You may have heard it said that Western democracy is based on ancient Greek democracy. The democracy of ancient Athens did serve as an inspiration for modern democracy. But there’s one important element missing from the Greek model: they had no firm foundation for higher law. Because of this, ancient Greek democracy became mob democracy. The majority behaved as if they themselves were God. And in the end, no one’s life, liberty or property was safe.

When the Israelites asked for a king, God told the prophet Samuel “It is not you they have rejected. It is me they have rejected as their king.” Samuel went on to warn the Israelites about the dangers of concentrating power in the hands of one man. The Israelites didn’t listen, and went on to pay dearly for their decision over and over. Later, in the Christian era, Europe spent more than a thousand years working its way toward a system of checks and balances. It wasn’t easy then. It isn’t easy today. Our only hope for avoiding tyranny is to remember the ultimate source for all authority—not any human king or president, not the high court in Washington D.C., but the highest court, the name that is above all names.