The scripture below describes an eternal dilemma mankind faces with respect to their governance. Members of society opt out of accepting the opportunity to govern themselves and thus prostrate themselves before an authoritarian leader. The scripture explains the costs and other hardships of such behavior. Still, mankind insists that government make decisions for them, rule them and guide them throughout life.
Samuel 1, describes an ongoing eternal behavior that has always plagued mankind and continues to….
Samuel 1:10-22
10 And Samuel told all the words of The Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.
11 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
12 And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
13 And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and The Lord will not hear you in that day.
19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;
20 That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord.
22 And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.
In mainstream Christianity today, Jesus is almost universally presented as God Himself — the second person of the Trinity, fully divine and co-equal with the Father. Yet when we read the New Testament with fresh eyes, free from centuries of doctrinal tradition, a very different picture emerges.The New Testament was not compiled in a vacuum. It was shaped by political forces, church councils, and imperial interests. Its original interpretation was likewise established politically. A plain reading of the scriptures themselves tells a story that contradicts the later “Jesus is God” claim.
