THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE ESTABLISHMENT

1.Definition and Description

   A. God has ordained certain laws for the survival and freedom of the human race during the course of human history.  Anarchy exists when segments of nations ignore these laws.  The laws of divine establishment provide the freedom to fulfill the divine plan as ordained in the divine decrees under many forms of government

  B. The laws of Divine Establishment are designed and directed toward both believer and unbeliever.

  C. The Laws of Divine Establishment operate from the fall of man to the Second Advent, as well as in the Millennium.  However, in the Millennium, some modifications will be needed in Divine Establishment to make it compatible with the perfect environment which will be realized under the benevolent dictatorship of Jesus Christ.         

  D. The laws of Divine Establishment affect freedom, civilization, authority, evangelism, spiritual growth, and perpetuation of the human race.  They are as important as the law of gravity.

               

  E. The laws of Divine Establishment define freedom in terms of privacy, property and authority.  There is no such thing as the enjoyment of life or freedom without the existence of authority.

  F. Both the privacy of the individual and the function of legitimate authority are necessary for the function of human freedom.

  G. Therefore, the four divine institutions, volition, marriage, family and nationalism are the basis for the laws of divine establishment.

  H. God also has a system of divine laws for angels and nature.  All of these laws are designed to resolve the angelic conflict using an inferior creature: man.

2.Establishment and Divine Institutions

  A. Volition the soul is prepared for us by God. It is the house for human life. The body is the house for the soul. The justice of God imputes human life to the soul; human life resides in the soul forever. No man can remove human life from the soul. We have two sets of laws: (a) establishment, and (b) The Royal Family Honor Code under which believers are required to function. With both sets of law functioning in the believer’s life, he has great capacity for life, integrity and enough doctrine to reach spiritual maturity. The soul is made up of volition, self-consciousness, mentality and conscience. Volition is the authority of the soul. Human volition must have privacy and freedom for proper function. As a matter of principle, there is no freedom without privacy, as you cannot exercise volition without privacy. Divine Establishment provides freedom and privacy for those who refrain from violating the criminal laws of Divine Establishment. While people are not born equal or live in equality, they must have freedom of choice and the right to live in a free society, pursuing a course of action compatible with their own aspirations or lack thereof. We should have the right to go as far as our abilities and motivations will take us. No government should ever have the right to destroy our motivation by saying we are greater than we are, or by providing everything for us. Variation in human ability, both inherent and acquired, does not preclude freedom and freedom of decision in adult persons. All normal persons have the option of positive or negative volition at God-consciousness, plus the freedom to accept or reject Jesus Christ at Gospel hearing. Freedom is the basis for true evangelism. Freedom of speech and worship are necessary for advance to spiritual maturity. Freedom is the normal sphere of function for the volition of the soul. There have been some notable exceptions to the principle however, such as in the roman empire where slavery was prevalent but slaves were essentially free to come and go as they pleased so long as they acquitted their responsibilities.Thus throughout history it has been possible to live under slavery and be evangelized and from there advance to spiritual maturity.

  B.Marriage! Monogamy, a permanent relationship between one man and one woman is ordained of God to remind mankind that He has from the beginning a design called: right man / right woman (Gen 1:26-27; 5:1-2; 2:18-25; I Cor. 7:2-4). When Jesus Christ created Adam, He said, “not good that man should be alone.”  Therefore, god provided the female.  Jesus Christ constructed Adam’s right woman.  Their relationship, established in the garden, continued after the fall.  It has never been canceled in any generation. Marriage is the most basic and fundamental organization in the human race.  Even the unbeliever, whose life is a total failure, can have great temporary contentment by being married to his or her right opposite number (Eccl. 9:9). The analogy to the monogamous relationship and our relationship to Christ is found in Eph. 5:26-33.

Under the authority of the laws of divine establishment, the right man / right woman relationship becomes the normal, legitimate expression of category two love (I Cor. 7:9; I Tim. 5:14; Eph. 5:22, 23, 28 & 33; Heb. 13:4). Marriage is the beginning of authority in life for adults.  All authority is vested in the husband and there are no exceptions or rationalizations.  Violations of a principle do not change the principle as is demonstrated in the fact that God continues to use the local church no matter how badly it fails. Because of bad emotion, marriage is one of the greatest areas for making mistakes in life. Therefore, in approaching marriage, one has to be rational in both function and response. The principle of marriage rejects the concepts of revolution, anarchy, adultery, or promiscuousness as it is supposed to be the basis for stability in society and for the formation of civilization.

 C. Family! Physical birth and the imputation of human life, plus the imputation of Adam’s original sin, finds the human baby both helpless and hopeless. Condemnation from God occurs immediately. God has provided certain divine laws, such as the authority of parents, to protect, nurture, train and discipline children to prepare them for life. Children must be trained to respect the privacy, property and rights of others, not to abuse freedom and to have respect for authority. Parental authority and discipline is the way of preparing children for a normal life.  Permissiveness destroys the children’s capacity for life.  There must be recognition of authority and orientation to certain principles of divine establishment. Christian parents must also evangelize their children and provide predoctrinal training for them (Deut. 6:6-9; 7:9) It is further the responsibility of parents to instill in their children respect for the Word of God, the teaching of Bible doctrine including recognition of the authority of the pastor/teacher.

 D. Nationalism! If the entire human race were under one rule prior to the Millennium, it would self-destruct.  Internationalism is outlawed as being evil by the Word of God. Observe what action God took to eliminate the first attempt at a United Nations, at the tower of Babel. To perpetuate the human race and bring history to its logical conclusion, God has designed the nation to protect the freedom and rights of x number of people on this planet.  We call this nationalism.  Only one language should be recognized in a nation. After the destruction by God of the tower of Babel, the world was divided into nations.  This division was first based on racial, geographical and linguistic norms.  However, as the human race continued in history, true racial distinctions were obliterated in the rise of civilizations.  Thus, racial purity is a myth except in pristine areas.  However, race is constantly being used by politicians to create false issues. The creation of the Jewish nation set up the perfect standard of what a national entity should be. The biblical evidence of the essential nature of nationalism is disclosed in Gen. 10:5; Deut. 32:8; Acts 17:26-28. All nations who follow the norms and standards of Divine Establishment possess the following characteristics: Interior protection of freedom is provided through a proper system of law enforcement, jurisprudence and a system of law whereby a person is innocent until proven guilty; where only proper testimony is allowed and no hearsay permitted; and where double jeopardy does not exist. The exterior protection of freedom comes through a strong, well-prepared military. A government of whatever category must protect the freedoms and rights of its citizens without interfering with those rights by the illegal use of power. An economy must be based on free enterprise and capitalism. Labor can have no right to dictate policy to management (Eph.6:5; Col. 3:22). Smart management always treats its employees fairly and well; they are cutting their own throats if they don’t. Government or labor have no right to superimpose their policy on management. The separation of business and state is an important distinction. There must be a system of common law that protects the freedom, rights, life and property of individuals.  It must not be a system of law which is used to socially engineer a society. A subjective system of law uses legislation to invade individual rights, to appropriate personal property and wealth and to erode human freedom in the name of the common good. There should be a common culture which reflects the morality, esprit de corps, nobility, patriotism and integrity of a nation. The nation’s literature, art, music and drama should be free to reflect the values of the people of the nation. All of this is designed by God so that he can always have a client (Priest) nation.