t h e S p i v e y s . o r g

A friend let me borrow David Lipscomb’s “Civil Government” and I thought the following section was interesting. It’s an exert from an article written for the
Gospel Advocate in 1870 by B. U. Watkins. I don’t know if this was the norm for Christian thought at the time, but it’s interesting how different it is from today.

“Axiom 1st, No man has the right of making laws for his
own government. For such a right would include the double
absurdity of making him independent of God, and
responsible only to himself!
Axiom 2nd. A republican government is one in which power
is thought to be delegated by the people to their rulers,
in their act of voting.
Axiom 3rd. But a man cannot delegate a power he himself
does not possess.
Hence, INFERENCE 1st. As man has no inherent legislative
power, he cannot transfer it to another.
Hence, INFERENCE 2nd. Voting is therefore a deception,
and a sham, making a deceiver of him, who votes, and a
dupe of him who fancies himself the recipient of
delegated power.”

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