Nov 09 2008
Should You Always Obey the Government?
Romans 13
1 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. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
President Obama will be the President of the United States soon and we should respect him and pray for him. The office of the President and the Government should be respected and we should obey. However, just because Obama will be President does not mean we have to agree with everything he does. And we should critique him, it is our freedom and right to do so. One should fight for their individual freedoms. If Obama does try to change the Constitution of the United States and limit our individual freedoms, I will fight.
The Constitution gave us a republic with a limited government and many individual freedoms. With many individual freedoms, we must have self-government, which is what America is founded on.
When it comes to God and the Bible, government does not just mean civil government. Self-government is the most important and the founding fathers knew this, which is why religion is encourage. The second most important government is the family, third is the church, and last is the civil government.
Our Constitution specifically limit’s the power of the civil government for a reason. If the civil government is given too much power they can take away our individual freedoms and become a tyranny.
According to the Bible, the purpose of the institution of civil government is justice. To punish sin and evil and to provide national security.
Romans 13 teaches that the President of the United States and every government official must submit to the U.S. Constitution and are the ordinance of God.
God did not ordained a particular ruler, but the institution of civil government. God does not say to submit to and obey evil persons and their government no matter what, only when they are good. Every citizen should obey the civil government, but only when the civil government does not stop the citizen from obeying God and the U.S. Constitution.
A sermon from John Mayhew, “…urges the duty of obedience from this topic of argument, that civil rulers, as they are supposed to fulfill the pleasure of God, are the ordinance of God. But how is this an argument for obedience to such rulers as do not perform the pleasure of God, by doing good; but the pleasure of the devil, by doing evil; and such as are not, therefore, God’s ministers, but the devil’s! Is resisting those who resist God’s will, the same thing with resisting God?” (wnd.com)
I swear, you get more and more crazy by the day.
Spell check and a quick crash course on the use of tense in the English language should be on your short list, not repeating sermons, bilbical fairy tales, or suddenly coming to the realization that not agreeing with everything your government does is just hunky dory-especially considering you were so quick to chastise others for having the same view when your party of malcontents were in charge.
3D - All she is saying is that God is our number one authority. If you have so many opinions about grammar etc maybe you should volunteer to be her editor. =) (However I think what you wrote it just a HUGE run on sentence. HmM…..
TJJ
There’s nothing grammatically wrong with 3D’s sentence. It appears lengthy because it includes a hefty list of recommendations, but it has a very basic structure. The term “run-on” is only applicable when various clause types are meshed together with no coherent links.
I’ve never read the New Testament, so you’ll have to enlighten me as to where it talks about the US Constitution.
Is this an English grammar blog? Because I thought it was political…..My mistake. If you are going to correct grammar please write in red like a proper teacher.
Also the bible does not talk about the US Constitution because it wasn’t around then……Common sense much? But our constitution was based on Christian philosophies.
TJJ
A very interesting viewpoint. I jus wrote a post with a Christian Perspecitve as I am quite stunned that so many Christians don’t like the idea of Obama redistributing the wealth a bit. I like to see other’s viewpoints and respect them even if they are different from my own. I love a good old debate.
You believe that George W. Bush was more in line with the Constitution and God?!?
The President that lied to the world to justify the slaughter of innocent people.
The President who hired inept cronies and personal loyalists that referred to the Constitution and the Geneva Convention as “quaint”.
The President that altered the US Constitution by castrating the checks and balances system and anointed himself “Unitary Executive”.
The President that rolled back regulations on our landscape and waters to further the profits of his backers.
The President that authorized torture and secret prisons.
The President that promoted legislation to make it harder for children to learn, and therefore prosper.
The President that denies children healthcare.
That President?
3D-
Where do I even begin with you…….
Yes. Bush was more in line w the constitution and God. He was a legitimate Christian. And no innocent people died in Iraq and they certainly werent slaughtered. The people who died in Iraq were our soldiers who signed up for the job. There was no draft. The other people that died in Iraq were our enemies and our enemies children. Deal with it. Thats war.
As for torture and secret prisons….Prisons in other countries need to be kept secret so that our enemies do not know where they are located. And the torture was not nearly as bad as what they would have done to our soldiers.
And how exactly did he make it harder for children to learn? I want an example of that please.
And as for healthcare….PLEASE! I dont get free healthcare. If I wanted it I would pay for it. If I had kids and I cared about them enough I would pay for their healthcare as well.
Nothing in life is free nor should it be. We all pay for things one way or another. Only liberals expect the government to take care of them because they are too irresponsible or too stupid to take care of themselves. If you have problems deal with them and stop blaming others or our government.
TJJ