Should Christians obey their government?

Should Christians obey their government?

By Richard P. Joseph

If I ask any dedicated Christian if we should obey our government they will immediately take me to Romans Chapter 13 where Paul starts out with:

13 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.

Paul certainly followed the laws of the land and was a good example of a model citizen once he became a Christian.  I agree that we should follow the law which leads me to my next question; What is your current governmental structure?

Back in biblical times and, in fact, during most of the history of the earth the government rested on the shoulders of a king.  There are very rare instances where the power was spread to a senate of sorts where the people actually had a voice.  Rome experimented with the senate for a short while but the greed of kings still won the day.  One of the most important documents was the Magna Carta in 1215 which gave English citizens a voice in their government.  Other than that it was Rex Lex (the king is the law) for the most part.  The founders of the United States were unique and blessed as they reversed that trend into Lex Rex (the LAW is the king).  

I believe our constitution was a miracle of sorts as it released the earth from oppression and gave each individual value.  Every man now had incentive to create and invent and be rewarded for it.  This caused the earth to make advancements unparalleled since creation.  Only in a Christianized nation is this possible.  I cannot even start to mention the technological advances but more important was the value put on human beings.  It was the western world that ultimately put an end to slavery even though the Democrats in America are doing everything they can to keep it going via the welfare system, education system and ghetto creation.  We now have inner city plantations created by the Democratic party which shows us that evil is alive and well on planet earth.  But my real point in this article is to define “what government do we obey”?   

I am suggesting that we obey our current and legal form of government which is the constitution, not some crooked politician.   Most people in America have been fooled into obeying illegal actions by our politicians instead of obeying our real law, the constitution.  I am not going to make a list right now but understand that we as Christians are duty bound to follow the law and reject what is not the law.  If the government is not authorized by the constitution to create certain “laws” or if a judge attempts to create laws from the bench, then we have a duty to disobey simply by the fact that it is an illegal action.  I will let you fill in all of the blanks.  Most Christians have been hoodwinked into believing that if a politician speaks then we should jump.  As for me, I only jump when it is authorized by our law.