Posted on 07/23/2010 2:01:08 AM PDT by John Leland 1789
Compare Romans 13:1-7 with Matthew 22:17-22.
Obedience to this passage will require the Bible-believing student to examine the governmental system alongside which he strives to serve the Lord in the country where he lives.
Romans 13 is used most often by preachers trying to convince church members to:
1. Pay income taxes; 2. Don't rock the boat. Get any license the civil authorities say they require; 3. Subject even the operation of God's churches to the scrutinies of unregenerate civil bureaucrats.
None of these are included in the purposes for the writing of Romans chapter 13!!
The Roman Empire during Our Lord's Earthly Ministry and in the Apostolic Day
"Caesar." A dictator, e.g. Augustus, Julius, Nero, etc.
"tribute." A poll-tax paid in Roman money by each person who was enrolled in the census, and paid to the emperor. It was collected from inhabitants of annexed territories who were not properly Roman citizens (see Matthew 17:25), and cannot be compared to any income or wage tax exacted from citizens by their own government (e.g. from the United States Treasury's Internal Revenue Service). "Tribute" is paid to a dictator who, or a tyrannical governmental system which, comes after you with his conquering armies and places you in captivity! The Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem were subjected to the payment of "tribute" to Caesar because they were Palestinian Jews; Palestine being annexed by force to the Roman Empire, and forced to labor for Caesar. Paul the Apostle, on the other hand, was a free-born Roman citizen (Acts 22:28), not subject to "tribute."
According to Noah Webster's AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 1828:
TRIBUTE, n. [1.] An annual or stated sum of money or other valuable thing, paid by one prince or nation to another, either as an acknowledgement of submission, or as the price of peace and protection, or by virtue of some treaty. The Romans made all their conquered countries pay tribute, as do the Turks at this day; and in some countries the tribute is paid in children. [Underscoring is ours for emphasis]
The American Republic (The united States of America) on the North American Continent
"Caesar." By the nation's founding documents is to be the individual sovereign citizen, not a king, president, or federal government. In other words, civil government in the u.S.A., in obedience to Matthew 22:21, is supposed to render unto the sovereign citizen the things which are the sovereign citizen's. Further, civil government is duty bound to render unto God the things that are God's.
"tribute." According to the biblical Christian philosophy of America's founding fathers: customs, duties, excise taxes, and licensing fees which are paid by non-citizens wanting to do business in the united States of America; taxes paid by inhabitants of protectorate territories (e.g. Puerto Rico, Guam, Mariana Islands, &c.); marriage license fees paid by foreign nationals when marrying natural born American citizens or for cross-racial marriage (a fee which was properly demanded before the War of Northern Aggression (known by some as the War Between The States, or unfortunately by most, the Civil War). "Tribute" is never properly defined as a graduated confiscatory income or wage tax exacted from natural-born sovereign citizens.
Some Christians outside of the united States of America may be studying this. The governmental history and foundations of your country may not designate the sovereign natural-born citizen as "Caesar" or as the "higher power." You may have to recognize a federal or national government as "Caesar." Still, in order to obey Romans 13, and in order to obey the "higher powers" and "rulers" (whoever they are), their qualifications given in the context must be met, viz.: (1.) "rulers are not a terror to good works..." (2.) Rulers are, on the other hand "a terror...to the evil...a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." (3.) Rulers must be "ministers of God to thee for good." Good and evil must be defined according to God's law, not man's law or contemporary public policy!
We encourage you to stop right this moment and ask the following questions:
1. Do your civil authorities profess that Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Rightful King? 2. Do your civil authorities hold out any reward or praise to you in the raising of your children and the nurture of your families according to the precepts of God as expressed in His Holy Word, the Bible? 3. Do your civil authorities encourage and praise the propagation of eternal truth through the preaching of the Gospel of the Grace of God; salvation in Jesus Christ? 4. Do your civil authorities encourage and praise the establishment of churches that preach and teach people the truth of the Bible? 5. Does the education philosophy in your country reflect the knowledge of God in His Word? Do the teachers of your nation's children read the Bible in the class, pray, and insist on the standards, spiritually and morally, as taught in the Bible? 6. Do your civil authorities really do whatever they can do to keep alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, sodomy, and satanic arts from destroying the public morals and conscience?
We all know the answers to these questions. Civil government fails, as per Romans chapter 13. So what compels pastors, many who claim that their local churches are the Church that Jesus is building, to allow unregenerate, Christ-hating, Bible-rejecting civil authorities to take charge of the Lord's churches? What compels pastors to submit the operation of God's churches (and their Christian schools) to the devil's crowd? Many pastors will take every license, submit to every examination and inspection, pay every fee and tax, follow every rule of lost educators, submit to God-haters the details of every plan, without protest, thinking all the while that they are obeying Romans chapter 13! And they submit to the enemies of God all the while they preach Matthew 28:18—"...All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," and Ephesians 1:22 - "And hath put all things under [Christ's] feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church..."
Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of Romans 13:4. "Every soul" of verse 1 includes every president, king, prime minister, emperor, czar, dictator, senator, congressman, city councilman, zoning board member, education secretary/minister, party chairman and bureaucrat. Jesus Christ is the "higher power" to Whom they are all commanded to be "subject." If the Christian, therefore, is subject to Jesus Christ, he cannot be in violation of Romans chapter 13. Furthermore, Christians have the prerogative, yeah, duty to insist that their governmental leaders obey Jesus Christ and His Word!
Concluding this particular line of instruction, the child of God is certainly obligated to obey, honor, and pray for civil authority, when that civil authority does not act to violate the word of God, or cause the believer to violate it. Compare 1 Timothy 2:1-4.
I haven't learned how to copy something in it's original formatting, so forgive me if it is a little hard to read.
I forgot to mention that this is also in response to the thread,
Is the Tea Party unbiblical?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2557392/posts
If a large portion of your resources are taken by government, is sent through a great political machine and a small part of that is dribbled out to those the machine was ostensibly constructed to help the government will get the credit for those scraps it dispenses
If, however,an individual Christian gives of his own free will to the poor directly (or through his local church) then all of what is given goes for what it is intended and Christ himself will be glorified.
Sorry, but this reads like a bunch of mental gymnastics with the goal of rebellion to any authority you don’t like.
Are you one trained by your pastor that any time government says, "Frog," you hop? --- based on Romans 13?
Are you one taught that "Caesar" always must refer to the U.S. Federal government?
BTTT
I thought this was an EXCELLENT post re these issues. Still do.
Joel 3:4
Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
While I would love to agree, there it is.
. . . the Term “Palestine” appears NOWHERE in the Holy Bible. The area was called JUDEA. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and several subsequent Jewish “Rebellions” the Roman Emperor stripped the name “Judea” off of the maps(it's sometimes not a good idea to piss off a Superpower) and replaced in with a bastardization of the Jews mortal enemy the “Philistines” and called the area “Palestine”.
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All very true, and let us emphasize it here. Thanks.
Civil government fails, as per Romans chapter 13. So what compels pastors, many who claim that their local churches are the Church that Jesus is building, to allow unregenerate, Christ-hating, Bible-rejecting civil authorities to take charge of the Lord's churches? What compels pastors to submit the operation of God's churches (and their Christian schools) to the devil's crowd? Many pastors will take every license, submit to every examination and inspection, pay every fee and tax, follow every rule of lost educators, submit to God-haters the details of every plan, without protest, thinking all the while that they are obeying Romans chapter 13! And they submit to the enemies of God all the while they preach Matthew 28:18—"...All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," and Ephesians 1:22 - "And hath put all things under [Christ's] feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church..."
We have had no choice but to consider these issues very deeply, as we have been and are involved in Christian work where governments openly attack Christian work, Christian evangelists, and Christian churches.
Have you ever stopped to consider how it is that Christians are supposed to operate in places where Christian churches are required to register by law and to accept every restriction of government?
How do you recommend that they obey GOVERNMENT as "Caesar" and obey God at the same time?
How about in a country where the government "Caesar," although it actually openly declares atheistic Darwinianism to be the truth, hates God and scorns Him and His son, Jesus Christ, and yet actually operates more than seventeen Bible schools to train the "ministers" for the Christian churches in the country?
The churches are required to accept the graduates of "Caesars" Bible schools, including women, even if the church believes that women are not to become pastors or deacons. (1 Timothy 3)
So there are hundreds of thousands of underground, illegal, house churches of faithful Christians, all in disobedience to "Caesar."
Do these people practice "mental gymnastics" to somehow get around Romans ch. 13 "with the goal of rebellion to any authority they don't like?"
No, they have recognized that government itself is obligated to obey Romans ch. 13, and where it does not, the HIGHER POWER, Jesus Christ, must be obeyed rather than man.
By the way, having worked with such brethren abroad for more than 20 years, I also support the quickly growing unregistered, un-incorporated, non-501(c)3 church movement in the United States.
One day soon, because so many pastors and church members will "render unto 'Caesar FedGov'" anything he wants on the faulty use of Romans ch. 13, underground, unregistered churches in America will be the only places where the Bible will still be taught, and where you will find our Lord's true saints and churches---as it has been for years in other lands.
Returning to Romans 13, the scripture says, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities." The context leaves no room for selective rebellion. The key instruction is not the word 'obey', but 'be subject'.
1 Peter 2:13 repeats the instruction with, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good." Peter continues in the same context, by saying, "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh." This scripture does not contain an escape clause for rebellion if the master is ungodly.
There is a difference between obeying and submitting. Human law comes with two parts:
1- do (or don't do) item A.
2- be punished for disobeying #1
When human law conflicts with God's law, we obey God's law, but we still recognize and submit to the human authority's punishment. That's why Peter goes on to speak of suffering for doing good, and uses Jesus as an example of such suffering. Jesus spoke to Pilate about the authority he received from above, and He didn't rebel against that authority.
That must be the NBV - New Bureaucrat Version.
A much much better version reads, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers."
"When human law conflicts with God's law, we obey God's law, but we still recognize and submit to the human authority's punishment.
Do you know that that is basically what my piece says anyway?
Nowhere in it do I use the words "rebellion" or "selective rebellion."
When there is conflict between God's law and man's law, and we obey God rather than man, that is . . . well, selective rebellion, or selective obedience.
" . . . but we still recognize and submit to the human authority's punishment. That's why Peter goes on to speak of suffering for doing good, and uses Jesus as an example of such suffering."
But Peter didn't go turn himself in afterward and say, "Sirs, I obeyed God rather than you, and so I am now turning myself in to recognize and submit to human authority's punishment."
Do you mean to say that we should acknowledge that when we do obey God rather than man, that persecution is likely as a result? Well, we all know that.
Or do you mean to say that we should obey God in a particular instance, over man, and then go turn ourself in to the police?
After I give the Gospel of Jesus Christ to someone in a communist country, should I then immediately go and turn myself in to the police?
Your comments almost suggests the latter, because the former is too obvious.
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