@Sab - " I would argue that he gave his gig to us. History provides strong evidence that we have the reins, no?"
True...to a point. Let's use this illustration; If you have four children and one of those four children is threatening the other three within an inch of their life, would you stand for it? Or would you put a stop to it? The way I understand it, God has always allowed "us" to have the reins just long enough to prove that we can't handle governing ourselves.
The bottom line is; We need Him, we're proving that we can't do it without Him.
P.S. I'm not a Right Wing Nut Job, I'm just a reasonable, common sense, thinking guy.....