The Bible’s unique view into human political organization can be summed up in a series of principles. Let me suggest these seven:
1. Political corruption is the norm — Human nature is fallen. You will not have three people organized together without some small measure of corruption. More people means more corruption. Efforts to legislate against it are doomed. The point is not to prevent corruption, but to limit it, and minimize it’s influence in politics.
2. Wealth = Power — The two are inseparable. Where one is, the other will follow.
3. The greatest threat to all humanity is any concentration of wealth or power — Dispersion of authority and preventing long-term accumulations of wealth were necessary for human safety.
4. Life is never safer than when your neighbor knows what you eat for breakfast — Privacy is a necessity, but isolation is a sin. When your neighbors know most of your business, there’s little need for regulation from outside the community.
5. No one should have authority over you who isn’t related by blood or marriage — This is a corollary of number 4. You can hardly have oppression if your “police force” are uncles and cousins. It is a sin to pass keeping social stability off to someone outside the family.
6. Civil government is good for defense and coordination, and just barely that — Every man is a soldier who doesn’t work in combat support. But soldiers are mobilized only under threat, not for profit. The position of warlord must always be temporary, and should pay nothing. There is no higher position of power permitted, but coordination among communities is expected.
7. Make peace, not allies — Alliances should be restricted to those truly sharing your God and His interests, since He is the only rightful Ruler. Alliances are covenants, and you cannot safely covenant with sin. You can make peace with almost anyone.
As always, it’s not a matter of absolute adherence, but the closer you can bring your politics to this image, the better things will go in the long run.
