I have a good friend who began a savings account at a very young age. Without fail he put away a small amount of money year, after year, after year. He went through some very tough financial periods, but always faithfully set aside a portion of his hard earned money for his retirement. He worked very hard throughout his life and before he knew it fifty years of often back breaking stressful work has passed him by and he has finally reached retirement age (65), and is now ready to begin dipping into his savings fund.
Unfortunately his fund has not been managed very well through the years, top management has changed hands several times, and it’s underfunded and in a huge mess. So here comes his current manager who is trying to prevent him from receiving his money, stating the fund was mishandled and now there is not enough money to go around.
This manager insists that he is going to allocate what funds remain to others who he deems to be not as financially well off as my friend. The fund manager also insists that these folks, (many of whom did not work or contribute as much as my friend, nor did they invest or plan for retirement wisely in other areas), need the money worse than my good buddy. Further he wants to tax the small dividends that he receives on his other investments at a ridiculously high rate irrespective of the fact that he has already paid a hefty tax on those investments. To make matters worse my buddy better not die because the death tax in this country will take away more than 50% or his entire estate and leave his family unprotected when he dies.
Hmmm… That friend is me, the fund is social security, and the fund manager is Obama and his Democratic Party. I don’t agree with them on this, and I don’t agree that I should be forced to pay for abortions. The Bible states that we were wonderfully formed in the womb by God and I believe that life begins in the womb. I don’t believe that a woman should have the right to end that life any more than if she waits a couple of months and the baby is born and she decides to kill that precious little child of God at that time. And yet Obama has declared that every woman is entitled to “health care” that includes among other things taxpayer funded abortion through Planned Parenthood.
Perhaps we can disagree on when life begins, but there should be no disagreement when someone who believes with all of their spiritual conviction and heart that abortion is equivalent to murder and goes against their religious beliefs to the “nth” degree should be forced to participate in this hideous crime by forcing them to help pay for it as mandated in Obama Care.
I don’t agree that Obama should change the name of the Whitehouse Christmas tree to a “Holiday” tree; I don’t believe he should cancel the Whitehouse National Prayer Day and then invite 50,000 Muslims to pray on the Whitehouse lawn to celebrate Ramadan. I don’t believe that poor people should be denied the right to attend a good private or charter school via vouchers because it would eliminate union jobs for unqualified teachers at failing public schools.
Yes there is much with which I disagree in regard to our current leadership and I’m fed up with it and mad as hell. Yesterday a WFTD reader in Italy wrote and asked me to explain Romans 13.
ARGHHHH!!!!
Romans 13: 1-7 tells us that we should be subject to and “submit” to the authorities because God put them in place and we should not resist God-ordained authority. First I would say that I’m not one of those people who picks and chooses the parts of the Bible that I want to believe and disregard the rest. I believe the Bible is infallible and is the inerrant word of God Himself, and that it has been given to us in order that we might know life more abundantly, not only in this life but more importantly in the next. In other words the closer we come to obeying the Bible the more peace, joy, and love we will know.
I do believe though that God gave us a brain and that we should use it to think through the various texts. We shouldn’t take passages out of context and should carefully examine the entirety of the works as we are led by the Holy Spirit. Time after time I’ve advocated slowly and carefully reading the Bible, word by word, phrase by phrase, researching when and to whom and by whom it was written and praying for understanding.
There are two schools of thought on this perplexing doctrine that come to my mind that differ with literally adopting it with no exception. One is that I believe that Paul did not write this as a rigid doctrine of Church-State relations, but rather gave advice to a particular community of faith in a particular historical context at a particular time. The question I have about this: Was Paul’s concern primarily pastoral? Did he advise the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome to submit to the governing authorities in order to protect them from brutal punishment at the hands of the Romans? Such action would surely have kept them from withholding taxes or from becoming involved in any anti-Roman protests in the name of Jewish nationalism and attempting to overthrow a formidable government and thus keep his congregation out of harm’s way, (prison and death as in being wiped off the face of the earth).
We live in a generation in which public opinion of those in political leadership is at an all time low. There are a number of reasons for this, most notably a “crisis in character” of those in our government who are acknowledged to be corrupt and inept.
Does Romans 13: 1-7 tell us to quietly submit to a bunch of lying shysters and participate in such things as abortion funding and other anti-Christ activity or should we resist?
Consider that another possible response to Romans 13:1-7 might be to recognize that, although all governing authorities have been instituted by God, they have been tainted with human sin, and as such do not always conform to the rule of God. Clearly, Hitler, Stalin, Sadaam Hussein and other regimes that are responsible for massive death and destruction, were not authorities in God’s service. If a government or authority ceases to be a force for good and order, but instead becomes an instrument of evil and death, it is my opinion that it is no longer a Christian’s duty to submit and obey that authority.
This reminds me of the question of all divorce being wrong including if a Godly woman is married to an evil abusive drunkard who routinely puts her in the hospital. Or honoring a father or mother who sexually or otherwise abuses their children. Is God ordaining that there are no circumstances when Christian doctrine can be interpreted that we should fight back against evil?
Yikes this is a slippery slope in which we must weigh obedience to God, the sacred vows of the church, and love for other people, when and if a governing authority forces its citizenry to perform contrary to obedience to God, (Hitler ordering people to throw Jews in furnaces).
Should we at some point conclude with a clear conscience that the call of God is a higher calling and refuse to submit and obey to an unreasonable demand of the government?
I think so.
I am of the opinion that it is God to whom we as believers should pledge our ultimate allegiance. Submission to the authorities is not something a Christian person should take lightly, but we should keep in mind that this world and its regime of governing authorities is passing away, and the rule of Christ is going to be ushered in forever. I’m for civil obedience to a point, but this country was founded by freedom loving hearty souls who got sick of the “idiots” and dumped their tea in the ocean.
Okay there is my rant, but I have studied the Bible enough to know that the grace of the Gospel teaches us submission and quiet, and we must always keep in mind that pride and the flesh only see cause for murmuring, discontent, anarchy, and civil disobedience in society. We should recognize that in the general course of governing the affairs of this great country our leaders have not historically been a terror to honest, quiet, and good citizens, but to evil-doers. It is a fact that in a civilized society many will be kept back from crimes only by the fear of punishment and I think this is also what Paul is alluding to with the Romans 13 doctrine.
We should obey those laws right up until ordered to put someone in a gas chamber because they happen to be a Jew, disabled, a gypsy, or other ethnic race, or to pay some doctor to tear open a newborn baby’s skull with a pair of forceps to remove its brain and murder it while saying this is the mother’s “right to choose”.
The best thing to do is vote the rascals out. Don’t vote your pocketbook; don’t vote charisma and articulate speeches; vote your conscience!! And….get out there and finance and support the candidates that you think represent your Christian values. And if that fails?
Then obey God… LOL
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!
Acts 5:29
“We must obey God rather than any human authority”