Romans 13. It's the "submission to government" chapter, quite famous as well as quite misconstrued and taken out of context.
I think a lot of people have been wondering about this topic lately. A family friend of ours said to me a couple months ago that he saw something on television where a man quoted a verse from Romans 13 to give Christians the notion that they should always submit to the current occupying governing authority in their land. My friend wanted to know whether the bible really taught that, because he questions a lot of what the government does and says we should do.
Then a dear sister in Christ asked me yesterday about Romans 13, because a friend of hers was struggling with confusion over the matter. Must we submit to the governing authority no matter what?
Rather than isolate a verse or two from one chapter in the bible, let's do three different things:
1. Examine scripture's teaching as a whole.
2. Look at real examples in the scriptures of Godly people's dealings with the governing authorities.
3. Pray and meditate on this subject to make sure that we're both using good logic and being led by the Spirit of God.
The physical nation of Israel was to be an example nation to the rest of the world. They were ONE NATION UNDER GOD. They were FREE. They were given a written law made up of commandments, statutes, ordinances, and judgments. They had a priesthood, and there was supposed to be elders as judges. But the nation wanted a man king like the other nations had. The Eternal viewed this as evil, because in asking for a man king to reign over them, they rejected His reign. You can turn in your bible to I Samuel 12:17-24 and read that it was evil that they did that, but they should still "Only fear the Eternal and serve him in truth with all your heart..." (vs. 24a). To get the background of Israel wanting a man king, you can turn back to chapter 8 and read.
All throughout the scriptures you will find that man should obey God. If man's government conflicts with God's, then man should disobey man. Let's look at some biblical examples real quickly. On your own you can study it more in depth by reading the references I give. These examples are not all inclusive, but this is a good list I have compiled for you:
*The Hebrew midwives disobeying the Egyptian pharaoh and deceiving him to protect the lives of the male infants. Make note that the sixth commandment ranks above the ninth (Ex. 1:17-19).
*Rahab the harlot hiding the Israelite spies and lying to her government officials, because she believed God (Joshua ch. 2).
*Elijah fleeing from Jezebel (certainly not submitting or handing himself over to the authorities) after killing the prophets of Baal (I Kings 19:1-4).
*David avoiding death by Saul (I Sam. chs. 19-24).
*Esther entering the king's court without being called, which was illegal and could end up reaping the death penalty, to risk her life to save her people (Esther 4:10-11).
*Shadrach and friends disobeying Babylon's law to bow to the image (Dan. 3:8-18).
*Daniel praying to the Eternal God, despite the new Persian law demanding that all prayers go only to King Darius (Dan. 6:11-13).
*Our Lord Salvation calling Herod a fox when told Herod wanted to kill him (Luke 13:31-32) and many recorded instances of disobeying Pharasaic man-made laws, sprinkled throughout the gospel narratives.
*After his arrest, the Lord answered the high priest's question sarcastically and received a slap for it (John 18:19-23).
*The apostles disobeyed the mandate given to them to not spread the Good News, saying we should OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MAN (Acts 5:27-29).
*After his arrest Paul spoke before the high priest and was slapped, and afterward he cursed him and then spoke sarcastically to those who objected (Acts 23:1-5; see also Acts 21:27-28 to see what got him in trouble).
The previous examples I laid out in order as the books go in a KJV bible, so it should be easy to look up the references, read the context, and be able to pray and meditate on them. Now let's look at Romans 13 itself:
The first verse is "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers [governing authorities]. For there is no power [authority] but of God: the powers that be are ordained [appointed by] God."
At this point, you can go and review Daniel 2:44.
Continuing on to verse 2, it says that whoever resists the authority resists God and therefore shall receive damnation. So if one stops at these two verses and do not look at the rest of the bible, like the scriptures saying that we should obey God rather than man, that we should only fear the Eternal and obey Him, and all the examples of Godly people resisting the governing authorities, we could falsely teach that we should not resist ANY government's authority for ANY reason. But let's continue on.
Verse 3: "For rulers are NOT A TERROR TO GOOD WORKS, BUT TO THE EVIL..." and "...do that which is good, and you shall receive praise [from the governing authority]."
Verse 4 says that the governing authority is the minister of God to thee for good.
STOP! Let's meditate on what we've read so far. Was the Egyptian pharaoh ministering to the Israelites for their good? Was the Babylonian king who wanted to throw Shadrach and friends into the fire for not bowing down to the image (which breaks the second commandment of Eternal) ministering on behalf of God for their good? Were the Jewish leaders ministering on God's behalf for the good of Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) and of Paul? Was Hitler a minister of God for the good of the people? Is the United States government serving the people on God's behalf by starting wars, allowing abortion, allowing multiple divorces for any reason, allowing homosexual marriage and homosexual adoption, pushing harmful synthetic drugs and requiring toxic vaccinations while outlawing good God-made drugs, approving GM foods and unhealthful meats like pork and lobster and shrimp, attacking organic foods, etc.?
Is the U.S. or any other government on this earth God's servant for our good? WELL, to a point, yes. When someone is murdering people or robbing others or raping women or doing some other evil, and the government punishes that person, then YES, THAT GOVERNMENT IS SERVING GOD'S PURPOSE FOR A GOVERNING AUTHORITY.
Skip down to verse 10: Love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
This is worth repeating: LOVE is the fulfilling of the law. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. Is something loving? Do not resist it. It's for our good. It serves God's purpose, and we should feel no fear unless we're doing something wrong (verse 3). If it's not loving and contradicts God's law, THEN IT'S NOT FOR OUR GOOD, AND IT'S TO BE RESISTED.
This is important to thoroughly understand, because a TIME OF GREAT DECEPTION IS COMING. It will be the time when the last resurrection of the "Holy Roman Empire" reigns over the western world. Most people think of Antichrist to be secular in nature, but that is what's most deceptive. It will be a FALSE CHRISTIAN system. Those who obey in thought and deed (symbolized in bible by forehead and hand) the false system will be resisting God. Those who obey in thought and deed God's Ten Commandments will be resisting the false system. For the latter group there will be two options: FLEE to the wild or be a martyr.
There's the true Church pictured in Revelation 12 and the false church pictured in Rev. 17 and 18. You NEED to know the difference. You NEED to know what's coming. You NEED to be STUDYING (not just reading) the bible. You NEED to be paying attention to world events. I have an article on the "mark of the beast" on my website. It can be found here: http://www.endtimecog.net/articles/markofthebeast.html
I also recommend my book (you don't have to buy it but can find it in ebook format free of charge on my website) God's Law of Love, the Perfect Law of Liberty: Jehovah's Ten Commandments Still Apply Today and also Keith Hunt's book The Biblical Prophets for Today. You can find his book in website article form on his website keithhunt.com under the prophets section. Both books are available in hard copy on Amazon.com.
For what is coming, the true Christian MUST NOT submit to the governing authority, because to do so will be to resist the Governing Authority. It will be a choice as to WHICH governing authority to which you wish to submit: God's or man's.
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