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ing with contenders and pretenders,
each selling a face and figure as
heaven-sent for White House dis–
play."
Just the very act of running for
President is a
harrowing
ordeal! The
would-be candidate faces an array of
primaries, caucuses, and conven–
tions, a constant treadmill of nonstop
speaking and traveling. Life consists
of living out of a suitcase in hotels, of
often eating poor quality food, of
rarely seeing one's family-of con–
stant meetings, fund raisers, and
speeches. Jt is a "tria!," which Vice–
President Mondale has termed
"mindless," at the end of which, in
the words of Adlai Stevenson-who
went through it a l! twice himself–
"victory goes to the last s urvi–
vor."
Both campaigning and the presi–
dency take a tremendous toll on a
man's personal life. Max Lerner, a
political writer who knew six Presi–
dents, has claimed that only
one
of
them had a true !ove in marriage.
This bears out the truth of the Bible's
statement: "There is a time wherein
one man ruleth over another to his
?wn
hurt" (Ecclesiastes 8:9).
The Lure of Power
In the United S tates, presídential
elections cost around $70 míllíon.
Untold míllíons of man-hours and
volunteer time are poured ínto a
grand effort to elect a human ruler.
What could possíbly motívate so
many people to make such zealous
personal commitments?
The answer, of course, is
power!
The candidates themselves may be
motivated by anything from, on the
one hand, a sincere desire to make
this world better, to, on the other, a
naked lust for the power, glory and
fringe benefits of the office of the
President. As Max Lerner has writ–
ten: "A President's life is a massive
glory triJJ." But whatever a candi–
date's motivations, he strives for the
power
of
government- in
his case,
the power of
human government.
An incident in the life of Christ
shows just how common the lust for
power is. At one point, His disciples
James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
asked Him a favor (Mark 10:35).
They wanted Chríst to appoint them
20
to sit on His right hand and His left
hand when He carne into His "glory"
(verse 37). Such positions, of course,
would have given them great author–
ity and power. But Christ told them
they needed to be
quali.fied
first: "Ye
know not what ye ask: can ye drink of
the cup that 1 drink of? and be bap–
tized with the baptism that
1
am bap–
tized with?" (Verse 38.)
Christ went on to teach them that
power should not be sought for
its
own sake!
" But Jesus called them to
him, and saith unto them, Ye know
that they which are accounted to rule
over the Gentiles exercise lordship
over them; and their great ones exer–
cise authority upon them. But so
shall it not be among you ... whoso–
ever of you will be the chiefest, shall
be servant of all" (verses 42-44).
The point of Chr ist's statement is
plainly
not
that authority in itself is
in any way wrong, because there is
authority in God's own government
and Church (Hebrews 13:17). The
a uthority in God's government is a
good
thing, because God- who is su–
premely good-personally directs it
(Psalms 103:21). The point
is,
how–
ever, that the
purpose
of authority is
not aggrandizement but
service.
A Corruptible Crown
The most important fact that anyone
wíll ever learn about "política!
science" is that there is a huge differ–
ence between the government of
God-which is intrinsically good–
and the human, civil government of
man-which is only good insofar as' it
fulfills the purposes for which God
has "ordained" it. Human presidents
strive for the human glory of tempo–
rary power (and even that is severely
limited under the U.S. Constitution),
which means the chance for a few
lines or pages in the history books.
But it's all physical. The presidency,
like al! things which are part of this
world, is a "corruptible crown" (1
Corinthians 9:25)-which will
one
doy be worth nothing!
(II Peter
3:10.) Office in the government of
God, on the other hand, will last for–
ever. Candidates who "win" offices
in God's government will gain a
"crown of glory that fadeth not
away" (1 Peter 5:4).
Moreover, human government is
profoundly limited in whatever little
good it is able to do. Tbere are two
big reasons for this. First, when
Adam sinned against God, the earth
was cursed (Gen. 3:17-19) so tbat
scarcity
would always plague man–
kind. Resources are
finite.
The pro–
duction of wealth now requires more
human effort and toil ("In tbe sweat
of thy face shalt thou eat bread")
tban it would if God were to super–
naturally make the earth itself blos–
som forth abundantly. (When God's
government is restored, however,
"the desert shall ... blossom as the
rose" [ Isaiah 35:1].)
More importantly, an evil being,
Satan the devil, remains the "prince
of the power of the air" (Epbesians
2:2) a nd the "god of this world"
(ll
Corinthians 4:4) who sways, tempts
and deceives human beings to go con–
trary to the ways of God and to do
evil. While the Bible says that "he
that ruleth over men must be just"
(11 Samuel 23:3), the Bible also says
that "there is not a just man upon
earth" (Ecclesiastes 7:20),
at least in
comparison to Christ,
for "there is
none righteous, no, not one" (Ro–
mans 3:
lO)
and "all have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God" (Ro–
mans 3:23).
Human government, then, is an
evil-a necessary evil to be sure–
but an evil nonetbeless. Indeed, hu–
man government is necessary for the
very reason that it is an evil! 1t is
necessary because humans are
swayed by the devil. And if human
beings are going to be able to live
together at all, sorne institution must
have a
monopoly
on
brute force
in
order to prevent evildoers from
harming others. But the leaders of
human civil government themselves
a re susceptible to the sway of the
devil; in fact, God often allows the
"basest of men" (Danief 4: 17) to be
in charge of human government.
Human government is
unique
among human institutions. In every
other institution,
no one
is allowed to
use
brute force.
But since human
government has a
monopoly
on brute
force, it alone can give unlimited
scope to evil and sin!
As Mr. Armstrong has put it,
when Adam sinned, God said in ef–
fect, "You have rejected my govern-
The
PLAIN TRUTH October
1
November 1979