Ch 2 - Government Under God Flashcards
(36 cards)
Sovereign
Having supreme power and right to govern all nations and their rulers
Government
The authority and power to control, to direct, and to rule the actions and affairs of others
Flow of governmental authority
From God to human institutions to individuals responsible for ruling others within those institutions
First foundational civil ordinance
Capital punishment for murder
Gods purpose for government
To protect the innocent by punishing the guilty
English jurist who wrote Commentaries on the Laws of England
Sir William Blackstone
Laws
Rules of human action or conduct
Revealed law
Laws given by god explicitly in the Holy Scripture
Natural law
Laws discernible by all men as image-bearers of god
Commandments
Orders from God telling men what to do and what not to do
Positive law
No higher law
Higher law
A law of god on which mans law must rest
Code of Hammurabi
Codified Sumerian laws of Babylonian king Hammurabi
Theocracy
A government where God rules directly
Autocracy
Rule by one whose will is supreme
Secularism
The belief that government should remove everything religious from its domain
Democracy
The people rule, either directly by popular vote or indirectly thru elected representatives
Dynasty
Rule by a single family
Distinguishing feature of a monarch
He received his position by inheritance
Absolute monarchy
A system of government in which the monarch has unlimited power
Constitutional monarchies
Systems if government in which the monarchs power is limited by a constitution and is equal to or subservient to an elected representative assembly
Dictatorship
Ruler does not inherit his power and rules with absolute authority
Totalitarian
Controlling all aspects of society
Fascism
A totalitarian dictatorship in which all power is vested in one ruler