The last time I posted Christ Shall Have Dominion as the daily hymn, there was an objection to it. I’d rather not revisit the objection, nor have I anything against the reader who made it. Instead, I would rather counter with a question.
If you would rather Christ not have dominion, who, or what, would you prefer to have it?
I’m a political scientist, with the papers to prove it; and I defy all comers to name a worldly scheme of government that is not ridiculous. Because we ourselves are sinners, never possessed of anything but incomplete knowledge, given to lies and wishful thinking, apt to make horrendous mistakes in judgment, no government we can devise will be any better than we are. And that’s not very good.
But Jesus Christ the Son of God is defined by God the Father as having the right to rule: because He alone is the king who rules in righteousness. The government shall be upon his shoulder, brought about only by the power and the grace of God–not by conniving media, crooked donors, violence, theft, treason, or any of the other means so dear to the human heart. There is nothing we can do to bring Christ down from heaven to set his throne on earth. God does not depend on us.
Only anarchists can convince themselves that human beings can live without someone having dominion over them. And only fools believe that any human government can bring us to an earthly paradise. The mob who cried for Christ to be crucified professed that they had no king but Caesar. Had Caesar submitted himself to God and to God’s law, God would have blessed him as carrying out the duties of a proper ruler–even as He will bless governments today who do the same.
It seems the least they could do while waiting for the King.