Reflecting on Father’s Day, tell me, when does a father lose the title and authority that of being a “father”? It is when his words and actions are destructive of the family itself. When a father abuses a family physically or emotionally whether in presence or absence or even engages in behavior that then erodes the very protection and sustenance that he is to bring to this group under his care and love, he ceases to be a father.
So too with government. Many Christians over the years have pointed to Romans 13:1,2 as proof that we are to obey government all the time period.
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
Nothing could be further from the truth. When government turns its words and actions towards actually destroying “we the people”, it is no longer worthy of being supported. Many of the founders in the 1700s say this in relationship to the British Empire, just like the Apostle Paul say this in relation to the Roman Empire. The very man who penned the words of Romans 13 to the Roman Christians of the day was the most jailed apostle of the New Testament!
Reflecting on history, one must come to grip with the fact that it is the GOVERNMENT enterprise that destroys the good people in society. Time and again the joint effort of bad government and bad religion have teamed up to persecute good people and especially people who chose to follow Jesus as well as executing Jesus Himself.
Here is one of the most honest sermons I have seen for some time, the BENEFIT of having been brought through the season of government’s wrath toward the people and the church in the last 15 months. This from Grace Community Church in California, John MacArthur is the speaker/pastor:
(coming soon is the transcript which will be a priceless reference for the days and months to come https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/81-117 )
The very type of father or type of government that is to be honored is that described in the verses in Romans 13 AFTER verses 1 & 2 quoted above:
For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.
Think about especially the nine months of 2020 and the six months so far in 2021. House arrest, masking of the healthy and forced injections with threats of job loss is hardly a good government that sees God’s and Nature’s ways and laws as a primary reference point. The fear in most of the people’s eyes the last 15 months is obvious, but the agenda government has with this fear needs to be revealed.
Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Good fathers and good government deserve respect and honor, HOWEVER, abusers and promoters of evil are never to be given that place. They have lost their God-given position based on their words, actions and bad character. Human authority is never permanent.
To unpack the fact on how evil government COULD be resisted out of the LOVE for others has many, many historical examples that our governments today would like us to forget.
Government will always push the people on THEIR OWN role as them being the “helper” … however:
Necessity (i.e., ‘public health, common good’, etc.) is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves. – William Pitt
.. this in spite of their true hidden evil agenda.
What could be the antidote for this scourge that seems to envelope so many nations at this time around the globe?
Our age is one of ecclesiastical pacifism. …When a church ceases to be militant it also ceases to be a church of Jesus Christ. …A truly militant church stands opposed to the world both without its walls and within. …Time and again in its history the church has found it necessary to assert its sovereignty over against usurpations by the state. R.B. Kuiper
One has to remember that this was written OVER 50 years ago in 1967 the year after the author’s death. Here is another more lengthy quote:
…Ours is an age of state totalitarianism. All over the world statism is [rising]…. In consequence, in many lands the church finds itself utterly at the mercy of the state whose mercy often proves cruelty, while in others the notion is rapidly gaining ground that the church exists and operates by the state’s permission.
Now, if ever, is the time for the church to assert its sovereignty over against encroachments by the state. The church is in sacred duty bound to rise up in majesty and proclaim to the world that it enjoys freedom of worship, not by the grace of the state, but as a God-given right; and that it preaches the Word of God, not by the grace of human governments, but solely at the command of the sovereign God and its sovereign King, seated at God’s right hand.
…It must be admitted to the church’s shame that it has often cowered before the state. …those power-hungry potentates who neither fear God nor regard man but take counsel together against the Lord and His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us’ (Ps. 2), must be told by the church that He that sits in the heavens will laugh, that the Lord will have them in derision, and that if they fail to kiss the Son, He will break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Let the church speak sovereignly for the sovereign God and the ‘blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords’ (1 Tim. 6:15).
Ultimately, you can see how government always sees the church as competition and a threat .. and here is where G.K. Chesterton summarizes things rather succinctly:
It is only by believing in God that we can ever criticize the government. Once abolish God, and the government becomes the God.… Wherever the people do not believe in something beyond the world, they will worship the world. But, above all, they will worship the strongest thing in the world.
This therefore is the goal of government. To become a god to the people.
Know your enemy. Know the enemy of families, the enemy of faith and the enemy of “we the people”. It is essential in the days, weeks and years to come for us and our kids and their kids.
Stay strong and stay the course!
-SF1