Don’t governments need to follow the will of the people?
Question 92 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
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The political philosophy of democracy supposes that governments ought to be directed by the people.
Under normal circumstances, most people intuitively accept the idea that a property owner is the one who decides how to use a particular asset. For the Christian, this should be even more obvious, because divinely inspired scripture clearly commands us to observe property rights by abstaining from stealing (Exod 20:15, 1 Cor 6:10), negligent or malicious damaging of property (Exod 21:33–34, 22:5–6), and compensation for its use (Exod 22:14–15).
The theory of democracy supposes that property rights may be abridged when a great many people vote to do so. That is in contrast with the way that God ordered the nation of Israel, a covenant community formed by consent (Exod 24:3), and based on a system of familial and individual property rights. It is wrong for a king to exempt himself from his own laws (Deut 17:18–20), and even divinely appointed rulers are accountable under God’s immutable standards of justice (2 Sam 12:7–14). If King David was subject to God’s law, so too is the population at large, majority or not.
If the will of the people is contrary to the will of God, it is wrong to follow the will of the people. Throughout scripture, we see examples where the will of the people did violate God’s commandments: Aaron’s fashioning of a golden calf at the people’s urging (Exod 32), the demand by Israel’s elders to Samuel for a king (1 Sam 8), and Pilate’s capitulation to the people when he ordered the crucifixion of Christ (Mark 15:15).
Henry David Thoreau famously wrote, “Any man more right than his neighbor constitutes a majority of one already.” Simon Peter said it better when he said, “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29).