The powers that be

God established the concept of government but didn’t establish any particular kind of government. He will, though, when Jesus Christ comes back.

“It’s not going to be a representative democracy or republic; it’ll be a monarchy,” says Jordan. “From God’s point of view, the most efficient form of government is a benevolent monarchy. A monarchy that’s run by the Righteous One.

“Paul writes in Romans 13:1, ‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.’

“God established that His universe would be run by some controlling authorities. There’s no power--no authority to control things, run things, operate things--but of God. He’s the one who set that up. God established government, rule, authority, order. It’s the methodology by which His business is going to be carried out in the universe.

“When it says, ‘the powers that be,’ that’s the subdivisions of the power structure. The thrones, the dominions, the principalities, the powers, the mights, the magistrates--all those things that He established at creation.

“It says, ‘The powers that be are ordained of God.' That’s why Jesus told Pilate, ‘You’d have no power if it wasn’t given you of God.’ That’s why Satan would say to Jesus in Luke 4, ‘All these kingdoms are mine and the power thereof, whomsoever I give it.’

“By the way, that doesn’t mean that God put everybody in them. God didn’t elect the president of the U.S. He didn’t elect the mayor of the city of Rolling Meadows. He didn’t even establish the presidency."

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In Genesis 2, God puts Adam “into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” He gives Adam “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Adam, of course, was told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Jordan explains, “What God in essence told Adam is, ‘Here’s creation. I want you to go out there and explore it, I want you to learn from it, I want you to see the wisdom and knowledge and understanding that I put in it and use it to enhance it; be an entrepreneur in my creation. But the choice of deciding what’s good and not good; that’s mine. You don’t do that.'

“Genesis 2:19 says, ‘And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.’

“The Lord brings all the animals to Adam and you see He didn’t say, ‘Adam, name the animals.’ He brought them to SEE what Adam would name them.

“The first work, what he understood his job to be, was an intellectual, conceptual discovery of why he was put there, and the Lord’s just saying, ‘Do you understand what I told you?’

“Adam’s perception of what he should be doing is exactly what God told him. He used his skill to extract from each of those creatures an understanding of what their function was and he named them; he identified their function.

“It’s one illustration of Adam’s understanding of what his role was. So he understands, ‘I’m the one who has control and dominion and develops creation.' That’s vested in Adam as the head of the home. Then there’s the marriage, the family, the culture that that first family develops.

“By the way, after the Fall, God tells Eve, ‘You’re going to be subject to your husband in this family structure here.’ Prior to that Adam and Eve were co-regents.”