Romans 13 on authority

[pianofreak88]

Submission to Governing Authorities

1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

-- As a Christian, I believe in the important things such as Jesus' divinity and the factual truth of His teachings in the gospel, including all the Sunday School answers: the way, the truth, and the life, etc. I have questions about this passage in Romans though - Can anyone weigh in an opinion or quote any other scripture that says anything against this passage applying to the anti-Christ? The common problems people have had are with Hitler, communism, etc., so again Can anyone find reasons why (reading in between the lines). As a 17-year-old in high school, I haven't had much time to intensely study the theology behind a lot of things that I would have liked to... but Bible college is coming up! Haha... I'd appreciate any help, and my personal email is PianoFreak88@GMail.com

 

[Jpark]

Submission to Governing Authorities

1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

-- As a Christian, I believe in the important things such as Jesus' divinity and the factual truth of His teachings in the gospel, including all the Sunday School answers: the way, the truth, and the life, etc. I have questions about this passage in Romans though - Can anyone weigh in an opinion or quote any other scripture that says anything against this passage applying to the anti-Christ? The common problems people have had are with Hitler, communism, etc., so again Can anyone find reasons why (reading in between the lines). As a 17-year-old in high school, I haven't had much time to intensely study the theology behind a lot of things that I would have liked to... but Bible college is coming up! Haha... I'd appreciate any help, and my personal email is PianoFreak88@GMail.com

Rules are meant to be broken.

We are to remember that our loyalty is not to the government but to the God who established the government.

Communism and Nazism is the same on the scale of evil. There is no greater evil. All things evil are evil. Communism is not good and Nazism is not good.

 

[ebia]

Submission to Governing Authorities

1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

-- As a Christian, I believe in the important things such as Jesus' divinity and the factual truth of His teachings in the gospel, including all the Sunday School answers: the way, the truth, and the life, etc. I have questions about this passage in Romans though - Can anyone weigh in an opinion or quote any other scripture that says anything against this passage applying to the anti-Christ? The common problems people have had are with Hitler, communism, etc., so again Can anyone find reasons why (reading in between the lines). As a 17-year-old in high school, I haven't had much time to intensely study the theology behind a lot of things that I would have liked to... but Bible college is coming up! Haha... I'd appreciate any help, and my personal email is PianoFreak88@GMail.com

Paul is not suggesting that the civil government will always be right, nor that it should not be challenged when it falls short. Every time he calls Jesus 'Lord', 'Saviour', 'Son of God', or quite a few other titles he is directly challenging the authority of Caesar who claimed all those titles for himself. Rather, he is saying that we do need civil authority - even with it's flaws - in order to function as a society and Christians need to respect that. God gives us civil authorities because we need them - we must work within that, but balance it by challenging them when they need to be challenged.

 

[wayseer]

-- As a Christian, I believe in the important things such as Jesus' divinity and the factual truth of His teachings in the gospel, including all the Sunday School answers: the way, the truth, and the life, etc. I have questions about this passage in Romans though - Can anyone weigh in an opinion or quote any other scripture that says anything against this passage applying to the anti-Christ? The common problems people have had are with Hitler, communism, etc., so again Can anyone find reasons why (reading in between the lines). As a 17-year-old in high school, I haven't had much time to intensely study the theology behind a lot of things that I would have liked to... but Bible college is coming up! Haha... I'd appreciate any help, and my personal email is PianoFreak88@GMail.com

Dear PF,

Your question is important and many Christians have thought over the matter for some time. You might like to do some research into Liberation Theology, Feminist Theology and Black African Theology all of which challenge the basic theology that we have to cower for cover all the time in fear of upsetting God's ordained authority.

Generally our present theology was generated in Western Europe by men for men all of who were white and were rather well off given the general standards of the day. I generalize, but I think you might get the picture.

If you going to a reliable Bible College then you should be exposed to these new and challenging ways of thinking.

It is not good practice to include you email address on a public forum. You can use the primate mail facility within the forum itself for personal correspondence.

I pray all goes well in your future studies.