Romans 13, the controversial chapter about obedience to government, should be read in context. The preceding chapter gives instructions for believers to "avenge not yourselves: but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Ro 12:19). The believer is then instructed to obey the rulers for they are ordained by God to be the avenger against evil-doers (Ro 13:1-4).
It is evident God set up government to keep the peace, to punish evil-doers and to protect the God-fearing people. The individual is not intended to take matters into his own hands: when he has been a victim of crime or of a civil offense, he is to take the matter to the governing authorities. In much the same way, the believer is to take grievances against fellow believers to the body of believers, the church, for mediation (Mt 18:15-17; 1 Co 6: 1-8).
In no way does the fact that God ordains government (or ordains church leaders, for that matter) alleviate those leaders from their responsibility to serve God and to lead in a righteous manner. Likewise, the people being governed have a responsibility to hold their leaders to a godly standard of conduct.
When leaders in the church turn out to be false shepherds, the congregation is warned not to follow them (2 Ti 3; 2 Pe 2; Jude). Neither should God's people follow wicked civil leaders. The idea that civil government is free from God's mandates is a perversion. Civil leaders are ordained by God to act righteously. If they do not, the righteous should act to remove them from leadership. The righteous; i.e., the believer, should not rely on a misinterpretation of Romans 13 to excuse himself from taking a stand against unrighteous leaders!
Hi. I'm not sure where you dwell - it may be on the north American continent? It's basically the same on this continent commonly known as Australia.
ReplyDeleteThe so-called laws over here are not laws but are statutes, which are the rules for a society. Laws are the lawful rules for a society, founded on God's Laws, whereas statutes are most times not lawful. 'Law' is not the same as 'statute'; 'lawful' is not the same as 'legal'; 'authority' is not the same as 'power'; 'people' is not the same as 'persons'; 'man' is not the same as 'person' or ‘human’ either; etc. All so-called western governments are corporations, and they used to be body-politic entities, which are what are correctly termed as legal fictions. Try taking a government to court, and the case will be against the corporate government, which is a legal fiction. Corporations only exist on paper and in the mind of man. They can be 'created' and destroyed at the stroke of a pen. There is nothing controversial about Romans 13:1-7 as today's governments are a counterfeit of lawful government. Satan is the great counterfeiter. Perhaps 98% of Christians have never considered that Satan might have counterfeited lawful government and laws. The statutes apply to persons (not your definition for ‘person’), which are non-perpetual corporation-soles. The system operates on counterfeit, or explained a better way, fiction. Just as the board game of Monopoly involves real people, a real board, real plastic tokens, real paper as toy money etc., the game is a fiction. I spent several years in the lower courts assisting (ab)Originees, did some work in the Federal Court of Australia, have a judge who is an acquaintance, a friend who used to lecture on the so-called Australian constitution, which is still British Domestic Statute, and not Australian statute. If you’d like to know more on how the counterfeit works, I’d be happy to go into this subject, and cover various subjects and terms such as legal fictions (ens legis = legal entity), cestui que trusts (which involve you), body politic entities, corporations, non-perpetual and perpetual corporation soles, persons (the courts secret definition for ‘person’), the difference between covenants and contracts, etc. Thank you. Lyall