All Men Are (Now) Created Equal
I have been exploring the implications that the overriding government of the world is a monarchy. God is set as King of the world. He started being an active monarch during the ministry, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth. This monarchy continues to be active in our own day and beyond.
As I concluded my previous post on this subject, by asserting that the true government of the world is a monarchy under God and administered by his right hand man, Jesus the Anointed, it does necessarily follow that it legitimates earthly monarchies. In fact, I would assert that the Kingdom Rule of God undermines all the other monarchies, dictatorships, and tyrannies of the earth. My fundamental proof for this theorem is the proclamation made by Christ as he commissioned his Apostles:
But the eleven apprentices went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they bowed down in deference to [him]; but some hesitated. And Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in the sky and on the land. (Mat 28:16-18; CGV)
If all authority has been given to Jesus, then it can reside in no other person or place, at least not legitimately. Such an assertion works against any other person or group claiming the title of King. God is King and accords no rivals. Jesus is his only authorized agent, and as such, we can bow down before no other, be it counterfeit king or emperor.
This message was not lost on the Roman Empire in the first century. Herod the Great sought the death of Jesus as an infant because he could bear no rivals, murdering all the resident infants of Bethlehem in the process (Mat 2:13-16). It is also no accident that one of the earliest recorded accusations against the apostles within Gentile, occupied lands was that they acted “contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king: Jesus.” (Acts 17:7) The Caesars later on took the threat of Christians very seriously, causing the martyrdom of hundreds if not thousands by the end of the fourth century. Communist regimes still kill and persecute the followers of Christ for the same reason. If this Jesus had it among His followers, then other kings ultimately would not have that divine allegiance.
The elevation of Christ as a man to the right hand of Power transformed the entire condition of humankind. In fact, this is one of the fundamental changes wrought in the New Covenant over the Old. In the Old Covenant God instituted Kings, to be certain, but it was under great distress on His part. Even then, it was not part of his fundamental purpose to share the title of King with any other ruler within his Land.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah; and they said to him, Look, you are old, and your sons don’t walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to YHWH. And YHWH said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they haven’t rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them. (1 Sam 8:4-7)
God then expressly warns the people the consequences of having human kings over them (1 Sam 8:11-19). The people still reject God as King and had human kings “like all the other nations” over them. The entire rest of the Old Covenant is a record of the disaster that resulted from that fundamental and very bad decision. Even the best of the Israelite Kings, David and Solomon, were hardly men we would want to marry our daughters much less rule over us. Human kings, even Jewish ones, were definitely God’s “Plan B.”
One could argue that Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God during his ministry was an announcement that God was re-instituting Plan A. God would again take over the rule of the Land, and then ultimately the entire Earth. The human kings had filled to the brim God’s predicted consequences of injustice and tyranny. As such, human kings were thereby put on notice. Their day was now done. Though they would have respect, they could no longer claim divine honors; at least not safely (Acts 12:21-23). Without such a claim, the ultimate power such tyrants desire could not be maintained. If this transformation came about for Israelite kings, God’s very representative government, then it applies outside of that Land as well. The kings of the earth would fade away under the theocracy of God.
Nor was the elevation of the “common man” limited to just the physical. Because Christ is at the right hand of God, everything changes. Everything. In the Old Covenant, men bowed before angels (Gen 19:1; Num 22:31) and men (Gen 23:7, 33:3). In the New Covenant, men only bow legitimately before God and Christ. We are expressly forbidden to bow before Angels (Col 2:18; Rev 22:8-9). Nor are men to bow before us. The playing field of society has been level. We bow only to the two in Heaven; no one on the earth—be it king or pope—can command that worship any longer.
As such, all the peoples of the earth—physical or ethereal, human or angel—are at the same political level. We are servants of the one King and his authorized agent, Jesus. We are servants of no other. This is true, even if those people do not recognize it. This is the true doctrine that works against all elitism, for if God is the only King, then Jesus is the only elite. Everyone else is a client of God’s patronage. Everyone. We are all at the same level. In an ironic sense, the doctrine of the Monarchy of God is the only true basis of egalitarianism, which is the foundation of modern Democracy. Men are of equal worth in the sight of God; therefore, no man bows before any other creature in the universe.
Even the deist, Jefferson, knew that only God, and a God so defined in a Christian environment, would buttress the “American Experiment.”
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.. (The Declaration of Independence)
Perhaps ironically then, the equality of men (and angels) can only be maintained by the limitation of worship and deference to God and Christ. The egalitarianism fundamental to democracy can only be maintained by the monarchy of God.