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Posted on 12/31/2001 4:53:21 PM PST by OrthodoxPresbyterian

Libertarian Theocracy sounds like a blatant contradiction of terms. After all, when we hear these days of theocracy (meaning “the rule of God”), don’t we naturally think of the now-defunct Taliban’s dreaded “Ministry of Virtue and Vice,” of their civil laws forbidding miniskirts, movies, Motown, and Moms outdoors, of their punishment of clean-shaven-men, kite-flying kids, high-school-educated girls, and TV-watching teenagers? As for more serious crimes, how about those penalties of 100 lashes for fornication, stoning for adultery, and hand amputation for theft? Isn’t this theocracy, the coercive political authority of a group of religious zealots claiming to rule in God’s name, depriving liberty to, and punishing, everybody with whom they disagree?

On the other hand, isn’t libertarianism the opposite creed that almost anything goes (adultery, homosexuality, abortion, bestiality, maybe even pedophilia), as long as you don’t harm the “consenting party”? Don’t we define libertarianism as the idea that there’s no authority to which the individual is subject but his own desires? Isn’t the quintessential libertarian a cross-dressing, dope-smoking, God-hating libertine? The perception is that libertarianism means individuals are free from all restraints, as long as they don’t impinge on anybody else’s freedom.

How, then, could a libertarian theocracy be thinkable, let alone viable?

I suggest that it’s not only thinkable and viable, but also indispensable. I further suggest that every Christian should advocate and practice it.

Biblical Theocracy
The Bible and the Christian Faith demand theocracy, God’s rule. The New Testament teaches us that Jesus Christ is presently reigning on His heavenly throne (Ac. 2:29-36; 1 Cor. 15:27). He will not only reign one day when He returns (1 Cor. 15:24-27); He is reigning today. Theocracy is not an apocalyptic expectation; it is a present reality. Nor is Christ’s authority limited to the individual Christian and the church; He is Lord of all things (Eph. 1:22) — all of thought, life and society. Since God rules by means of His Son (God in the flesh), Jesus Christ (Heb. 2:8), we may more accurately term this theocracy a Christocracy, the rule of Christ. In fact, as New Testament scholar Oscar Cullmann writes, “This belief in the present rule of Christ over all things . . . was the strong centre of the whole faith of the early Christians.” This Christocracy is not an optional postulate, but the anchor of all human life and thought (Col. 1:14-19). Jesus Christ is presently Lord of the universe. This is theocracy!

The Mechanism for Theocracy
Now the big question is, How does Jesus Christ exercise this rule? What is the form of His earthly government? A Christian version of the Taliban’s “Ministry of Virtue and Vice”? Perish the thought! Our Lord’s rule is not mostly — and usually not at all — by politics, or the state. The state’s role is coercive (Rom. 13:1-7), and Christ’s kingdom leaves little or no room for coercion (2 Tim. 2:24). How then does Christ exercise His authority and government in the earth?

First, by His objective authority in His Word, the Bible. Individuals are “translated” into Christ’s kingdom by the power of God and His gospel (Col. 1:13), the good news of salvation to all who trust in Christ by faith (Rom. 10:9); and, as a result, they begin to obey His commands (Jn. 14:15). They gradually reorient every area of life they touch with the redemptive power of the gospel and the liberating power of God’s law. They work peacefully to subordinate all things to Christ’s will. They Christianize civilization.

Second, the main derivative (non-absolute) human authorities God authorizes are the family (Eph. 6:1-4) and the church (Mt. 18:15-18). They teach and disciple in terms of God’s Word, His gospel and law in the Bible; and they are subject to that very Word.

Non-Political Governments
The family and church, in fact, are, as R. J. Rushdoony wrote, governments. Today, when we use the term government, we almost always denote or infer politics, national and state governments in Washington, D. C., or Sacramento, Calif., for example. But this is far from government’s traditional and Christian definition. Political government, the state, is only one government among many, and the smallest and least important (and most dangerous!) government of all. Men’s lives should be governed chiefly by God in His Word (“self-government”!). Human institutions that should augment Him in this holy endeavor (under His strict authority) are the family and the church. Parents in the family (Eph. 6:1), and elders, bishops and pastors in the church (Heb. 13:17), are God-appointed governors. Self-government, family government and church government are God’s prime earthly governments. They inculcate and govern external morality. The task of policing morality is not the state’s, but the individual’s, the family’s and the church’s.

We hear, “You can’t legislate morality.” This sentiment may be both true and false, depending on its meaning. It’s true that every civil law is an enacted morality; there are no religiously “neutral” laws. Murder is (and should be considered) a criminal act because it is a violation of God’s moral law (Gen. 9:6). But state law cannot instill morality. It cannot make men moral individuals; it can only keep them from being as externally evil as they otherwise would be. Only God can change men’s dispositions and morality (Jn. 1:12-13). The most dangerous state in the world — like a Communistic or Islamic regime — is one seeing itself as a morality police.

Communitarianism
For this reason, libertarian theocrats lay great accent on communitarianism, voluntary associations that comprise what sociologists sometimes call “civil society.” These associations maintain order and morality non-coercively. They have rules for membership and discipline, and expel in terms of those rules. What they lack is the power of physical coercion, and this makes all the difference in the world. They persuade; they may not coerce.

These communities serve another vital purpose. They create a buffer between the state and the individual. It’s easy for a power-hungry state to wield the iron scepter of tyranny if it doesn’t have to compete for loyalty. That’s why Communistic states are so anti-family (supporting “women’s liberation,” “children’s rights,” lax divorce laws, and mandatory public education for children) and anti-church (supporting absolute “separation of church and state” and forbidding evangelism) — the family and the church compete for the loyalty of citizens, and Communistic states require absolute loyalty. The Christian gives absolute loyalty to God alone, and divides derivative loyalty between human institutions and associations like the family, church, school, vocation, friendships and so on. These institutions and associations hold society together, and they (non-coercively) enforce morality. No writer last century had more to say about this than the conservative-libertarian sociologist Robert Nisbet: “We are prone to see the advance of power in the modern world as a consequence, or concomitant, of the diminution of individual freedom. But a more useful way would be to see it in terms of the retreat of authority in many of the areas of society within which human beings commonly find roots and a sense of the larger whole.” The family and church, for example.

This is hard for many moderns (including Christians) to grasp. They can’t imagine preserving morality without the coercion (or violence, for that is what it amounts to) of the state. This is also why Christians puzzle (and bristle!) at Joel Miller’s Christian case for the end of the war on drugs: “Misuse of drugs [they argue] often causes horror and pain and death; therefore, we cannot permit it. We must criminalize it. How could any Christian think otherwise?” In other words, the only way to deal with social sin is to make it illegal. They can’t understand how you can oppose drug abuse and the drug war at the same time. Perhaps only a libertarian theocrat could really understand. The state is not the best — and it is usually the worst — institution for solving social sins and problems. This is a bedrock tenet of libertarian theocrats.

Tomorrow: Libertarian Theocracy, Part 2: How the Right is Stuck in the Left's Paradigm

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