolute by which to judge the acts of the State.[2]

We live in a unique time. In his 1978 book, The Fate of Empires and the Search for Survival, Sir John Glubb established a list of seven successive ages twelve of the great nations progressed through prior to their fall or transformation.[3] As Grubb concludes, “The life-expectation of a great nation, it appears, commences with a violent, and usually unforeseen, outburst of energy, and ends in a lowering of moral standards, cynicism, pessimism and frivolity.”[4]

Romans 13: 1-7 provides the clearest evidence of God’s divinely ordained responsibility of a society. As we look at our own society in the US over the past decade, the breakdown of God's institutions has resulted in the current decadence we are experiencing

. As the we continue to polarize morally, we are headed to further polarization and unrest. Setting the stage for the formation of some form of authoritarian rule, likely a majority rule Democracy.

[1] Jake Porter, “Abraham Kuyper's Sphere Sovereignty: Theological Comparisons and Application to Poverty” (n.d.), accessed March 10, 2021, https://www.academia.edu/3491084/Abraham_Kuypers_Sphere_Sovereignty_Theological_Comparisons_and_Application_to_Poverty. [2] Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, 50th L'Abri Aniversary. (Crossway, n.d.), 26. [3] John Bagot Glubb and John Bagot Glubb, The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1978). [4] “Glubb and Glubb - 1978 - The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival.Pdf,” n.d., accessed March 10, 2021, http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf.