Nena Arias | July 23, 2018
The top-notch form of government lauded in the world seems to be a democracy, but is it?
Have you ever wondered what the ideal government would be like? The various forms of government that have been implemented in various parts of the world are:
- Totalitarian: is a centralized government, does not allow differing opinion.
- Anarchy: a society without government or law.
- Monarchy: the supreme power is held by a single person
- Theocracy: where a supreme deity is ruler
- Aristocracy: ruled by a class of persons of nobility
- Military Takeover: ruled by army and armed forces
- Democracy: supreme power rests with the people
- Dictatorship: strict power is exercised by a dictator
A critical evaluation can bring us to conclude which of the mentioned government structures works best for us. In word and lip service, political thinkers worldwide exalt a democracy because they think the success of the most powerful and prosperous country in human history, namely the United States of America, reached such heights through a democracy. However, they do not strictly apply it. On the other hand, the USA does not owe its success to a democratic form of government. As a matter of fact, it was when we adopted a man-made document known as the Constitution as our form of government instead of strictly guiding ourselves by the Bible and godly principles, that we started down a slippery slope that has only increased its momentum as time progresses.
Some have accused a democracy of instability, corruption, chaos, slow decisions and power play, and they are not too far off in their assessment. The following quote is attributed to three possible authors, a Scottish professor of the 18th century, Dr. Alexander Tyler, Henning W. Prentis, Jr., and some even say Alexis de Tocqueville.
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.
From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
- From bondage to spiritual faith;
- From spiritual faith to great courage;
- From courage to liberty;
- From liberty to abundance;
- From abundance to complacency;
- From complacency to apathy;
- From apathy to dependence;
- From dependence back into bondage.
There you have the full cycle of the human struggle to govern themselves apart from God, they will never succeed. Psalm 2 says:
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
God is and always will be the only true Sovereign.
