Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God! Really?

I posted this article about the history of this quote on my previous blog entry but wanted to share my own personal thoughts as well. Many get confused about this quote "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God" because of the passage found in Romans 13:1-2 which says:

" 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."

Here is my stance on the subject.

The passage in Romans says that we are to obey the law because God has given our government its authority and because the government uses this authority to do good. But the question is, what does the word authority mean in this passage? As Christians, we would agree that this authority that God has given our government means exactly what the Bible says it means...nothing more, nothing less. This means that our government legitimately has only the authority that God has given to it in His Word, and so that authority is conditional.

For example, God gives me authority as a parent over my children. But what does that mean? That means that I have the authority to do God's will for my children...or in other words for me to exercise authority in exactly the way that God prescribes in His Word. If I disobey God's word and make up my own meaning for what that authority means over my children then I am not doing good...I am doing evil. For example, if I say the Bible gives me authority over my children and I abuse my children, then I am not obeying God...I am making up my own meaning of that word.

So when the Bible gives my government authority over me, that means only what the Bible says it means. Government is only authorized by God to do good, and when it does good by acting in obedience to God's Word then it has authority over me and I must obey it whether I like it or not. But if the government uses its power to do something that God's Word is opposed to then it does not act with God's authority. Notice that there is a difference between power and authority. The government may have the power to do all sorts of things, both good and evil. If I am living in Iran, for example, the government may have the power to kill me for being a Christian. But it does not have the authority to do so, because the Bible teaches me to be a Christian, and therefore the government is wrong and is not acting with God’s authority in that instance.

Paul could make such a strong statement in Romans 13 because in practice most of the law actually falls under God's authority. But in those cases where the law defies God's Word, then as Christians we must not obey it. In Acts 5, Peter and the apostles were brought before the highest rulers for preaching about Jesus in defiance of what the rulers had ordered. Starting with verse 27 it says, "When they had brought them, they stood before the counsel and the high priest questioned them, saying, 'We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name. Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood on us!' But Peter and the apostles replied, 'We must obey God rather than men.'". So all the apostles were in agreement that if the ruling authorities were violating God's Law then believers were not to obey them.

This doesn't mean that the government does not have any authority over us just because it violates God's will on one point. In other areas, we still have to obey the law. For example, in CA it's illegal to use a cell phone while driving your car without using some kind of hands free device. I think it is a stupid law and I don't like it. In fact it hasn't improved the safety statistics at all, but the government passed the law intending it for a good purpose and it doesn't violate God's law. So I am bound to obey the law whether I like it or not.

Our founding fathers understood these principles well, that the powers of government were to be strictly limited to legitimate purposes. This is one of the reasons that they were so emphatic on limiting the power of the central government. If they gave the government too much power, its power would exceed the authority that it had legitimately been given by God, and would be reduced to tyranny. So to our founding fathers, I believe that the phrase "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God" was intended to mean "I must oppose my government when it violates God's basis of its authority because I must obey God rather than men".