[noprogs]

I suspect his prison warden or the Council of Nicea, who were government employees (Church and State were one in those days) either intentionally misinterpreted Paul or inserted that out of whole cloth.

Paul was clear and direct on about everything else he wrote. If that passage was really about people acting like punks, Paul would have said “stop acting like punks”. That governments are ordained of God is a far cry from that!

All things work for His Purposes. God uses evil governments many times in the Bible to punish Israel, and to force Christians to trust Him and His Church.

This is just one dumb redneck’s suspicion/interpretation of that passage and the issues arising from it.

[American Constitutionalist]

The statist ? say to them ? God save King Geroge ! " Well then, alrighty, George Washington and the rest of the founding fathers were a bunch of rebels not only rebelling against King George but against God's word "
The true die hards of what Paul said then would have to say that the United States is a illegitimate government because they rebelled against the government at that time and against God.

[American Constitutionalist]

Those " Punks " I referred to was a modern ideal of what some of those rowdy people could have been like.

Collect the pieces of the puzzle through out the new testament and you'll see of what sorts these were.

Not only in Rome but in other places where you had Christians doing all sorts of horrendous things.

I am talking about envying, strife, riotous living ( that was what mainly I was talking about, riotous living ) binge drinking, divisions, slandering each other, stealing, father rapers, going on even in the early church.

Trouble makers irregardless of what society or country they belonged to.