Perfect, sure, right, pure, true, and altogether righteous, resulting in conversions, wisdom, joy, enlightenment, better than fine gold, sweeter than honey, and providing a great reward. It can’t get any better than that!

Incredibly, many Christians and patriots are willing to settle for man’s alleged best—that is, the United States Constitution.72 Even if the government created by the Declaration’s signatories and the Constitution’s framers is the best government ever devised by man, it remains only man’s best imperfection:

Suppose it be “the best government on earth,” does that prove its own goodness, or only the badness of all other governments?73

Why would anyone settle for man’s imperfection—regardless how much better it is than man’s other imperfections—when instead we can have Yahweh’s perfection?

This is precisely what the 18th-century American colonials did. They replaced England’s imperfect government with their own imperfect government—what, in fact, has turned out to be a far more egregious version of man’s imperfection.

The Declaration Speaks for Itself

Paragraph #2, Sentences 1-3

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.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Note again Thomas Jefferson’s claim that governments are instituted for the alleged purpose of securing mankind’s rights. Not only is such a concept entirely foreign to the Bible, it’s impossible to secure what doesn’t exist.

If ever there was a government that might have accomplished this, it would have been the United States Constitutional Republic. Its utter failure to do so only goes to prove it is utterly impossible to secure what was nothing but wells without water, guaranteed by swelling words of vanity, by men promising liberty when they were themselves enslaved by their own corruption, per 2 Peter 2:17-19.

Consent of the Governed or Ordained by God?

[T]here is no authority but of God: the authorities that be are ordained of God. (Romans 13:1, NASB)

The biblical civil government depicted in Romans 13:1-7 is not instituted by man but ordained by Yahweh, not for securing alleged rights, but in order to accomplish His perfect will as provided in His commandments, statutes, and judgments,74 thereby providing government that continually blesses the righteous and perpetually punishes the wicked.75

Biblical Secular Governments

Secular civil governments are also biblical. However, their purpose is for an entirely different reason than what’s depicted in Romans 13 by the Apostle Paul.

There are two different types of civil governments with polar opposite purposes:

1. Governments that are a blessing to nations that look to Yahweh as their Sovereign and His moral law as supreme.

2. Governments that are a curse (or judgment) upon nations who reject Yahweh as their Sovereign and His law as society’s standard.

The results of these two polar opposite forms of government are enumerated in Deuteronomy 28. The first fourteen verses enumerate the blessings upon godly nations. The last fifty-four verses enumerate the curses upon ungodly nations.

Good and Bad Laws

Depending upon the character of the people, God provides both good and bad laws:

Then said I [Yahweh] unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God. But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me ... then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them to accomplish my anger against them.... Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.... Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. (Ezekiel 20:7-17)

Even in His anger Yahweh was long suffering. Initially God gave the Israelites His law to be administered by godly men and good government. But His lovingkindness does not always reap obedience and, therefore, has its limits:

Notwithstanding the children [of Israel again] rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them.... Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live. (Ezekiel 20:21-25)

Bad laws to be administered by wicked men and evil government:

[T]o the intent that living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He wills, and setteth up over it the basest of men. (Daniel 4:17)

The best of them is like a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge.... (Micah 7:4)

Righteous leaders are God-ordained authorities, per Romans 13:1-6. Unrighteous rulers are God-established powers, per Daniel 4:17.76

Case in point: the biblically egregious Constitutional Republic, born of the biblically adverse Declaration of Independence, ruled by wicked men and women, precisely as depicted by the Prophets Daniel and Micah. Whereas 1600s America was governed by godly leaders adjudicating by God’s good laws (His perfect law of liberty), the United States of America is ruled by wicked rulers ruling by bad laws (the U.S. Constitution77) that have only proved to be a curse to her.

[P]romotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.... All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. (Psalm 75:6-10)

Righteous Government

Romans 13 has nothing to do with secular civil government. It is instead a mandate for Christians to take dominion over society by establishing local biblical governments,78 aka as ecclesias.79

The Apostle Paul provides therein the two-fold reason for biblical government:

1. For blessing the righteous.

2. For judging the wicked.

This can only be accomplished by means of the Bible’s perfect law of liberty. What’s righteous and what’s wicked can only be determined by Yahweh’s morality as reflected, codified, and defined by His commandments, statutes, and judgments.

If only this had been the intent of the Declaration’s signatories and the design of the Constitution’s framers. Were this true, today’s America would not be teetering on the precipice, cursed by God rather than blessed.

Paragraph #2, Sentence 4

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Very true and very evident in today’s America. Talk about suffering abuses! However, regardless how much suffering the unregenerate, blinded masses are willing to endure, as Christians, we’re commissioned to overcome all evil with good, per Romans 12:21—including evil government with good government.

Overcoming Evil With Good Now!

As Christians we’re not to wait until things have become insufferable. We’ve been commissioned to immediately work toward establishing fully functioning biblical communities,79 established upon the Bible’s triune moral law,80 and governed by godly elders, some of whom function as judges on behalf of Yahweh:

Moreover thou shalt provide out of the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers.... (Exodus 18:21)

He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. (2 Samuel 23:3)

And he [King Jehoshaphat] set judges in the land ... city by city, and said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for Yahweh, who is with you in the judgment…. And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of Yahweh, faithfully, and with a perfect heart. (2 Chronicles 19:5-9)

It’s this very same civil government that New Covenant Christians are commissioned with in Matthew 6:10 & 33, Romans 13:1-7, 1 Corinthians 6:1-6, 2 Corinthians 10:4-6, and 1 Peter 2:13-15.81

As subjects of the King of kings, we’re not to procrastinate until things have gotten so bad they are no longer tolerable. We are to ever be about our heavenly Father’s business and, therefore, always looking to overcome evil with good regardless the extent of evil. In fact, the sooner the better!

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.... Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time [making the most of your time, NASB], because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:11-17)

Hell’s Gates

If only the previous generations had been diligent to do so, America’s suffering could have been halted long ago. As it is presently, the job before us is much more daunting than it would have been before the gates of hell swung wide open. Hell’s gates are wide open because past generations of Christians have failed to be the salt of the earth and are now instead being trampled under the feet of the heathen, per Matthew 5:13.

Presently we find ourselves once again at the very beginning of restoring the righteous foundations, putting us right back at our 2 Corinthians 10 mandate, an expanded form of Romans 12:21:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh [carnal, KJV], but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10:3-6, NASB)

The objective of this charge from the Apostle Paul is the biblical government Paul commissions Christians with in Romans 13,81 to the end that “every lofty thing” is destroyed, “every thought” is taken captive, and “all disobedience” is punished.

Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ includes identifying and addressing America’s two greatest icons—the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution82—for the national idols they are. These two strongholds must eventually come down in order for Christians to establish fully functioning local biblical ecclesias83 in their place. Only in doing so will America again experience the blessings of God rather than His curses.

Paragraph #2, Sentence 5

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

As Kingdom ambassadors, it’s our responsibility to throw off all despotic governments, for our posterity’s security, by the only means possible, per Yahweh’s perfect law of liberty.