The Strand Study Bible

I SAMUEL I SAMUEL 8:5 God knew that whenever you put “rule” ( make us a king ) exclusively in the hands of a man (dictatorship) and/or men (democracy), dependency upon that man and/or men is sure to become the “rule of thumb.” It has been wisely noted that: A democracy is always temporary in nature. It simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will exist only until the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that every democracy must finally collapse from loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. 1 Will Rogers (1879-1935), one of the world’s best known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s, wisely noted: Every guy just looks in his own pocket and then votes. 2 Rogers goes on to note: 494

The average citizen knows only too well that it makes no difference to him which side wins. He realizes that the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey have come to resemble each other so closely that it is practically impossible to tell them apart; both of them make the same braying noise, and neither of them ever says anything…

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts… Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for . 2

The economic failing of our own U.S. government (we are currently trillions of dollars in debt as a nation) is proof enough that it is always unwise to trust a man (king/president) and/or an elected movement of men (democracy-Congress/Senate) to “rule” without the aid of Almighty God. Sadly, our own nation continues to elect representatives who actively promote this dependency and rely on the dependent to keep them in office with access to wealth for themselves. Joseph Sobran, American journalist and writer, once noted: Politicians never accuse you of ‘greed’ for wanting other people’s money – only for wanting to keep your ownmoney. 3 While some polJticians take outright bribes, all take huge campaign contributions from interest groups and respond favorably to those groups. Dick Morris & Eileen McGann in Catastrophe notes:

So how did FDR get elected four times? Shlaes ascribes his political success to the fact that he “systematized interest- groups politics…to include many constituencies–labor, senior citizens, farmers, union workers. The president made groups where only individual citizens or isolated cranks had stood before, ministered to those groups, and was rewarded with their votes.” 4

NOTE – Unless we as a people return to what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they first formed our government, which was to include the Word of God in everything we did, it will be all but impossible to continue as a nation. John Adams, (2 nd president) stated in his address to the military on October 11, 1798:

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion... Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. 5

James Madison (4 th president), chief architect of the constitution, stated in 1778:

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of the government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God. 5

John Quincy Adams (6 th president), said:

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. 5

Our Founding Fathers had in mind a nation whose policies would always be influenced by the Word of God, not Hollywood, the homosexual movement, or humanism. They and their ancestors did not flee England because they were adamantly against the Word of God influencing government, but because they were being forced to become a certain denomination (Church of England). Our Founding Fathers wanted a democracy (not a monarchy like England), as long as that democracy included the influence of the Word of God. Ronald Reagan wisely noted: If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under. 6 THE ADAGE IS TRUE: Democracy minus Divine direction always ends in a dictatorship and demise ( Prov 23:7 and Isa 33:22 )

1 Snopes.com: The Fall of the Athenian Republic 2 Will Rogers quote 3 Joseph Sobran quote

4 Dick Morris & Eileen McGann. Catastrophe , New York, NY, HarperCollins Pub., 2009. Print. 5 Federer, William J. America’s God and Country , St. Louis, MO, Amerisearch, Inc., 2000. Print. 6 Ronald Reagan quote