Government

What form of Government should people, made in God's image, have?

How about this for another perspective on the sort of government people need. The thoughts were inspired by a meeting we went to with Dr Myles Munroe.

We Are Made in the Image of God
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air...."

What Then is God's Image?
What is God like that we are an image of? Consider the following description from Jude and Revelation. Jude 25 ''To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen. KJV Revelation 7:12 saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power (dominion) and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" NIV'' God has these qualities -- glory, honour, dominion and power

Do We Have These 'Qualities' in Common With God? -- Glory, Honour, Dominion and Power.
Look at Psalm 8:4-6

"What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands (DOMINION); you put everything under his feet." (power to do what he is called to do!)

Could it be that in some way we are made of the same stuff as God and that stuff includes -- glory, honour, dominion and power? Myles Munroe said that these verses convince him that every person is then made to lead! Every person has dominion -- rulership. (Entrepreneurialship?)

How Then do We 'Rule' Others?
How then do we rule when every person has dominion, whether it is in church or in state? It must certainly not be authoritarian. Remember Charles Handy's and Jeff Fountain's comments on subsidiarity. "It is a moral evil to make decisions for people or to take decisions from them . . . therefore we believe in subsidiarity."

Of course it is a moral evil to make decisions for someone who is made in the image of God and gifted with (made with) dominion. And what happens to someone who has been robbed of that dominion? They will be crushed and incapable of functioning. Rather we must honour the way God created man and expect that they too can hear from God and make decisions.

[Which leads me to what I believe is a natural corollary. The working class is wrong. If the working class may be said to be those people characterised by the inability to invent their own employment and largely incapable of making the major decisions of their life -- pensions, health care, job creation etc, then where is the image of God? Dominion means to rule over something and not just be ruled over.

I think that Margaret Thatcher had some grasp on this but perhaps didn't see how people could be empowered fully as their constitution would allow.]

Simply, government should get out of peoples' way when it conflicts with the peoples' God-given ability to exercise dominion.

Hmm, what do you think?

What Then Does God's Government Look Like?
God's Government

steve-the-not-so-hasty 22:41, 7 January 2008 (CET)