The laws of divine establishment

1. The laws of divine establishment are for the orderly function and survival of the human race during the angelic conflict. These laws operate from the fall of man, they did not operate in innocence. They will operate until the second advent of Christ. They apply to the believer and the unbeliever alike. They provide blessing and protection for the human race. They guarantee the perpetuation of the human race in history during this phase of the angelic conflict.

2. The basis for all of these laws in the principle of volition. Volition is divine institution #1. Man has free will. Man is an entity with free will. The law of free will guarantees both human freedom and privacy. This freedom of choice and right to live gives the human race the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — provided, of course, that it does not violate common law. The exception to this is always the criminal. While there is a variation in human ability — inherent and acquired — all member of the human race are free to believe in or reject Jesus Christ as saviour, John 3:18, 36.

3. Man obviously is not alone. Therefore the basic unit of a group under the laws of divine establishment is divine institution #2, tight man and right woman. Marriage is based upon divine design, then, of one right man for one right woman. Marriage is both the framework and the protection for category #2 love. Marriage forms the basis for stability in society and rejects that concept of anarchy known as communal living.

4. Divine institution #3 is family. This is where we come to the point of perpetuation of the human race. The physical birth of man always finds the baby helpless. There are two times when you are totally helpless. One is at the point of physical birth and the other is at the point of the new birth. In both cases everything is provided. At the point of physical birth God has provided protection, provision, and training. This is accomplished through parents. Parental authority is the basic authority of life. In addition to food, shelter and clothing parents must train the children in he functions and the principles of life. The parents provide for the children a basis for thought. Children could never think apart from vocabulary. Children can only advance as far as their vocabulary will take them. This includes the inculcation of principles of authority. Children should be taught respect for privacy, property, the rights of others, respect for law and order, patriotism. Ad to this the responsibility of Christian parents to evangelise and to provide doctrinal teaching for their children, Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 7:9. Next comes a respect for the content of doctrine as taught by a pastor-teacher, as well as recognition of his authority, Hebrews 13:7, 17.

5. Nationalism. The principle of nationalism is found in Genesis 10:5; Acts 17:26-28; Deuteronomy 32:8. Nationalism protects the freedom and the rights of X number of individuals in the human race. This includes national definition, racial, geographical, and linguistic. Remember that one of the national definitions is linguistic. The language content of a nation determines the ability of the nation.

* There must be interior protection in a national entity and the principle of the police officer and police work is part of proper law enforcement. Secondly, there must be exterior protection and this demands a military establishment. No national entity can survive the fall of its military establishment. As the military establishment declines it becomes a very definite thermometer to tell you the temperature of a nation. If you want to know where a national entity stands with regard to degeneracy this can be very easily understood by watching its military.

* There is also the principle of government which must protect the freedom, property, and rights of its citizens. The Bible does not advocate any type of government. Type of government is not as important as the concept of government. The government must protect the freedom and the rights of its citizens.

* Economy based on free enterprise. The government must not interfere with free enterprise. Once the government interferes with business the economy will destroy itself or it will be maintained on a false basis so that any moment the whole thing collapses.

* Common law. Common law with objective type legislation to protect freedom and property of the individual. The law must not be subjective so as to invade individual rights or steal personal property.

* Common culture. There must be a common culture which reflects the spiritual life, the morality, the nobility of essence, patriotism of the nation through literature, art, drama and music. Eventually there must be a culture which expresses the best in a national entity.

* A government administration which functions in compliance with the above principles.

6. The divine institutions and the laws of established are designed to protect human freedom. This in turn makes evangelism a bona fide function in every generation — either evangelism or the lack of evangelism, depending on negative or positive volition. The national entity must separate religion and state to protect the freedom and rights of individuals.

7. As a part of the angelic conflict Satan attacks both the gospel and Bible doctrine. He also attacks the divine institutions and laws of establishment. Any Satanic attack upon the human race, like the communist conspiracy, always attacks the establishment as well as the Word.

8. When a national entity declines certain alternate divine laws come into operation. These are laws of judgement. These are laws connected with national disaster, laws which function when there is national degeneration. These are called the five cycles of discipline in Leviticus 26. But the concept is that a national entity which has declined to a certain point must come under punitive measures from God.

The laws of divine establishment

Definition: The laws for the orderly function and survival of the human race during human history, or the period of the angelic conflict. These laws operate from the fall of man to the second advent of Jesus Christ, they apply to believer and unbeliever alike. They provide blessing and protection of the human race.

The first of these laws is volition. Here we have the principle of human freedom. Free will guarantees two things, both privacy and human freedom. This freedom of choice and the right to live gives the human race the right to make decisions, the right too pursue a course of action, called the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, provided of course that it does not violate criminal or common law. While there are variations in human abilities — some inherent and some acquired — all members of the human race are free to believe in or to reject Jesus Christ as saviour. Freedom is the basis for true evangelism. Volition is the issue. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict and therefore he was given volition. Here is the whole basis of divine discipline. Every time you sin it is from the area of weakness of your old sin nature, but it involves volition. All sins hook up volition with the old sin nature, and even when you don’t know it is a sin you still wanted to do it so it is a sin whether you know it is a sin or not. Ignorance is no excuse because you still wanted to do it. Therefore you are guilty. The point is that since of your own free will you broke out into some kind of sin then that free will is disciplined by God in order that there will be some restraint and you will not be as inclined to do that the next time. So we have immediately the concept of divine discipline in divine institution #1.

In divine institution #2 we have marriage which is the basis for right man/right woman relationship, marriage being the framework for protection for category #2 love, it forms the basis for stability in society. Again, whenever there is any failure in this area there is also the natural laws. Without even realising it there are tremendous laws of unhappiness because of failure in this area.

The same thing is true in the family, divine institution #3. Physical birth of mankind finds the baby helpless and he has to be provided for, he has to have protection, training, and again we have parental authority.

In each one of these relationships notice the principle of authority. Divine institution #1: volition is the authority; divine institution #2: the man is the authority; divine instruction #3: the parents are the authority. When you violate your own volition through the old sin nature there is discipline. When the woman disobeys the man there is unhappiness in the home. When the children disobey the parents, likewise. So that every system of discipline has the principle of recognition of authority, and when you fail to recognise that authority then you suffer. That authority disciplines you, or you are disciplined by rejection of that authority.

On a greater scale this is amplified in divine institution #4 or nationalism. Under this divine institution we have a number of areas of discipline in life and also penalties in which there is punitive action for failure to recognise authority. Authority in a national entity is vested under its system of government in leadership. Leadership is clearly defined in a monarchy, less clearly defined in a representative government or democracy. This authority is broken down into local government, national government, and so on. But the leadership is also under authority, the authority of the laws of the land. So the laws of the land become the ultimate authority because whether you have leadership or simply citizens all are under the law of the land.

The passage here has a great deal to do with the subject of capacity for life and yet very few people seem to realise it. It has as its basic background what we have been studying — blessing in life and capacity of life based upon respect for authority. Principle: God’s Word teaches that the soul is designed to run on the system of discipline. Principle: Lack of respect for authority not only destroys capacity for life but great capacity for happiness. The passage we have been studying deals with the concept of divine discipline. We have seen divine discipline as it relates to reversionism, we have studied the doctrine of divine discipline, revised. We have studied the doctrine of the sin unto death, revised. We have studied the recovery from reversionism from Psalm 30. And now again as we resume with our passage by way of background we are going to have an illustration from establishment. We have studied the relationship between the laws of establishment and the principles of authority. Now by way of anticipation of verse 9 it is imperative to understand a principle because fundamentalists are famous for ignoring this principle. Every “fundy” is a law unto himself and is famous for having no respect for authority. They are famous for giving their pastors a hard time.

Children occasionally think or sometimes think that their parents are unfair. That is perfectly normal. Children are often aided and abetted in thinking that way. And the child who constantly thinks that his parent is unfair because he has disciplined him, even when the parent is unfair, is a child who is not going to have a very happy life. The reason is that it always starts in the home, and it is inevitable that children who have flaunted their parents’ authority, who have resented their parents’ authority, who have worked around their parents’ authority by being sneaky and dishonest, will inevitably grow up to reject every authority in life. As a result they are tragic, tragic cases. And many of the problems in life, outside of the old sin nature itself, are based upon lack of self-discipline on the part of the individual, and with that lack of self-discipline failure to respect any type of authority.

Definition of arrogance: Arrogance is the rejection of every authority but your own. Humility is respect for authority, even though you may think the person as being gross, unfair, and a jackass.

Greatness emerges from the cocoon of authority. It starts with the authority of the parents. And not only greatness but just general happiness in life and ability to cope. It goes to academics, it goes to authority in business, it goes to authority of the law, it involves the authority of groups in any kind of a group situation. Whether it is society or whether it is any activity in life there is some type of authority. It involves the military concept, it involves relationships. There is authority in wisdom, in government, local government. You meet these authorities at different points and you either emerge a great person or you emerge a person who will never be happy, who will be psychotic, neurotic, miserable, or will come to a tragic end because of rejection of authority. You emerge one or the other, and this is true of all people. You add to this the spiritual principles, the authority of the Word of God, the authority of the pastor-teacher, and you have either a reversionist or a person who is going to the high ground of supergrace. Inevitably, God has set up every system of authority. While you might not like the authority but you recognise God’s sovereignty and His right to set up authority. You recognise His fairness because He is perfect righteousness and perfect justice. You know that He loves you. You recognise the principle that you are going to be with Him forever and that time is a small drop in the bucket, and that He is the ultimate in wisdom with His omniscience, and that He is able to inspect at all times and keep track with His omnipresence, and that He has the ability to back His authorities in any field of life, and that He is totally stable because of His immutability, and that all the authorities that He sets up are based upon His veracity and His integrity. It is inevitable that God must set up systems of authority in life or the human race would self-destruct. There is no question about the fact that each member of the human race with his old sin nature is a self-destructing potential and the only thing that keeps us from self-destruction are the authorities in life. These authorities must inevitably be for the entire human race because God is fair, therefore some of these authorities are related to divine establishment and some of these authorities are related to spiritual establishment because the royal family of God is a special entity, it is, as it were, an invader entity into the devil’s world.

For all of us in life, to enjoy life, to have capacity for life, to become just simply mature individuals, there must be authority. Those who resist it and those who reject it are arrogant, and their arrogance will start in childhood when they get away with it. Impudence becomes arrogance, arrogance becomes instability, and when you are a law unto yourself there is no way that you can survive the traumatic experiences in your soul and you will make your own misery as long as you live. Then add to that everything that we have been studying about reversionism and you can see the awful mess that we face in this life. No person has naturally thoughtfulness . Thoughtfulness is a matter of training, thoughtfulness comes with respect for authority, thoughtfulness is something no one is born with. Babies are not thoughtful, children are not thoughtful, and if they are not properly trained and not properly disciplined, they grow up as thoughtless creatures and thoughtless creatures are a thorn in the side of everyone in their periphery in society. They are not respected, they are despised, and yet, on the other hand, just thoughtfulness in little things become such a tremendous thing.