What is the divine right of kings?
The phrase "divine right of kings" claims that a monarch's authority comes directly from God rather than from the people he rules. Commentators in this collection accept the core truth behind it — that all authority is delegated from above — but they say the slogan is too narrow, and they draw very different practical conclusions from it than the courts of Europe once did.
The Phrase Is Too Narrow
One writer argues that limiting the idea to kings misses how wide God's arrangement really is.
The Bible TreasuryThe "divine right of kings" is a faulty expression. The authority of kings is indeed divine, but so also is every authority in the world, whether it be that of a king, or the president of a republic; whether it be that of a governor, a judge, or a magistrate down even to a policeman or a tax collector; and, in other spheres, an officer of an army or a ship, or a foreman of labourers, a husband, a father, or a schoolmaster. All existing authority in the world is divine; and government in the present fallen state of man is a divine blessing.
The same point closes off any argument about which system of government is the "godly" one. Writing on Romans 13, William Kelly notes that the word used covers every arrangement men have devised.
William Kelly"Authorities in power" is an expression that embraces every form of governing power, monarchical, aristocratic, or republican. All objection on this score is therefore ruled out. The Spirit insists not merely on the divine right of kings but that "there is no authority except from God."
Where the Right Comes From
The source is traced back to God's own declaration in the book of Daniel, where a proud emperor was humbled to learn who really hands out thrones.
An Outline of Sound WordsGod had not left authority in the hands of the Gentiles for them to do their own will; they were given their authority to carry out the will of God. This Nebuchadnezzar had to learn when God's judgment fell on him, even as "a watcher, a holy one" cried, so "that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men."
The Office, Not the Man
This is the distinction that separates the biblical principle from the political slogan. A ruler's power is God-given; his conduct is his own.
Hamilton SmithIt definitely asserts that the authority to govern has been given by God. It does not say that the particular individuals who exercise the authority are of God, or that the way they may use their authority is of God. Those who exercise authority may be, and often are, thoroughly wicked men, who may abuse the power for their own ends. The fact, however, remains, that the authority they wield had been instituted by God.
The sharpest illustration is the governor who sentenced Jesus while admitting He was innocent.
The Bible TreasuryMen now mock the "divine right" of kings. But the right and authority to govern is the gift of God, and does not depend upon the use made of it. What use did Pilate make of his power, when he condemned the Lord Jesus to be crucified, saying, while condemning, that He was a man in whom he found no fault? Yet the Lord said that Pilate's power was given from above (John 19:11).
Not a Licence for Rulers
Because the right belongs to God and is only loaned, the same writers insist the ruler is accountable, not absolute. J. N. Darby puts the tenure bluntly: kings "have a divine right as long as God keeps them on the throne; that is, they have, however they get there, their power from God" (J. N. Darby). Kings are described elsewhere as God's representatives who "will be held responsible for the way they use the power deputed to them" (J. T. Mawson).
What It Asks of the Christian
The doctrine was historically used to demand obedience — and these writers do teach obedience, but with a stated limit and without the sword.
C. H. MackintoshThe powers that be are ordained by God. The king, the governor, the judge, the magistrate are, each in his place, the expression of the power of God... It is our bounden duty to obey and submit ourselves to them, in all things, provided always that they do not call upon us to disobey God, or do violence to conscience. If they do this, we must — what? Resist? No, but suffer.
And obedience is as far as the New Testament goes. Christians are never handed the crown.
A. J. PollockIn the Old Testament, where the arrangement was different, there were instructions for the office of a king, but in the New Testament, while there are instructions how the Christian is to obey, there is not a single line as to how he is to rule... The silence of Scripture is as powerful as its speech.
Commentators differ in emphasis on where this leaves popular government: one writer treats "power proceeds from the people" as a fallacy, while Kelly holds that a republic stands on exactly the same divine footing as a throne.
Summary
- Source. All authority is on loan from God — the Most High "gives it to whom he will," so no ruler holds his place by his own right.
- Scope. The loan is not limited to kings; it reaches presidents, judges, magistrates, tax collectors, and every ordinary sphere of authority.
- Office. What God institutes is the authority, not the character of the man holding it — Pilate's power came from above on the day he misused it worst.
- Account. Because the power is delegated, the holder answers for it; the throne is a stewardship, never a blank cheque.
- Response. Those under it obey for conscience' sake, obey God first where the two clash, and then suffer rather than resist — Scripture tells the Christian how to submit, never how to rule.