The question sounds like a riddle or Christmas cracker joke but it is, in reality, a matter of life and death. The so-called Arab spring reminds us, as if we needed reminding, that it is hardly uncommon for people to find themselves living in a regime governed by someone who appears not to merit the right to do so. And in doing this, it also reminds us that we are not so very distant from political forebears whom we usually like to think of as a bit primitive.
The Bible has – or can be quoted to justify – a very high view of political power. Old Testament kings were anointed, thereby sanctifying them with the very authority of God. The New Testament is, superficially at least, highly deferential to the powers that be, Romans 13 being the proof-text of choice: "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." Such views underpinned the view of emperor that persisted in the east, in which "the imperial rank" was exempted from legislation, because he himself was "a living law".
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