God ordained government to exists to protect the rights and liberties of the people, period. There is no other reason for there to be a government at all if not for that. People were created to be free and will one day they give an account to God for how they lived. The role of government is to protect their ability to live freely and laws are needed for society to prohibit activities which seize the rights and liberties of individuals to live self-determined lives. Therefore, laws prohibiting murder, theft, rape and fraud are very much needed for society to remain healthy and for it to grow peacefully and prosperously. Lawbreakers must be punished and must be removed from society to prevent them from further violating (or even jeopardizing) the rights and liberties of others (either by imprisonment or death). Obviously such removals also serve as a deterring example to the rest of the society as to what will await any of them if they follow in the lawbreakers footsteps.
God has given the state the power to mete out such punishments, and that is a significant authority. Stop and think about the God sanctioned authority of government over nations. You and I are not authorized by God to imprison someone, but the government is. You and I are not authorized by God to execute someone, but the government is. Think about the special mandate God vested in the state, it truly is profound. Here is how the Apostle Paul describes it:
Romans 13:4 ESV
He is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
It's hard to misunderstand what the Apostle was saying there, God has appointed an agency to serve as His avenger to carry out His wrath upon wrongdoers and lawbreakers.
If only this agency was run by angels, obviously it is not. God has created this agency, the state, and has ordained that it be run by sinners who will give an account to Him regarding how they governed the affairs of their respective nations. They will be held to a strict standard and one that He has defined with brilliant clarity. More than any other charge, kings, governors, state officials and judges are to operate justly. Justice, more than any other concern, is their top priority.
Deuteronomy 16:18-20 ESV
"You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you."
Justice, and only justice. The Lord is emphatic on this point because the authority consigned to the state is solemn. No form of corruption has more potential to create temporal miseries than corruption in government. When governments are corrupt real people starve, real patriots are executed, real innocents are robbed, and real churches burn. There is no such thing as a prosperous tyranny or peaceful despotism. Governments which detach themselves from the vestiges of Godly, just rule end up disqualifying themselves and must be overthrown. Submission to rulers described in Romans 13 only applies to God appointed government, not wicked usurpers who have disqualified themselves by being terrors to good conduct. There simply can be no tolerance for unjust, oppressive rule over people. Such tolerance is contrary to God's expressed will for humanity.
So, God appointed government is one in which good conduct is not terrorized and justice is not perverted. One of the foundational hallmarks of government which safeguards justice from perversion is a judicial system based upon the presumption of innocence any time someone is charged with or even accused of a crime. Sadly, this priceless shield of liberty and justice is no longer appreciated by democrats and other socialists in America today. This should come as no real surprise as Marxists have historically weaponized their court systems to suppress opposition and maintain power. Today's American leftists are not concerned with the presumption of innocence because they do not look at the court system as the way to preserve justice for all. Justice for all is not their concern or priority. They do not care if the charged is innocent or guilty. Understand the implication of that statement. Their concern is the political and the balance of power ramifications of finding someone innocent or guilty. All you must do to conclude that is listen to them discuss various situations of public interest. For example, (for the most part) democrats today do not care whatsoever if Hillary Clinton actually violated the espionage act or not and they do not care if President Trump actually obstructed justice. None of that stuff matters to leftists. The facts of the matter, due process and equal application of the law are not values they care about today, again, just listen to them. All that matters in either case used in the examples above are the political consequences and the gaining or losing of power due to the outcome of a criminal investigation or a trial.
Or take the difference between the way former President Bill Clinton is treated with how Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been treated, both have been accused of rape. Do democrats care at all that the former President and almost First Gentleman of the United States was a frequent flyer on the Lolita Express? Do they care that he has paid out massive amounts of money to settle sexual harassment claims against him? Of course they don't care about that stuff! He and his wife very recently had the potential to shift the balance of power in their favor and that is what is important to modern day democrats. How do leftists feel about Brett Kavanaugh? Without even the smallest shred of evidence or even the littlest bit of coherent accusations against him, he was smeared, lambasted, castigated, and hauled over coals as an abject monster by democrats in this country. And while he was not being charged in court, the charge was made in the arena of public opinion and he was declared guilty for no reason other than the Marxist obsession to control this country through political courts. He stood in the way of that, so the verdict of guilty was issued. And lest you think the presumption of innocence is only a virtue necessary in the criminal justice system, let me remind you that libel and slander laws rest upon the principle of the presumption of innocence. You simply cannot publicly condemn someone and ruin their reputation by declaring them "guilty" of a heinous crime without potential legal reprisal. Why not? Because people are presumed innocent and even charges made in the public sphere must be provable. The presumption of innocence extends to the public square in a society based in justice as well.
A nation being vigilant to maintain the presumption of innocence is enormously important because it is the definitive shield against the unjust persecution of those whom the powerful elite find threatening. Once any nation abandons the genuine practice and protection of the presumption of innocence, full blown feudalism will be unleashed and that nation will be catapulted back to the system of justice which followed the fall of the Roman Empire. That feudal system of justice rested upon the presumption of guilt and it would take up to 12 witnesses to come in and testify that a charged person could never have done such a thing as is charged in order for a court to even consider judging him not guilty. The burden of proof was on the accused, not on the accuser and people had to prove they were innocent! And even if that were possible the credibility of those 12 witnesses would be called into question or weighed against the testimony of the prosecution based upon their social caste and status.
People, it's not like we haven't seen the outcome of systems where the presumption of innocence isn't exactly sacrosanct. We know what this looks like and we know the tyrannical ramifications that ensue. Nobody is presumed innocent in China, Vietnam, North Korea or in Cuba today. Nobody was presumed innocent in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany either. Political dissidents and religious zealots (frequently Jews and Christians) are routinely charged with baseless crimes and hauled off to Gulags, Konzentrationslagers or Reeducation Camps. Courts in those Marxist and fascist nations exist to validate government persecution of religious and political minorities, nonconformists, mavericks and protestors.
How many democrats hope to see Bill or Hillary Clinton in prison? How many democrats hope to see President Trump in prison? How many democrats base their hopes upon what the facts actually are in either situation?
This nation is in real trouble, folks. Just about half of its people do not see the presumption of innocence as sacrosanct any longer. They see the court system as a political weapon to be used or not used depending on its effect on political outcomes. God help us.
If we lose the untouchable, revered vision of the presumption of innocence, if that doctrine is no longer safeguarded in real, tangible ways then this nation is doomed. We will no longer be a nation that upholds justice, and only justice as God commands. And if that day ever comes revolution and overthrow will be the only Godly solution.
Again...God help us!