Dear Members and Friends,
As we are all very well aware, we are not living under God’s government today. In fact, today’s
governments are nothing like the government God will provide when Christ returns to earth. There are many problems today that worldly governments cannot or will not solve, with ongoing wars being a major one.
Over forty-five years ago, Mr. Herbert Armstrong wrote a series of full-page advertisements and had them published in the Wall Street Journal. They covered many subjects, but the one I would like to focus on was the one titled “A Voice Cries Out: What’s Wrong with Government!” He wrote about the necessity of government to prevent anarchy and preserve our freedoms and liberties that do not infringe on the freedoms and liberties of others.
However, he then stated that the government leaders’ education emphasized the GET principle rather than the GIVE principle, because that education was based on physical things rather than spiritual principles. So they wanted to get more power and money as a part of their philosophy. After a presidential inauguration of that time, Mr. Armstrong asked a well-known diplomat what the recently elected president was thinking. The reply was, “How to be re-elected in four years-time.” (This attitude appears to also apply to the current president, who might attempt to stay in power after his current term runs out.)
So this attitude of government leaders has continued to this day and their level of control has dramatically increased. I found so many examples that they could not fit in a member letter. For example, governments have made abortion legal in many countries. In Sweden, a doctor must perform an abortion if requested. There is no allowance for a conscientious objection. In Canada, the government can be informed of everyone’s accounts from banks to clinics and psychologists without the necessity of obtaining a warrant if there is a reason to suspect, rather than believe, a crime has been committed.
Anyone crossing the Canadian border can have their computer equipment and mobile phones examined with no objection allowable. Also in Canada, a bill awaiting approval would allow the government to penalize a person if it is suspected that they will perform a hate speech crime in the future. And the maximum penalty for hate speech itself will be life imprisonment, depending on the seriousness of the offense. Hate speech itself is difficult to specify but if one person takes offense at what is said or written, that could be taken as hate speech. Sometimes an anonymous complaint is all that is needed for action to be taken.
Of course, Canada is not the only country with these types of laws. The United Kingdom also has similar laws whereby, for example, if a member of the public uploads a video of local rioting on the internet, he or she can be accused of inciting violence and imprisoned. So the governments of the world are increasing surveillance, and hence control, of their citizens. And in the process, innocent people get caught and unjustly penalized.
We all saw the government controls during the COVID pandemic, many of which were shown to be ineffective and even harmful when examined later. Any doctor who cured patients of COVID with non-authorized but effective treatments and was found out was penalized and even de-registered because of not obeying the government’s edicts.
When we consider God’s future government, it will be very different. Yes, God has total surveillance and total control, but He has a very different attitude. As an example, His attitude towards His people who were exiled in Babylon is described in Jeremiah 29:11. “For I Know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
When Christ returns to rule the earth, we are informed in Psalm 98:9: “For He is coming to judge the earth, With righteousness He shall judge the world, And the peoples with equity.” God’s equity is totally just, unlike the so-called equity we see today, where it is used with the aim of correcting perceived social injustices.
Under the government of God and Jesus Christ, the conditions described in Psalm 16:11 are very positive. “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
And even more importantly, the suffering we experience today will be eliminated. Revelation 21:3-4 tells us: “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’”
Can we imagine a government system where every decision is made for the good of the governed, with no bribery, or corruption? We note that the first petitions in the sample prayer that Christ gave in Matthew 6:10 are, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” And this is why we are to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Compare Matthew 6:33).
So we seek a government built on the spiritual principles of righteousness, justice and love, rather than today’s governments which are mainly based on the get principle of corruption, envy and control over a population. We can see this in the recent government shutdown in the United States. The citizens were held to ransom, and many went without pay and adequate food while the shutdown continued.
Unfortunately, in this present world, things are prophesied to only get worse, and we should pray the more earnestly, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done.” This is our only hope of a perfect government.
With much love and concern,
Your brother in Christ’s service,
Paul Niehoff (Australia)