Wise words by the late Francis Schaeffer
“Peter says here [in 1 Peter 2:13-17] that civil authority is to be honored and that God is to be feared. The state, as he defines it, is to punish those who do wrong and commend those who do right. If this is not so, then the whole structure falls apart. Clearly, the state is to be a ministry of justice. This is the legitimate function of the state, and in this structure Christians are to obey the state as a matter of ‘conscience’ (Romans 13:5) But what is to be done when the state does that which violates its legitimate function?”
When Schaeffer writes that the state is to punish “those who do wrong”, he defines “wrong” in terms of what God defines as wrong – in His Word. “Wrong” and “right” are objectively defined by the moral law of God. God decides what is right and what is wrong.
We must clearly understand this. Government cannot decide what is wrong and what is right. Society cannot define what is wrong and what is right. Society cannot take a vote and decide something was wrong yesterday and is right today. A group of elite globalists cannot decide what is wrong and what is right. Google and Facebook cannot decide what is wrong and what is right. Morals cannot change alongside the ever-shifting sands of an immoral society. Government cannot make a law that defines sin as being “right” and it cannot make a law that defines what God says is morally good as being “wrong”.
Thus Schaeffer asks:
“But what is to be done when the state does that which violates its legitimate function? The early Christians died because they would not obey the state in a civil matter. People often say to us that the early church did not show any civil disobedience. They do not know church history. Why were the Christians in the Roman Empire thrown to the lions? From the Christian’s viewpoint it was for a religious reason. But from the viewpoint of the Roman State they were in civil disobedience, they were civil rebels.
The Roman State did not care what anybody believed religiously; you could believe anything, or you could be an atheist. But you had to worship Caesar as a sign of your loyalty to the state. The Christians said they would not worship Caesar, anybody, or anything, but the living God. Thus to the Roman empire they were rebels, and it was civil disobedience. That is why they were thrown to the lions”
“The bottom line is that at a certain point there is not only the right, but the duty, to disobey the state.”
“It is time we consciously realise that when any office commands what is contrary to God’s law it abrogates its authority. And our loyalty to the God who gave this law then requires that we make the appropriate response in that situation to such a tyrannical usurping of power…
We must not be satisfied with mere words…Christians must not only speak and fight against these things, but then must show there are Christian alternatives. But it must not only be in regard to abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia that alternatives are practiced. They must be practiced in all areas.
If we do not practice the alternatives commanded in Scripture we are not living under the Scripture. And if we do not practice the bottom line of civil disobedience on the appropriate level, when the state has abrogated its authority, we are equally not living under the Scripture.”
May we repent and return to live under the authority of Scripture. Surely this can only be done by the grace of God, through the working of the gospel (1 Cor 15: 1-11).
Reference: Schaeffer, FA . A Christian Manifesto. 1981. Page 92, 92-102, 131, 132, 134