Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king's personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king's country. So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. Acts 12:20-23

We considered last time that when government threatens to replace God, that is a most sinister form of idolatry. Now consider this:

Government can never actually replace God. It can only threaten to replace God. It does this by imposing more and more control over its citizens instead of serving God and its citizens by punishing evil doers and rewarding those who do good (Romans 13). All government, no matter how evil, is still under God’s ultimate control.

The American experiment in limiting the reach of government is based on, and only works when the citizenry is moral, and when it is willing to hold the government accountable. Instead, the citizenry of the United States is increasingly becoming deluded into thinking that we need more and more government, while at the same time less and less of God and the Bible. Collectively we increasingly want the government to do more and more for us—not by protecting our freedoms, but by taking care of us and by giving us “more stuff for free.” By the way, we seem to have forgotten that the government has nothing to give us except what it takes from us.

When will we in America stop shouting: “We want government more than we want God!”?