B. PATRIARCHY BEFORE THE FLOOD

We have seen that before the Fall, God gave no human being a command to form "the State."

Even after the Fall, God issued no commands to form a State. Yet one of the most oft-heard justifications for the State is that, after the Fall, man’s will is depraved. He is prone to sin, and there needs to be some force that will keep man from committing crimes and to keep society from becoming lawless and chaotic.

Unfortunately, these theorists always nominate fallen, sinful men to occupy this seat of power. It’s as though all citizens are thought to be on the verge of committing all manner of serial murders, rapes and robberies, and are easily bribed and corrupted, but not once they become politicians. Do we really believe that if some of these depraved citizens are armed with weapons (and a legal monopoly on the use of these weapons, with no competitors) and given a new name (transforming them from “voters,” to “public servants,” “officers,” or “ministers”) they will then be sanctified, undepraved, uncorruptable human beings who will magnanimously keep the rest of their fellows from committing these crimes?

If human beings are fallen and prone to sin, a small minority of them should not be given a monopoly of violence. Or as someone has put it, “If man were not sinful, we would not need to have a State; if man is sinful, we dare not have one.”

Both before and after the Fall, God did not command men to form a State. The formation of the State is evidence of the Fall; the State is an expression of man’s original sin, the desire to be as gods (Genesis 3:5).