#19 Is it Ever Right for Christians to Disobey Government?

Is it ever right for Christians to disobey the government? 

We must answer this question very carefully.  I think the biblically balanced  answer is that we must obey the government unless the government requires us to disobey the laws of God. 

Let’s look at the details.

The apostle Paul commanded believers to be submissive to the government because authority is is ordained of God (Romans 13:1-7).  In Paul’s argument, resistance to government is, in the final analysis, resistance against God (verse 2).  Government, Paul says, resists evil (verse 4).

Eight years after having been imprisoned a number of times by the Roman government, Paul had not changed his mind.  He still taught that Christians should obey the government.  Maltreatment at the hands of the Roman government had not caused him to alter his view.

Peter, too, wrote about the need to obey the government (1 Peter 2:13-17).  Like Paul, he says that obeying God-ordained government shows our obedience to God Himself.  All this is significant in view of the fact that both Paul and Peter wrote what they did while living under the reign of the cruel emperor Nero (A.D. 54-68).

Having said all this, there are also clear indications in Scripture that when the government commands a believer to go against one or more of God’s commands, one must obey God rather than the government.

After being commanded by the Sanhedrin not to preach any further, “Peter and the other apostles replied: ‘We must obey God rather than men!'” (Acts 5:29).  God commanded Peter and the others to preach; the government commanded them not to preach. So they chose to obey God rather than human government.

We see the same thing illustrated in the Book of Daniel.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego righteously disobeyed the king when they were commanded to worship the golden image (Daniel 3).  Daniel also righteously disobeyed the government when it commanded him to go against God’s revealed will (Daniel 6).  In both cases, God confirmed that they had made the right choice by delivering them from the punishment that was afflicted upon them.

Of course, Christians must guard against abusing this principle in Scripture.  Scripture indicates that we are to disobey government ONLY when it commands us to violate God’s commands, not just when we feel the government has personally violated our rights.

—Ron Rhodes

Here is an example today from one of our politicians who is running for President in 2016.  Hillary Clinton is very bold in this statement AGAINST Christians.

 Please get ready, Christian, because if this is any indication, we are in for losing our rights of free speech and worship in America.  (This illustrates the question that this article answers above). 

I published this 1 minute video, because those who are voting for her need to see exactly what she says and what she stands for.