God appoints government leaders?

[Uber Genius]

Your correct. Even if you were able to associate Hitler with Christianity, it says nothing about the truth value of Christian claims. The smallest investigative effort will yield a different picture altogether. Hitler sent the true Christian church underground as he took over the church and filled it with atheists. He persecuted Christians. But ad hominem attacks won't help us establish truth-value of the question, "Is there a God?"

Now as to you primary inference about God approving of bad leaders, this is not how the church has historically interpreted the passage. The idea is that with governments the culture gets stability, with stability one can meet there lower order Maslow's hierarchy of needs needs. Then and only then can they ask, "why am I here, where did I come from, Where am I going when I die, I do I live my life, how do I relate to God?""

This is why we don't see the NT focusing on social reform. It is focused instead on the questions listed above and the evangelism that takes place in Acts is able to spread so quickly due to the Pax Romana! Hardly Christian, these pagan rulers never the less, created roads, and built cities, and although living under Roman rule was difficult it allowed stability in the lives of the first converts to enable them to weigh the evidence and respond.

Governments provide stability that maximizes people investigating God's claims.

Anarchy minimizes people's investigation.

 

[Athée]

Your correct. Even if you were able to associate Hitler with Christianity, it says nothing about the truth value of Christian claims. The smallest investigative effort will yield a different picture altogether. Hitler sent the true Christian church underground as he took over the church and filled it with atheists. He persecuted Christians. But ad hominem attacks won't help us establish truth-value of the question, "Is there a God?"

Now as to you primary inference about God approving of bad leaders, this is not how the church has historically interpreted the passage. The idea is that with governments the culture gets stability, with stability one can meet there lower order Maslow's hierarchy of needs needs. Then and only then can they ask, "why am I here, where did I come from, Where am I going when I die, I do I live my life, how do I relate to God?""

This is why we don't see the NT focusing on social reform. It is focused instead on the questions listed above and the evangelism that takes place in Acts is able to spread so quickly due to the Pax Romana! Hardly Christian, these pagan rulers never the less, created roads, and built cities, and although living under Roman rule was difficult it allowed stability in the lives of the first converts to enable them to weigh the evidence and respond.

Governments provide stability that maximizes people investigating God's claims.

Anarchy minimizes people's investigation.

Really interesting take on the topic, thanks for sharing