My annual repost of A nation born of rebellion against God ....
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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.
With these words, the Declaration of Independence begins to list the grievances suffered under the despotic rule of King George over the English colonies in America. After a lengthy list of grievances, the Declaration declares that the colonies are no longer under the rule of England but are instead free and independent.
Powerful words. Solemn words. Words that, at least until recently, were taught to all schoolchildren and words that are part of our American lore. I am in awe of the power and eloquence of the Declaration and the subsequent Constitution that at one time was the law of the land in America. So that is great, we all agree that America is swell. So what is the point? Here is where I am going with this: Are these statements in the Declaration of Independence the founding words of a Christian nation, a country founded on "Judeo-Christian" values?
Simply put: No.
Why in the world would I say that?
Because America was birthed by an ungodly act of rebellion against authority.
Yikes! Stay with me here. This is a long one but I think it is important and thought provoking.
This post is not intended to bash America. I would not choose to live anywhere else in the world unless I was led to do so in God's providence. I love my country, in fact I love my country more than may be healthy as a Christian. I am also not saying that the founding fathers were wrong or that the end result is bad. Clearly America has been a force for more good than ill in the world. This statement is intended as a wake-up call to the church. Evangelicals must remember that being an evangelical Christian must of necessity take priority over being an American. I hear lots of lip-service to that effect but practically speaking our American upbringing impacts our doctrine and practice in some troubling ways. There are no special secular nations, even ones where the founding is full of religious overtones. I think this is important because there is such a blurring of the distinction between the church and America that it sometimes seems as if we are evangelists for American culture more than witnesses of the risen Christ. So if you will, please indulge me for a few minutes to explain why I would make that assertion.
The core issue here is one of submission. Submission gets a bad rap in the church in America because it is either tip-toed around or it is used as a club. Americans don't like to submit to anyone for any reason. The Founding Fathers decided that at some point they no longer wished to submit to King George, to pay his taxes without representation. I think most historians would agree that King George was a poor ruler. So it is little wonder that the colonies eventually revolted. The question we are pondering here is a dramatically different one: Is our submission to authority based on the worthiness of the one in authority? That is an important question because we are called on to submit all over the place in the Bible, a subject we looked at yesterday when the church gathered.
Let's take a look at what the Bible says about submission to authorities and it says a lot.
The first place I want to look is at the third chapter of Paul’s letter to Titus.
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. (Titus 3:1)
Paul is somewhat vague here. He exhorts Titus to remind Christians to be submissive to authorities. Who these rulers and authorities are doesn’t get much clarification but I certainly think that Paul is at least implying governing officials. The following sections of Scripture reinforce this idea quite powerfully.
Next we have a powerful statement from the lips of Christ Himself. Pay careful attention here.
He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” (John 19:10-11)
Here is Christ, mere hours away from His death on the cross, telling Pontius Pilate that he has no authority (including the authority to condemn Christ to die) except that which he has received “from above”, i.e. from God. Stop and think about what Christ is saying here. Pontius Pilate received his authority from Caesar. So by proxy Caesar has been granted the authority by God to put Jesus Christ to death. I can’t overemphasize this point that the most unjust and tyrannical government ever faced by Christians was given its authority directly from God and it used that authority to crucify Christ and persecute the church for the next three centuries. Roman Emperors like Nero and Caligula make King George look like Mr. Rogers in comparison. Ponder that as we move forward.
Next, a look at what Peter wrote regarding this issue. I think this is important as well because this is not a “Paul-only” doctrine. It is something found in the words of Christ and Peter as well as Paul. Just once in Scripture should be sufficient but for purposes of staking a position I think it adds even more weight when there are multiple sources.
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:13-17)
Please note a few things here. Be subject to every human institution, emperor and governors. Not to be subject to only the just rulers or those you voted for. Remember again as a frame of reference that when Peter says “emperor” he must be referring to Caesar and when he refers to “governor” that likely refers to men like Pilate. Verse 17 is especially telling; we are to honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God and honor the emperor. Honor Caesar? Absolutely.
Next up is Romans 13, the seminal passage on human governing authorities.
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. (Romans 13: 1-7)
There is no authority other than those God has instituted. That would obviously include the Roman empire and of course the good ole United States of America. Wouldn’t it similarly include Nazi Germany? The Stalinist Soviet Union? Castro’s Cuba? North Korea? England under the reign of King George? Lichtenstein! All of the above. So Paul is saying that by resisting the authorities placed over us, we resist God and bring judgment upon ourselves. We are to submit and pay taxes, whether we consider them just or not.
Look at what precedes Romans 13, keeping in mind that the chapter breaks are not in the original. What Paul wrote right before this passage is vital to understanding Romans 13: 1-7.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12: 14-21)
That is important to remember. Christians in Rome would be facing persecution just as Paul himself, a frequent guest in prison cells, was subjected to. In the face of such injustice, the natural response as an American is to overthrow the scoundrels, the whole refresh the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants and patriots thing. Paul is saying just the opposite and we must consider the end of chapter 12 and the beginning of chapter 13 as one continuous thought. Is the government unjust? God will judge that nation. Are the rulers despotic? God is the one who will avenge their injustice, either immediately (see the death of Herod in Acts 12: 20-23) or at the Judgment seat. “Don’t tread on me” is not a concept that would be understood by Paul.
What is the overarching message here? It strikes me that God is sovereign over all nations, not just Western democracies but all nations, and that God will judge those nations. We all understand this and accept this, at least in theory. Submission is an easy topic to talk about but when you apply it as a practical matter, it gets messy and sometimes flies in the face of certain ideals that we hold dear. This issue is one that is easily turned from “Scripture says” to “Well, I think”.
So that brings me back to my original point. Was the founding of America a “Christian” action? I have to say “No”. No matter that the lofty ideals espoused by the Founders sound pleasing to our ears or that we can argue that no secular nation on earth is a better one. The notion that America was once a “Christian nation” and needs to return to that state is demonstrably false because the very founding of America was done as an act of rebellion against the very authorities that God had ordained.
Am I missing something here? Is there anything in the New Testament that would lead a follower of Jesus Christ to think that we are called to overthrow unjust rulers? Should we pray for our leaders? Well certainly we should and that is perfectly Biblical. Should we take up arms to overthrow them? Absolutely not, not even if they force high taxes on us or unjust laws. Not even if they persecute the church and not even if they put Christians to death. God will avenge, not us and we are never called to return evil for evil, even when we are sure that our cause is right. We shouldn’t turn to George Washington and Patrick Henry to form our beliefs regarding human government. Our model for how we should relate to the government is found in Scripture, in Paul and Peter and most especially in Jesus Christ.
10 comments:
This is a well written post.
I had a similar (less well written) post at www.abnormalreaction.wordpress.com
Good article Arthur,
I've thought this for several years myself but never talked to anyone who felt the same way. Mind if I post your article on my FB page? Might stir up some controversy, but it could be good for some people to think through the issue...
Hey Seth, please do. It certainly will cause some controversy but we need to get shaken a bit from time to time.
Dear Mr. Sido,
Examination of a general application of submission may be aided looking at one of several specific applications: I just don't know what to make of Corrie Ten Boom (and many others)! As a Christian, was her respect for authority sorely lacking?
May God Bless You and Your Family, and Your Yearning to Get it Right for Him,
Bob Peavy ><>
I am His first,
a child of my true native "land," and
a citizen and lover of the land in which He graciously placed me.
The issue of Christian submission to government is not so easy for me to speak of as it used to be. Stories of D. Bonhoeffer and Corrie Ten Boom muddy up the issue a bit. These people are my heroes.
Bethany
Bob and Bethany
The example of Corrie ten Boom is a world different from rising up in armed rebellion. That doesn’t change the fact that she was circumventing the law. I think Christians are perfectly justified in obeying God’s law rather than man where the two conflict (see Acts 5:29) and that Corrie was acting in mercy and overcoming evil with good. Whether she was violating the command to submit to the authorities while peaceably and at obvious risk to herself and her family aiding Jews is a tough topic.
Bonhoeffer is a more tragic case. I think his witness would have been far greater had he not sought to take matters into his own hands and tried to kill Hitler. I have no problem saying that in the end he made a mistake. That is not to say that Hitler was not a monster but that God has and is dealing with Adolf Hitler right now. He neither asked for nor needed the help of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. If we trust in God’s goodness and sovereignty and believe His Word, we should trust that He will judge perfectly those who have violated His law and committed acts of evil.
Part I Americanism, Action, Prayer
Dear Arthur Sido,
We may've gotten away from your true purpose in this particular blog episode - I agree that Christian Americans are subject to a kind of syncretism, attempting to meld Christianity with a form of Americanism. But there needs be no either/or dichotomy of God OR country (yes, it is tempting to think that we are a/the/His special nation, a sucessor to the Puritans and to Israel itself - conferring with a Frenchman can "clarify" that we are not any such, a conference with many an American in his home state will "clarify" that God's country is raht cheer). The core issue in this discussion is submission to authority, and the priority of authorities is clarified for us as the Decalogue opens. We are His ... first.
When I was first in college, in the 1960s, a 1927 poem, the Desiderata, was mis-attributed, popularized and widely praised, but it somewhat bothered me; and not because it was explicitly not Christian (although it agreed with many Biblical passages) - it was so ..., so ... passive! I was not unaware of the following scripture (and it is certainly even more precious to me as I grow older):
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 AV (I can hear Alexander Scourby even now)(A passage from Paul which accords well with his words at Titus 3:1).
But the seeming inactivity recommended in the poem seemed so far from our identification as salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16). Taking the two scriptures (within their contexts) together, might this be a Biblical tension which Word-fed and spirit-guided discernment must work through, which my Christian conscience must bear (I WILL answer for my decisions in this life). In more recent years, as a homeschooler, protection of my children from the world versus the need to broaden their education so that they might be His salt and light might be an analagous tension.
As to prayers for all men, here is a contribution I made to Eric's blog some time back: One year in the mid-1980s, the duty to lead the community Thanksgiving church service in the Islands area, east of Savannah, fell to the associate pastor of a Methodist church. His brave sermon for that worship service concerned, in part, whether anyone is truly lost prior to death - he contrasted two of God's creatures, two men who had been created in His image: Saint Paul, and ... Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi! What has God's great evangelist to do with Libya's cruel dictator? Paul persecuted, Gaddafi persecutes, and worse, still, almost three decades later. Paul converted, and died a saved man; while living, a repentant, converted and forgiven Gaddafi is still POSSIBLE, however remotely. The pastor prayed for that conversion then, and decades later, we should pray for that conversion now, even while international forces and those whom he persecuted seek to end his persecution, and perhaps end his life. The likelihood of such a conversion, howevermuch it seems infinitesimal, is worth our prayer, and such a conversion is not impossible to Him.
Part II Opposition to Injustice, and Reconciliation
Now, back to the founding: Whether a Christian undertakes waging a war of rebellion against authority for causes that he sees as God's will (Laws of Nature and Nature's God ... appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions ... with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence), or whether a Christian disobeys authority, ostensibly because overall submission (to Nazis, for example) would involve some violation of His Word, a lack of conformance to God's will (sin) - again, I agree that a core issue is submission to authority (both God and earthly authorities). YOU clearly see that our nation was founded in contravention to God's commands (including, I would think, rendering unto Caesar in Luke 20:25), founded in sin but, overall, eventually accomplishing good things, a positive net result (hopefully, not going so far as outright relativism - did this end justify the means?). Perhaps the Hebrew nation was raised up similarly, founded in the sin of Joseph's brothers and raised up in and as a part of, even while apart from, the land of Egypt and its authority (indubitably, a greater authority explicitly provided for that secession).
These fellow saints and sinners of the Revolutionary War, or those of World War II, simply didn't see it your way. Among other matters, they considered that provision for their families, including their defense against tyranny (a slippery slope?) was also God's will (1 Timothy 5:8). Indeed, they discerned that they WERE obedient to His authority. They considered (and interpreted differently) the very scripture passages on which you hang your hat, but they also took the counsel of other passages.
A quite secondary issue is something like the Divine Right of Kings: As to a presumed continuity of God-appointed authority, however despotic, how do we "fix" this problem, reconciling us, as a rebel nation, to God's will? Were it possible, would we, as a nation, now submit to the United Kingdom, the Queen and the Parliament, and kindly request our independence now? Is the continuity of authority a kind of apostolic succession? How long is the new regime, under the Articles of Confederation, or under the Constitution, in effect before He would have us submit to new authority, before He appoints it as "legitimate?"
If the core issue is submission to His authority, and to the authority of those whom He may have appointed, there is no world different and no circumventing His Law - there is a different understanding of His will for His child, that is, an earnest Christian discerning differently.
Part III Witness, Discernment and Judgement
The courage of Corrie Ten Boom was one of several specific instances for an evident lack of submission; for me, those many others to whom I had alluded included any Christians who helped to shield Anne Frank for a time, any Christians who participated in the Underground Railroad, &c., and ... of course, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Please, I understand that each of such believers was a sinner and a saint, but upon further consideration of the last fellow (attempting to remove chains of oppression, the yoke of injustice), I am aghast:
The SS doctor who was present at the 1945 execution (writing a decade later): "I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer ... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God." (There are other translations of the doctor's delayed eulogy - I particularly liked one version's allusion to his devotion as "immersion," if you will, being baptized into the death, and resurrection, of our Lord. My German is to old and too unused to be of use, and I couldn't find the doctor's words in his tongue in any case.)
Had he not actively sought the death of Hitler and been martyred because of it, Bonhoefer's witness would have been far greater!
Remarkable.
God indeed deals with the likes of Hilter, Stalin, Idi Amin, Saddam Husein &c. and other unbelieving despots.
In a different way, he deals with his errant children as well: Christian American Revolutionaries (Rebels), including the ordained but "enlightened" Rev. Witherspoon, and Corrie ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoeffer answer as Christians for their sins, for their lack of submission to God, and perhaps for lack of submission to appointed authority, if indeed they failed Him in that way - and those of us who have lesser legacies in His service, as do I, will answer also (there will be no "I was just following orders" of the authority that Thou gavest me defense). Why will we have so much to answer for? Not only because the flesh, our fallen nature, too often wins, but also because of our/my defective interpretation of His Word and because of our/my faulty discernment of His will, and because I, and they, must sometimes wade through the perceived tension (not the contradiction) of one part of His Word and another.
Brother, May God Bless You and Your Family,
Bob Peavy ><>
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