Christians And The State

Greg

Many professing Christians over the centuries have supported and/or participated in the evils of the kingdoms of men because of the misuse of Paul’s words in Romans 13:1-7.  It is undeniable that many of them have trusted more in the violent capabilities of the State than they have the power of Christian love. It is important to understand that the State is not merely an institution that provides social services, it is the systemization of illegitimate control over a given territory and the people and activities within that territory.  It monopolizes human services, and not for the better.  The State does not produce and provide, it takes the production and possessions of others through coercive measures, convinces people it is for their own good, and then uses those same people for its own interests.  It survives by exploiting and using violence against the people within the territory it claims, as well as against people in other territories.  

The Bible depicts the rulers and kingdoms of this world as being hostile to God (Psalm 2).  Knowing this, and knowing the pain and misery that rulers have heaped upon human beings, and that they have been far from agents of “good”, we must interpret Paul’s words accordingly.  If Paul was making the claim that we are required to submit to State officials and policies no matter what, as some claim, this means that the Egyptian midwives should have obeyed Pharaoh and killed all the Hebrew males at their birth, that Rahab should not have hidden the Hebrew spies from the city officials and lied to them about it, that the apostles should have stopped preaching that Jesus is Lord, that German citizens were obligated to participate in the holocaust, and that today’s Christians are obligated to yield to the State when it comes to American militarism and imperialism, its use of our resources for the murder of humans in the womb, its definition of marriage, the theft of wages and forced redistribution, and more.  Take note that in the first three biblical examples given above, we see God specifically bless the individuals because of their actions – actions that defied State authority. 

It is a mistake to take the passage in Romans to mean that God has placed tyrannical kings, emperors, presidents, or other ruling bodies into their positions, and that we are obligated to obey them.  He allows them to be there, as he allows the Adversary to be "the god of this age", but he does not command us to obey tyrants - angelic or human.  In 1 Samuel 8, we read that the people of Israel demanded a king to rule over them.  God told his prophet that the people had rejected him (God), then he told the people about the suffering they would endure under the monarchical State.  Submission to an authoritarian system was not God’s will for his people.  Certainly, God has established legitimate centers of authority (higher powers) – parents, church elders, civil rulers that follow natural law principles (employers, judges, etc.) - and we are to submit to these centers of authority.  To rebel against those who are actually being ministers of “good” is to bring guilt upon oneself.  Yet, nowhere in the scriptures are we told that we are to become subject to, or that we are to give our allegiance to, an illegitimate authority such as a Nebuchadnezzar, a Pharoah, a Caesar, a President, or an authoritarian State.

Since Christians are living in a world in which illegitimate authorities take over territories and the people within those territories, we must remember that we are subjects of the Kingdom of God, and we are to avoid engaging in immoral actions, no matter what our political overlords command.  This does not mean that we should attempt to violently overthrow the State, for I believe that is not what Jesus would have us to do.   We are to give honor to all people, including to those who are in positions of power and mistreat us (1 Peter 2), but that does not mean that we must refrain from speaking out about their wrongs, or that we must go along with their immoral edicts, or that we will be guiltless if we sin just because we are “obeying orders.”  Without a doubt, if man’s ordinances do not conflict with the directive to love God and our neighbor, we should follow them in order to avoid making unnecessary trouble.