Conclusion
In our study we have examined three aspects of Biblical civil government: purpose, practice, and perspective. In the first chapter we examined the foundations of law and answered the three fundamental questions of what is law, who makes law, and why we have civil law. In the next two chapters we examined the Biblical principles of civil government (its origin, ordination, and operational purpose) and civil rulers (their requirements and responsibilities). We examined Satan’s perversion of God’s ordination in chapters four and five as we looked at the Bible’s warnings concerning tyranny and tyrants. In the next section we looked at the practice of Biblical civil government by assessing our nation’s founding documents in light of Scripture, and then followed with a three-chapter sequence in which we Biblically assessed the role of civil government in economic, foreign policy, and moral issues. In the final section of this booklet we discussed the Biblical perspective on the future of civil government. We began by contrasting the tyranny of the Antichrist with the millennial kingdom of Christ that will rule the earth during the end times, and concluded with an overview of ways in which we can restore God’s design to our current civil government.
Five “big idea” takeaways that we gleaned from the Scriptures during this study are that:
coherent, consistent system of law; (2) government is God’s
idea—nations are accountable to Him for how they govern;
(3) Satan has perverted God’s ideas about government;
(4) rights and responsibilities are inseparable; and
(5) government was ordained to protect our rights
in order to punish evil and reward good.
Clearly, God has provided us with an abundance of wisdom on the subject of
civil government. May we not reject wisdom’s call and suffer the resulting
consequences (Proverbs 1:20-32) but instead listen and enjoy the security and
prosperity that God’s natural law and divine blessing bring to those who honor
Him and His ways (Proverbs 1:33). Let us not rely solely on the human arguments
of reason that appeal to the practicality and effectiveness of certain policies,
but rather let us restore the authority of the Scriptures to our political
conversation and convictions so that God may be glorified.