A follower of Jesus has a complicated relationship with governmental powers. When are we called to live under their edicts, even if they are undesirable, and when is it permissible to defy our civil authorities? There are examples in Scripture of both submission and rebellion. Here is a quick framework to help us process this prickly subject.
Authority
In principle, authority structures bring order, justice, protection, and a system that helps a people collectively survive and thrive. Without government, we have disorder and evil, as in the days of Noah or in the present-day nation of Haiti. Everyone does what is right “in their own eyes,” and, like the playground bully, whoever is the strongest can impose their will on everyone else. Having a just government is a good idea, as governments have the power to punish violent people. The Apostle Paul says, “They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).
In reality, governments are made of people who abuse their power and act selfishly. When a government becomes too powerful or too coercive, we end up with dictatorships on the political right, such as Hitler, and collectivist tyrannies on the political left, such as Stalin's Red Russia. All governments are susceptible to corruption. The separation of legislative, executive, and judicial authorities in the United States system was designed to slow down the tendency of humans to consolidate and abuse power. But even our system is vulnerable to human corruption.
Submit to Government Authorities
Believers are instructed to submit to governing authorities. The Apostle Paul instructs Titus to “remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good” (Titus 3:1). See Romans 13:1–7 for more extensive instructions. Yet, neither the Jewish nor the Christian community of those days understood this to mean the government could force you to disobey God’s laws or commit idolatry. The Hebrew midwives disobeyed the murderous order of the Pharaoh, “the midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do…And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own” (Exodus 1:17, 21). When their local king instructed them to violate one of God’s laws, they were clearly rewarded for not obeying the king’s profane law.
Paul observes that “the one in authority is God’s servant for your good” (Romans 13:4). Governments can’t do or command whatever they want. They are accountable to God and His moral laws. They are “servants” to God and to the people under them. When the authorities in Acts 5 contravened their mandate, the Apostles exclaimed, “We must obey God rather than man” (5:29)!
What Paul is saying in Romans 13 is that, since governments are under God’s laws, believers should live in harmony with their local magistrates and customs. We don’t need to shed blood over taxes or become insubordinate just because we don’t like a zoning board’s decision, water restrictions in a local municipality, or a local school board decision concerning teachers’ compensation. When decisions are made that don’t interfere with core religious principles, the Christian public should work within the system to change the law or humbly submit.
Liberal Sexual Agendas
Over the last number of years, schools, counseling services, medical care, businesses, and even parental rights have become the battleground for so-called “transgender rights.” In 2021, the Federal Administration attempted to pass the Equality Act (H.R. 5) to redefine “sex” to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (and much more). Such a redefinition shifts away from laws that protect against prejudice, such as Title IX, to actively discriminating against people. It prefers the private beliefs held by some individuals. “Transgender rights” favor what certain people believe and discriminate against all others to uphold that prejudice. Such a law obliterates biological gender differences to protect those who wish to believe they are the opposite gender. It elevates into law what people want and believe, not what is scientific or just.
This governmental shift from science to political prejudice has been ripe for exploitation. Women’s sports were dominated and violated by men identifying as women. Therapists were coerced by the government to prescribe specified therapies. Educators were prevented from assisting troubled youth with appropriate counsel. Parental rights over their own child’s medical care were being ignored by “do-harm” medicine, such as hormone therapy or transition surgeries.
Actively Steer the Ship
The point we’re driving at is that Paul’s principle-to-live-by guidance in Romans does not mandate that Christians comply with coercive policies. A second-century bishop of Rome remarked, “We should obey God rather than the authors of sedition.” [1] In a participatory government, such as the United States, Christians should be active in directing the laws towards God-honoring principles. When Isaiah perceived that the people of Israel were not acting in God’s ways, he instructed them to return to the Lord’s “Law and to the Testimony” (Isaiah 8:20). It is appropriate for Christians to reform laws, confront kings (2 Samuel 12), and work within systems. We should labor to keep our nation on a broadly just and equitable path that doesn’t punish people for what they believe, only for the crimes they commit.
While we are able to, we should be active in shaping and influencing government legislation and policies. Yet, a thorny question remains. When the State or community overpowers Christians and becomes hostile to their faith, is silent suffering the only option? Last week, in our article “When Christians Become Targets,” we looked at the power of silent suffering and God’s promise to His righteous people. Now let’s investigate a few additional options.
John Knox & Samuel Adams
There are several alternatives to suffering silently. Jehoiada the priest instigated the revolt and overthrow of Queen Athaliah. John Knox, arguing from Deuteronomy 17, reasoned that monarchs are subject to God’s Word. It logically follows that if a ruler is acting maliciously towards its subjects, the commonwealth of people does not need to passively allow the ruler to destroy the nation. By way of analogy, he compared it to children tying up their drunk father while he is in a frenzy,
If the father be stricken with a frenzy, in which he would slay his own children, I see not but that they may bind his hands till the frenzy be overpast; and if the father, for drunkenness or any other cause, would run to the fire with purpose to burn himself, and consume his children with him, I see not but that they may take him by force, and keep him in prison until he be sober. [2]
This analogy provides some pretext for civic revolution. Samuel Adams also justified revolution and felt that it was a mandate from heaven to fight against tyranny,
If heaven punishes communities for their vices, how sore must be the punishment of that community who think the rights of human nature are not worth struggling for and patiently submit to tyranny. I will rely upon it the New England will never incur the curse of heaven for neglecting to defend her liberties. [3]
Elsewhere, Adams further explained that virtue and knowledge are companion ingredients to freedom. Therefore, violent revolution is necessary to resist the tyranny of evil that destroys virtue and knowledge. [4] This may be a new thought for some of our readers. It’s important to recognize that other Christian traditions have endorsed militant action even if you have not come to this conclusion yourself.
Justifying violent revolution comes with a warning. It is alarming how easily humans confuse self-vindication with God’s justice. Too often, the sword is used to defend prejudice or pride. Too quickly, we escalate a second-rate crime with an inflated response. And too quickly we fail to exhaust all options before resorting to the worst possible solution—bloodshed. A rule of thumb should generally be that the extent of reformation should match the government’s crime. If the government has financially damaged you, then a lawsuit and restitution are appropriate. Violent revolution is a last resort and is used only as a means of government reform, never as retaliation. Below are a few other types of revolution at our disposal.
Live Not By Lies
While not every person may carry the conviction, like Adams or Knox, to confront a tyrannical government, God calls all of His children to defy the powers of evil by living in the truth. At the height of Russia’s communist movement, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn encouraged the Soviet dissidents,
In totalitarian Russia, we can’t go out in Red Square and tell them what we think. What we can do is refuse to say what we do not think. This is the power we have—to refuse to speak lies or refuse to assent to lies when they are spoken around us. [5]
Integrity echoes louder than the shouts of tyrants. Your dissent is not to become one more puppet for lies and evil. Don’t let governments or mobs put speech in your mouth or falsehood on your tongue. Non-violent revolutions may include civil disobedience, mass demonstrations, labor strikes, boycotts, or refusal to cooperate with authorities. The Civil Rights marches in America’s segregated South are a poignant example of peaceful protest from our own recent history.
Summary:
Authority is a good thing. It endows the power to use collective resources to serve and protect the collective people. But human sin and depravity corrupt this use of power. We are called to honor the idea of authority, but also provoke our authorities to remain accountable to God. When governments become hostile to faith, suffering silently is a powerful response. Within tyrannical structures, civil disobedience eventually becomes a necessity to preserve an individual’s integrity. And only sometimes, and on the rarest of occasions, for those whose consciences are justly motivated, violent revolution is the tool of reformation to overthrow the evil powers.
[5] Solzhenitsyn’s life and message were captured in his famous 1974 essay, “Live not by lies.”
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