A post from an old friend and fellow Substacker caught my attention this morning. It is short, but manages to take a quick look at three important subjects: the anxiety caused by our post-2020 descent into neo-totalitarianism; the fraud of the 2020 election; and the nature of authority. I would like to focus on the latter.
He cites Romans 13 as a lodestar in understanding our relationship to authority:
I am a Roman Catholic Christian. I hold Romans 13 to be the final word on my obligations to those placed in power over me:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; 4 for it is God's servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. 6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, busy with this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.
And yet later, he quite understandably questions how we can possibly hold to this Biblical admonition, given the evil of the authorities to whom we are told to submit:
As I watched my rights dissolve, my soul cried, “Are there no exceptions to Romans 13?” Anarchy is denied a Roman Catholic. […] Remind me again exactly HOW to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient and ready for every good work even as the rug is pulled out and the monsters laugh, prisoners laugh and walk out of jail, and cities burn, even as good cops are decommissioned, the dollar is hyperinflated, the exchequer is hoarded into secret numbered accounts of BLM and other satanic activists, and the whistleblowers are canceled, if I can do nothing to stop it.
When it truly is the case that “rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad,” their rule is tolerable enough. It is still technically imposed by force, without the explicit consent of those who are ruled, and that is a fundamental problem. But at least it is tolerable.
And yet…how many authorities have truly occupied this sweet spot of only being a “terror” to bad conduct? How many have been terrors themselves?
If Romans 13 is the final word on how we are supposed to behave vis-a-vis authority, and if failure to adhere to the strict word of Scripture makes one a heathen, then I am a heathen, and I always will be.
However, perhaps there is another way to view this…
More than once over the years, I have heard aspects of the Bible framed by religious scholars as “upgrades” on a previous condition.
So, for example, references to slavery are to be understood in the following light:
The instructions given in the Old Testament on how to handle slaves were an improvement on the conditions that had existed previously. They were not meant as the final word on the matter. Rather, they were intended to move people some distance away from a previous condition, which had been worse.
The same has been said for the Lex Talionis: “an eye for an eye” was an improvement upon the pre-Biblical conditions of “your whole damn clan for an eye.”
According to this analysis, such instructions are meant to be transitional. I have heard similar explanations for Biblical descriptions of how to treat women, and probably some others I am forgetting.
I am not making any value judgments about this one way or the other. I am not arguing for or against any particular way of interpreting religious teachings. However, if one were to deem this approach reasonable, why not apply it to Romans 13?
I know why it has not been applied thereto thus far…
We are rightly horrified by descriptions of how to treat slaves, because we have come to understand that slavery is not okay, and never was. But we have not yet evolved as a species to understand that involuntary governance shares all of its primary characteristics in common with slavery.
Indeed, by continually asserting
that authority must be imposed upon us by force,
that no other possibility exists,
that we are too rotten to be capable of self-government…yet somehow, our leaders are noble and good,
that true, explicit consent is necessary in all things except governance,
all we do is reinforce our status as a slave species. Ooh, govern me harder, Daddy.
If it is proper to see certain Biblical instructions as transitional rather than permanent, then we will know we have undergone the next evolution in human consciousness when we start seeing Romans 13 that way.
PS: Long experience has shown that religious topics elicit strong reactions. Still, if I may be preemptive, I would ask that we keep the “You work for Satan” comments down to a dull roar.
I assure you—I do not.
I just wrote a personal interpretation of Romans 13, as I got tired of hearing others taking it out of context.
Benjamin Franklin famously suggested using the following motto to be used for the Seal of the United States of America.
“Disobedience to tyrants is obedience to God”. ~ Benjamin Franklin
When the governing authority ceases to do good, they cease to be an authority. He didn’t make this up. He got this from the early church fathers, e.g. St. Thomas Aquanis.
“Human law is law only by virtue of its accordance with right reason; and thus it is manifest that it flows from the eternal law. And in so far as it deviates from right reason it is called an unjust law; in such case it is no law at all, but rather a species of violence.” ~ St. Thomas Aquinas
Or to put it simply, “Unjust law is no law at all”
https://dukeofgood.site/romans-13-reevaluating-obedience-to-tyrannical-authorities/
Christopher, landmines, indeed. I will not tread on all this tinder, tonight. I will say, however, as a woman of God and follower of Jesus Christ, after spending 35 long years of sorrowful wandering away from my Christian roots, my own way certainly led into ditches and sloughs. Not fun, not profitable, not healthy, not remotely "sexy" or cool. I have learned the hard way, to simply sit down on the couch with God, pour out my soul and sorrows just as King David did in the Psalms and ASK for help. God is not a "thug" , He does not seek slaves, He does not want abject idiots. He leads, He washes, He chastens, He guides, He corrects, He forgives, He transforms raw and rebellious humans into His sons and daughters. Look at what Jesus Christ endured for all of us?? Romans all the way through is a difficult and intense book. Apostle Paul was a very blunt guy, trained to be a Pharisee and then had an encounter with Christ and was changed into the Apostle to the Gentiles, what a change only God could make. As a blunt Oregon girl (who lives in California), I came from extremely rowdy and rebellious roots, was agnostic and ran from God. Only His mercy brought me back, as I was headed for hell, no way around it. Grateful beyond measure to be back in the Household of God. I have no inerrant answers for all, but only to "sit down on the couch in your spirit and talk to God." Do this day by day by day and see what slowly begins to happen. It happened to me, questions are slowly-slowly-slowly beginning to be answered and I also have Eternity with Him and His Son and all the gang in Glory. I look forward to that day. Current perfection is not needed, only willingness to humble ourself and seek God. He won't hit you with a stick!