Romans 13 and revolution: Does St. Paul's Admonition to Submit to Government mean that the Signers of the Declaration of Independence were going against the Word of God?

Christian Post ^ | 01/13/2021 | Wallace B. Henley

[SeekAndFind]

Author's note: The contemporary situation is perhaps the first time since the Civil War that talk of literal revolution is getting serious. It has been intensifying for the last four years. In 2018 I reflected on Romans 13. I Include some of those thoughts in the current column.

America in this desperate hour does not need bloody, anarchic chaos from left or right, but a constitutional, biblically grounded revolution.

Chaos kills the patient it claims to heal.

America’s founders, steeped in biblical knowledge and principles, and fresh from the chaos of the Revolutionary War, sought revolution that would be carried out with order rather than chaotic rampage like we have seen in 2020. (read John Eidsmoe’s Christianity and the Constitution and/or Democracy in America, by Alexis DE Tocqueville, and/or Wilfred M. McClay’s Land of Hope, and/or Revival, Revolution, Rebirth, co-authored by former House Majority Leader Tom Delay and myself).

When it comes to revolution there are two extremes among Christians. One embraces the view that revolution by any means is acceptable. The other extreme insists that Romans 13 forbids any resistance, even of a tyrannical government.

Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, opens with these words: “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”

Does this mean the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were going against the Word of God? Does this mean that people have no biblically sanctioned means of bringing down despotic regimes?

The key to understanding and applying Romans 13 lies in an important Greek word that appears there, exousia. This term is usually translated as “authority”, in contrast to dunamis (“power”) or kratos (“might,” or “strength”)

Power and might can only function properly when under proper authority. Therefore, the American Founders, in an age touched by the Great Awakening, and the thundering voices of prophetic preachers, placed healthy restraints in the founding documents. God’s transcendent authority is above all, as made clear in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. (Italics added)

Therefore, “powers” can only be exercised under proper authority, flowing from God to the people, and through them to the government they choose, all “under God.” The People are the agents of God’s authority. That means they have a responsibility to know the heart and mind of God through relationship with Him. “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people,” said John Adams. “It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

This is a major shift from the elitist monarchical-oligarchical-plutocratic governing styles that had dominated six thousand years of recorded history. (See, for example, William Federer’s book, Change to Chains)

It’s important, then, to understand crucial differences between power and authority:

• Authority is granted from the higher to the lower; power is seized by the strongest
• Authority is accountable to its transcendent source; power is accountable only to itself
• Authority is sustained through loving relationship and service; power is sustained by raw strength
• Authority leads through example and the free choice of those who are led; power controls, as Dudley Hall puts it, through manipulation, intimidation, condemnation, domination.

Where mighty people try to use power without authority there is opportunity for the demonic to surge in. All the powers of darkness await is someone to open the door so the destroyers can find a “stronghold” from which they can accomplish their evil purposes.

Both King Saul and King Nebuchadnezzar learned this principle the hard way. Saul acted against the direction of God in the aftermath of a great battle and victory and seized authority that God had not granted him. The Lord spoke the result through the prophet Samuel: “... rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination as iniquity and idolatry... Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king of Israel.” (1 Samuel 15:22-23)

The big lesson: Use power and might entrusted to you without yourself being under proper authority, and you will lose the right to lead and rule. This has concerning implications for Catholics in government who expand abortion despite the official beliefs of their Church.

Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar rejected the God of Daniel and lost his mind, spending years in the wilderness in an animal-like existence. But in his insanity, Nebuchadnezzar found God, and, at the end, declared Daniel’s God as the true God, “the ruler over the realm of mankind,” who “sets over it the lowliest” of people (because it is the “lowliest” who are humble enough to recognize their need to be under authority, and thus can be trusted with authority). (Daniel 3-4)

It would seem now that the whole of contemporary government has dashed off into Nebuchadnezzar’s wilderness of chaos. Pray that its minions find God in that mad realm and bring themselves under His authority.

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Wallace B. Henley’s fifty-year career has spanned newspaper journalism, government in both White House and Congress, the church, and academia. He is author or co-author of more than 20 books. He is a teaching pastor at Grace Church, the Woodlands, Texas.

[JamesP81]

I can’t say if the Founders were wrong or not. What I do know is that our current Constitution is the law that God has appointed for us to live by.

That Constitution does not grant us freedom of speech, religion, to bear arms, etc. It makes it illegal for the authorities to stop us from exercising those rights.

That makes the authorities the criminals when the abridge them. They are the ones sowing disorder. They are the ones rebelling against the Lord.

[Slyfox]

Jesus said something about giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.

[delapaz]

I can say they were wrong and will. There was no Biblical justification for the American Revolution. Full Stop.

[Harpotoo]

Rome did not last forever. God’s will?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: There was no Biblical justification for the American Revolution. Full Stop.

Is there then any Biblical Justification for the USA to exist as a nation?

[old school]

An Opposing view:

https://www.wnd.com/2001/04/8841/

[Slyfox]

The American Founding was more Biblically-based than any other founding, ever.

Our Founders were trained in the best moral philosophy based on virtue and human dignity in relation to God.

The premise of this article is irritating.

[Mr Rogers]

Paul continued on:

“For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good.”

Such a government is what we are to subject ourselves to.

[Migraine]

I liked the author’s breakdown of the word “authority”, as opposed to the words for “power”. It is significant. In the movie “Doctor Zhivago”, the good doctor was abruptly taken from his hospital work by a local soviet deputy to investigate an illness in a communal house. Zhivago said “You had no right whatsoever to take me from my work”. The deputy asserted, “As soviet deputy...” Zhivago cut him off: “That gives you the power, not the right.” Profound, I though.

Jehoiada the priest and the captains of the guard took down the usurper queen Athaliah, and it was a godly act.

The Maccabees fought against and took down Greek tyranny and it was a godly act.

So the key here is the illegitimacy of tyranny (as opposed to legitimate governance, which is peaceable and godly, and we’re to pray for that).

In Romans 2 (I know, it is speaking about the Law of Moses, but the principle is similar if not the same) it says “When they who are without the law do what is contained in the law, they become a law unto themselves”. I think that is at least partially germane.

Peter, James and John were adamant that they were to obey God rather than man. So that principle is also afoot.

And nowhere is that principle more elegantly stated than in said Declaration.

[Prole]

If the Founders were wrong, then why did God smite the British with all of Nature’s fury when the bastards tried burning Washington DC to ashes during their revenge in the War of 1812?

Such Divine Intervention is considered a huge contributor as to why the city was spared from absolute ruin from British hands.

[italyconservative]

Good reminder about godly leadership. Thanks for sharing this! Praying. Soli Deo Gloria!

[aimhigh]

Power and might can only function properly when under proper authority.

There is no human authority that is perfect. The author appears to provide an excuse to disobeying authority anytime we can find fault with it.

[JamesP81]

“I can say they were wrong and will. There was no Biblical justification for the American Revolution. Full Stop.”

They may have been, however, the past cannot be undone.

We have a nation now that is existing under a set of law God either appointed or permitted to rule us. That law is the Constitution. That same law makes it illegal for the authorities to abridge freedom of speech, worship, etc.

So regardless of the circumstances of the founding today, right now, the authorities are the criminals when they abridge those rights. They are the ones disobeying God.

[attiladhun2]

The Founders were not rebelling against lawful authority, they were resisting aggression by a tyrannical power.

[delapaz]

I agree with that, once a government is established, by right of conquest, orderly process or revolution, they become earthly authorities and are instituted as governments among men (Romans 13) who rule by God’s authority.

[delapaz]

the governing authority will prosper if they follow God, but will fall into ruin if they forget God’s law, recall the fate of Herod (Acts 12).

[delapaz]

Caesar was much more tyrannical than George III ever thought of being and Jesus, Paul and the Apostles never called for revolution, to the contrary they said give to Caesar what is Caesars. They only opposed Caesar where it was in direct conflict with God’s command.

[Wallace T.]

One principle that the Founding Fathers were familiar with was the theory of the lesser magistrate. The background is that the governments of the 13 colonies declared resistance to the infringements on liberties that the British Crown wanted to impose. The colonial militias were not an armed rabble like the so called militia groups of today. They were organized at the local level by county or town authorities and governed by the colonial governments. The Declaration of Independence was signed by representatives of the 13 colonies who were duly appointed to the Continental Congress by the provincial legislatures. Those legislatures and their governors were the lesser magistrates who saw their duty as protecting the rights of Englishmen that the Crown sought to abrogate.

The War for Independence was not contrary to Romans 13, as the soldiers were obedient to the commands of the provincial/state authorities that were duly constituted.

[unlearner]

“RE: There was no Biblical justification for the American Revolution. Full Stop.”

How about morality, freedom, truth, justice, equity, civility?

Biblically, there is a “time for war”. See Ecclesiastes 3:8.

Anyone can assert authority over anyone else. Do we have to accept all such assertions?

Your assumption is ridiculous. It is the lack of clarity of thought, such as what you posted, that leads free people to forfeit their freedom.