In contrast to this sort of theocracy is the ideal of a Christian holy commonwealth. It is fundamentally decentralist. Its bedrock presupposition is self-government under the law of God. This is what Jethro told Moses he must do, and Moses did: "And thou shalt teach them [all the people of Israel] ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work they must do" (Ex. 18:20). All government begins with self-government. All discipline begins with self-discipline. All men stand alone before God on the day of judgment; they are personally responsible to God.
Next, the other institutions of society are brought under the law of God by the increasingly self-disciplined Christians who honor the law of God: the family, the church, private businesses, local agencies of civil government, only then the more distant agencies of civil government. This is the foundation of all Christian resistance to tyranny: one's reliance upon already reconstructed local agencies of government-and not just civil government--in order to challenge the humanist-dominated distant agencies of civil government. This is the so-called doctrine of interposition. (See the discussion of this subject by Tom Rose, in Gary North, ed., "The Theology of Christian Resistance," a symposium in Christianity and Civilization, No. 2, 1983. This bi-annual journal is published by the Geneva Divinity School.)
Where to Begin?
How do we begin the building of a God-honoring civilization? By beginning with ourselves. We read the five books of Moses, the prophets, and the New Testament in search of guidelines tor ourselves personally and for all human institutions. We read commentaries on biblical law, such as R. J. Rushdoony's two-volume set, The Institutes of Biblical Law, and Greg L. Bahnsen's Theonomy in Christian Ethics. We take seriously God's moral and legal guidelines.
We then begin to study to show ourselves approved in our own disciplines and callings. We begin to study the Ways in which biblical law can and should be applied in our own occupations. We begin to subdue our portion of the earth to the glory of God, by means of His word.
Then we vote in terms of these laws. We sit on juries and rule in terms of these guidelines. We use juries, if possible, to nullify the ability of the civil government to impose God-hating laws on our fellow citizens, as Michael Gilstrap describes in an essay in Christianity and Civilization, No. 3 (1983). (Symposium on "The Tactics of Christian Resistance".) The inability of British customs agents to get convictions out of colonial juries is what drove the British to despair in the years preceding the American Revolution. They could not get juries to convict colonial violators of the statutes of the British Empire's bureaucracy, especially in matters regarding smuggling. It was so "bad" in the late seventeenth century, that England had to set up Admiralty Courts in 1696 that alone were empowered to try cases regarding smuggling violations. These special courts did not allow trial by jury. The American Act of 1764 expanded the authority of these courts to all inter-colonial trade, not just ships trading on the high seas. Furthermore, the court where the trial was to be held was in remote Halifax, Nova Scotia, making it very expensive for defendants to pay for their defense, which had to be conducted in person.
Theocracy is government by God's law--not just civil government, but all government. It is not a top-down imposition of biblical law by an elite of priests, but, in contrast, a bottom-up imposition of biblical standards over every area of life--areas not regulated by civil law for the most part--by those people who are morally responsible for making decisions. As the process of dominion extends the authority of Christians over more and more areas of life, we will see the creation of a comprehensive theocracy. It will not come as the result of some sort of "palace revolution," but as a result of millions of God-fearing people working to extend the reign of Christ over every area of life. In all likelihood, the last institutions brought under the rule of biblical law will be the central civil governments of the world. (No, now that I think of it, the central civil government will be the next-to-last institution captured by Christ; the last institution will probably be the tax-supported university.)
Humanism's Theocracy
In short, I am arguing that the theocracy of secular humanism now reigns in the West. It involves rule by a tiny minority of humanists over a vast majority of confused, intellectually compromised, hesitant Christians. There are many books that discuss the hierarchical and even conspiratorial nature of this top-down rule, but the most comprehensive are the two books by the late Prof. Carroll Quigley: Tragedy and Hope, published originally in 1966 by the Macmillan Company, and available in a reprint in most American Opinion bookstores, and The Anglo-American Establishment, a manuscript written in 1948 and published in 1981 by Books in Focus.
In a Gallup Poll taken for the Associated Press in the fall of 1982, only 9% of those polled stated that they believe that "man has developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of lite. God had no part in this process." In short, the reigning philosophy of every academic discipline on every state university and college in the United States is not believed by over 90% of the American public--the people whose taxes support the tenured professors of those campuses.
Imagine a student who applies to graduate school in biology or geology. He announces on his application form that he believes in the 6-day creation, and that he intends to study in terms of this presupposition, interpreting the facts in terms of it, until the department awards him the Ph.D. He then says he plans to teach 6-day creationism in a university. Do you think he will be accepted for the doctoral program? About as fast as Milton Friedman will receive tenure at the University of Moscow! There is not a single graduate school in biology or geology in any state university or any accredited university that holds to the 6-day creation. There isn't one that doesn't hold to some version of autonomous evolution. They screen the "priests" of each generation in terms of the dogma of evolution. They even reject the phrase "theory of evolution." Not a theory, they say: it is a proven fact.
If this isn't a theocracy, what is? They have a god: autonomous random evolution. They have a priesthood: scientific man. This priesthood is an elite. It controls access to its ranks. It collects tithes from all members of society, irrespective of their religious beliefs. They do their best to make indoctrination in the canons of their faith compulsory, in the public schools. And how many people believe the dogma? Under 10%. This is America's minoritarian theocracy.
Majoritarian Theocracy
What we need, therefore, is for the vast majority of Christians in the United States to rediscover their spiritual heritage and the power that heritage offers to those who conform themselves to God's law. Then, and only then, will a truly majoritarian theocracy be established, and the elitist, humanist theocracy's domination of modern institutions will be driven by personal example, competition, and eventual replacement, from the face of the earth.
When Christians get the picture, get the votes, and get the political power, there will be no more tax-supported educational institutions for humanists to capture, and there will be lots and lots of Christian satellite broadcasts for Christians and others to watch rather than CBS, ABC, and NBC. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will get not a dime from taxpayers. "Wall Street Week" may survive in a competitive world; "Washington Week in Review" probably won't. "Sesame Street" will survive; "All Things Considered" won't. (Have you noticed that the movies the public enjoys watching--popular Hollywood films, not artsy-craftsy Marxist films in French with English subtitles-get shown on PBS stations during fund-raising week, and are interrupted with longer begging segments than any profit-seeking TV station would dare to attempt for its commercials? Don't tell me those people don't know the difference between marketing and Federal subsidies!)
Such a forecast may not be fully accepted or understood by most of today's evangelicals and fundamentalists. They still do not fully comprehend how the anti-Christian humanists got Christians to vote for tax-supported anti-Christian institutions, from 1830 onward, all in the name of the myth of neutrality. Christians are still hypnotized by that myth, which is why they are more afraid (embarrassed) by the word "theocracy" than they are afraid of a real theocracy, the one which the humanists have constructed and put in place to rule the world--financed overwhelmingly from taxes collected from Christians.
This forecast of a coming bottom-up Christian theocracy is understood by the humanists, who see what is coming if several generations of Christian day school graduates start entering society. Like the rulers of Israel in Jesus' day who understood His prophecy about rising from the dead, and who rolled a stone in front of the tomb to prevent the disciples from stealing His body and claiming that He had risen from the dead, the modern humanist elite is worried. And like Jesus' disciples on the weekend of the resurrection, our modern Christians have fled from the scene, not realizing what our Lord promised.
The war against Christian schools must be understood in terms of theocracy. The entrenched humanist minoritarian theocracy is struggling to keep control of the money and the educational licenses to enter the establishment, namely, education diplomas. Some Christians are attempting to win this war in the public schools by means of some version of the request for equal time for Jesus. This is a preposterous struggle, and it is doomed to failure. The other priesthood has already captured the compulsory schools. They will not turn loose. They believe in the dogma of "re-education."
The more dedicated Christians are setting up independent Christian schools with the slogan: "Zero time for Satan." It is the graduates of these schools who will steadily replace the drug-destroyed, Darwin-indoctrinated, bureaucracy-dependent graduates of the public school system. The humanists see the handwriting on the wall. Oddly, the Christians don't. The Christian schools that they see as retreat centers and escape hatches for their children are the boot camps for the next generation of Christian shook troops.
The "resurrection" is coming. Pharisees and humanists, please take note. Your days are numbered.
**Any footnotes in original have been omitted here. They can be found in the PDF link at the bottom of this page.
Christian Reconstruction Vol. 7, No. 5 (September/October 1983)
For a PDF of the original publication, click here:
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