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Authority is God’s command

PROFESSIONS OF FAITH

Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a two-part series written by the Rev. Dr. James Barnes. The second part will be published in the Saturday, Oct. 14, edition of the Sentinel.

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Romans 13:1 says, “Let every person be subject to governing authorities.”

The verse doesn’t qualify who those governing authorities are or what subjection might mean. Thus, we have an unqualified, unmitigated command to be subjected to the governing authorities, whatever they are.

Similar instructions appear in I Peter 2:13-14 where it says, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of them who do right.”

Both the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter make it clear that our responsibility is to submit to the governing authorities. Paul then gives us seven reasons why we are told to do this.

1. We are to submit because government is by divine decree.

Psalm 62:11 says, “Power belongs to God and the power to establish government belongs to God.” So government and the men who wield the power in it are chosen by God. Thus we can conclude that no tyrant ever seized power without God allowing him to take power.

One might ask, what about cruel ones? What about unjust ones? Cruel abuses in government are no reflection of God’s nature any more than cruel abuses in marriage or the defection of people in churches. Divorce rips marriages apart, and abuses in government destroy the good that government can do. But those abuses do not diminish the fact that these institutions are ordained by God. Man abuses all of God’s gifts, do they not?

I have been reading through the book of Judges, and it is obvious how God uses Nations to chasten. In chapter three, Israel was told to destroy all the nations in the promise land but instead intermarried with them. It says God’s anger was flamed against them. God sent King Cushan, of eastern Syria, to conquer them, and Israel was under that evil king’s rule for eight years. They repented. Israel conquered them and served God for 40 years. They repeated their sin, and God sent a king of Moab to subdue them. Israel had to pay a crushing tax to that king for 18 years. And that cycle is repeated over and over again.

God has his purpose even in the most wicked forms of government. But in the beginning, God ordained government to protect and preserve man for the protection of life and property, for the repression of evil and crime and for the reward of virtue and good.

2. Resistance to government is rebellion against God.

Robert Haldane wrote a commentary in 1839 and said, “The people of God then should consider resistance to the government under which they live as a very awful crime, even resistance to God Himself.”

Maybe you don’t like what is taking place in our country today, but neither does God, and he will determine the form of government that suits his purpose. Exodus 22:28 says, “Do not curse a ruler.” Paul told Timothy, “Pray for those who are your authorities, pray for their salvation.”

It didn’t matter if the Roman Emperor was elected by the people or appointed by the Senate, or placed there by a military coup. It didn’t matter if he was just or unjust. It didn’t matter if he was a homosexual, a pedophile, a murderer or a good man. The principle is the same; there is no place for resistance because to do so is to resist God. Daniel nor Paul nor Christ ever waivered in their respect to the government. The president, the governor, the police are ordained by God to wield the sword and have a delegated authority from God to do what they do for the good of society.

3. Those that resist government will be punished.

The consequence of rebellion is judgment, and here it carries the idea of punishment from the people in power. God has given government the power to punish. Punishment has some purposes: It declares what is right so it has this justice factor; punishment was to be swift and immediate, to act as a deterrent; punishment was to hold a threat that restrained evil; and punishment by the government was to prevent private vengeance. Did you know there were no prisons in O.T. and N.T. Judaism? They had this makeshift holding place, but it was temporary. Even the Puritans in early America implemented physical punishment through labor for lesser offenses and execution for severe cases. Who changed all of that? The Quakers. They introduced prisons in Pennsylvania. The first prison in America was Wall Street Jail.

Prisons were called penitentiaries to imply that if you locked someone up, they would become penitent. That didn’t work out so well, did it? Today we have the most prisoners in the world and the highest crime rate. Prisons are effective in creating more crime and more immorality. One writer said, “The American prison system is unbiblical, inhumane, ineffective, inefficient and idiotic.”

Today we punish about 25 out of every 500 people who commit a crime. And when you are in prison, there is no way for you to make restitution. Exodus 21 and 22 say a thief should work to give back what was stolen. Yes, they were punished but also provided a path of restitution.

When human authority punishes violators of the law, God approves of that punishment. Yes, the instruments are human, but the punishment is divine. When evil goes unpunished, when criminals get away with crimes, when there is no path to restitution and recovery of dignity, it spells the end of society. Politicizing it won’t change that. Only the gospel can change people, and changed people can change society.

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The Rev. Dr. James Barnes is currently the pastor of White Memorial Church in Milroy.

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