Is democracy really that good anyway?

O.K. so in just over a week hordes of people will be descending on a collection of small buildings to put a cross in a box so that they can have their say on who can govern our country. We do this because we are, loosely speaking, a democracy and that is the way we run our nation. Now there are other ways to run a country (autocracies, monarchies, meritocracies, aristocracies etc) however, we in the west believe that democracy is the one and still seem to hold out hope that democracy will be strong enough to sort out the mess that is 21st century civilisation.

So we form international organisations, we educate people about democracy, we encourage other countries to adopt it, at times, we even forcibly take it into countries in the belief that if we can just spread democracy far enough we will be able to sort out our world.

The problem with democracy, as I see it, is me. That is to say that if I am anything to go by then democracy is doomed to failure. You see the problem is that I don't know enough, I can't do enough and I too often make bad or even evil/unkind/selfish decisions anyway. I therefore remain unconvinced that even 6 billion people who don't know enough, aren't strong enough and too often make evil/unkind/selfish decisions are going to be up to the challenge of sorting out our world.

You see democracy is all well and good but its track record isn't flawless. Democracy is fine until the majority want something you don't - then see the big guns (be it locally or internationally) throw around their social, financial or even sometimes military weight! Also what about when the majority are just wrong. There was a time where the majority believed that the earth was flat or that women were second class citizens. It's worth saying that the Nazis came to power in a democracy. You look at the world and you see that democracy has not solved the world's problems. The world is still plagues by wars, famine, exploitation, abuse, pain, division and a whole host of problems and much though it seems like we want to believe that democracy will be the world's saviour I personally don't see it! Democracy may well be the best sort of government a fallen, sinful and selfish humanity can hope for but it's certainly not up to the job of sorting our world out.

What we need is an all powerful, all knowing, morally perfect and completely loving ruler who will only ever make perfect decisions and do the right stuff. The Bible says that this ruler is God and that we rejected him and decided to try to rule earth our own way. However, Jesus came to earth to offer us forgiveness and a chance to come back under his rule. The Bible says that one day God will make a new earth which will be perfect because he will rule it perfectly. Their is a saviour for this world but it is not found in democracy but rather in a perfect rule by a perfect being. That's why getting to know Jesus, becoming a part of his community is so important because it is by doing this that we put ourselves back under God's rule and become a part of the new society he is rescuing for the new earth.

Humanity wants to believe that we can rule the world perfectly fine without God. History tells us that we can't. Jesus makes it possible for us to come back under God's rule so see if he has anything to offer because, significant though May 6th may be, it will not sort out this world!