Christianity & Culture. Part 15: The Role of Government and Civil Disobedience

Transcription

1 Christianity & Culture Part 15: The Role of Government and Civil Disobedience

2 Introduction In our last lecture, The Role of Government, we investigated the inspired wisdom of Solomon as he detailed the responsibilities of kings as preserved for us by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament book of Proverbs. Kings, he said, were to rule justly, because the throne is established by righteousness (Prov. 16:12). Inevitably, then, the practice of any form of corruption ( exacting gifts ) leads to the certain tearing down of the land (Prov. 29:4). Solomon s constant prayer is that God would grant His justice to him so that he might judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice (Ps. 72:1-2). Since God is the one who sets up kings (Dan. 2:21), rulers are forbidden to do evil and are required to winnow all evil with his eyes (Prov. 20:8).

3 Introduction We also affirmed that the Scriptures teach the following: 1. Civil government is a divine institution and derives its authority from God. 2. Both civil government and the church exist through divine ordination. 3. All authority on earth is, by nature, a limited authority. 4. The state must represent God and has no right to represent the people (Rom. 13:1-7). 5. The state s essential function is justice and godly order.

4 Introduction 6. God s larger governance of the world includes the civil government. 7. Rulers are called servants of God (Rom. 13:6). 8. No man has any rightful power over other men unless it is given to him by God. 9. Every person has the obligation to be obedient to the state as long as it fulfills its God-given authority. 10. Rulers will appear before the throne of the great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings, and should expect divine judgment. 11. Around the world, God s people live under various forms of government.

5 Introduction Our present task is to: 1. Differentiate between the various types of government 2. Acknowledge our political duty 3. Recognize the problems associated with government 4. Understand what Christians need to avoid 5. Consider the meaning of civil disobedience

6 Types of Government

7 Seven Types of Government In his book, Politics of Guilt and Pity, Rousas J. Rushdoony differentiates between the words government and state. Government is the broader of the two terms and should not be confused with civil government. There are actually seven different types of government: 1. Self-government 2. Family 3. Church 4. School 5. A person s vocation, business, work, profession, or calling 6. Private associations 7. Civil government

8 Our Political Duty

9 Our Political Duty Submit to Civil Magistrates: Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed (Titus 3:1). Submit yourselves for the Lord s sake to every human institution: whether to a king as the one in authority; or to governors, as sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers and the praise of those who do right (I Pet. 2:13-14). Obedience in Lawful Things: Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God (Rom. 13:2). Render Service: Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom (Rom. 13:7).

10 Our Political Duty Embrace Civil Law: Our generation needs to recognize in civil law the will of God by which he seeks to redirect fallen humanity s evil propensities for greed and power and privilege, and by which through civil order he seeks to reaffirm his intention for man s purposive and creative life in community (Carl F.H. Henry) Accept Civic Responsibility and Duty: Those who believe that God wills the exercise of civil authority for the preservation of justice in a fallen society, that civil government has limited powers, that God holds nations answerable to his published will, that God acts purposefully and providentially in the history of nations, will bear their responsibility and duty in the public arena (Henry).

11 Our Political Duty Keep the Social Commandments: Fulfillment of public duty involves keeping the social commandments of the Decalogue, expressly those against adultery, murder, stealing, and coveting another s wife and property (Rom. 13:8-10) (Henry). Prepare to Suffer: Christians should prepare to suffer under various governments, or even die (I Pt. 3:9, 14-17; 4:12-19). He suffers because he strives to live a life of true justice (I Pt. 4:15). Challenging Legal Injustice. Christians are to be publicly engaged in the arena of justice to the limit of personal ability and opportunity but always within the boundaries of morality (Henry).

12 Our Political Duty Prayer: First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity (I Tim. 2:1-2). Matthew Henry: Pray for kings, though the kings at this time were heathens, enemies to Christianity, and persecutors of Christians, yet they must pray for them, because it is for the public good that there should be civil government, and proper persons entrusted with the administration of it, for whom therefore we ought to pray.here see what we must desire for kings, that God will so turn their hearts, and direct them and make use of them, that we under them may lead a quiet and peaceable life.

13 Our Political Duty Seek the Welfare of the City: But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jer. 29:7). Matthew Henry: This forbids them to attempt any thing against the public peace while they were subjects to the king of Babylon. Though he was a heathen, an idolater, an oppressor, and an enemy of God and his church, yet while he gave them protection, they must pay him allegiance, and live quiet and peaceable lives under him, in all godliness and honesty, not plotting to shake off his yoke, but patiently leaving it to God in due time to work deliverance for them.

14 Problems With Government

15 Problems with Government: Carl F.H. Henry Political institutions become so powerful that they seem to have a self-serving life of their own. Instead of ministering to people, bureaucracies tend to promote themselves and their agencies. Failure to relate law to its one transcendent source in the revealed will of God has resulted in both continued fragmentation of law (labor law; business law; environmental law; and so on) and continued segmentation of human rights (women s rights, black rights; gay rights; and so on).the guarantees of freedom become divorced from moral constraints.

16 Problems with Government: Carl F.H. Henry Government leaders develop the cult of selfism that crowns the individual as god and thus makes him the creative source of personal truth and right. It can sever law from transcendent ties so that law becomes mere sociological sagacity; then what is lawful can freely invert even the basic elements of revealed morality (e.g., mercy killing rather than murder; abortions, what a generation ago would have seemed the prerogative only of the cruelest of tyrants). Without a transcendent criterion for evaluating law, despotism becomes the basis of civil government and rulers can cancel citizen s rights at will.

17 God s Recompense: Jeremiah 25:12-14 Then after seventy years are completed (the Babylon Captivity), I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.

18 What Christians Need To Avoid

19 What Christians Need to Avoid Resisting the flight from personal civic responsibility. Depending on moralistic sermonizing and divine providence to achieve social objectives. Being devoted to evangelism and soul-winning while neglecting public affairs, justice, and law. Distrusting divine providence in the life and history of the nations. Questioning God s entrustment of power to civil government to preserve justice and order in fallen history. Simplistic and fragmentary political thought and action.

20 Christians Need to Avoid Identifying America with God s people, thereby commingling Christianity and civil religion. We should not wrap Christianity in our national flag (Francis Schaeffer). Falling into the trap of submitting to rulers on any other basis than the reality that God is the Lord of civil authorities.

21 Civil Disobedience (CD)

22 What Is Civil Disobedience? The nonviolent, public violation of some law or policy, as an act of conscience, to protest the injustice of the law or policy and (in most cases) to effect or prevent change in the law or policy (Clark and Rakestraw). It is nonviolent It is public (as opposed to conscientious objection) It is a protest against injustice Its goal is to effect or prevent change in the law or policy (not revolution)

23 Two Positions: Norman L. Geisler The Antipromulgation Position: The government should be disobeyed when it promulgates a law that is contrary to the Word of God. The Anticompulsion Position: The government should be disobeyed only when it commands the Christian to do evil. Illustration: teaching Creation in public schools. Question: Does the government allow others to do evil (abortion) without forcing an individual to do evil? In which case is civil disobedience justified?

24 Anticompulsion Position: Biblical Examples When believers are compelled to act contrary to their beliefs. When the civil government forces believers to disobey God s law. The midwives refusal to kill innocent babies (Ex. 1:15-21) Pharaoh s refusal to let Moses and the Israelites go into the wilderness to worship God (Ex. 5:1-2) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego s refusal to worship an idol (Dan. 3: 8-30) Peter and John commanded not to preach the gospel (Acts 4:18-19)

25 Civil Disobedience To resist law that does contravene God s commands is also a witness to the divine sanction of law. Respect for law is grounded therefore not simply in the civic and domestic desirability of its observance but in the fact that God wills it (Henry). The New Testament nowhere sanctions revolution in the name of messianic justice. It affirms, rather, that Christians owe limited obedience to the ruler; when government requires what God forbids (Acts 4:18f., 5:29), then resistance is the apostolic precedent (Henry).

26 Civil Disobedience A sensitive Christian conscience may and should be one of the most potent forces for social justice, not only when law requires transgression of divine commandment, but also when law promotes or preserves what is unjust; the spirit of prophetic indignation and protest is the Christian s holy heritage. Rutherford s Lex Rex. Three appropriate levels of resistance: 1. Defend self by protest (i.e., by peaceful, legal action) 2. Flee, if at all possible (Israel from Egypt; Elijah from Jezebel) 3. Use force, if necessary, in the defensive posture (American Revolution; Great Britain was seen as a foreign power invading America)

27 American Revolution After recognizing man s God-given rights, the Declaration of Independence goes on to declare that whenever civil government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter and abolish it, and institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. The Founding Fathers claimed that when there is a long train of abuses and usurpations designed to produce an oppressive, authoritarian state, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government - Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto

28 Francis Schaeffer: A Christian Manifesto Francis A. Schaeffer The civil government, as all of life, stands under the Law of God. In this fallen world, God has given us certain offices to protect us from the chaos which is the natural result of that fallenness. But when any office commands that which is contrary to the Word of God, those who hold that office abrogate their authority and they are not to be obeyed. And that includes the State.

29 The Framing of the Constitution Democratic government was on trial before the world. Thirteen British colonies had asserted and established their independence because they declared the form of government under which they had been living was destructive of their unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Each of these colonies had established a government of its own, and together they had formed a union of The United States of America by means of certain articles of confederation. - Max Farrand, The Framing of the Constitution of the United States

30 National Fragmentation & Chaos: Henry To allow a single issue to determine political fortunes may be the first symptom of a malfunctioning democratic process on the road to fragmentation and chaos. When sectional or regional interests define the course of justice, the very definition of justice suffers distortion, and pressures of social conformity subject a relatively just constitution to prejudiced interpretations. When citizens lose the comprehensive sense of divine justice and transcendent law, when they correlate conscience mainly with the desires of special interest groups, they barter social stability and cohesion for what presumably, yet seldom actually, enhances individual lives and liberties. Without social cohesion no nation can effectively withstand either external or

31 National Fragmentation & Chaos: Henry internal foes; when law undergoes spiritual and moral alienation it unwittingly dilutes the very shared principles and values that ennoble human survival. If modern culture is to escape the oblivion that has engulfed the earlier civilizations of man, the recovery of the will of the selfrevealed God in the realm of justice and law is critically imperative The alternatives are clear: either we return to the God of the Bible or we perish in the pit of lawlessness.

32 Chuck Colson Regarding HHS Mandate, 2012 We have come to the point I say this very soberly, where if there isn t a dramatic change in circumstances, we as Christians may well be called upon to stand in civil disobedience against the actions of our own government. That would break my heart, as a former Marine captain, loving my country but I love my God more. And you all may have to face that.