Here is question that troubles me. In light of the biblical mandates to submit oneself as a Christian to the civil authorities, how can we justify historical events that we hold dear such as the American revolution?
Submission to civil authorities is a manner of manifesting the glory of the Sovereign One, so is rebellion a robbing of God of His glory?
Submission to civil authority
Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by 4His_glory, Mar 31, 2008.
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Or on a very personal level how does one justify speeding? :)
I think the answer lies in the fact that we are a fallen race and even after being saved we are still fallen people while on this earth.
One can take the argument about submission to civil authorities to the extreme of saying that it means that Christians should not have fought in World War II. After all, submission could mean submission to anyone - Hitler, the Japanese emperor, etc.
Personally, I don't think we have to submit to tyranny. I don't have any Scripture. That is just my opinion on living in a fallen world. -
The short answer to a complicated issue is that the command to submit is given to you and I as individuals. You and I and and our neighbors who make up our city/state/country have a right to set our government, resist when it is wrong and replace it whenever necessary.
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Crabtownboy Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
In Germany the vast majority did, Chistrians as well as non-believers. Some Christians did not and some paid with their life, i.e. D. Bonehoeffer.
Read Bonehoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship and his Letters and Papers from Prison -
It would do you good to refamiliarize your self with these words.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
The rest of it is here.
There are times when a people are to rebel. If they are successful I'd say that it was God's will for them to be self governed. If they are unsuccessful then it was not the will of God. Do you realize that each year that we have a vote we are in effect staging a bloodless coup? -
The idea of a right to set up our own government is never given to us in the Scriptures. -
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They were also only familiar with monarchies in New Testament days. Governmental wise, mankind has made a great deal of progress since the 1st century A.D. We no longer accept the idea of the divine right of kings.
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The colonists were living in the one of the freest societies on earth. They had liberties that the turkish Christians to whom Peter was writing would dream of having. Yet they were told that their Christian duty was to submit. It did not matter how good or evil the government was, they were to submit.
As a side note the only time we find it proper to no submit the authorities is if they compel us to personally violate that which God commands us. Other than that, we are to have humble submissive spirits which is radically different from the common american philosophy.
Just something to think about. -
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I understand your point. Now based on the principle that you espouse, should Christians in the United States have fought in World War II to maintain our form of government?
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Crabtownboy Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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But according to your thinking Christians shouldn't care who is in the charge of the government, be it FDR, Hitler, or the Japanese emperor, certainly not to the point of taking up arms.
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Crabtownboy Well-Known MemberSite Supporter